Bayside Sites

Bayside High School was constructed as a Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) project. The P.W.A. allocated $2,067,274 for the construction of the facility: $1,480,000 as a loan and $587,274 as a grant. The building bears a 1935 cornerstone and was completed December 1936. The PWA docket number for this project was NY-2735.

The federal Works Progress Administration worked to conduct repairs and alterations to several civic facilities in Queens as part of a $300,464 project begun in 1935. Facilities improved included the Bayside Pumping Station, located roughly at Northern Blvd. and the creek in Alley Pond Park that leads to Little Neck Bay. The original pumping station has been replaced and no longer stands.

NYC Parks explains that, "By 1936, the City had turned the area into a park with picnic grounds, winding walks, an enlarged lake for wintertime skating, and thousands of trees." What is now known as the Buz O'Rourke Playground in Crocheron Park was completed in June 1936, and a field house at 33rd Rd. and 215th Pl. was completed on April 3, 1937. A couple of weeks later, Parks announced that: "Crocheron Park has been completely redesigned and reconstructed. The entire 44 acres have been regraded and landscaped. New walks, benches, drainage and irrigation systems have been installed." Although these sources...

A June 1936 press release announced the opening of a new playground at this site in Crocheron Park with "a large central grass panel surrounded by play apparatus for small children." NYC Parks confirms that this playground was built on land "acquired by the City in 1925 and turned into a park in 1936 at the request of the Bayside Civic Association." Although the 1936 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 carried out with New...

NYC Parks explains that, "By 1936, the City had turned the area into a park with picnic grounds, winding walks, an enlarged lake for wintertime skating, and thousands of trees." On April 3, 1937, the Department of Parks announced the completion of a new building in Crocheron Park containing a "a comfort station, a large lounge, locker rooms and shower baths." Although these sources do 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 carried out with New Deal funds and/or labor,...

The WPA undertook several projects to improve Bayside, New York's Fort Totten during the 1930s and early 1940s. One project called for the WPA to repair and reconstruct buildings; improve the "water and lighting installations" as well as "sewer installation and other utilities;" and "improve the roads and grounds" at the base. Much of the grounds now serves as a city park.

Originally formed as the result of glacial action during the Ice Age 15,000 years ago, Oakland Lake is a kettle lake, part of the Alley Pond Park system in northeast Queens. It is surrounded by glacial boulders and is fed by underground springs and a ravine that flows into the lake from the south. The lake served several purposes until it was transferred to New York City's Parks Department in 1934. The Parks Department notes: "In the 1930s, Works Project Administration (WPA) workers lined the brook feeding Oakland Lake with blocks, and later, the brook and a small pond leading into the...

The Raymond M. O'Connor Park and the Kennedy Playground within it were developed with federal relief funds in the 1930s. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) completed work on the park in 1935. The NYC Parks site explains that the park "was established as part of the massive expansion of recreational facilities, largely through Federal emergency relief funding, which took place in the 1930s under Parks Commissioner Robert Moses. In 1931 the city purchased property in the Bayside neighborhood of Queens for $95,000 to create a public playground and thoroughfare... the land was landscaped with lawns, shade trees and sidewalks by...

The federal Work Projects Administration undertook a large road repair project starting in 1935 in the borough of Queens. The streets, many of which in New York City were still unpaved, were repaired; particular emphasis was placed on fixing washout-damaged stretches of road. Holes were filled in and the streets were smoothed, surfaced and reconditioned. Roads improved as part of this project (WPA Official Project No. 65-97-9) included large stretches of Springfield Boulevard.