Mapes Park

Mapes Ave., Prospect Ave. bet. E. 180 St. and E. 181 St.

Bronx

Directions via Google Maps

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

Mapes Ballfield, located in the Bronx neighborhood of East Tremont, is named for the Mapes family, prominent Bronx landowners and businesspeople who were among the earliest colonial settlers of this area.

Thomas Mapes (1628-1687) and his wife Sarah Purrier (1630-1697) were the first members of the family to come to the Bronx. At the end of the American Revolution, the Mapes family opened a store in West Farms Village, at Boston Road and 179th Street, a site previously occupied by De Lancey’s Mills. The store, which sold general goods such as coal, paint, flour, feed, and seeds, later became known as the Mapes Temperance Hotel. The family operated three stores in the West Farms area, as well as a Bronx River dock at 173rd Street. They continued to be family owned and operated into the early 20th century.

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