Rainbow Playground

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

What was here before?
In 1638 Willem Kieft “purchased” a large area between Wallabout Bay and Newtown Creek from the Canarsee, who first inhabited the land. While the Europeans saw these agreements as transfer of ownership, the Canarsee understood them as a lease agreement or joint tenancy.

By the mid-1800s it was a thriving agricultural community. Irish immigrants, seeking relief from the potato famine, arrived here in the 1840s. They were joined by Polish, Scandinavian, and Italian immigrants, who found employment on the busy waterfront. In the 1940s, the neighborhood went into a long period of decline, but a new wave of immigration in the 1980s and 1990s started a revival. Newcomers from the Dominican Republic, Guyana, Colombia, Ecuador, India, Vietnam, and Jordan brought new life into the area and a small Chinatown was established.

How did this site become a playground?
In a letter to the Board of Estimate, Parks Commissioner Robert Moses (1888-1981) proposed this playground in February 1954. He requested that the Parks Department be assigned “the entire easterly frontage of Sixth Avenue between 55th and 56th Street” stating “this parcel is the only vacant area in a densely built-up community in [this] section of Brooklyn and the nearest recreational facilities are over half a mile away.” The Board of Estimate assigned the property to the parks department a month later and it became the 56th Street Park.

In the 1970s, the lack of City funds resulted in the playground’s deterioration. It became a site of illegal activity, and so with the help of Community Board 7, local residents formed the Friends of 56th Street Park. The group organized a cleanup and initiated supervised play all in the hopes of making their park more enjoyable. The organization sponsored a contest to rename the park and “Rainbow Playground” won which was confirmed by local law in 1984.

The park was rebuilt in 2023 with new play and seating areas including play equipment, a spray shower, benches, and a drinking fountain.