Black Rock Playground Blackrock Playground is located west of
P.S. 119 on a block bounded by Blackrock, Virginia, Watson, and
Pugsley Avenues. The name Blackrock provides a glimpse into the
history and geology of the east Bronx. In 1643, Thomas Cornell
settled on what became known as Clason Point. Although Native
Americans drove Cornell away, his grandson William Willett was
granted property here in 1667. The patent conferred by Governor
Nicolls described “a certain Parcell of land, contained within a
neck commonly called and knowne by ye name of Cornell’s Neck,
lying and being upon the Maine, toward the Sound of East River;
being bounded to the West by a certain Rivolett which runs to
the Black Rock and so into Bronckse Creeke or Kill.” In the
1850s a portion of the former Willett property was held by the
Ludlow family, whose Black Rock Farm was named for a large
boulder found in a salt marsh near the junction of Ludlow’s
Creek and the Bronx River. The black rock outcroppings in the
area are formed of gneiss