Parks Dedicated to Local Leaders or Community Activists

Parks honors local figures who contributed in ways large and small to make the city a better place. Many women led efforts to protect the environment, preserve the history of their communities, and make parks safer for their friends, family, and neighbors.

Bronx

Evelina Antonetty Playground

Formerly Garrison Playground, the park is now named for local activist and community organizer Evelina Antonetty who did so much for her Bronx neighborhood. She was the driving force behind some of the many of the positive changes that continue to reshape the South Bronx. Visit Evelina Antonetty Playground

Estella Diggs Park

Formerly known as Rocks and Roots Park, the park was named after Estella Diggs, the first African-American woman to represent the Bronx in the New York State Assembly. Visit Estella Diggs Park

Ewen Park

A grove within Ewen Park was named for Sandra Mayer, who formed the Friends of Ewen Park. Mayer worked hard to clean up the park and raise funds for the park's upkeep. Learn more about Ewen Park

Cass Gallagher Nature Trail at Van Cortlandt Park

Florence "Cass" Gallagher (1912-1983) was dedicated to preserving Van Cortlandt Park and was a founder of the original "Friends of Van Cortlandt Park." In her honor, the nature trail in the park's northwest woods was named Cass Gallagher Nature Trail and formally opened on October 17, 1984. Learn more about Van Cortlandt Park

Yolanda García Park

This Melrose park is named after local community activist Yolanda García, and is a tribute to her planning and perseverance. García organized local residents to form the Nos Quedamos/We Stay coalition dedicated to expanding the Melrose Commons area with more affordable housing and parkland, including this park which once was a vacant lot. She didn't live to see it, but this beautiful park now bears her name. Learn more about Yolanda García Park

Phyllis Post Goodman Park

In Riverdale, Phyllis Post Goodman (1932-1995) was instrumental in preserving a plot of land along 230th Street in the 1970s and is honored with a park along the Henry Hudson Parkway at Kappock Street. Learn more about Phyllis Post Goodman Park

Agnes Haywood Playground

Agnes Haywood (1907-1983) had a long career of community service in her Williamsbridge, Bronx neighborhood. She worked on behalf of education and equal rights issues. At the time of her death in October 1983 at the age of 76, she was president of the Williamsbridge Chapter of the National Council of Negro Women. In 1985, the community gathered to dedicate Agnes Haywood Playground in her memory. Learn more about Agnes Haywood Playground

McLaughlin Playground

Ruth MacLaughlin ( -1968) helped develop vest pocket parks and fought to protect the parkland which eventually bore her name. Visit McLaughlin Playground

Aileen B. Ryan Recreation Complex at Pelham Bay Park

Aileen B. Ryan (1913-1987) was a New York City Councilmember for 17 years, as well as a former teacher and a charter member of the Bronx County Historical Society. She is honored with the Aileen B. Ryan Recreation Complex in Pelham Bay Park. Learn more about the Aileen B. Ryan Recreation Complex at Pelham Bay Park

Brooklyn

Mother Cabrini Park

Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini (1850-1917) was the first American citizen to be canonized by the Catholic Church. In 1889, Pope Leo XIII sent Cabrini and her missionaries to the United States to aid Italian immigrants. In Manhattan, Cabrini taught at St. Joachim's parish, the Church of Our Lady of Pompeii, and the Transfiguration Catholic Church. She also taught at St. Rita of Cascia in the Bronx and the Church of St. Stephen (now Sacred Hearts and St. Stephen's Church) in Brooklyn. After Pope Pius XII canonized her, New York City honored her by naming Northern Avenue, in Washington Heights, Cabrini Boulevard. In 1992 the City renamed the small park on President Street in Red Hook, Brooklyn for Mother Cabrini, and Parks took over the site in 1993. Learn more about Mother Cabrini Park

