Devoe Park – Bronx NY

Description

Devoe Park “dates from 1915, but the playgrounds and athletic facilities were added by the Parks Department and WPA in 1935. This is one of seven NYC parks opened (or re-opened) on Friday, November 22, 1935, in a ceremony where the speakers were WPA Administrator Harry L. Hopkins, Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, Park Commissioner Robert Moses, and some other officials, as indicated in the NYC Parks Department Press Release for November 21 of that year. Playgrounds were added at each end of the park (that have been renovated since then), and then in 1941 the ‘free play area’ including basketball courts was added. Note that in 1935 West Fordham Road was West 188th Street, as it’s called in the press release. As to funding and labor, an August 12, 1935 press release lists DeVoe Park among the ‘planned 110 playgrounds [to be built] with relief funds furnished by the Temporary Emergency Relief Administration and they will be constructed with relief forces supplied by the Works Progress Administration’.”