Thomas Jefferson Park
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Thomas Jefferson Park is a public park in the
East Harlem East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem or and historically known as Italian Harlem, is a neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City, roughly encompassing the area north of the Upper East Side and bounded by 96th Street to the south, F ...
neighborhood of
Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. The park is on First Avenue between 111th and 114th Streets. It contains a playground as well as facilities for baseball, basketball, football, handball, running, skating, and soccer. The Thomas Jefferson Play Center within the park consists of a recreation center and a pool. The park and play center, named for former U.S. president
Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...
, are maintained by the
New York City Department of Parks and Recreation The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, also called the Parks Department or NYC Parks, is the department of the government of New York City responsible for maintaining the city's parks system, preserving and maintaining the ecolog ...
(NYC Parks). The land for the park was acquired starting in 1897. Though the park opened in 1902, the first recreational facilities did not open until 1905. The pool and bathhouse was designed by Stanley C. Brogren during a Works Progress Administration project in 1935–1936, while a playground next to the adjacent Benjamin Franklin High School opened in 1942. The pool was extensively refurbished in 1992, followed by the park in 1994. The Thomas Jefferson Play Center was designated a city landmark by the
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
in 2007.


Description

Thomas Jefferson Park is in the
East Harlem East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem or and historically known as Italian Harlem, is a neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City, roughly encompassing the area north of the Upper East Side and bounded by 96th Street to the south, F ...
neighborhood of
Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. It is bounded by 111th Street to the south, First Avenue to the west, 114th Street to the north, and the
FDR Drive The Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive, commonly called the FDR Drive for short, is a limited-access parkway on the east side of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It starts near South and Broad Streets, just north of the Battery Park ...
to the east. Thomas Jefferson Park covers . Two paths cross the park from west to east at approximately 112th and 113th Streets, dividing the park roughly into thirds. These pathways contain benches, trees, and cast-iron lamps. The southern pathway contains a steel sculpture, ''Tomorrow's Wind,'' by sculptor
Mel Edwards Melvin "Mel" Edwards (born May 4, 1937) Samella S. Lewis, ''African American Art and Artists'', University of California Press, 2003, p. 210. Lisa S. Weitzman"Edwards, Melvin 1937–" encyclopedia.com. is an American contemporary artist, teacher ...
. The sculpture, installed in 1995 as a
site-specific art Site-specific art is artwork created to exist in a certain place. Typically, the artist takes the location into account while planning and creating the artwork. Site-specific art is produced both by commercial artists, and independently, and can ...
work, consists of an oval disk adjacent to a shape resembling a crescent. The northern pathway contains a steel-and-bronze sculpture, ''El Arbol de Esperanza'' (Tree of Hope), by L. Brower Hatcher. The work, dedicated in 1995, consists of a tree trunk topped by a globe with bronze figures created by local children. Despite being named for former U.S. president
Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...
, the park does not have a Jefferson sculpture.


Recreational facilities

Thomas Jefferson Park contains two playgrounds. One is on First Avenue and 111th Street. at the southwestern corner, while the other is at
Pleasant Avenue Pleasant Avenue is a north-south street in the East Harlem neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It begins at E. 114th Street and ends at E. 120th Street. The street was the northernmost section of Avenue A, which stretched f ...
and 114th Street, at the northeastern corner. There are also three baseball fields: two in the southern third of the park, and the third at the eastern boundary of the park's center third. In addition, there are four basketball courts, two each at the northeastern and southeastern corners. The northeastern corner also contains two volleyball and eight handball courts, while the northwestern corner contains a soccer field. A dog run is at the southeast corner of the park. The Thomas Jefferson Pool is in the center third of the park and is oriented west–east, with two pools (formerly three). The main pool measures wide and long, with a depth of . The wading pool measures wide and long. The pool area contains fountains at its western and eastern ends. The main pool contains two water circulation fountains at its center. The diving pool had seven diving boards, of which one was a high board, but when it was converted to a wading pool in 1992, the diving boards were removed. The main and diving pools collectively held . An NYC Parks press release from 1936 indicates that, when the pool was completed, there was another wading pool measuring . According to contemporary sources, the pools had a capacity of 1,450 swimmers when built, though the
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
cites a figure of 2,600 swimmers. The pools are separated by a deck with a wrought-iron fence. North and south of the pool area, there is terrace seating slightly raised above the main deck.


