Parkside Playground

Arnow Ave. bet. Olinville Ave. and White Plains Rd.

Bronx

Directions via Google Maps

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

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.

This parcel remained largely undeveloped, but by 1940, a two-story brick building housing a garage and car service center stood on this property, like several such businesses on the block.

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