Vinmont Veteran Park is a park and playground in the Riverdale section of

The Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

. It includes bathrooms, a playground, a woodland area and the Sid Augarten baseball field. The site was acquired by

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 ...

in 1945 and 1947 and opened as a park in 1951. Originally named the PS 81 Playground after a neighboring public school it was renamed in 1986 in honor of military veterans in the Vinmont neighborhood.

Description

The park covers an area of in the Riverdale neighborhood of

in New York City. It includes bathrooms and a playground with a spray shower and is

wheelchair-accessible Accessibility is the design of products, devices, services, vehicles, or environments so as to be usable by people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design and practice of accessible development ensures both "direct access" (i.e ...

. The park incorporates the Sid Augarten baseball field. The park includes a woodland area with native trees, primarily red and white

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

black cherry ''Prunus serotina'', commonly called black cherry,World Economic Plants: A Standard Reference, Second Edition'. CRC Press; 19 April 2016. . p. 833–. wild black cherry, rum cherry, or mountain black cherry, is a deciduous tree or shrub of the g ...

, and

sweetgum ''Liquidambar'', commonly called sweetgum (star gum in the UK), gum, redgum, satin-walnut, or American storax, is the only genus in the flowering plant family Altingiaceae and has 15 species. They were formerly often treated in Hamamelidaceae ...

. Other species include

Norway maple ''Acer platanoides'', commonly known as the Norway maple, is a species of maple native to eastern and central Europe and western Asia, from Spain east to Russia, north to southern Scandinavia and southeast to northern Iran. It was introduced to ...

black locust ''Robinia pseudoacacia'', commonly known in its native territory as black locust, is a medium-sized hardwood deciduous tree, belonging to the tribe Robinieae of the legume family Fabaceae. It is endemic to a few small areas of the United States ...

American elm ''Ulmus americana'', generally known as the American elm or, less commonly, as the white elm or water elm, is a species of elm native to eastern North America, naturally occurring from Nova Scotia west to Alberta and Montana, and south to Flor ...

pignut hickory ''Carya glabra'', the pignut hickory, is a common, but not abundant species of hickory in the oak-hickory forest association in the Eastern United States and Canada. Other common names are pignut, sweet pignut, coast pignut hickory, smoothbark ...

, and redtwig dogwood. The park is adjacent to Bronx Public School 81 and bordered by Riverdale and Mosholu avenues and West 254th and 256th streets.

History

The land for the park was acquired by

in 1945 and 1947 via condemnation. The park opened on September 26, 1951. Originally named ''PS 81 Playground'' after the neighboring school, it was renamed in November 1986. The park was renovated in 1992 to add new fencing, benches, picnic tables, and water fountains. Landscaping was also done, and the adjacent Sid Augarten Field received a new backstop at this time. Another renovation project in 2002 improved the children's play and swing units, rebuilt the spray shower, and added new plantings. The ball field received further improvements in 2013.

Namesakes

The park is named after the Vinmont neighborhood and honors local military veterans. The Vinmont neighborhood itself is named after Robert Weinberg, an employee of the

New York City Department of Parks 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 ...

in the 1930s. Weinberg was a

city planner An urban planner (also known as town planner) is a professional who practices in the field of town planning, urban planning or city planning. An urban planner may focus on a specific area of practice and have a title such as city planner, town ...

whose work included

urban park An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a municipal park (North America) or a public park, public open space, or municipal gardens ( UK), is a park in cities and other incorporated places that offer recreation and green space to resi ...

s and

landscape architecture Landscape architecture is the design of outdoor areas, landmarks, and structures to achieve environmental, social-behavioural, or aesthetic outcomes. It involves the systematic design and general engineering of various structures for constructio ...

; he was the principal architect of the Vinmont Houses project in Riverdale. The name ''Vinmont'' is the French translation of Weinberg, which is German for ''Wine Mountain''. The ball field adjacent to the park honors Sid Augarten, who was the commissioner of the North Riverdale Baseball League, which still plays at this location.

References

{{Protected areas of New York City Parks in the Bronx 1951 establishments in New York City Playgrounds