Youth Village

Home St bet. Boston Rd and Jackson Av

Bronx

Directions via Google Maps

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

Youth Village Playground is named in honor of the Youth Village Center, a local group that has helped Parks maintain the property since 1979. The Youth Village Center, which now operates a daycare center on Tinton Avenue, was founded in 1959 by Lucille Dreher (1910-1991). Dreher was born in Greenville, South Carolina, the youngest of five children. Her father died while she was an infant, and her mother supported the family by working as a seamstress. Dreher married in 1927, and moved to New York City in 1947. As a resident in the South Bronx for more than three decades, Dreher, and her husband, Reverend Frederick D. Dreher, of Bethel Temple, helped develop teen programs, job training initiatives, and senior citizen activities in the neighborhood. In 1975, Dreher received the honorary title of Locality Mayor for the Bronx because of her dedication and leadership in the community.

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