Rev. T. Wendell Foster Park

Rev. T. Wendell Foster Park and Recreation Center — the Bronx park that changed its name to change its meaning

Roughly fifteen acres on the slope above the Harlem River valley, this west Bronx park has been serving the Highbridge and Concourse neighborhoods since the 1930s, and it does the unglamorous work of a city park exceptionally well: ball fields, courts, a free summer pool, playgrounds, a recreation center, a circular play fountain at the heart of it and paths radiating outward from there. It also holds a genuine piece of American skateboarding history — one of the first official skate parks in New York City, and for a stretch in the early 1990s effectively the only one. And in 2021 it did something few parks ever do: it changed its name, shedding a nineteenth-century newspaper editor who had urged resistance to the Civil War draft and taking instead the name of the first Black person elected to office in the Bronx. Understanding why is most of what makes a visit here worth more than an hour.

Highlights

• The skate park — built in 1988 as one of the city’s first official skate parks and, in the early 1990s, essentially the only place in New York that deserved the name; renovated since, and now as much a BMX destination as a skateboard one.
• The circular play fountain — the design centerpiece, with dolphin fountainheads and paths radiating out from it in a formal, almost Beaux-Arts plan.
• The renovated recreation center — reworked in 2021 with a new indoor basketball court, a dance room and a library, giving the park a genuine year-round indoor life.
• Free summer swimming — an outdoor pool that runs daily through the season at no charge, typically from late morning to early evening with a cleaning break in the afternoon.
• A full sports roster — baseball, soccer, basketball, tennis, handball and open lawn, packed into a compact site with real elevation change.
• The renaming story — in 2021 the park was renamed for Rev. T. Wendell Foster, replacing a name the surrounding community had campaigned for years to remove.

What’s inside

This is a working neighborhood park with a lot compressed into it. The layout steps down the hillside, so different levels hold different uses and you often cannot see one from the other.

• The recreation center building, with indoor basketball, a dance room, a library and program space for youth and seniors.
• The outdoor pool and bathhouse, free and open through the summer season.
• The skate park, hard-surfaced and heavily used, along with basketball and handball courts.
• Baseball and softball fields plus soccer fields, all in near-constant use in league season.
• Two playgrounds added in the early 2000s, along with benches, chess tables and a granite compass rosette set into the pavement.
• Mature trees and the central fountain plaza, plus sightlines that take in the Bronx skyline and, from certain points, the ballpark to the south.

What to do and who it’s for

• Skaters and BMX riders — a site with genuine historical standing in New York skate culture, still in daily use decades after it opened.
• Local families — a free pool, two playgrounds and an indoor recreation center within a few minutes’ walk make this the default summer destination for the surrounding blocks.
• League and pickup players — baseball, soccer, basketball and handball all have dedicated space, and the courts rarely sit empty in warm weather.
• Older residents — chess tables, shaded benches and indoor program space give the park a daytime social life that has nothing to do with sport.
• Baseball visitors — the stadium is a short walk to the south, making the park a natural place to spend an hour before a game without going through the stadium gates.
• People interested in civil rights history — the renaming and the man it honors make this a small but real site of Bronx political memory.

Getting there and practicalities

The park sits in the Highbridge and Concourse area of the west Bronx, on the rising ground west of the Harlem River and a short walk north of the ballpark. Transit is easy: the Yankee Stadium subway station serves the area with express and local service, and several bus routes run along the park’s edges. Entry is free and the park keeps standard NYC Parks hours, generally from early morning until late evening. The recreation center operates on its own schedule and may require a membership for some facilities; the outdoor pool runs on the summer season only, opening around late morning and closing in the early evening with an afternoon break to clean. Street parking in this part of the Bronx is difficult and becomes genuinely hard on game days, which is another argument for the subway. Allow an hour to see the park properly, more if you are swimming, skating or watching a game. Winter shuts down the pool and thins the outdoor use sharply, but the recreation center keeps the site alive through the cold months, and the courts see play whenever the weather allows.

