Naples Playground

Naples Playground

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

What was here before?
As late as 1924, the land now occupied by this playground was vacant and then served as an unofficial play space for over thirty years following the construction of P.S. 48 in 1931. In 2013, P.S. 48 moved to a new building on the opposite side of Targee Street, and the older facility now houses P.S. 9.

How did this site become a playground?
The City acquired the property in 1953, which was approved for use as a playground in 1954. Additional land was vested in 1955. Half of Stanwich Street, Venice Street, and Britton and Oder Avenues were closed off for the purchase and incorporated into the playground, which opened in 1965 following several delays. Just a few months after P.S. 48 opened, school officials authorized the installation of portable classroom units in a part of the new playground to relieve overcrowding.

This playground is a Jointly Operated Playground (JOP) serving P.S. 9 Naples Street Elementary School 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.

By 1967, Parks found that the playground was sinking when the restroom buckled, pipes broke, and large potholes opened in the ground, requiring repairs. A 1981 renovation included resurfacing the basketball and softball courts, dismantling the portable classrooms, and upgrading the park bathrooms.

The playground was upgraded in 1997-98, In 2023, schoolchildren from P.S. 9 participated in a community input meeting for the new renovation, which includes new play areas and a spray shower, repaved basketball courts, and sustainability features. There are full and half basketball courts, a track, and a baseball diamond available.

What is this playground named for?
For the first twenty years of its existence, Naples Playground was officially called P.S. 48 Playground but known locally as Concord Playground, for the surrounding neighborhood of Concord. In 1985, NYC Parks Commissioner Henry Stern renamed it Naples Playground. The playground’s namesake, Naples Street, was never officially listed on city maps. Most likely, Naples Street and the nearby Rome, Venice, and Columbus Avenues are the remnants of an unsuccessful development effort or just names for an area that housed many new Italian immigrant families.

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