- City:
- Corona, New York City, Queens, NY
- Site Type:
- Parks and Recreation, Playgrounds
- New Deal Agencies:
- Works Progress Administration (WPA), Work Relief Programs
- Completed:
- 1936
- Quality of Information:
- Moderate
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
NYC Parks recounts: “The land that is now Corona Golf Playground was previously a strip of wasteland, known as the Corona Ash Dumps. In his classic novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald described the area as ‘a valley of ashes – a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens.'”
The Parks Department announced the opening of this playground along with 12 others on May 4, 1936. At the time, it was part of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, site of the 1939 World’s Fair.
Although the press release does not mention the WPA or other New Deal agencies, researcher Frank da Cruz explains here that almost all New York City Parks Department projects between 1934 and 1943 were accomplished with New Deal funds and/or labor, and that after April 1935, the WPA quickly became the main source of this support.
The park was renamed Corona Golf Playground in 1980. The most recent renovation took place in 1998.
Source notes
NYC Parks - Corona Golf Playground Department of Parks, Press Release, May 4, 1936 New York City Parks Department New Deal Projects 1934-43Site originally submitted by Frank da Cruz on October 2, 2016.
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