The park name is used to describe the neighborhood surrounding the entrances to the 72nd Street station, which are on traffic islands where Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue cross.[2]
The Sherman Square area and its much bigger neighbor Verdi Square on the north side of 72nd were dubbed “Needle Park” in the 1960s and 1970s because of illicit drug activity. This provided the title and general setting for the 1966 book by James Mills and its 1971 film adaptation The Panic in Needle Park, directed by Jerry Schatzberg and starring Al Pacino in his second role.[3][4]
The fenced-in portion of Sherman Square protecting its vegetation is only 264 square feet and is actually a scalene triangle. It is on a paved much larger triangle. The fenced area has 17 feet facing 70th Street, 35 feet facing Broadway, and 30 feet facing Amsterdam.