Macombs Dam Park ( ) is a park in the

Concourse A concourse is a place where pathways or roads meet, such as in a hotel, a convention center, a railway station, an airport terminal, a hall, or other space. The term is not limited to places where there are literally pathways or roadways or tr ...

section of

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. The park lay in the shadow of the

old Yankee Stadium The original Yankee Stadium was a stadium located in the Bronx in New York City. It was the home ballpark of the New York Yankees, one of the city's Major League Baseball franchises, from 1923 to 2008, except for 1974–1975 when the stadium wa ...

when it stood, between

Jerome Avenue Jerome Avenue is one of the longest thoroughfares in the New York City borough of the Bronx, New York, United States. The road is long and stretches from Concourse to Woodlawn. Both of these termini are with the Major Deegan Expressway which r ...

and the Major Deegan Expressway, near the

Harlem River The Harlem River is an tidal strait in New York, United States, flowing between the Hudson River and the East River and separating the island of Manhattan from the Bronx on the New York mainland. The northern stretch, also called the Spuyt ...

and the

Macombs Dam Bridge The Macombs Dam Bridge ( ; also Macomb's Dam Bridge) is a swing bridge across the Harlem River in New York City, connecting the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. The bridge is operated and maintained by the New York City Department of Trans ...

. The park is administered and maintained by the

New York City Department of Parks and Recreation The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, also called the Parks Department or NYC Parks, is the department of the government of New York City responsible for maintaining the city's parks system, preserving and maintaining the ecolog ...

. The majority of Macombs Dam Park was not open to the public from August 2006, when construction began on the new

Yankee Stadium Yankee Stadium is a baseball stadium located in the Bronx, New York City. It is the home field of the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball, and New York City FC of Major League Soccer. Opened in April 2009, the stadium replaced the orig ...

, to April 2012. The park, prior to the stadium construction, featured

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

and

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

diamonds,

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

courts, and football and soccer fields. Portions of the park are often used during

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one of ...

home games to provide

overspill parking Overspill parking is the parking of vehicles beyond a defined area specifically designed for this purpose. It can occur because provided parking spaces are insufficient for demand or considered unsatisfactory, and may have unintended consequence ...

for vehicles in an area underserved by garages and other parking facilities.

Early history

Macombs Dam Park opened in 1899, when the Bronx was mostly farmland.MACOMBS DAM PARK

. Accessed September 29, 2007. As was typical for urban planning at that time, a large, central greenspace was set aside to ensure that the developing neighborhood would be livable and sustainable. This same type of development had already been thriving around Manhattan's

Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated ...

and

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

's Prospect Park, among several other New York locations. Parks advocates contend that Macombs Dam Park is no less valuable than Central Park or Prospect Park, which are both in much wealthier neighborhoods. Macombs Dam Park is in

New York's 16th congressional district New York's 16th congressional district is a congressional district for the United States House of Representatives represented by Jamaal Bowman. The 16th district includes the northern Bronx and the southern half of Westchester County, includin ...

, the poorest in the United States. Yankee Stadium opened in 1923 and the

Bronx County Courthouse The Bronx County Courthouse, also known as the Mario Merola Building, is an historic courthouse building located in the Concourse and Melrose neighborhoods of the Bronx in New York City. It was designed in 1931 and built between 1931 and 1934. ...

, two blocks east on Grand Concourse, opened in 1934. Most of the neighborhood's apartment buildings opened in the 1920s and 1930s, including many

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

landmarks that line the perimeter of what had been Macombs Dam Park.

New Yankee Stadium

Bronx officials had promised that replacement parks would be built before the stadium project began. When the $1.6 billion stadium was completed, residents had several new recreation areas, including ballfields on the Harlem River waterfront, about a half-mile from the former Macombs Dam and Mullaly Parks. Other recreation areas are on top of parking garages where the parks had been; these will be closed on game days, which make up 81 days of the 183 days between April and September, to accommodate fans' cars. The roofs of the garages, with artificial surface are counted as replacement parkland by New York City. Other replacement recreation areas are on the site of the old Yankee Stadium. The above ground structure of the ballpark, built in 1923, was torn down, with the underground clubhouses remaining in use for the new parkland. The new recreation areas cost at least $150 million, paid for entirely by New York City taxpayers. By contrast, renovating Macombs Dam and John Mullaly parks would have cost about $25 million. The city's parks department will retain ownership of the land under the Yankees' new stadium, but do not charge the Yankees rent or property taxes. Residents and parks advocates had criticized the Yankees' changes to the neighborhood, which included cutting down 377 mature oak trees. They said state and federal laws designed to protect parkland from private development made this project unfair and possibly illegal. According to the city's Environmental Impact Statement for the Yankees' stadium project, several buildings surrounding Macombs Dam Park may become blighted when the project is completed. Opponents to the construction of the new Stadium were defeated and the Stadium officially opened on April 3, 2009, for an exhibition game against the Chicago Cubs.

Dog access

The entire park is an off-leash designated dog park. Certain areas, like the running track, are labeled as No Dogs Allowed. NYC Parks Dept Macombs Dam Dog Run Web Page
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References

External links

New York City Department of Parks and Recreation: Macombs Dam ParkFacebook Page - Macombs Dam Park
{{Protected areas of New York City Parks in the Bronx Yankee Stadium Yankee Stadium (1923) Concourse, Bronx Highbridge, Bronx