Tudor Grove Playground

What was here before?
This was once the site of Turtle Bay Farm, owned by businessman Francis Bayard Winthrop (1754-1817) and his family. It roughly extended from Third Avenue to the East River between East 40th and 49th Streets with the Manor situated by East 43rd Street and First Avenue.

In the late 1800s, the old estates in the area were divided into lots and developed. There were many slaughterhouses, breweries, coal yards, and tenements. New and updated housing developments such as Turtle Bay Gardens and Tudor City, revitalized the area in the 1920s.

How did this site become a playground?
In 1948 the City of New York acquired this park and other sites through condemnation to improve the approach to the United Nations. Both Mary O’Connor and Tudor Grove playgrounds serve as extensions to the open space provided by the Tudor City Green.

This raised playground was reconstructed in 1995 and in 2023 it was rebuilt with new play structures and safety surfacing.

Who is this playground named for?
Built by Fred F. French (1883-1936), a prominent New York developer after World War I, Tudor City was a pioneering venture in urban renewal that was designed as a “city within a city,” and adapted what was called Garden City design to high-density Manhattan. The Garden City concept combined the best aspects of country and city, emphasizing the integration of green space in urban living areas.

Tudor City was built between 1925 and 1928, in an area of tenements and slaughterhouses. It assembled more land than any previous development in Manhattan, and the success of this middle-class development served as a model for others across the country. Its design concept, elaborated by architect H. Douglas Ives, was based on the use of green space and the Tudor Revival architecture that gives it its name. Tudor City is built around a core of privately owned parks, includes twelve cooperatively owned buildings, and provides about 3,000 apartments and 600 hotel rooms.

The Tudor Revival style is a fusion of Gothic and rustic English architecture that emerged in the 19th century. Using colorful materials and exposed wooden beams from rustic homes, the style incorporated Gothic details and appointments. Already being used in suburban settings at the time, Tudor City introduced the Tudor Revival into an urban setting.

The shallow details of the Tudor Revival style easily fit these guidelines. While people often associate Tudor City with gargoyles, the sculptures that grace the tops of the buildings are grotesques. A true gargoyle is an elaborate waterspout to keep rainwater off a building’s roof, and projects horizontally from the building’s facade. The grotesques in Tudor City, like the other stylized architectural details, do not project from the facade, but rather rise above it. Because of its architectural and historical significance, Tudor City was designated a historic district in 1988.