Jennie Jerome Playground

What was here before?
This playground is situated in what was once known as Quinnahung, or Planting Neck, by the Weckquaesgeek people. Edward Jessup (1624-1666) and John Richardson (1630-1680) bartered with native people in 1661 and subsequently received a patent from the British Royal Crown in 1666, naming the area West Farms. The Cromwell-Poole family farm once occupied this site. Their primary residence, known as the "Townsend-Poole Cottage," built in 1782, was at the crossing of Macombs Road and Featherbed Lane.

How did this become a park?
This property was acquired in 1950 through condemnation for the adjacent Cross-Bronx Expressway.  The playground was renovated in 2000 and. It was rebuilt again in 2025 with new colorful play equipment and inclusive play panels for children of all abilities, as well as multigenerational play areas. A spray shower was installed, and picnic tables and seating were added.

Who is this park named for?
Jennie Jerome (1854–1921), the daughter of Leonard Jerome (1817–1891), a wealthy New York financier, arts patron, and sportsman, is best remembered as the mother of Sir Winston Churchill (1874–1965), the British Prime Minister who led the Allied Forces to victory in World War II. She also achieved prominence in her own right as a celebrated figure in English society. 
Jeanette Jerome was born at 426 Henry Street in Brooklyn and raised in New York City.  One of her father’s residences, intended for winter weekends, was in the Bronx, near the present-day site of Villa Avenue.  In 1867, Jennie Jerome traveled to Paris with her mother and two sisters, where they mingled with the European upper classes.  A beautiful young woman, Jennie caught the attention of Lord Randolph Churchill (1849-1895), a young English nobleman with strong political ambitions, and they married in 1874.

Graceful, witty, and charming, Jennie Jerome Churchill was an immediate success in British high society.  She rarely became involved in politics but was an outspoken opponent of women’s right to vote.  Consequently, she and her son Winston were often heckled by enraged suffragettes.  After Lord Churchill died in 1895, she occupied herself by editing a short-lived literary magazine and writing several books and plays.  Some of her quotes remain famous today, such as “There is no such thing as a moral dress – it’s the people who are moral or immoral,” and “Treat your friends as you do your pictures and place them in their best light.”  Jennie Jerome remarried twice and died in 1921.

Jennie Jerome Playground is located beside Jerome Avenue, named after Jennie’s father, Leonard Jerome. Originally built in 1874 as Central Avenue, a wood plank road linking the Central (now Macombs Dam) Bridge to Jerome Park Racetrack, it was paved and beautified in 1888. When officials proposed renaming it after an alderman, Leonard Jerome’s wife, Kate Hall Jerome, objected and personally funded bronze signs reading “Jerome Avenue.” The plan to rename the street was quietly abandoned.