Bronx New Deal - Photo #287 - Van Cortlandt Park Southwest Playground

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The entrance to Van Cortlandt Park's Southwest Playground, which opened in 1939 as part of Van Cortlandt Stadium, a New Deal Works Progress Administration (WPA) project first announced in [1].

References:

  1. NYC Parks Department press release of November 7, 1937: ”In the Bronx, at Van Cortlandt Park South and Broadway, there will be a fully equipped small children's playground, with an oval wading pool 56' × 94' and with benches and shade trees for mothers and guardians. This is the first unit to be completed in a large recreational development, which will include football and baseball fields and a quarter mile running track.”
  2. Van Cortlandt Park: Southwest Playground, New York City Parks Department website: “Constructed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the Van Cortlandt Stadium opened on September 22, 1939. New York City, under the direction of Moses and Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia (1882-1947), was able to secure a great deal of WPA funding. Park construction was one of the many projects undertaken by the WPA, an unprecedented federal program initiated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945) as a component of the New Deal ... Southwest Playground, located at the corner of Broadway and Van Cortlandt Park South, the southwest corner of Van Cortlandt Park, opened as part of the Van Cortlandt Stadium grounds.“
  3. New Deal Assistance in NYC Parks Department Projects, 1934-43.