Recreation center

The recreation center, originally the bathhouse, is a "U" shaped brick structure, with a main entrance facing west on First Avenue between 112th and 113th Streets. The main entrance is through a central pavilion that is curved slightly outward. The entrance pavilion consists of a small stoop with ramps on either side. The entrance is wide and contains four concrete columns supporting the top of the pavilion, where bronze letters with the words are mounted. The central pavilion is enclosed by a glass block wall behind the columns. but was originally open to the outdoors, with only a freestanding ticket booth. Similar glass block walls and columns face east toward the pool. The pavilion is topped by a concrete
parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Whe ...
and
string course A belt course, also called a string course or sill course, is a continuous row or layer of stones or brick set in a wall. Set in line with window sills, it helps to make the horizontal line of the sills visually more prominent. Set between the ...
s. The main entrance is flanked by two "L"-shaped wings, which extend east around the pool area. The northern wing was designed with locker and restroom facilities for women, while the southern wing was designed with facilities for men. The recreation center also contains a fitness room, afterschool room, media lab, and multipurpose room. The outer facades of both wings are grouped into vertical
bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narr ...
. Each bay contains square
hopper window A window is an opening in a wall, door, roof, or vehicle that allows the exchange of light and may also allow the passage of sound and sometimes air. Modern windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent mater ...
s, which only illuminate the top portions of the facade, as well as raised brick swags above the windows. Each bay is separated by stone
pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...
s topped by stone medallions. The corners of each wing are hexagonal. The pool area has a similar design to the outer facades. Architectural critic
Lewis Mumford Lewis Mumford (October 19, 1895 – January 26, 1990) was an American historian, sociologist, philosopher of technology, and literary critic. Particularly noted for his study of cities and urban architecture, he had a broad career as a wr ...
called the recreation center's design an instance of "sound vernacular modern architecture", but criticized its classical features, which were meant to be a tribute to the park's namesake. The recreation center was also praised for using "simple materials simply disposed".


History


Early history

The
New York City Board of Aldermen The New York City Board of Aldermen was a body that was the upper house of New York City's Common Council from 1824 to 1875, the lower house of its Municipal Assembly upon consolidation in 1898 until the charter was amended in 1901 to abolish t ...
first devised plans in 1894 for Thomas Jefferson Park, to be built in
Italian Harlem East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem or and historically known as Italian Harlem, is a neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City, roughly encompassing the area north of the Upper East Side and bounded by 96th Street to the south, F ...
. The city acquired the land for the park starting in 1897.
Samuel Parsons Samuel Bowne Parsons Jr. (8 February 1844 – 3 February 1923), was an American landscape architect. He is remembered as being a founder of the American Society of Landscape Architects, helping to establish the profession. Early years Parsons wa ...
was involved with the initial design. An early plan for the park called for an artificial lake and marble cottage to be built in the park. The recreational facilities also included a pier on the nearby
Harlem River The Harlem River is an tidal strait in New York, United States, flowing between the Hudson River and the East River and separating the island of Manhattan from the Bronx on the New York mainland. The northern stretch, also called the Spuyte ...
, which opened in 1899. The development of the park was intended to help Italian Harlem, which the ''Brooklyn Daily Eagle'' described as "for many years the black spot of Harlem"; the existing buildings on the park's site were demolished in mid-1899. By the end of that year, the last buildings on the site were being demolished. The last lots, acquired from the Consolidated Gas Company, had been delayed due to disputes over compensation. The park opened on July 12, 1902; at the time, the site was undeveloped, and only of the site was accessible to the public. A $150,000 contract to construct the park was awarded early the next year. Among the improvements being planned for the park was a classical pavilion. During construction, Thomas Jefferson Park hosted a ceremony in July 1904 where Archbishop
John Murphy Farley John Murphy Farley (April 20, 1842 – September 17, 1918) was an Irish-American cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of New York from 1902 until his death in 1918, and became a cardinal in 1911. Early life and education ...
, with permission from
Pope Pius X Pope Pius X ( it, Pio X; born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto; 2 June 1835 – 20 August 1914) was head of the Catholic Church from 4 August 1903 to his death in August 1914. Pius X is known for vigorously opposing modernist interpretations of C ...
, approved the
Canonical coronation A canonical coronation ( la, Coronatio Canonica) is a pious institutional act of the pope, duly expressed in a bull, in which the pope bestows the right to impose an ornamental crown, a diadem or an aureole to an image of Christ, Mary or Josep ...
of an image of the
Blessed Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jews, Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Jose ...
for the nearby Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church. Work on the improvements was completed by February 1905. The recreation facilities in Thomas Jefferson Park opened on October 7, 1905, with a ceremony attended by several thousand people. The park had cost $3 million to build, or about . The high cost mostly came from the $2.7 million cost of land acquisition and was attributed to the existing density of East Harlem. There were initially separate facilities for boys and girls; each had a gymnasium, running track, playground, and shower area. The ''New York Sun'' called Thomas Jefferson Park "the first playground in the world that has a running track for girls". There was also a classical-style pavilion. A "farm garden", with over a thousand plots for children, was added in May 1911. The farm gardens, taking up , were used to teach children horticultural skills. A grove of trees, dedicated to veterans killed in World War I, was placed at First Avenue and 113th Street in 1923. By the 1930s, neighborhood children preferred to play in the street rather than at the park.


