Sunners Playground

This playground, bounded by Avenue H, Kings Highway, and East 49th Street, is named for William Sunners (1903-1988), an educator, writer, and community activist. Sunners was born in Russia and raised in New York City. He obtained a bachelor’s degree from Hunter College in 1929 and a master’s degree from New York University in 1931. Sunners became a high school teacher in Brooklyn, serving nearly thirty years in the New York City public schools system. In 1960, he retired from education to write professionally. Sunners wrote over one hundred books on solving puzzles, winning contests, and writing advertising jingles. A talented wordsmith, he created many crossword puzzles for the New York Times and earned the title “the King of 25-words-or-less.” Sunners also coined several phrases in common use today, including “a quitter never wins and a winner never quits.”

For over fifty years, Sunners lived on East 49th Street in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Flatlands. Flatlands takes its name from its remarkably level topography. Originally, it was marshy farmland inhabited by the Canarsie Indians, who called the area “Keschaeschquereren.” In the 1600s, the Dutch settlers who acquired the land from the Canarsie named it New Amersfoort. With their conquest of New Netherlands in 1664, the English named the area Flatlands.

In 1940, Parks acquired this property for use as a public park. Sunners was one of the original lobbyists for this playground. An ardent voice for equality in his neighborhood, he had used the area as an informal meeting place for discussing issues of tolerance with both long-time residents and new settlers. In 1981, an anonymous fire-bomber destroyed the house of the Robertson family, the first black family to move into the neighborhood. Sunners used the area that is now William Sunners Playground to publicly condemn the action, and openly welcomed the family to the Flatlands. In 1992, four years after Sunners died from congestive heart failure, a local law was passed naming the playground after Sunners. Janice Robertson, a member of the Robertson family that Sunners helped years before, and president of the 49th Street Block Association, spearheaded the renaming effort.

In 1994, Parks completed a $190,000 capital contract renovation of the playground. Sponsored by Council Member Lloyd Henry, the playground received new infant and junior swings, a new water fountain, a stenciled area for “street games,” and three additional trees. Following this renovation, the park was rededicated William Sunners Playground.