City Wants Harlemites' Help Renovating A Popular Playground

HARLEM, NY — The city is getting ready to rehabilitate a much-loved but deteriorating Harlem playground — and it wants residents' input to help shape the renovation.

The William McCray Playground, on West 138th Street between Fifth Avenue and Malcolm X Boulevard, will be rebuilt as part of a $425 million initiative focused on under-served community parks that had gone neglected.

A scoping meeting for the project will be hosted by the Parks Department next Thursday, Jan. 27, at 6:30 p.m. Those interested in joining the virtual meeting and sharing thoughts about the playground's future can register online.

The city announced last fall that William McCray would be among the first 10 parks getting redesigned over the next 10 years through the Community Parks Initiative. First opened in 1934, the playground was last reconstructed in 1994, getting a resurfaced basketball court, trees, play equipment, painted games, a spray shower and benches.

Construction on the latest rebuild is expected to start in late 2023, a Parks spokesperson said.

The city acquired the property in 1934 and built the playground through a $250,000 war memorial fund, which helped pay for nine playgrounds around the city — each named for a soldier who died in combat.

William McCray Playground's namesake was a World War I soldier and Harlem Hellfighter, who hailed from New York City and attained the rank of corporal before being killed in France in 1918.

Subsequent land acquisitions in 1989 and 1992 more than doubled the park's size, according to a Parks Department history.

The William McCray meeting is one of several that the city has scheduled for upcoming park renovations, as part of an effort to incorporate neighbors' feedback into the design of their green spaces. On the Upper East Side, for example, the planned redesign of Ruppert Park was recently altered to add a dog run, following complaints from residents.

For more information about the William McCray Playground community input meeting, visit the Parks Department website.