Works Progress Administration renovations

In 1934, mayor
Fiorello H. La Guardia Fiorello Henry LaGuardia (; born Fiorello Enrico LaGuardia, ; December 11, 1882September 20, 1947) was an American attorney and politician who represented New York in the House of Representatives and served as the 99th Mayor of New York City fro ...
nominated
Robert Moses Robert Moses (December 18, 1888 – July 29, 1981) was an American urban planner and public official who worked in the New York metropolitan area during the early to mid 20th century. Despite never being elected to any office, Moses is regarded ...
to become commissioner of a unified
New York City Department of Parks and Recreation The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, also called the Parks Department or NYC Parks, is the department of the government of New York City responsible for maintaining the city's parks system, preserving and maintaining the ecolog ...
. At the time, the United States was experiencing the
Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
; immediately after La Guardia won the 1933 election, Moses began to write "a plan for putting 80,000 men to work on 1,700 relief projects". By the time he was in office, several hundred such projects were underway across the city. Moses was especially interested in creating new pools and other bathing facilities, such as those in
Jacob Riis Park Jacob Riis Park, also called Jacob A. Riis Park and Riis Park, is a seaside park on the southwestern portion of the Rockaway Peninsula in the New York City borough of Queens. It lies at the foot of the Marine Parkway–Gil Hodges Memorial Brid ...
, Jones Beach, and Orchard Beach. He devised a list of 23 pools around the city, including one at Thomas Jefferson Park. The pools would be built using funds from the
Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...
(WPA), a federal agency created as part of the
New Deal The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Cons ...
to combat the Depression's negative effects. Eleven of these pools were to be designed concurrently and open in 1936. Moses, along with architects
Aymar Embury II Aymar Embury II (June 15, 1880 – November 15, 1966) was an American architect. He is best known for commissions from the City of New York from the 1930s through to the 1950s. In this period, Embury frequently worked with Robert Moses in t ...
and
Gilmore David Clarke Gilmore David Clarke (July 12, 1892 – August 8, 1982''New York Times'', August 10, 1982, p. B19: Gilmore D. Clarke, 90, is dead; designed major public works'.) was an American civil engineer and landscape architect who designed many park ...
, created a common design for these proposed aquatic centers. Each location was to have distinct pools for diving, swimming, and wading; bleachers and viewing areas; and bathhouses with locker rooms that could be used as gymnasiums. The pools were to have several common features, such as a minimum length, underwater lighting, heating, filtration, and low-cost construction materials. To fit the requirement for cheap materials, each building would be built using elements of the
Streamline Moderne Streamline Moderne is an international style of Art Deco architecture and design that emerged in the 1930s. Inspired by aerodynamic design, it emphasized curving forms, long horizontal lines, and sometimes nautical elements. In industrial design ...
and Classical architectural styles. The buildings would also be near "comfort stations", additional playgrounds, and spruced-up landscapes. Construction for some of the 11 pools began in October 1934. Embury filed plans for a bathhouse and swimming pool at Thomas Jefferson Park in August 1935, but the actual design of the pool and bathhouse has been attributed to Stanley C. Brogren. The next month, La Guardia presided over the opening of the northern playground, which contained athletic fields, a wading pool, and children's play equipment. The southern playground opened that November, with shuffleboard, bocce, and horseshoe courts. Many of the original park features were replaced with New Deal-era designs, and upon La Guardia's request, bocce courts were added to the design. By mid-1936, ten of the eleven WPA-funded pools were completed and were being opened at a rate of one per week. The pool was the second pool to open, with a ceremony taking place on June 27, 1936. A playground in the northeast section of the park, near the
Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics (abbreviated as MCSM) is a public high school at East 116th Street between Pleasant Avenue and FDR Drive in East Harlem, within Upper Manhattan, New York City. The school building, which was forme ...
(at the time known as the Benjamin Franklin High School), was completed in 1942. While there were many black and Hispanic residents near Thomas Jefferson Park, its pool was used mostly by white residents of Italian Harlem, while black and Hispanic residents mostly used Harlem's other pool at Colonial Park. According to Moses biographer
Robert Caro Robert Allan Caro (born October 30, 1935) is an American journalist and author known for his biographies of United States political figures Robert Moses and Lyndon B. Johnson. After working for many years as a reporter, Caro wrote ''The Power Br ...
, close associates of Moses had claimed they could keep African Americans from using the Thomas Jefferson Pool by making the water too cold. However, no other source backs the claim that the Thomas Jefferson Pool had different heating equipment from any other pool. As with all of the city's other WPA pools, diesel motors were used to pump water into the pool, and excess heat from these motors was used to keep the water warm. Caro also wrote that predominantly white lifeguards were hired at Thomas Jefferson Park, although it is unclear whether Moses did this on purpose. In any case, black and Hispanic residents often faced violence if they tried to swim at Thomas Jefferson Pool or visit the park in general. In subsequent years, the Italian population of the area decreased, while the black and Hispanic population increased.


