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AccessibilityThis text is part of Parks’ Historical Signs Project and can be found posted within the park.
This park is named after World War I (1914-1918) veteran James Tappen. It is among the oldest public parks on Staten Island, a former village center that predates the borough’s annexation by the City of New York.
James J. Tappen (1891-1918) served in Company D of the 308th Infantry Division of the U.S. Army during World War I. He was killed on September 29, 1918, at Binarville, France, in the Battle of Argonne. In July 1934, a bill introduced by Alderman Daniel Leonard and signed by Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia (1882-1947) named this park in Tappen’s honor. Before that, local residents called it Stapleton Park for the surrounding neighborhood, though it had officially been known as Washington Square since 1867.
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