Bailey Playground

Bailey Av bet. W 234 St and W 237 St

Bronx

Directions via Google Maps

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

Nathaniel Platt Bailey (1809-1891), the namesake of both this playground and bounding Bailey Avenue, was a 19th century Bronx landowner. Born in Chateangay, New York, Bailey was the son of Judge William Bailey, one of the earliest settlers of Plattsburg. Nathaniel Bailey settled in New York City in 1824 and quickly became a successful businessman; he retired at 35. Bailey was a Vestryman in the Protestant Episcopal Church of St. James, senior Governor of New York Hospital, and in 1884, was elected president of the St. Nicholas Society of the City of New York. Bailey’s property covered a part of what is now called West Fordham, extending from Fordham Road to Kingsbridge Road and from Bailey Avenue to University Avenue. His mansion overlooked the Harlem River, and it was said that the view was so commanding that one could see the New Jersey Palisades to the west. Upon Bailey’s death, his estate was subdivided into streets and avenues; the bulk of it became the grounds…

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