Spuyten Duyvil Playground

Douglas Av bet. W 235 St and W 236 St

Bronx, 10463

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

Spuyten Duyvil Playground has the same name as the adjacent public school, the nearby creek, and a neighborhood in the northwestern Bronx. There are two major theories concerning the origin of the Dutch name Spuyten Duyvil. According to the first, a trumpeter dispatched to the Bronx during the 1664 British invasion of New Amsterdam vowed to cross the turbulent creek "en spijt den Duyvil" (in spite of the Devil). The second is based on a 1647 reference to a gushing fountain that emptied into the creek, "Spuit den Duyvil" (Devil’s Spout) or to the creek itself (Devil’s Spate). At least fourteen different spellings of the name have been recorded, including those mentioned above and Speak Devil, Speight den Duyvil, Speit den Duyvil, Spike & Devil, Spiling Devil, Spilling Devil, Spitendeuval, Spitten Divil, Spittin Debell, Spitting Devil, and Spitton Divil.

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