Hattie Carthan

Hattie Carthan (1900-1984) was a Bedford-Stuyvesant resident who always had an interest in trees. When she noticed conditions in her neighborhood beginning to deteriorate, Mrs. Carthan began replanting trees there, and in the process, helped found the Bedford-Stuyvesant Neighborhood Tree Corps and the Green Guerillas. The Tree Corps began in 1971 as a way to teach young people how to care for trees. As a volunteer organization providing supplies, advice, and encouragement for all types of urban community green spaces, the Green Guerillas were the force behind the resurgence of the community garden movement in the 1970s. The organization began informally in 1974 with tactics as simple as throwing water balloons filled with seeds into abandoned lots; the positive response showed the overwhelming need for more green space in the inner city. Mrs. Carthan also led the charge to preserve a particular Southern magnolia tree that became a symbol of the neighborhood. The tree, rare in the northeast, was brought on a ship from North Carolina in 1885. Carthan not only succeeded in having a wall built to protect the tree but also spearheaded the successful attempt to designate it an official city landmark in 1970. It is one of only two trees to be designated as such (and after the 1998 death of the Weeping beech in Queens, the only tree still standing). Carthan continued her campaign by convincing the City to convert three nearby abandoned homes into the Magnolia Tree Earth Center. Visit the Hattie Carthan Community Garden

Margaret Carnegie Playground in Cooper Park

Carnegie Playground in Cooper Park honors Margaret Carnegie (1910-1993), who moved to Greenpoint from the Bronx in 1953. She became deeply involved in the community for the next forty years of her life. She was part of the National Congress of Neighborhood Women, Greenpoint Renaissance Enterprise Corporation, Council for the Aging, Williamsburg Greenpoint Independent Democrats, and Devoe Street Baptist Church. She was founder and chaplain of the Cooper Park Senior Citizens Organization and served as president of the Grandparent Organization Inc. Visit Margaret Carnegie Playground in Cooper Park

Almira Kennedy Coursey Amphitheatre

This amphitheatre is named in honor of Almira Kennedy Coursey (1914-1996), who lived a life of service and devotion to her community. In 1968, she served as special assistant to the vice chancellor of the City University of New York where she developed programs to assist minority students. She worked with many advocacy groups in her surrounding neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, received numerous awards, and served on several city-wide committees on poverty and education under Mayors Robert F. Wagner Jr. (1910-1991) and John V. Lindsay (1921-2000). As one of the leaders of the Tompkins Park Recreation and Cultural Association, Coursey was instrumental in the renovations of this park, including the establishment of the Eubie Blake Auditorium and the construction of the nearby Kosciusko Pool. Visit Almira Kennedy Coursey Amphitheatre

Maritcha R. Lyons Park

Maritcha R. Lyons (1848-1929) was an American educator, civic leader, suffragist, and public speaker in New York City and Brooklyn, New York. She taught in public schools in Brooklyn for 48 years, and was the second Black woman to serve in their system as an assistant principal. Learn more about Maritcha R. Lyons Park

Maria Hernandez Park

Maria Hernandez (1953-1989) worked to rid her block of drugs and drug dealers by organizing block parties, athletic activities, and social gatherings. On the morning of August 8, 1989, Hernandez was struck by five shots fired through the window of her Starr Street home and died soon after. Her block, her Bushwick neighborhood, and the entire city mourned the death of a brave and dedicated woman. The City Council voted soon thereafter to rename Bushwick Park for her. Learn more about Maria Hernandez Park

Martinez Playground

Thelma Martinez (1918-1987) was a 30-year resident of the Williamsburg Houses and was especially committed to Williamsburg Playground, which was renamed for her in 1989. Learn more about Martinez Playground

Sternberg Park

In Brooklyn, Frances Hamburger Sternberg (1920-1990) contributed extensively to the social and political life of the Greenpoint and Williamsburg neighborhoods. Her life of public service included chairing the Friends of Lindsay Park Committee. She also served as chairperson of Community Board 1 and campaign advisor to State Assemblyman Joseph Lentol. In 1990, the City renamed Lindsay Park for Sternberg. Learn more about Sternberg Park

Susan Smith McKinney Steward Park

The park is named for pioneering physician Dr. Susan Smith McKinney Steward (1847 – 1918). She was the first African-American female physician in New York State and the third in the nation. In addition to her impact as a medical professional, McKinney Steward was a steadfast advocate for women’s rights and racial equality, helping found the Women’s Loyal Union and serving in the Equal Suffrage League of Brooklyn. Learn more about Susan Smith McKinney Steward Park

