Palmetto Playground
.395 acre
Palmetto Playground’s nomenclature was inspired by the names of the surrounding streets: Atlantic Avenue, Columbia Place, and State Street. Columbia is the capitol of South Carolina, an Atlantic state, and the state tree is the Cabbage Palmetto, hence, Palmetto Playground.
The palmetto, which appears on the South Carolina state flag, is the common name for several species of coastal palm trees native to North America. Running from Texas through Florida and up to North Carolina, there are four principal species in the United States: the cabbage palmetto (Sabal palmetto), the Texas palmetto (Sabal texana), the Louisiana palmetto (Sabal louisiana), and the Saw palmetto (Serenoa repens). The species most common to South Carolina is the cabbage. It can attain a height of 80 feet (or 36 meters) and has a crown of large, palmate leaves.
Palmetto Playground is located in the southernmost portion of the neighborhood of Brooklyn Heights. The area remained sparsely inhabited until 1814, when Robert Fulton’s new steam ferry began to offer an easy daily commute between downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn Heights. An area that had once been the location of large farms and wealthy families, Brooklyn Heights was broken up and divided into lots 25 feet by 100 feet for the construction of single family homes, thus becoming Manhattan’s first suburb.
In 1944, the City acquired this property as part of the construction of the adjacent Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, or BQE. The BQE was built under the direction of Robert Moses (1888-1981), who served as Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority Chairman, Long Island State Parks Commissioner, and New York City Parks Commissioner. The BQE cost $137 million dollars to complete. Federal, state, and municipal funds were all necessary for the construction of this massive, six-lane, 11.7-mile long expressway, intended to relieve congestion on local streets and to aid industry and business by shortening transportation time between the boroughs.
In 1947, three years after the construction of the BQE began, Parks assumed jurisdiction over this property. That same year, the playground opened as Atlantic Playground. In 1987, Commissioner Stern renamed the park Palmetto Playground. The local community, however, referred to the park for many years as Willowtown Playground after the Willowtown Association, which still cares in part for the parkland. In 1999, an $800,000 renovation, funded by Council Member Kenneth Fisher and Borough President Howard Golden, provided the parkland with new playground equipment and safety surfacing, a spray shower, lighting, benches, game tables, trees, plantings, a yardarm flagpole, and a sculpture of dancing bears.
As a result of the community’s input in the design process, Palmetto Playground has expanded to include full and half basketball courts, a community garden, a greenhouse, a small fitness area, an open play space, drinking fountains, and a dog run. There is a compass stone set in the concrete at the Atlantic Avenue entrance of the park. Palmetto Playground boasts a great variety of trees for a relatively small property. Silver linden (Tilia tomentosa), London planetree (Platanus x acerifolia), pin oak (Quercus palustris), sweet gum (Liquidambar styraciflua) ,and Norway maple trees (Acer platanoides) flourish in and around the playground.
Wednesday, Jan 02, 2002