Estella Diggs Park

Estella Diggs Park is a small park at East 161st Street and Cauldwell Avenue in the Melrose section of the South Bronx. Named for Estella Diggs, a trailblazing African American politician who served as a New York State Assemblywoman representing the South Bronx, the park honors her decades of service to the community.

Diggs was the first Black woman elected to the New York State Assembly from the Bronx, winning her seat in 1972 and serving four terms through 1980. She advocated for housing, education, healthcare, and economic development in the South Bronx during some of the community's most challenging years, fighting for resources and attention for a neighborhood that much of the city had written off.

The park features a playground and seating areas in a neighborhood near Yankee Stadium and the Hub, the commercial center of the South Bronx at East 149th Street. The proximity to these landmarks places the park in one of the most heavily trafficked areas of the borough.

Melrose and the surrounding South Bronx neighborhoods have seen significant revitalization, with new housing, retail, and community facilities replacing the vacant lots and abandoned buildings that once defined the area. Small parks like Estella Diggs contribute to the improving quality of life.

Estella Diggs Park honors a woman who fought for her community when it needed champions most, providing a green space named for a leader who believed that the South Bronx deserved the same quality of life as any other neighborhood in New York City.