Rock Garden Park

.92 acres

This text is part of Parks’ Historical Signs Project and can be found posted within the park.

Rock Garden Park stands as an emblem of the accomplishments achieved through broad-based community activism.

This site along Longfellow and Bryant Avenues, between East 173rd and East 174th Streets, has pronounced natural bedrock formations making it unsuitable for development. The area became a dumping ground for trash and construction debris, resulting in an unsightly, rodent-infested health hazard. The Crotona Park East community, under the leadership of residents Dave Reid and Barbara Little, the Mid-Bronx Desperadoes’ (MBD) Ralph Porter and Oscar Morrillo, and the United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Bob Dibble resolved to turn this eyesore into a community destination for passive and active recreation. After a massive clean-up effort by the Department of Sanitation, the North Longfellow Avenue Block Association worked with GreenThumb to establish a garden. In 1999, the City of New York made Rock Garden Park into a permanent greenspace.

The designs for the new park incorporated the challenging landscape and made use of the existing rock formations. At the suggestion of a community member, NYC Parks created a waterfall by installing underground piping and risers to circulate water over the rock facing along Longfellow Avenue. The plant-lined path leads to a lookout area with stone walls and steel shading that provides a magnificent view of the Bronx cityscape. A basketball court, two playground areas, and a spray shower provide for active recreation.  A large compass rosette decorates the base of the flagpole.

Rock Garden Park received a New York City Arts Commission Design Award for 1998. The award commended the way that “…the landscape architects have created a charming and natural setting for various activities in a design that creatively meets community needs while adapting to extremely difficult terrain.”  The park also received the Empire Award from the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal for Promoting and Developing Open Spaces.

Wednesday, Nov 23, 2016