Matthews-Palmer Playground on 45th St. (formerly May Matthews Playground) is named after two teenagers May Mathews and Alexandra Palmer, both of whom were stewards to both the community and the park. Mathews was a social worker who brought children to the park in the 1930s and executive director at Hartley House, a community center, and Palmer was a founding member of the West Forty-Sixth Street Block Association as well as a legend for both locking the park in the 70s and 80s at night and inviting local youth to meals at her apartment. She was a Parks Department neighborhood liaison and helped revitalize the parks in many ways, including working with an urban planning group in the 1970s to renovate the park and make it a community-building location.
Hell’s Kitchen Park (formerly DeWitt Clinton Park) on 10th Avenue between 47th and 48th Streets was originally 7.4 acres with sloped edges on three sides with a view of the Hudson River. Later, it became 5.8 acres with a blocked view of the river due to the building of the West Side Elevated Highway and the New York Passenger Terminal in 1931. The park circa 1905 was designed by Samuel Parsons, Jr. Frances “Frannie” Griscom Parsons created the centerpiece of the Children’s Farm School in DeWitt Clinton Park that not only transformed the plot of land into a vegetable garden but taught children under her care discipline and cooperation, steering them away from the crime they were surrounded with. In the first three years nearly 3,000 children benefited from the program and city gardens grew popular, reaching its peak between 1900 and 1920. This garden closed in 1932. The park also has the Flanders Field Memorial, designed by sculptor Burt W. Johnson and architect Harvey W. Corbett, depicting a World War I soldier. The monument was dedicated in 1930 and restored in 1997. The playground renovation in 1996 cost $635,000 and included the installation of the dog runs and play equipment, as well as landscaping. In 2009, a $3.4 million renovation reconstructed the ballfields and installed synthetic turf as well as adding an element of green design where water runoff can be captured within the site. It offers a dog run, sports fields, and gardens.
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Clinton Community Garden on West 48th Street between Ninth and Tenth Avenues is the first NYC community garden to become parkland, circa 1984. The 108 plot garden was established in 1978 by the West 48th Street Block Association, with the Green Guerillas securing a lease for the site and work on the land. In 1981, the City proposed putting the land up for auction. As a result, the gardeners formed the Committee to Save Clinton Community Garden and ran the “Square Inch Campaign” in efforts to raise donations to purchase the land. They also wrote letters to Mayor Edward I. Koch, and as the story gathered attention, Mayor Koch eventually supported them by buying the first square inch of the garden. Despite their great efforts, they failed to raise enough by the deadline but luckily a month before the auction in 1984, the garden was transferred to Parks. Currently, 2,000 residents have keys to the park.
