Lower East Side, Houston Street at Chrystie

Mary Sargent © 2010 ………………….…………… ………………….. click to enlarge

Last Wednesday, Luka and I were determined to go on a Tenement Museum tour, so we actually made reservations like normal people do.  On my way to meet her at the museum, I did a short photowalk down Chrystie.  Had to stop after two blocks because the tour was starting soon.

This is the entrance to the Sara D. Roosevelt Park on Houston Street.  Not Eleanor, Sara.  Franklin's mother.  Why on earth would they name a park for the president's mother, I wondered.  The Parks Department was there with the answer:

The park was named by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia in 1934 for Sara Delano Roosevelt (1854-1941), President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's mother, as a way of currying favor with the new Roosevelt Administration. She held the distinction of being the only Presidential mother, after Mary Washington, to live to see her son take office.

This was from a recent press release about the ribbon cutting on a new and improved $5 million dollar renovation of the Hester Street Playground at the final block of the park between Hester and Canal.  Can't wait to see it.


See map.