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… read more
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… read more
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… read more
“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… read more
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… read more
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: “[T]he new playground is equipped with swings, see-saws,… read more
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… read more
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… read more
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… read more
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… read more
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… read more