DeSalvio Playground is a neighborhood park located on the corner of

Spring Street Spring Street may refer to: * Spring Street (Los Angeles), USA * Spring Street (Manhattan), New York City, USA * Spring Street, Melbourne, Australia * Spring Street, Singapore * Spring St (website), a US based lifestyle website Subway and trolle ...

and Mulberry Street in

NoLita Nolita, sometimes written as NoLIta and deriving from "North of Little Italy",Roberts, Sam"New York’s Little Italy, Littler by the Year"''New York Times'' (February 21, 2011) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. No ...

, in

Manhattan, New York City Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of co ...

. The playground has modular play equipment that is red, white, and green (in honor of the

Italian flag The national flag of Italy ( it, Bandiera d'Italia, ), often referred to in Italian as ''il Tricolore'' ( en, the Tricolour, ) is a tricolour (flag), tricolour featuring three equally sized vertical Pale (heraldry), pales of green, white and red, ...

), built-in stone chess tables, a basketball half-court, and benches.

History

The park honors John DeSalvio (1881–1948) and his son Louis DeSalvio (1910–2004). John DeSalvio, a

first-generation American In sociology, people who permanently resettle to a new country are considered immigrants, regardless of the legal status of their citizenship or residency. The United States Census Bureau (USCB) uses the term "generational status" to refer to th ...

, served as district leader of the Second Assembly District (West), and was one of a few Italian-Americans in the

Tammany Hall Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York City political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society. It became the main loc ...

political organization. Louis DeSalvio served as Second District New York State Assemblyman. The

City of New York New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

acquired the property in 1954 and turned it over to the Parks department. The playground opened on December 15, 1955 as "John DeSalvio Park". The playground hosted the Citywide

Bocce Ball (, or , ), sometimes anglicized as bocce ball, bocci or boccie, is a ball sport belonging to the boules family. Developed into its present form in Italy, it is closely related to British bowls and French , with a common ancestry from ancien ...

Championships in 1996 and 1997.

References

External links

Friends of DeSalvio Playground
Playgrounds 1955 establishments in New York City Parks in Manhattan Nolita Urban public parks {{NYC-stub