Jackie Robinson Park, Urban park in Harlem, US.
Jackie Robinson Park occupies 12.77 acres of steep ground between Bradhurst Avenue and Edgecombe Avenue, from 145th to 155th Street. Its facilities sit on the lower eastern side: two playgrounds, two baseball fields, a basketball court, four handball courts and a bandshell. The Jackie Robinson Play Center, a brick recreation building with cylindrical buttresses and faded lettering reading "colonial park and play center," stands above the pool.
The park was established in 1911 as Colonial Park and underwent major improvements during the 1930s through a Depression-era federal program. It received its current name in 1978 to honor Jackie Robinson.
The park was renamed in 1978 for Jackie Robinson, who broke Major League Baseball's color line with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. The playgrounds carry the names One Forty Nine CIL and One Fifty Two CLII, using Roman numerals for their cross streets. The pool holds 4,090 bathers at once, and its deck follows the narrow, irregular site.
Most facilities and entrances sit along Bradhurst Avenue; stairs connect Edgecombe Avenue at 145th, 150th and 155th Streets, and the Edgecombe side is much higher than the Bradhurst side. The pool and recreation center are in the southern section just north of 146th Street, with the playgrounds and ball fields farther north.
The park's site is split by a steep slope: the Edgecombe Avenue side sits far above Bradhurst Avenue, and stairs at 145th, 150th and 155th Streets link the two levels. Because of this, the park draws more visitors from Central Harlem to the east than from Hamilton Heights above it.
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