Park

Cross BX Exwy bet. Featherbed La and Inwood Av

Bronx

Directions via Google Maps

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

There are four differing stories as to how Featherbed Lane, which runs adjacent to, and is the namesake of this triangle, came to obtain its peculiar appellation. One says that during the Revolutionary War, locals covered the street with feather beds so soldiers fighting the British could move quietly through the area. Another declares the road to have been so rough that those who traveled on it padded their carriage seats with featherbeds to keep it from being too uncomfortable. A third story, partly contradicting the first two, suggests that the road’s muddy composition provided a similar effect to that of a featherbed and thus made for a very smooth ride. The last story has nothing to do with the road itself, but suggests that the name dates from the 1840s when the area was home, and office, to a large number of prostitutes.

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