Manhattan

Bella Abzug Park

In March 2019, Parks announced the renaming of Hudson Park in honor of activist and Congresswoman Bella Abzug. A native New Yorker, Abzug dedicated her life to service as a women’s movement leader, civil rights lawyer and former U.S. Representative for New York. Raised in the Bronx by Russian immigrants, Abzug was a force for the people of New York and this country as a civil rights lawyer and activist, and politician. A maverick, she fought tirelessly for women’s rights, she organized the Women Strike for Peace; co-founded the National Women’s Caucus with Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, and Shirley Chisholm; and established the Women’s Environmental Development Organization. As a Congresswoman, in addition to her advocacy for women’s rights, she worked to bring home U.S. troops from Vietnam and fought for gay rights—putting forth the first gay rights bill before Congress during her tenure. Abzug joins the ranks of other civic leaders, musicians, and entertainers, to name a few, who we have been honored in this way. Learn more about Bella Abzug Park

Elizabeth H. Berger Plaza

This plaza honors civic leader Elizabeth Harrie Berger (1960-2013) whose steadfast efforts helped rebuild Lower Manhattan after the 9/11 attacks. Serving as president and CEO of the Alliance for Downtown New York until her death in 2013, she advocated for the creation of this park and successfully pushed for the timely completion of the Fulton Street transit hub and the reconstruction of Fiterman Hall at the Borough of Manhattan Community College. Learn more about Elizabeth H. Berger Plaza

Mae Grant Playground

Mae Grant was a local activist and tenant of East Harlem's Carver Houses. Ms. Grant served as president of the tenant association from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s. She established a community food program and otherwise helped her neighbors secure apartments and jobs. Mae Grant Playground is located at 104th Street and Park Avenue. Learn more about Mae Grant Playground

Loeb Playground

An early version of a modern-day community activist is Russian-born Sophie Irene Simon Loeb (1876-1929). Loeb began her career as a teacher, and later worked at the New York Evening World as a reporter. Loeb advocated for welfare for widowed mothers, on behalf of immigrant issues, and in favor of housing reform. Parks honored Loeb with both a playground on the Lower East Side and a decorative fountain in Central Park. Learn more about Loeb Playground

Anne Loftus Playground

Fort Tryon Park´s Anne Loftus Playground was named in 1990 for Anne Susan Cahill Loftus (1925-1989), an Inwood resident and district manager of Community Board 12. Learn more about Anne Loftus Playground

Matthews-Palmer Playground

Social worker May Mathews (1887-1974) worked for many years helping the residents of the Clinton neighborhood of Manhattan. She came to live at Hartley House, a settlement house on West 46th Street between Ninth and Tenth avenues, in 1903, took over the management of Hartley House in 1904, and remained as its head social worker until 1954. In 1972, the park just to the southwest of Hartley House was renamed for Mathews-- and in 2007, Parks re-renamed the park "Matthews-Palmer Playground" to honor Alexandra Palmer, who served as Parks' neighborhood liaison for the site and who was instrumental in getting the park named for Matthews. Visit Matthews-Palmer Playground

Mary O'Connor Playground

In Manhattan, many women have helped beautify, educate, or otherwise help their neighborhood. Mary O'Connor (1911-1991) was a well-known community activist and resident of Tudor City. She was active on Community Board 6 and helped secure official landmark designation for Tudor City. She is honored with the Mary O'Connor Playground. Learn more about Mary O'Connor Playground

Ilka Tanya Payan Park

Ilka Tanya Payan Park, located on Broadway between 156th and 157th streets, honors Ilka Tanya Payan (1943-1996). A community leader, immigration attorney, columnist and Spanish-language soap star, Payan lived a full life. Payan contracted HIV in 1986 and dealt with her condition privately until 1993 when she spent her remaining three years speaking out on behalf of AIDS issues.

Reverend Linnette C. Williamson Memorial Park

Elsewhere in Manhattan, Reverend Linnette C. Williamson Memorial Park commemorates Reverend Linnette C. Williamson (1923-1990) of the Christ Community Church of Harlem. Reverend Williamson was instrumental in developing the concept of the vest-pocket park and helped open the very first vest-pocket park, located at 65 West 128th Street. The concept resonated with Mayor John V. Lindsay and his Parks Commissioner Thomas P. F. Hoving, and Parks developed many vest-pocket parks during this era. Learn more about Rev. Linnette C. Williamson Memorial Park

