MARY WHALEN PLAYGROUND REOPENS AFTER MILLION DOLLAR RENOVATION

 

The Mary Whalen Playground (79th Street and Park Lane South) has an interesting history. Originally called the Lott Avenue Playground (76th Street was originally Lott Avenue), the playground was originally part of the Forest Park Golf Course. In fact, four holes of the golf course used to sit along Park Lane South until they were reclaimed by the community in 1923.  Click here to read much more about this playground and about the local civic activist it was eventually dedicated to. Below is a picture of the playground before the recent renovation, in 2013.

And here is Mary Whalen Playground last summer, days before the groundbreaking. 

The groundbreaking took place in August of last year. The construction had already begun, as you can see. Renovating a playground is difficult because (a) it takes time; and (b) you want to try to time it so kids and families are inconvenienced as little as possible. Starting it in August allowed the children to have use of the playground for most of the summer and put it in position to be ready before the next summer began. But it was an ambitious schedule.

The renovation was funded with 1 million dollars allocated by Councilmember Elizabeth Crowley, who noted during the groundbreaking that she used to work in Forest Park, and Mary Whalen Playground was one of the areas she used to tend to. Here, she is joined by Assemblyman Mike Miller at the ceremony to mark the start of this long overdue renovation.

The shovels are ready -- and the groundbreaking is underway!

Here is the proposal for the new playground, which was reviewed by the community in several public meetings seeking community feedback.

Members of Community Board 9 and the Woodhaven Residents' Block Association take a crack at the shovels.

And now the hard work began. Over the winter, as we walked through the park, we kept our eye on the progress as the ground was ripped up - repaved - and sculpted into a new playground. In January we started seeing some of the new play areas take share with the addition of slides and swings.

And all of the hard work paid off this June, well under the estimated 12 months it would take to complete, with a ribbon cutting ceremony.

Here is some video of the groundbreaking last August; some shots of the construction of the playground, and finally some video of the ribbon cutting. The entire project, all in one brief video.

The sprinklers are fantastic. Instead of just one sprinkler the kids have to fight over, they are spread out - and it's really neat how the water comes out of the rocks. It's an attractive and smart design.

The play areas are certainly different than anything we grew up with. The swings are basically the same - but check out that climbing area. There's this thing (I don't know what you call it) but it's got handles that you turn and the gears and wheels spin around. It's really interesting!

The classic style of swings -- really nice.

We were happy to see Virginia Peppel (left) and Maryann Keller (right) -- daughters of Mary Whalen. Their mom was a member of the Woodhaven Residents' Block Association and Community Board 9 and she founded the Greater Woodhaven Development Corporation, and she is still remembered fondly in this community.

The children had a great time at the grand reopening party for the playground.

There are nice new benches surrounding the playground for parents to sit and watch their kids. On this day, though, the kids enjoyed the benches along with some pizza.

Were we ever that small? Seems like so many years ago we were running around this playground. In just a few years, it will be 100 years old - amazing.

And we finish this update with a shot of Councilmember Elizabeth Crowley and the daughters of Mary Whalen. Congratulations to all on a job well done.

If you have any comments, or would like to suggest other projects, drop us a line at info@projectwoodhaven.com or projectwoodhaven@aol.com.  

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Photos by Joey Wendell