Hell's Kitchen Park Is Renamed For Famed Black Playwright

HELL'S KITCHEN, NY — The half-acre green space known since 1979 as Hell's Kitchen Park now bears a new name: Lorraine Hansberry Park, having been renamed this week in honor of the celebrated playwright.

The city announced the renaming on Wednesday along with 15 other park spaces across the five boroughs as part of an effort to "honor the Black experience in New York City."

Hell's Kitchen Park's new namesake has an obvious resonance in a neighborhood full of actors and theater workers. Hansberry, best known for her 1959 play "A Raisin in the Sun," died from cancer in 1965 at the age of 34.

The park, on 10th Avenue between West 47th and 48th streets, was a parking lot until the 1960s, when the city purchased it for $400,000 in response to neighborhood demands for more recreation spaces.

After delays, the playground opened to the public in 1979 and was cared for by the 47th/48th Street Block Association, who hosted meetings there, according to a Parks Department history.

The park was refurbished in 2005 through a project that added new play equipment, swings, lighting and pavers. In September, the park's toddler play area was also renovated.

Other sites whose renamings were announced Wednesday include the Prospect Park Bandshell — now known as the Lena Horne Bandshell in honor of the pioneering actress and dancer — and Harlem Lane Playground in Upper Manhattan, now known as Percy Sutton Playground after the civil rights leader and former Manhattan Borough President.

"These greenspaces and park facilities are critical resources in the communities they serve and we want to ensure that they bear names that inspire pride, encourage meaningful discourse, and represent the people it serves," Silver said in a news release.