St. Mary's Park (Bronx)

St. Mary's Park


Location	Mott Haven, Bronx, New York City
Coordinates	40°48′40″N 73°54′42″W / 40.8111°N 73.9118°W / 40.8111; -73.9118Coordinates: 40°48′40″N 73°54′42″W / 40.8111°N 73.9118°W / 40.8111; -73.9118
Area	35.31 acres (14.29 hectares)
Operated by	New York City Department of Parks and Recreation

St. Mary's Park is a park in the Mott Haven neighborhood in the southwest of the Bronx borough of New York City, in the United States. The park has sporting facilities and an indoor recreation center.^[1]

History

Originally part of the estate of Jonas Bronck (1600-1643), for whom the Bronx is named, it was occupied by a group of Loyalist military refugees during the Revolutionary War, as a camp. Years later the land was held by the family of Gouverneur Morris (1752-1816), one of the authors of the U.S. Constitution. After 1857 the area was known as “Janes’ Hill” for owner Adrian Janes of Janes, Kirtland and Company Iron Works, a local foundry that manufactured bridges for Central Park, railings for the Brooklyn Bridge, and the 8,909,200-pound dome of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.^[2]

During the mid-19th Century, a segment of the Spuyten Duyvil and Port Morris Railroad (est. 1842) was built through the land. The line was acquired by the New York and Harlem Railroad in 1853,^[3] which itself was acquired by the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad in 1864, and transformed it into a freight branch.

In 1874 New York City annexed parts of the southern Bronx from Westchester County. Seeking to create public parks in the Bronx, journalist John Mullaly (1835-1915) founded the New York Park Association in 1881. His efforts culminated in the 1884 New Parks Act and the city’s 1888-90 purchase of lands for St. Mary’s, and several other large parks throughout the borough, including three parkways. St. Mary’s Park was named for a Protestant Episcopal church that stood three blocks to the west until 1959.^[4]

In 1903, NYC Parks Department granted the New York Central Railroad permission to lay tracks underneath the park. The 2,200-to-2,300-foot-long (670 to 700 m)^[5] tunnel was finally built through a the park in 1905, ^[6] and the former segment of the line was eventually abandoned, and the 1.2 acres occupied by the tracks were returned to the park in 1912. Parkland was expanded further by an additional .8 acre in 1968.^[7]

The park spawned numerous recreation programs in the Bronx. The borough’s first playground opened in St. Mary’s Park in 1914. At this time, the park also had a baseball diamond, two tennis courts, and a children’s farm garden. In response to rapid population growth and residential construction in the neighborhood, three additional playgrounds opened in the park between 1938 and 1941. After World War II, Parks Commissioner Robert Moses inaugurated a city-wide recreation program to provide places to play and socialize in cold weather months. New York’s first full-service, indoor recreation center opened at St. Mary’s in 1951. Designed by the architectural firm of Brown, Lawford, and Forbes, the building housed an indoor swimming pool, gymnasium, locker and shower rooms, and meeting rooms for classes and community programs. Murals of Marvel Comics superheroes were painted in the center in the early 1970s and repainted in 1991.^[8]

In 1996, a quarter-mile fitness loop and two additional tennis courts were installed in St. Mary’s Park with city funds allocated by the City Council. Ten years later, the Parks department completed the installation of synthetic turf at the park.^[9]

References

↑ St. Mary's Park: St. Mary’s Recreation Center. New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Accessed June 2015.
↑ http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/st-marys-park/history
↑ The Harlem Division (New York Central System Historical Society)
↑ http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/st-marys-park/history
↑ http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/pdf/transportation/deck03c.pdf
↑ Railroad Gazette. Railroad Gazette. 1905. p. 437.
↑ http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/st-marys-park/history
↑ http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/st-marys-park/history
↑ http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/st-marys-park/history

Protected Areas of New York City

Federal

National Historic Sites	Lower East Side Tenement Museum Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace

National Monuments and Memorials	African Burial Ground Castle Clinton Federal Hall General Grant Governors Island Hamilton Grange Statue of Liberty

Other Protected Areas	Gateway National Recreation Area Floyd Bennett Field Fort Tilden Fort Wadsworth Great Kills Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge Jacob Riis Miller Field

State

State Parks	Bayswater Point Clay Pit Ponds East River Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Gantry Plaza Riverbank Roberto Clemente

City Parks and
Preserves

Manhattan	79th Street Boat Basin Abingdon Square Albert Capsouto Asphalt Green Battery Bennett British Garden at Hanover Square Bowling Green Bryant Captain Patrick J. Brown Walk Carl Schurz Central Chelsea City Hall Collect Columbus Corlears Hook Dag Hammarskjold Plaza Damrosch Dante DeSalvio Playground DeWitt Clinton Drumgoole Plaza Duane East River Greenway East River Esplanade East River Park Stuyvesant Cove Finn Square Foley Square Fort Tryon Fort Washington Gorman Gramercy Hamilton Fish Hanover Square Harlem River Hell's Kitchen Herald Square High Line Highbridge Holcombe Rucker Hudson Hudson River Imagination Playground at Burling Slip Inwood Hill Isham J. Hood Wright Jackie Robinson Jackson Square John Jay Liberty Louis Cuvillier Madison Square Manhattan Waterfront Greenway Marcus Garvey Mill Rock Mitchell Square Morningside Murphy's Brother's Playground Muscota Marsh Paley Peretz Square Peter Cooper Queen Elizabeth II September 11th Garden Ralph Bunche Randalls Island Richard Tucker Square Riverside Robert Moses Playground Roosevelt Triangle Rucker Sakura Samuel N. Bennerson 2nd Playground Sara Delano Roosevelt Septuagesimo Uno Seward Sheridan Square Sherman Square St. John's St. Nicholas St. Vartan Straus Stuyvesant Square Swindler Cove Teardrop Theodore Roosevelt Thomas Jefferson Thomas Paine Tompkins Square Tribeca Union Square Verdi Square Vesuvio Playground Wards Island Washington Market Washington Square West Side Community Garden Winston Churchill Zuccotti

