Field
The St. Vartan Park athletic field, pictured on October 3, 2023, features a ramp entrance from East 35th Street
Now topped with synthetic turf, the St. Vartan Park athletic field for decades featured a hard surface. The protected public space is used for many sports, recreation, and cultural events — baseball, soccer, kickball, martial arts, yoga, movie screenings and arts and crafts activities to name a few.
The St. Vartan Armenian Cathedral appears above St. Vartan Park soccer action on November 13, 2022
Bordered by East 35th and East 36th Streets between the park’s playground and Tunnel Approach Street, the field is also a popular location for sports training and relaxation.
A crowd gathers on the St. Vartan Park athletic field on June 25, 2022, for one of the month’s two free movie nights on the turf
Retrospection
Barsenal team members pose after winning the NY Coed Soccer summer championship at St. Vartan Park in 2023| Photograph courtesy of NY Coed Soccer
“We had a great debut season at the [St. Vartan Park] field. We look forward to returning soon. ”
Activities on the east side of the St. Vartan Park athletic field on June 4, 2023, included baseball
The St. Vartan Park athletic field has become a purlieu for a wide variety of sports, including Spikeball and field hockey on March 24, 2023
“NYC Parks today announced that it has installed three new synthetic turf fields at neighborhood parks in Midtown east. The in-house upgrades converted asphalt play areas into new locations for passive and active recreation — including baseball and soccer — at St. Vartan Park . . . These renovations are part of the agency’s open space mitigations responsive to the community’s need for supplemental recreational resources during the East Side Coastal Resiliency (ESCR) project — a $1.5 billion park improvement project . . .”
In 2011, when the athletic field space had a hard surface, former Tony Award nominee Adam Pascal and company from the Broadway musical ‘Memphis’ recorded the below music video at the venue for a national CBS television show
“. . . outdoor enclosures and rinks were crowded with skaters intent upon in getting in some practice spins . . . frozen surfaces provided by the Recreation Department . . . included Hamilton Fish Park and St. Gabriel’s Park . . .”
As shown on September 13, 2022, the field’s west side is bordered by Tunnel Approach Street and in view of the 93-story One Vanderbilt tower
“. . . games were held for the encouragement of the budding athlete and the reward of those who were not quite good enough to make the trip to Sweden [for the Olympics] . . . the middle distance man A. Pepis . . . gave the spectators at St. Gabriel’s [now St. Vartan] Park a glimpse of his form at his proper distance when he romped home in the five-lap race . . .”
The St. Vartan Park athletic field (right) is shown during the construction of the Queens Midtown Tunnel (to left of park) on June 7, 1940, as shot from a passing elevated train | P.L. Sperr
“The work of constructing and improving the small park . . . was begun in 1904 and completed in 1905 . . . The running track is ten laps to a mile and the area of the [outdoor] gymnasium grounds proper is 5,214 square feet.”
On June 23, 1934, in the park, Billy Muller (left) wins and Jim Walsh (with arms raised over head) finsihes second in a 40-yard dash heat at the annual George W. Thompson track meet | (New York) Daily News
A map published in 1916 shows the park when a track was on the grounds where today’s athletic field resides | Map from Atlas of the Borough of Manhattan published by G.W. Bromley & Co.
