On my recent walk from the F train to check out the new elevated section of East River Park by the Williamsburg Bridge, I passed a small neighborhood park I'd been unaware of. And I admit that the first thing that caught my eye about Luther Gulick Park were the bathrooms, set in a friendly, modern structure.
This 1.6-acre Lower East Side park has a playground and courts for basketball and handball.
But it's also a pretty nice place for a break from the urban landscape. The park has well-maintained tree stands and a looping path. In fact, it received a design award from the American Society of Landscape Architects in 2021. And just this year, Luther Gulick Park was cited as an example of best practices for designing family-friendly spaces in a report from the New York City Public Design Commission.
I assume the ping-pong tables, and maybe the nice bathroom facilities too, were part of the park's $10 million renovation in 2009–10. That work, according to the press release, "transformed the mostly asphalt site into a lush green park that addresses the needs of the community." The renovation was part of Mayor DeBlasio's Community Parks Initiative.
But who was Luther Gulick? Funny you should ask, because this may be the only New York City park honoring two different people with the same name.
The elder Gulick, Luther Halsey Gulick, Jr. (1865-1918), was a medical doctor and an important figure in the invention of basketball. Also, his "belief in a trilogy of mind, body, and spirit inspired the YMCA’s inverted triangle design," explains the Parks Department. Gulick founded NYC's Public School Athletic League and, with his wife, founded the Camp Fire Girls in 1910, just a year after the foundation of the Boy Scouts. In the early 20th century he served as the head of physical training in NYC's public schools and as president of the American Physical Education Association.
His nephew, Dr. Luther Halsey Gulick (1892-1993), was also a national figure. In 1921 the New York City-based Bureau of City Betterment and its associated Training School of Public Service evolved into the National Institute of Public Administration, later the Institute of Public Administration (IPA). The organization focused on improving cities' administration, and was affiliated over the years with several universities, notably Columbia. A political scientist, the younger Luther Gulick headed the IPA for most of the period between 1921 and 1961.
Alongside its sports and playing areas, Luther Gulick Park has grass, trees, and – in my view, equally important for a New York City park – rocks. Rocks link a park, even if sometimes only symbolically, to the underlying body of the planet. Which city life detaches us from, to our detriment.
Vegetation around the edges gives the park a somewhat secluded feel.
Gravel is something people don't usually think about, but it's important to a lot of parks. Gravel takes you off the hard pavement that dominates our city lives. It's not grass, it's not alive, and it's not exactly soft. But it's not pavement either. Dirt-like, it feels like something natural. And it doesn't require the maintenance that grass does.
Before it was a park, the plot was part of the R. Hoe & Company headquarters. This manufacturer of printing presses and saws had a magnificent factory building.
They don't make them like that anymore.
But next time you're on the Lower East Side, whether visiting the newly elevated East River Park, shopping at Essex Market, or climbing the walls at the nearby climbing gym, spare a few minutes for under-appreciated Luther Gulick Park.
All photos © Oren Hope except where noted
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