Queens Sites

The land for St. Albans Memorial Park in Queens was first acquired by Parks in 1914 and received its current name in 1932. A Department of Parks press release announced the opening of a new playground in St. Albans Park on July 17, 1934. At that time, the playground contained "facilities for softball and basketball, besides see-saws, swings, horizontal bars and ladders. Here too, benches and shade trees are part of the layout." Although the 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...

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 the stretch of 64th Road between Dry Harbor Rd. and 82nd Pl.

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 the stretches of: Delaware Avenue between Parsons Blvd. and 147th St. Cherry Avenue between Parsons Blvd. and 149th St. Beech Avenue between Parsons Blvd. and 147th St. Nearby improvements were also made at 41st Rd. and...

"Under the auspices of the New York Department of Sanitation, between 1937 and 1944, three new wastewater treatment plants were constructed — Wards Island in Manhattan, and Bowery Bay and Tallman Island in Queens. These facilities were designed to reduce pollutants in the Harlem River and in the East River, whose dark and murky waters had some of the lowest dissolved oxygen concentrations in the harbor. During the summer months, dissolved oxygen levels were often zero, which caused unpleasant odors. The city and its waterways benefited from an infusion of funds from the Works Progress Administration (WPA), an ambitious public...

New York City's Parks Department writes: "Once known as the “Pauper Burial Ground”, “Colored Cemetery of Flushing” and “Martin’s Field”, this site was renamed in 2009 “The Olde Towne of Flushing Burial Ground”. "The Queens Department of Parks acquired this property on December 2, 1914 at which time the land served as a ‘town commons’ or ‘green’ for the neighborhood. ... During the excavation , WPA workers came upon evidence of the site’s previous use as a burial ground, including pennies placed upon the eyes of the dead—an archaic burial practice that was also observed in excavations of the African Burial Ground...

This small park in Queens was acquired by the City in December 1936. Less than a year later, in October 1937, Parks announced the opening of a new playground on the site: "he new playground is equipped with swings, see-saws, slides; playhouses, horizontal bars and ladders. A rectangular wading pool which is encircled by an oval shaped roller skating track, handball courts and a large play area for soft ball games, have also been provided. Shade trees which have been planted around the perimeter of the entire area and permanent concrete benches complete the design." Although the 1937 press release does not...

Triboro Hospital for Tuberculosis in Jamaica, Queens was established in 1941. The Public Works Administration (PWA) approved a $1,317,825 (45%) grant for construction of the project in 1938.

The Triborough bridge linking up Queens, the Bronx, and Manhattan over East River, is still known to New Yorkers by that name, even though it was officially renamed the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge in 2008. The Triborough Bridge is one of three major bridges, along with the Henry Hudson and the Bronx-Whitestone, built during the New Deal era to link the boroughs of Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx, and tie together the expanding highway system in and out of New York City.  Construction on the Triborough bridge began in 1929, but the Depression soon slowed progress on the project. In 1933, Robert Moses, head...

Queens's Union Turnpike, then an "unimportant stretch less than two miles long," was developed as a paved, 100-foot-wide artery featuring a four-foot "center mall," as a large Works Progress Administration (WPA) project in anticipation of the 1939 World's Fair. Work focused on development of the road from Utopia Parkway east to the Nassau County line. "This six-and-a-half-mile short-cut," a $1,250,000 project, was constructed entirely by the WPA. The road was officially dedicated on June 30, 1939.

In Sept. 1941 the New York Times described a playground being constructed by the WPA in Queens at "Utopia Parkway and Seventy-third Avenue." This site, Utopia Playground, is still in use today. New York City's Parks Department writes: "Utopia Playground was opened on January 1, 1942. Parks acquired the majority of the site, which was formerly the home of an old country school, on March 7, 1940. The remaining portion was obtained on January 7, 1941 by condemnation and immediately became part of the original Parks property. In 1943, Local Law 32 gave the playground its current name."

The school grounds contain a small New Deal sculpture by Hugo Robus entitled "Girl Weeding." It was made in 1938, probably under the auspices of the Federal Arts Project of the WPA.

Woodhaven Boulevard was widened and improved during the late 1930s; much of the work was undertaken by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Work included the filling in of spaces where trolley tracks had been removed.

The historic Woodhaven Station post office in Jamaica, New York was constructed with federal Treasury Department funds between 1939 and 1940. The building, which contains a New Deal Ben Shahn mural in the lobby, is still in use today.

The Woodhaven Station post office in Jamaica, New York contains a 1941 Section of Fine Arts mural painted by Ben Shahn entitled “The First Amendment.”

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed a "seventy-five-acre parking field ... for the city north of the World's Fair grounds." 1,950 men worked on the parking lot project, which occupied land north of Roosevelt Ave. The site was on what is now the parking lot for Citi Field.

On June 19, 1939, the Department of Parks announced the opening of two playgrounds in Flushing Meadows Park, one along the Grand Central Parkway, just south of Horace Harding Boulevard. This is most likely what is now known as the World's Fair Playground. The 1939 press release explained that: "These two recreation areas are part of the plan for the ultimate development of the park after the Fair is over and will provide recreation facilities for the present children of the adjacent communities and for an increase in population as additional housing develops around the park. In the playground near Horace Harding...