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:
- 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.”
- 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.“
- New Deal Assistance in
NYC Parks Department Projects, 1934-43.