Bill Brown Playground
Description
The Department of Parks announced the opening of this new playground on Bedford Ave. on October 14, 1935. As researcher Frank da Cruz explains here, almost all New York City Parks Department projects between 1934 and 1943 were accomplished with New Deal funds and/or labor. After its inception in 1935, the WPA quickly became the main source of relief funds and labor for the NYC Parks Department. In a 1939 study, The Works Progress Administration in New York City (pp. 101-102), future Columbia University professor John Millett describes the WPA’s deep involvement: “The city Parks Department planned all work-relief activities in city parks and decided what work should be carried out at any one time. All projects and jobs were, of course, approved by the W.P.A., which furnished the labor and much of the supplies for the work.”
Bill Brown Playground was last renovated in 1986.
Source notes
New York City Parks Department New Deal Projects 1934-43 Department of Parks, Press Release, October 14, 1935 NYC Parks - Bill Brown Playground
Project originally submitted by Frank da Cruz on September 20, 2016.
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