Decline and restoration

During the late 20th century, the park grew decrepit. The bathhouse, used during the winter as a gathering place for elderly men, was rundown by 1966, with faulty heaters and rotting roof beams. Part of the bathhouse was destroyed in an electrical fire in 1973, and the original classical style pavilion was destroyed in the 1970s due to vandalism. The park had been the site of several killings, including a gang beating in 1958 and a shooting in 1974. By the 1970s, Thomas Jefferson Park and other city parks were in poor condition following the 1975 New York City fiscal crisis. NYC Parks commenced a project to restore the pools in several parks in 1977, including at Thomas Jefferson Park, for whose restoration the agency set aside an estimated $2.9 million. These projects were not carried out due to a lack of money. By March 1981, NYC Parks had only 2,900 employees in its total staff, less than 10 percent of the 30,000 present when Moses was parks commissioner. Starting in the early 1970s, a group of "junior lifeguards" was hired to keep the pools and bathhouse clean. During this era, Thomas Jefferson Pool employed the first female lifeguard at any NYC Parks facility. According to landscape designer
Lynden B. Miller Lynden B. Miller (born December 8, 1938) is an author, an advocate for public parks and gardens, and a garden designer, best known for her restoration of the Conservatory Garden in New York’s Central Park, completed in 1987. Education and earl ...
, the park received a large number of plantings in the mid-1980s, but they died off due to a lack of maintenance. NYC Parks continued to face financial shortfalls in the coming years, and the pools retained a reputation for high crime. For the summer of 1991, mayor David Dinkins had planned to close all 32 outdoor pools in the city, a decision that was only reversed after a $2 million donation from a trust created upon the death of real estate developer
Sol Goldman Sol Goldman (born Usher Selig Goldman, September 2, 1917 – October 18, 1987) was an American real estate investor and philanthropist. Goldman was the founder of Solil Management, a real estate investment firm he founded in the 1950s with his ...
and $1.8 million from other sources. Additionally, in the 1990s, a practice called "whirlpooling" became common in New York City pools such as Thomas Jefferson Park, wherein women would be inappropriately fondled by teenage boys. By the turn of the century, crimes such as sexual assaults had decreased in parks citywide due to increased security. Thomas Jefferson Park received an extensive renovation in the early 1990s, funded by a $10.5 million capital expenditure.
Richard Dattner Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'stron ...
was hired to renovate the pool and bathhouse. As part of the project, the diving pool was converted into a wading pool. The pool project was completed in January 1992 for $8.5 million. The renovation of the park grounds was estimated to cost $2.6 million, but the winning contractor submitted a bid that was $1 million lower. The grounds renovation was completed in 1994 and the two artworks were installed the following year, In 1999, a reporter for ''The New York Times'' wrote that the pool had a "distinctly Latin flavor", with many of its visitors being Puerto Rican or Mexican. A synthetic turf soccer field was installed in the park in 2003. In 2007, the
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
designated the Thomas Jefferson Pool and Play Center as a landmark. The commission had previously considered the pool for landmark status in 1990, along with the other ten WPA pools in the city. The soccer field was temporarily closed in 2008 and 2009 following the discovery of high lead concentrations. Thomas Jefferson Park's skatepark opened in 2017 on the site of a former empty field. Thomas Jefferson Playground was reconstructed starting in 2019 and reopened in March 2021.


See also

*
List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan above 110th Street The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), formed in 1965, is the New York City governmental commission that administers the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. Since its founding, it has designated over a thousand landmarks, clas ...


References


Notes


Citations


Sources

* * * * {{Protected areas of New York City 1902 establishments in New York City 1936 establishments in New York City Buildings and structures completed in 1936 East Harlem New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan Parks in Manhattan Protected areas established in 1902 Robert Moses projects Skateparks in New York City Works Progress Administration in New York City