Inwood Hill Park: Dyckman Fields – New York NY

Description

Before the 1930s, the large area of Inwood Hill Park north of Dyckman Street, between the New York Central Railroad tracks and the Hudson River was a literally a dump. Through the efforts of the Henry Hudson Parkway Authority, the Department of Parks and the Works Progress Administration, this area was transformed into an extensive landscaped area full of baseball and soccer fields, archery ranges and more. A January 1939 Parks press release explained that the Henry Hudson Parkway Authority contributed to this not only through landscaping the new Henry Hudson Parkway and providing foot-bridges between the waterfront area and the rest of Inwood Hill, but also by “making a sponsors’ contribution to the WPA to aid them in turning the former riverside dump, north of Dyckman Street and west of the New York Contral Railroad tracks, into an intensively developed area for active recreation.”

In June of the same year, another Parks release announced that the area had been “converted into a 20-acre recreation area containing two full-sized hardball diamonds and two junior ball diamonds. In the north end, an archery range is planned. Paralleling the river front is a wide promenade. A footbridge over the railroad and parkway underpass permits visitors in the upper part of Inwood Hill to reach this waterfront area expeditiously… [T]hese improvements are landscaped with trees and shrubbery and benches have been placed to provide rest and a view of the river… The work was planned by the Park Department and performed by the Works Progress Administration.”

Now known as the Dyckman Fields area of Inwood Hill Park, on busy days these athletic fields host many hundreds of players and spectators.