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PARK FACT:

When it was first opened, part of this park was set aside as a place of respite for child laborers.

Explore Your Park > Thomas Jefferson Park

Thomas Jefferson Park

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1 Avenue to FDR Drive, East 111 to 114 streets

Manhattan

Acres: 15.52

Although only a few blocks long, this friendly neighborhood park is packed to the brim with things to do.  On busy days, runners circle the track while groups of friends shoot hoops, hit balls, and take advantage of the baseball and handball courts. The small recreation center on its grounds offers a fitness room, exercise equipment, and classes for those looking for a good workout.

Thomas Jefferson Park is also a wonderful resource for local children. Its substantial playground, complete with swings and slides galore, provides plenty of spaces for jumping, climbing, and carrying on, while inside the recreation center the afterschool program provides more structured fun.

In the summer the park takes on a whole new character, when the outdoor pool is opened and families come out to use the barbeque grills and picnic tables. But no matter what the weather is like, Thomas Jefferson Park always offers plenty to do.

During the course of his forty years in public life, Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) had a profound influence on the formation of the American legal and political system. He began his career as a lawyer and a farmer and became a champion of equal rights, religious freedom, and public education. In 1776 Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence. He went on to serve as governor of Virginia (1779-81), minister to France (1785-89), and Secretary of State under Washington (1790-93). He was elected Vice President in 1796 and then served two terms as President from 1801-1809. Aside from his political influence, Jefferson’s legacy includes creating the decimal monetary system and founding and designing the University of Virginia.

This park was planned and named by the Board of Aldermen in 1894, though the land for it was not purchased until 1897. It opened on October 7, 1905 to provide organized play to the children of "Little Italy," as the crowded tenement district in East Harlem was then known. The park contained two playgrounds, two gymnasiums, baths, comfort stations, and a classical pavilion which provided shelter and recreation space. The structure stood at 112th Street and East River Drive until the 1970s when it was destroyed by vandals. A children’s farm garden, one of many which flourished in parks in the first half of the 20th century, opened on May 20, 1911 with 1008 plots for children to grow flowers and vegetables. Designed as a place of respite for child laborers, the farm garden later hosted nature study classes and, during the World Wars, provided a lesson in self-sufficiency for local children.

The park’s facilities were expanded in the 1930s according to the vision of Parks Commissioner Robert Moses. June 27, 1936 marked the dedication of the second of ten pools to open that summer. Ten thousand people attended the ceremony celebrating "the last word in engineering, hygiene and construction." Bocce courts were also added around this time. The playgound adjacent to Benjamin Franklin High School has been open since 1942. The school was renamed the Manhattan Center for Math and Science in 1982.

A renovation of the pool and recreation center was completed in 1992 by architect Richard Dattner under a $10.5 million capital project. The park was newly landscaped and reconstructed in 1994. The center’s programming includes boxing, fencing, martial arts, and aerobics, and the ballfields are popular with East Harlem teams. The park features two sculptures that were commissioned and installed in 1995 through a joint effort by Parks and the Department of Cultural Affairs’ Percent for Art Program: Tomorrow’s Wind by Melvin Edwards and El Arbor De Esperanza, or Tree of Hope, by L. Brower Hatcher.