Black Rock Playground

Watson Ave., Blackrock Ave. bet. Virginia Ave., Pugsley Ave.

Bronx, 10472

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

Blackrock Playground is located west of P.S. 119 on a block bounded by Blackrock, Virginia, Watson, and Pugsley Avenues. The name Blackrock provides a glimpse into the history and geology of the east Bronx. In 1643, Thomas Cornell settled on what became known as Clason Point. Although Native Americans drove Cornell away, his grandson William Willett was granted property here in 1667. The patent conferred by Governor Nicolls described “a certain Parcell of land, contained within a neck commonly called and knowne by ye name of Cornell’s Neck, lying and being upon the Maine, toward the Sound of East River; being bounded to the West by a certain Rivolett which runs to the Black Rock and so into Bronckse Creeke or Kill.” In the 1850s a portion of the former Willett property was held by the Ludlow family, whose Black Rock Farm was named for a large boulder found in a salt marsh near the junction of Ludlow’s Creek and the Bronx River.

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Blackrock Playground