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The Bronx	Baretto Point Bicentennial Veterans Bronx Castle Hill City Island Wetlands Claremont Concrete Plant Crotona Devoe Ewen Ferry Point Givans Creek Woods Grant Haffen Harding Harris Henry Hudson Hunts Point Jerome Joseph Rodman Drake Joyce Kilmer Julius Richman Macombs Dam Mill Pond Mullaly New York Botanical Garden North and South Brother Islands Orchard Beach Pelham Bay Rodman's Neck Playground 52 Poe Pugsley Creek Rainey Raoul Wallenberg Forest Richman Riverdale St. Mary's Seton Falls Seton Soundview Spuyten Duyvil Shorefront St. James St. Mary's Starlight Tremont University Woods Van Cortlandt Vidalia Vinmont Veteran Washington's Walk

Queens	Admiral Alley Alley Pond Andrews Grove Astoria Baisley Pond Bayside Fields Bayswater Beach Channel Big Bush Bowne Brant Point Wildlife Sanctuary Breininger Broad Channel American Park Broad Channel Park Broad Channel Wetlands Brooklyn–Queens Greenway Brookville Bulova Captain Tilly Crocheron Cunningham Det. Keith L. Williams Det. William T. Gunn Dr. Charles R. Drew Dubos Point Wildlife Sanctuary Doughboy Douglaston Elmhurst Evergreen Flushing Fields Flushing Meadows-Corona Forest Fort Tilden Fort Totten Francis Lewis Frank Golden Frank Principe Haggerty Harvey Highland Hinton Hoffman Hook Creek Hunter's Point Idlewild Jamaica Bay John Golden Juniper Valley Kissena Kohlreiter Square Libra Triangle Linnaeus Little Bay Louis Pasteur Mafera Macneil Marconi Marie Curie Montbellier O'Donohue Overlook Park of the Americas Phil "Scooter" Rizzuto Ofc. Edward Byrne Powell's Cove Queens County Farm Museum Queensbridge Rachel Carson Railroad Ralph Demarco Rochdale Rockaway Community Rufus King Seagirt Avenue Wetlands Socrates Sculpture Spring Creek Springfield St. Albans Travers Tudor Udall's Park Preserve Wayanda

Staten Island	Aesop Allison Pond Amundsen Circle Annadale Arbutus Woods Arden Woods Austen House Barrett Bayview Terrace Blood Root Valley Bloomingdale Blue Heron Park Preserve Blueberry Bradys Bunker Ponds Buono Beach Carlton Clove Lakes Clove's Tail Conference House Corporal Thompson Crescent Beach Deere Eibs Pond Faber Fairview Father Macris Forest Grove Fort Hill Fort Wadsworth FDR Boardwalk and Beach Freshkills Gaeta Great Kills Graniteville Quarry Graniteville Swamp Hero High Rock\| Hoffman Island Huguenot Ponds Hybrid Oak Woods Ingram Woods Isle of Meadows Jones Woods Joseph Manna King Fisher Kingdom Pond Last Chance LaTourette Lemon Creek Long Pond Gen. MacArthur Maple Woods Mariners Marsh Meredith Woods Midland Beach Midland Field Miller Field Mount Loretto Unique Area New Dorp Beach New York Chinese Scholar's Garden Northerleigh Park Ocean Breeze Old Place Creek Olmstead-Beil House Prall's Island Reed's Basket WIllow Swamp Richmond Terrace Wetlands Saw Mill Creek Marsh Schmul Seaside Wildlife Nature Shooters Island Siedenburg Silver Lake Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden Sobel Court South Beach Wetlands St. George Staten Island Greenbelt Staten Island Industrial Swinburne Island Tappen Tompkinsville Tottenville Shore Von Briesen Walker Wegener Westerleigh Westwood William T. Davis Wildlife Refuge Willowbrook Wolfe's Pond

Other

Nature centers	Alley Pond Belvedere Castle Blue Heron Crotona Dana Discovery Center Forest Fort Greene Fort Totten Greenbelt High Rock Inwood Hill Orchard Beach Prospect Salt Marsh Van Cortlandt

Zoos	Bronx Central Park Prospect Queens Staten Island

Botanical Gardens	Brooklyn Botanic Conservatory New York Botanical Queens Botanical Staten Island Botanical New York Chinese Scholar's Wave Hill

Roosevelt Island	Lighthouse Southpoint

New York City Department of Parks and Recreation

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