Peter Detmold Park

What was here before? 
This property was the eastern most edge of the Beekman Farm, built by merchant James Beekman (1732-1807) in the 1760s. His mansion, “Mount Pleasant,” was located near what is now East 51st Street and First Avenue and was notoriously used as British headquarters during the Revolutionary War. Patriot spy Nathan Hale was purportedly tried and sentenced to death in the property’s greenhouse. The Beekman family ultimately sold the property during the 1850s cholera epidemic, and the mansion was later destroyed to make way for the city street grid.

Industry and public transportation lines moved in, and what was farmland owned by a few wealthy families became a working-class neighborhood lined with brownstones and tenements.

How did this site become a park? 
Parks acquired the property for Peter Detmold Park in three parts between 1942 and 1951. The original parcel was only used for maintenance and operations purposes, but the site expanded in 1951 during the acquisition of land to create the East River Drive (now known as Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive). Whatever land was not used for the roadway, was added to the existing parcel and became public parkland.

In 1986, community leaders and residents broke ground for the restoration and Parks also constructed a wall to shield the park from the F.D.R. Drive. In 1999, the agency reconstructed sidewalks and fencing.

A plaque and gazebo honor Peter’s friend James Amster (1908-1986), a strong force in the development of the park. In 1944 Amster bought an aging tenement house and a few other pieces of property containing run-down structures east of Third Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets. He improved the lots, creating offices, stores, and apartments. The area is now known as Amster Yard. Together, Amster and Detmold are largely responsible for the buildings that stand in Turtle Bay today.

Who is this park named for? 
This park honors Peter Detmold (1923-1972), once a tenant of Turtle Bay Gardens, a conglomerate of 20 townhouses on East 48th and 49th Streets, between Second and Third Avenues in Manhattan. Detmold fought in World War II, serving under General Patton at the relief of Bastogne and during the climactic fighting of the Battle of the Bulge in France.

After returning from the war in 1945, Detmold graduated from Cornell University with a major in history and a minor in music and continued on to earn a Master's Degree in medieval history. Detmold was a man of diverse interests. He was fond of reading musical scores, collecting model trains, and working on the genealogy of his family name. Among his civic pursuits, Detmold served as president of the Turtle Bay Association and founded the Turtle Bay Gazette. Detmold lived in Turtle Bay Gardens on East 49th Street, and, with fellow activist Jim Amster, launched the Turtle Bay Association in response to plans to turn 49th Street into a major commercial thoroughfare. When landowners began to rent out office space in residentially zoned areas, Detmold defended the rights of tenants and homeowners, protecting the quiet, neighborly spirit of the area, now a designated historic district.

On the night of January 6, 1972, after returning home from a meeting of the East Side Residential Association, Detmold was murdered. This park was named in honor of Detmold that same year.