St. Nicholas Park

The Daily Plant : Monday, December 10, 2007

St. Nicholas Park Goes To The Dogs

Photo by Malcolm Pinckney

On December 1, Commissioner Benepe joined the Friends of St. Nicholas Park and Community Board 9 Vice Chair Patricia Jones to celebrate the first anniversary of the St. Nicholas Park dog park by officially cutting the ribbon on the community-led project. The Friends of St. Nicholas Park entirely funded the $11,000 necessary to construct the dog park. It is located on 137th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue in Manhattan.

Due to the increased population of dog owners in Central and West Harlem, the Friends of St. Nicholas Park approached Parks & Recreation about creating a dog park. Parks and the Friends of St. Nicholas Park choose the site at 137th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue not only to give dogs a place to run and socialize, but also to discourage illegal behavior and encourage people to use the park and keep it clean and safe.

The $11,000 project features perimeter fencing, plantings, a seating area and a corral with access to a small and a large dog run. The dog park opened to the public in December of 2006, and the Friends of St. Nicholas Park have sponsored numerous events there, including a weekly “Coffee Bark” morning social. Parks hopes to soon provide water access to the site for the hot summer months.

Many more improvements are planned for St. Nicholas Park over the next year. They include reconstructing paths, repaving the sidewalks along St. Nicholas Avenue, resurfacing the Ollie Edinboro playground basketball courts and relocating the Hamilton Grange national landmark into the north end of the park.

St. Nicholas Park is named for St. Nicholas of Myra. It is located at the intersection of St. Nicholas Avenue, 127th Street, St. Nicholas Terrace and 141st Street, bordering the Manhattan neighborhoods of Hamilton Heights, Manhattanville, and Harlem. The Friends of St. Nicholas Park is a coalition of residents and community-based organizations working together to program and beautify the 23-acre upper-Manhattan park.

QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

“He was one of those men who think that the world can be saved by writing a pamphlet.”

Benjamin Disraeli
(1804 - 1881)