THE iron fence at Owl’s Head Park in Bay Ridge is inscribed with the letters EWB. What, or who, do these letters refer to? Owls Head Park is Bay Ridge’s largest public park, stretching between the Belt Parkway, Colonial Road and 68th Street, and its high hill provides a prime viewing spot during Brooklyn’s occasional tall ship parades. The park was created from the estate of Eliphalet W. Bliss (1836-1903). In 1867 he founded the machine shops that became the E. W. Bliss Company and the United States Projectile Company, concerns which at his death employed 1,300 men.
Bliss’s interests developed along two lines: the manufacture of tools, presses, and dies for use in sheet metal work, and the manufacture of shells and projectiles. His estate, Owl’s Head, possibly named because the promontory on which it was located resembled an owl’s head (or because there may have been stone owls’ heads on the gateposts), featured an observatory known as the Bayard Tower. Bliss had purchased the estate from US State Senator, US Representative, Mayor of Brooklyn, and Brooklyn Eagle founder Henry Murphy (1810-1882). Bliss willed the estate to NYC provided it be used for parkland. The park, still known by old-timers as Bliss Park, has been in use by local residents since the 1920s; Robert Moses redesigned it in the 1930s. The mansion and tower were razed in 1940. Senator Street is named for Murphy, while one-block Bliss Terrace was named for the industrialist.
Forgotten History of Owl’s Head
Music: Owl’s Head Park, Eleanor Friedberger
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9/4/24
7 comments
Back in the days when we used to have snowy winters. Owl’s Head Park was the go-to place for sledding. I don’t remember whether we aimed for 68th St. or Colonial Rd., but it was a long run. Thinking back to the heavy, steel-framed Flexible Flyer sleds we had in the 50’s ($400+ on eBay!) , it’s a wonder Bay Ridge Hospital didn’t get inundated by kids with ankle injuries!
E. W. Bliss volunteered with the Neosho Hook & Ladder Co. in Bay Ridge. (I believe Henry Murphy was involved as well.) This was one of several volunteer fire companies operating in the Township of New Utrecht.
Is this Mr. Bliss any relation to the one who founded Blissville in Queens?
Don’t think so.
I remember cars and trucks lining up around the park to ride the Statem Island ferry before the Verranzaro Bridge was built
Curious why a Brooklyn fire company would be named that, an Indian word from the Missouri area. There was a Neosho that was a support ship, an oiler I believe, that went through hell in the Pacific in WW2.
In his book “The Great Bridge”, David McCullough describes a meeting in 1866 at the home of New York State Senator Henry C. Murphy, near Owl’s Head Park, for the purpose of developing plans for the Brooklyn Bridge. Murphy went on to serve as president of the Brooklyn Bridge Company.