When to visit

Spring is when the park wakes up: leagues return to the diamonds, the courts fill after school, and the mature trees leaf out over a landscape that spends the winter looking distinctly bare. Summer is peak season, and it is loud in the best sense — the free pool at capacity, the skate park busy from mid-morning, ball games running on multiple fields at once, music from the playground plazas. Fall brings the best light and the most comfortable playing conditions of the year, with the pool closed and the crowds down to regulars. Winter empties the outdoor spaces almost completely; what remains is the recreation center, a few determined skaters, and clear sightlines through bare branches across the valley that summer foliage hides.

Worth knowing

The park opened its first playground in 1932 and was named for John Mullaly (1835–1915), a journalist and editor who founded the New York Park Association in 1881; the association’s lobbying helped produce the New Parks Act of 1884, which funded the acquisition of the lands that became Van Cortlandt, Pelham Bay, Bronx, Crotona and Claremont parks along with connecting parkways, increasing the city’s parkland roughly fivefold from about 1,000 acres to about 5,000 by 1890. Mullaly’s other record is harder. As editor of the Metropolitan Record he was an antiwar Copperhead who called for resistance to conscription, and he was arrested following the Draft Riots of July 1863, in which more than one hundred people died and at least nineteen Black men were killed by mobs. Community groups campaigned for years to remove his name, and on June 16, 2021, NYC Parks announced the park would become Rev. T. Wendell Foster Park, part of a departmental initiative to expand the representation of African Americans in park names. Rev. Thomas Wendell Foster (February 14, 1924 – September 3, 2019) was born in Elba, Alabama, and orphaned at twelve. He was active with the Congress of Racial Equality from the mid-1940s and took part in the 1947 and 1948 demonstrations to desegregate the pools at Palisades Park; he later marched in Selma with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and served as pastor of Christ Church in Morrisania for fifty-two years. Elected to the New York City Council in 1977 and seated in 1978, he became the first Black person elected to office in the Bronx, represented the district covering Morrisania, Highbridge, Claremont and Concourse until 2001, chaired the Council’s parks committee for years, and was succeeded in office by his daughter Helen. The park itself grew in layers: courts and skating rinks in 1942, a pool, bathhouse, ice rink and snack bar in the late 1960s with federal conservation funding, softball fields and tennis courts in the early 1970s, the skate park in 1988, two playgrounds and soccer fields with a granite compass rosette in 2001, further work in 2008 funded through water-plant construction mitigation, and the recreation center renovation in 2021.

Visitor tips

• Come by subway. The station is close, the walk is short, and street parking in this part of the Bronx is difficult on ordinary days and worse when there is a game.
• For the pool, arrive right at opening or after the afternoon cleaning break; the middle of a hot day is when capacity is tightest.
• If the skate park is the reason you came, weekday afternoons are calmer than weekends, and the surface reads better in dry weather.

Questions and answers

Why was the park renamed? It had been named for John Mullaly, whose newspaper urged resistance to the Civil War draft and who was arrested after the 1863 Draft Riots. After years of community campaigning, NYC Parks announced the new name on June 16, 2021.

Who was Rev. T. Wendell Foster? A civil rights activist and Methodist pastor who served Christ Church in Morrisania for fifty-two years, marched in Selma, was elected to the City Council in 1977 and served from 1978 to 2001 as the first Black person elected to office in the Bronx.

Is the pool free? Yes. The outdoor pool operates through the summer season at no charge, generally from late morning to early evening with a cleaning break in the afternoon.

How old is the skate park? It was built in 1988, making it one of the first official skate parks in New York City, and it has been renovated more than once since. Today it draws BMX riders as much as skateboarders.

How big is the park? NYC Parks lists it at just over fifteen acres, on sloping ground in the Highbridge and Concourse area of the west Bronx.

What is in the recreation center? Following its 2021 renovation it includes an indoor basketball court, a dance room and a library, alongside program space. It operates on its own schedule and membership terms.

Is it near the ballpark? Yes, the stadium is a short walk to the south, and the same subway station serves both.

What can you do here in winter? Outdoor use drops sharply once the pool closes, but the recreation center runs year-round and the hard courts stay usable whenever the weather cooperates.