Old Fort Four Park – Bronx NY

Description

Researcher Frank da Cruz reasons persuasively here that this playground beside the Jerome Park Reservoir was a New Deal project: “[A]t Reservoir and Sedgwick Avenues [is the entrance] to Old Fort Four Park (its proper name according to the Parks Department website[1]), but labeled as Fort Four Playground. It was opened in late 1934[2], some months before Strong Street Playground at the other end of Washington’s Walk. Not the press releases, nor any other material I can find, give any credit to the New Deal for this park but since it was built in the same time frame on the same street as the Strong Street facility, and since the Parks Department is not thanking Mr. Rockefeller or other rich benefactor, and since Robert Moses’ design and construction staff was entirely composed of “relief labor”[4], no other origin for this park seems plausible. Anyway, the issue of who to thank was a bit unclear in October 1934 because the CWA had been shut down six months earlier, and the WPA would not begin until five months later; other agencies such as FERA were picking up the slack in the interim on an ad-hoc basis. But by the time Strong Street was finished, the WPA was well-established and it is indeed acknowledged in the Strong Street Playground press release.”