Belmont Playground

E 182 St bet. Belmont Av and Croton Av

Bronx

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

Belmont Playground is located on the southeast corner of Belmont Avenue and E. 182nd Street in the Belmont neighborhood of the Bronx. The namesake of the playground, avenue, and neighborhood was the estate of the Lorillard family, who made their fortune in the tobacco business. In 1760 Pierre Lorillard opened a snuff-grinding factory in a rented house on Chatham Street in lower Manhattan. He was killed by British troops during the occupation of New York in the late 1770s, and his two sons Peter and George took over the firm in 1792.