Marcus Garvey Park
Marcus Garvey Park is located in Harlem in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The 20.17-acre park interrupts the flow of Fifth Avenue, which is routed around the park via Mount Morris Park West. The park is bounded by 120th Street and 124th Street and by Madison Avenue on its east side. The park is operated and maintained by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.
Originally named Mount Morris Park, in 1973 the park was renamed for Marcus Garvey, under a law signed by Mayor John Lindsay. The new name for the park honored Garvey, a publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, crusader for black nationalism, and founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL). The park was opened to the public in 1840, in the general area designated by the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 for a park outside of the plan's street grid.
The Mount Morris Fire Watchtower was designed by Julius Kroel and erected in 1855-57 of cast iron. The tower was fitted with a 10,000 pound bell cast by Jones & Hitchcock. The watchtower allowed observers to use the natural elevation of the park and the added height of the structure to search for fires, in an era when most buildings were made of wood. The 47-foot cast-iron tower is the only one to survive of eleven that had been constructed in the city, and was designated as a landmark in 1967. The watchtower is located at the center of the park on an artificial plateau called The Acropolis.
Facilities in the park include the Pelham Fritz Recreation Center and an Amphitheater (both located on the west side of the park at 122nd Street), and Swimming Pool (on the north side of the park), and two playgrounds designed for infants and disabled children, which were built in 1993. A Little League baseball field occupies the southwest corner of the park.