Vesuvio Playground is an neighborhood park located on the corner of Thompson Street and Spring Street, off of Prince Street, in

SoHo Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was develo ...

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 ...

New York City 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 ...

. It was named in the late 1990s after the nearby popular Vesuvio Bakery on nearby Prince Street, which was in turn named for the stratovolcano

Mount Vesuvius Mount Vesuvius ( ; it, Vesuvio ; nap, 'O Vesuvio , also or ; la, Vesuvius , also , or ) is a somma-stratovolcano located on the Gulf of Naples in Campania, Italy, about east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. It is one of ...

. The volcano erupted in A.D. 79, destroying the Roman city of Pompeii. The park was named to honor the owner of the bakery; it could not be named after him because Parks Department policy prohibited the naming of the park after a living person. The playground was formerly named Thompson Street Playground, after the adjacent Thompson Street, which was in turn named after Revolutionary War

Brigadier General Brigadier general or Brigade general is a military rank used in many countries. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries. The rank is usually above a colonel, and below a major general or divisional general. When appointed ...

William Thompson in the late 18th century. The playground's land was purchased 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 ...

in pieces, in 1929, 1930, and 1957. The park has basketball courts, handball courts,

bocce (, 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 ancie ...

courts, a three-foot mini-pool, playgrounds, sandboxes, water fountains, spray showers, and public bathrooms. A $2.9 million renovation of the park was completed in 2007.

References

Playgrounds 1929 establishments in New York City Parks in Manhattan SoHo, Manhattan Urban public parks {{Manhattan-struct-stub