Queens

Margaret Isabel Carman and Flushing, Queens

Margaret Isabel Carman (1890-1976) was born to a prominent family rich in history. Her father, Ringgold W. Carman was a member of the Union Army and a descendant of Revolutionary War hero Captain Henry "Lighthouse Harry" Lee. A lifelong member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, after retiring from her teaching career at Flushing High School in 1960, Carman devoted herself to propagating and maintaining Flushing's abundant history. For ten years, Ms. Carman served as the President of the Bowne House Historical Society (Bowne House is located in Flushing's Weeping Beech Park). Carman's efforts also resulted in the opening of the Flushing Freedom Trail, which stops along historical sites in Flushing, many of which are associated with the Underground Railroad leading southern slaves to freedom. Designed to heighten the awareness of Flushing's rich heritage, the 1.3-mile trail begins at the John Bowne House and includes the Kingsland Homestead, New York City's oldest house of worship, the Friends Quaker Meeting House, Flushing Town Hall, the nursery of Samuel Bowne Parsons, and the Aspinwall House, a station on the Underground Railroad.

Helen Marshall Playground

Helen Marshall was the first African American Queens Borough President and served on both the New York State Assembly and New York City Council. Borough President Marshall had a strong connection to East Elmhurst Playground as she lived nearby, and personally worked in and supported the playground’s various family and community events often. Learn more about Helen Marshall Playground

Gertrude Waldeyer Promenade at Oakland Lake in Alley Pond Park

Queens has many areas in which to explore the natural environment. Another such place is Oakland Lake in Alley Pond Park, where Gertrude Waldeyer (1908-1988) raised awareness of the spot's natural wetlands. Her efforts prompted the formation of the Oakland Lake and Ravine Conservation Committee, were the impetus for the designation of the southwest end of the lake as a New York State Freshwater Wetland, and brought to a halt illegal dumping in the ravine. The promenade around Oakland Lake has been named Gertrude Waldeyer Promenade in Ms. Waldeyer's honor. Also in Douglaston, Catherine Turner Richardson (1903-1988) was an active member of the Douglaston Garden Club and a catalyst for the group's participation in beautifying Douglaston Park. She is honored with a park at Douglaston Parkway and 42nd Avenue. Learn more about the Gertrude Waldeyer Promenade at Oakland Lake in Alley Pond Park

Udalls Cove

Udalls Cove, on the shore of the Long Island Sound in far eastern Queens, has been a conservation work in progress since the late 1960s, and several women now honored at the site played a part in its preservation. Virginia Michels Dent (1922-2005) spent time around Flushing Bay in Flushing Meadows Corona Park as a child, and when she and her husband Tom bought a house that backed onto Udalls Cove, she worked to protect the marsh from development. They joined with others to create the Udalls Cove Preservation Committee in 1969, with the goal of creating a park preserve, which was established in 1972. In 1989, the Parks Department designated a portion of Udalls Cove at the northern tip of Little Neck Parkway as Virginia Point in honor of Ms. Dent's work. Aurora Gareiss (1909-2000), who moved to Douglaston, Queens in 1943 also lived in a home overlooking Udalls Cove and helped form the Udalls Cove Preservation Committee. In 1985, the Parks Department named the pond on Douglaston's "back road" for Gareiss.

Mary Whalen Playground in Forest Park

Mary Whalen (1917-1987) was active in her community of Woodhaven, organizing the Greater Woodhaven Development Corporation. She is honored in Forest Park with Mary Whalen Playground. Patricia Brackley (1940-1999) was a dedicated gardener and local volunteer. She volunteered by renovating Cronston Triangle in the Rockaways, designing plantings, seats, and a sprinkler system. After fighting cancer for several years, she passed away in 1999. Parks renamed the triangle that Brackley cared for in honor of her in 2000. Learn more about Mary Whalen Playground

Staten Island

Rev. Dr. Maggie Howard Playground

Rev. Dr. Maggie Howard (1963-2020) was a beloved Stapleton community activist and Senior Pastor of Stapleton UME; the oldest African American church in Staten Island. Visit Rev. Dr. Maggie Howard Playground

Gretta Moulton Gate at High Rock Park

Staten Island has many acres of natural land, and Gretta Moulton (1911-1971) was someone who believed in outdoor education. She helped galvanize support to preserve parts of the Staten Island Greenbelt that were threatened by development. As a Girl Scout leader, she worked to preserve High Rock Camp and create an environmental education center. Moulton is honored with an ornamental gate at the entrance to High Rock Park. Learn more about the Gretta Moulton Gate at High Rock Park

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