As I walked down First Avenue, on the Upper East Side of New York City’s Manhattan Island, I could hear the sound of screaming children, squeaking seesaws, and the screeching of bicycles, all familiar noises to the locals of the Lenox Hill neighborhood. Named after Robert Lenox – the Scottish merchant who once owned the land – Lenox Hill stretches from East 59th to East 77th Street and from Fifth Avenue to the East River. This is Saint Catherine’s Park between East 67th and East 68th at First Avenue. Lining the whole block on the west side of First Avenue, the park breaks up the surrounding pizza and coffee shops. Saint Catherine’s Park is split into two areas: a playground filled with swings and castle play structures linked with bridges, concrete picnic tables, and an open court area lined with basketball hoops and chess tables.
Across the street is the church of St. Catherine of Siena, named after the same woman as the park. St. Catherine lived from 1347 to 1380, was a member of the branch of Dominicans, the Mantellate, and dedicated her life to prayer and charity work. She is best known for her work in founding a ministry to aid sick, poor, and imprisoned people of Siena. St. Catherine’s body rests in the Santa Maria Sopra Minerva church, located in Rome. St. Catherine’s park does not only hold the name of St. Catherine’s, but its layout is a direct imitation of the very place St. Catherine rests. In 1996, the park was redesigned to resemble and capture the spirit of a Roman church, greatly following the Florentine floor pattern: each play structure as pews, the flagpole as the altar, and even the elephant-shaped sprinklers as Bernini’s elephant sculpture, a focal point standing in front of the Roman church. St. Catherine and her great contributions to her community are embedded and live throughout the careful details of the park.
I stood here on a September day as I saw families entering the tall gates of the park. This playground on 67th and First Avenue in Manhattan invites people of all ages to shoot hoops, play chess, swing on the swings, or enjoy a lunch break. Senior citizens enjoy their competitive chess games, while pigeons linger, hoping to scoop up stray breadcrumbs. Tired doctors and interns from HSS, Sloan Kettering, and Weill Cornell enjoy their hard-earned lunch breaks just a few blocks from the hospitals. Parents push their young children in strollers as they all enjoy a relaxing afternoon stroll. Steve, a father of seven and 10-year-old boys, was sipping his iced coffee as I walked through the park. He said, “It’s a very active park, with 20-30 different activities going on at the same time. It was a park I first went to when my oldest son was two years old, and we’ve been regulars here for the past eight years”. People of all ages relish a break from the busy city as they step through the gates of the park. I watched as couples unwrapped their Lenwich sandwiches, and young boys scooted past on their bright blue and red scooters.
Lined with the old bagel shop, Dunkin Donuts, Le Pain Quotidien, and the nearby Hospital for Special Surgery, this park is crowded every day around lunchtime.
Bridget, a 34-year-old physical therapist at Weill Cornell, and a resident of Lenox Hill says, “I enjoy when it’s warm enough to grab lunch in the area and sit at the picnic tables, watching kids on the swings and in the sandboxes. It is a big relief getting out of the hospital, and the park has the most beautiful trees year round. In the winter, the leafless trees are balanced by the arrival of Christmas trees shipped in from Canada, which line the park’s entrance. One of the first signs of spring is when we see these trees start to bud, and when the kids start to play basketball on the courts. In the summer, the ice cream truck is always parked adjacent to the playground.” Rain or shine, snow or sleet, the park, and playground remain in use.
My brother Tyler says the inside of the park is strategically arranged: “When I think of the park, it’s a representation of growing up. You move to different zones, from hanging on the swings as a kid to then growing up to climb on the monkey bars, to taking on older kids at basketball, to being that older kid.” With open gates, St. Catherine’s park offers people of all ages an enjoyable break from the big city year-round.
