Pelham Bay Park Improvements - Bronx NY

City:: Bronx, New York City, NY
Site Type:: Playgrounds, Parks and Recreation, Infrastructure and Utilities, Golf Courses, Paths and Trails, Picnic and Other Facilities, Comfort Stations (Restrooms), Athletic Courts and Fields, Park Roads and Bridges, Water Supply
New Deal Agencies:: Work Relief Programs, Works Progress Administration (WPA)
Completed:: 1941
Quality of Information:: Very Good
Site Survival:: Extant

Description

Pelham Bay Park, the largest in the city of New York (three times the size of Central Park), sits on Pelham Bay in the northeast corner of The Bronx. It was established in 1888, when The Bronx was still separate from New York City. The park was greatly improved by Robert Moses and the NY City Parks Department, with the help of federal New Deal funds and workers from the Civil Works Administration (CWA) and Works Progress Administration (WPA).

On November 10, 1941, the New York City Department of Parks announced the completion of the massive overhaul of the 60-acre Isaac L. Rice Memorial section of Pelham Bay Park. The WPA demolished several old structures and repaired an existing stadium and natatorium. In addition, WPA workers constructed two new playgrounds near the western border of the park, complete with “a wading pool, comfort station, play apparatus, sand pits, shuffleboard, horseshoe and bocci courts.” Four miles of asphalt walks and one mile of bicycle paths were constructed throughout the park, as were three hundred picnic tables, one hundred stone fireplaces, a water supply system, hundreds of plantings, two baseball fields and a “one story brick building designed with interesting marine motives and centrally located in a heavily wooded picnic area contains comfort stations and a food concession.” (kermitproject.org)

For a map of the park, go to mappery.com