Photo of the Day: Winter in Washington Heights, NYC

You may have been expecting something exhibiting more urban grittiness when you came to the end of the headline above. But J. Hood Wright Park, in upper Manhattan, provides some much-needed green space, particularly on a muggy summer day (an experience I chronicled in this prior post).

Early this afternoon, on my way to a nearby subway, I wondered what this comparatively small city park looked like in winter. Nowhere near as much snow had fallen on Friday as right after Storm Jonas, I reckoned.

But this most flurry of snow did blanket the ground in white, as you can see. Kids couldn’t congregate in the playground and people of all ages couldn’t sit on park benches that remained wet and cold.

But for anyone who wanted (particularly dog-loving walkers), the track offered a chance to get some exercise. And it’s hard to beat the backdrop: the mighty George Washington Bridge.

Photo of the Day: Recreation Center, J. Hood Wright Park, NYC

I have written three prior times about it, including this post a month and a half ago. But at the time of my original visit, I also took this photo of the recreation center at the J. Hood Wright Park, located at West 173 St. between Haven Ave. and Ft. Washington Ave. in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan.

Photo of the Day: Patch of Green, NYC

This is another in a series of pictures I took a week ago Sunday while at J. Hood Wright Park, located in New York’s Washington Heights section, between 173rd and 176th Streets on Fort Washington Avenue. (Here is the link that began it all.)

Photo of the Day: A Good Spot in a Heat Wave

In my post yesterday, I extolled the small but real virtues of J. Hood Wright Park as an oasis of green in New York’s very concrete Washington Heights section. 

That earlier photo showed several groups using the park located between 173rd and 176th Streets, from Fort Washington Avenue to Haven Avenue; this one, which I also took Sunday, focuses on just a pair of people, able to enjoy each other’s company—in no small degree, by staying at least somewhat (physically) cool—with the help of all this protective shade afforded by a large tree.

Photo of the Day: J. Hood Wright Park, Washington Heights, NYC

On Sunday, as a heat wave gathered enough momentum in New York City to merit consideration as the muggiest day of the year so far, I was on my way to the subway at 175^th Street and Fort Washington Avenue when I glimpsed a park on the other side of the street. Curious, I walked across to get a better look.

The J. Hood Wright Park is not a sprawling urban landscape like Central Park or Riverside Park, but it gives the citizens of Washington Heights some much-needed green space—and, on Sunday, some much-needed shade. As you can see from this photo I took, a number of people of all ages were also gathered in the playground.

The man for whom the park was named was a Philly-born banker who lived in a mansion on 175^th Street and Haven Avenue. I especially like him for having contributed substantially to the Washington Heights Branch of the New York Public Library.