Friends of Palumbo Park

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Friends of Palumbo Park Email: [email protected] The site was purchased by the Philadelphia School Board in 1875 for the construction of Thomas B. Florence public school.

The Friends of Palumbo Park is dedicated to protecting and preserving the park in order to provide the benefits of this oasis of greenery, shade and contemplative silence in Bella Vista for our own and future generations. By 1954, the school was deemed to have outlived its usefulness. The property was deeded to the City of Philadelphia for use as a park. In 1978, the park was given an $81,000 overhaul and named in honor of Frank Palumbo Sr., philanthropist and restauranteur, the son of Antonio Palumbo who opened a boarding house in 1884, renting rooms to Italian immigrant construction works for $1 a week plus free pasta. The restaurant was for 6 decades the center of social, cultural and political life for descendants of the first Italians in Bella Vista. Today, the park offers a safe play area to for children from neighborhood pre-schools, a meeting ground for dog walkers, open space for practitioners of tai chi, artistic inspiration to students of the adjacent Fleisher Art Memorial, a welcoming site for fund-raising activities for neighborhood non-profits and a cool and quiet seat for reading, thinking and sampling the local water ice.

05/10/2026

05/02/2026

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723 Catharine Street
Philadelphia, PA
19147

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