Sheltering Arms Playground

W. 126 St. to W. 129 St., Amsterdam Ave. to Old Broadway

Manhattan

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

Named after the institution from which it was acquired in 1945, Sheltering Arms Pool was once the site of a free asylum for homeless children. The Sheltering Arms was organized in 1864 by Rev. Thomas M. Peters, then Rector of St. Michael’s Protestant Episcopal Church, who had provided for its operation from his own home near West 100th Street. That location became inadequate a few years later, when Broadway was being cut through the grounds, urging the Sheltering Arms to relocate its services to West 129th Street and Tenth Avenue.