Nathaniel Square

Nathaniel Square is a park in the South Wedge at the corner of South Avenue and Alexander Street, across from the South Wedge Colony Bar & Grille and Southview Towers.

The land was a vacant lot that used to be magnet for local drug dealers and their late-night customers. In 1999, the new South Wedge Environment Enhancement Project (SWEEP) vowed to clean it up. SWEEP and its parent group, the South Wedge Planning Committee, raised more than $300,000 in state and corporate funds to build the park. Starting in 2001, Syracuse landscape architect Dudley Breed Jr. did the first design. The park opened in 2006, with brick walkways which lead to a small round plaza lined by hefty concrete benches.

In May 2008, sculptor Pepsy Kettavong unveiled a statue of Nathaniel Rochester.