The pinkest houses in New York City

The color pink symbolizes many things: femininity, love, youth, happiness, joy.

It’s about passion without aggression, and pink roses are given to convey gratitude and appreciation.

It’s an unusual color to paint a brownstone or tenement. Yet pink buildings are all over New York.

With cherry blossom season upon us and parts of the city about to be draped in fragile pink leaves for a few weeks, it’s a good time to highlight some of the pinkest houses on the streets of New York.

Like the sweet little brownstone (top left) with the red trim on Kingston Avenue in Crown Heights.

Or the pink rowhouse near the Bedford Park 4 station in the Bronx (top right).

I love this pale pink tenement at left, on Grand and Orchard.

The Lower East Side can look kind of grim; it gives the neighborhood a jolt of color.

The three-story pink brownstone on the right is part of the Mott Haven Historic District in the South Bronx.

And finally, twin hot pink residences on Prince Street near West Broadway.

How Sakura Park got its lovely cherry trees

Sakura Park is a small patch of green in the West 120s between Riverside and Claremont Avenues. It looks similar to any neighborhood park—except for its many beautfiul cherry trees, which are at peak bloom right now.

The trees were among 2,000 cherry trees given to New York as a gift from Japanese city residents in 1909.  The gift was part of the Hudson-Fulton Celebration: a citywide event honoring the 300th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s arrival in New York Harbor as well as the 100th anniversary of Robert Fulton’s steam-powered boat. 

After receiving the trees, the park—formerly Claremont Park—was renamed for them. “Sakura” means cherry blossom in Japanese.

Sakura park features another gift from the Japanese: a 14-foot traditional stone lantern. It was presented by the citizens of Tokyo in 1960.