Indian Killer Playground?

tony balls · January 2006

Hey devin,
This weekend I'm meeting up with some people in Friendly, Non-Historical Park #316 for hackey sack.

Wanna hack?

duke of flatbush · January 2006

We should just give parks and streets numbers in order to not offend anyone.

Or, as is more common with parks, use verbs instead of proper nouns, e.g. Central Park, Prospect Park, etc.

captain m · January 2006

devincf wrote: We should just give parks and streets numbers in order to not offend anyone.

I would be offended if nobody was offended

queen_of_pies · January 2006

Duke of Flatbush wrote: Or, as is more common with parks, use verbs instead of proper nouns, e.g. Central Park, Prospect Park, etc.

since when are Central and Prospect verbs? but the idea itself is a good one: instead of Underhill Playground, how about Screaming Playground?

duke of flatbush · January 2006

Okay. Verbs, adverbs, adjectives, I've got to admit, I've been drinking again this morning.

I let Professor Burrows who pointed out the Underhill / Indian Killer connection in the Times know about this thread and recently asked him specifically about Smokin Joe's comment.

if the point is to remember the atrocities, then why not rename it for the indians instead of the perp? the street and the park. anyone know which indians lived here? or which ones underhill killed? presumably some algonquian tribe, but i don't know which.

The Prof. agreed I could post his reply below:
"Underhill oversaw the slaughter and virtual extermination of the Pequots in 1637, near Mystic, Connecticut. In 1644, now working for the Dutch in New Netherland, he led a massacre of Long Island Indians -- most likely at a place now called Massapequa (then known as Fort Neck), which would suggest that his victims then were the group of the same name. (The word "tribe" is no longer considered an appropriate term to describe the decentralized and fluid organization of Native American populations; "Indian" isn't much better.)"

"Pequot Park" has a nice ring to it, dontcha think? But "Massapequa Park" would have the Long Island connection.

smokin joe · January 2006

hmmmm. . . if the pequot and massapequa weren't necessarily here, and weren't massacred here, seems a bit odd to name a park for them here.

maybe the best thing to do is just get rid of the infamous underhill and start from scratch.

jml · January 2006

Duke of Flatbush wrote:
We should just give parks and streets numbers in order to not offend anyone.
Or, as is more common with parks, use verbs instead of proper nouns, e.g. Central Park, Prospect Park, etc.

Prospect means park in Russian. So, it's actually called "Park Park"

smokin joe · January 2006

so named during the cold war to confuse russian invaders.

judging by the fact that i've never seen any russians there, it apparently worked.

. . . .

peace park, anyone? seems like a good time for that.

armchair_warrior · January 2006

*shrugs.

i always thought it means to prosper.

duke of flatbush · August 2009

Anymore good ideas on renaming Underhill Playground?

idlewild · August 2009

Markowitz's Never-Land

bkhoosierfan · August 2009

ah here we go
well then lets rename any school with washington or jefferson in the title since they owned slaves oh and don't forget about kennedy since he was an adulterer..

smokin joe · August 2009

i don't think the o.p. or anyone else here intended to start a witch hunt for political correctness. washington, jefferson and kennedy, for all their faults, had other accomplishments. if underhill's main claim to fame is slaughtering indians, fuck him.

however in the interest of accuracy, maybe we should name the playground "the multiculti partly gentrified stroller-pushing gunshot-dodging liability-law-friendly hands-off-my-kids'-toys memorial playground."

embereye · August 2009

I'll just say that I always thought of Frodo. Perhaps exposing my inner-geek too much there.

Also, interesting to see that St. John and Lincoln on this side of the Plaza were called Douglass and Degraw which I think they're called on the other side of 5th Ave. Right? Wonder why that was changed...

Smokin' Joe:
however in the interest of accuracy, maybe we should name the playground "the multiculti partly gentrified stroller-pushing gunshot-dodging liability-law-friendly hands-off-my-kids'-toys memorial playground."

Sounds good. Long, but good. Would we then call it TMPGSPGDLLFHOMKTMP? Wondering how we can shrink that like DUMBO and TriBeCa.

jeffrey · August 2009

Gentriconfuntank.

Indian Killer Playground?

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