Magenta Playground

What was here before?
This land was part of the former estate of Lorillard Spencer (1860–1912), a descendant of Pierre Abraham Lorillard (1742–1776), a French Huguenot merchant who started a prosperous tobacco company in 1760. The estate made up a large portion of this area and Bronx Park. The family built the landmarked snuff mill that still stands in the New York Botanical Gardens. After Lorillard Spencer’s death, his descendants partitioned the land into over 1,000 lots for sale in 1917 to benefit the family and the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue.

By the 1940s three single-family wood frame homes and a garage were located on this property. These lots backed up to several residential apartments and ground-floor commercial spaces, including Mieli Bros. Hay & Grain, which sold poultry and horse feed.

How did this site become a playground?
The City of New York acquired this property by condemnation in 1960, and the playground opened to the public six years later. This site is a Jointly Operated Playground (JOP) serving P.S. 41 and the local community. Beginning in 1938, the Board of Education (now the Department of Education) agreed to provide land next to schools where NYC Parks could build and maintain playgrounds that could be used by the school during the day and by the public when school is not in session.

The playground was renovated in 1998, and today it includes a spray shower, jungle gym, swings, and a climbable seal sculpture.

What is this playground named after?
Originally known as P.S. 41 Playground, it was renamed Magenta Playground in 1987. The playground and Magenta Street bear the name of the reddish color coined by French designers after an 1859 victory in the Italian city of Magenta, where the Italo-Franco alliance defeated the Austrians and helped to bring about a unified Italy. Before 1900, a small colony of French weavers lived in this area of New York City, as did a growing number of Italian immigrants. The street was named Magenta to signify the Italo-Franco unity that once characterized this neighborhood.