- City:
- New York City, Oakland Gardens, Queens, NY
- Site Type:
- Parks and Recreation, Picnic and Other Facilities, Playgrounds, Athletic Courts and Fields
- New Deal Agencies:
- Works Progress Administration (WPA), Work Relief Programs
- Completed:
- 1935
- Quality of Information:
- Moderate
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
An August 1935 Parks Department press release lists Alley Pond Park as one of seventy-three play areas developed in the preceding year with “city, state and federal relief funds.” The release describes this park as having play areas designed for mothers and infants, older children, adolescents and adults.
Today’s NYC Parks website confirms this timing: “The park, including 26 acres of newly constructed playing fields and the Alley Pond Park Nature Trail, the first such trail in the city’s park system, officially opened in 1935 at a ceremony attended by Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia (1882–1947) and Parks Commissioner Robert Moses (1888–1981). The new park offered users a 23-acre bird sanctuary, bridle paths, tennis courts, picnic areas, and a 200-space parking lot.”
Although neither source identifies which federal agencies were involved, researcher Frank da Cruz explains here that New Deal park projects developed before August 1935 would have been financed by one or more agencies including the CWA, FERA, the RFC, TERA or the WPA. Later developments at the park did involve the WPA.
Source notes
NYC Parks - Alley Pond Park
New York City Parks Department New Deal Projects 1934-43
Department of Parks, Press Release, August 12, 1935
The New York Times: "ELEVEN CITY PARKS TO SHARE WPA FUND," December 25, 1938 (page 16).
Site originally submitted by Frank da Cruz on February 7, 2017.
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