The Queens Historical Society will hold a tour of Flushing Meadows Corona Park, starting and ending at…
On a sultry summer night, a walk through the park can be uplifting and energizing. On Tuesday, from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., it will also be educational.
The Queens Historical Society will hold a tour of Flushing Meadows Corona Park, starting and ending at the New York Hall of Science, 47-01 111th St.
On this guided walking tour participants will discover how the park today reveals the story and the promise of Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
“The park has become a large puzzle to me; its unusual buildings and memorials of bygone eras, its varied natural and manmade landscapes, and its diverse communities along it borders,” said tour leader and park enthusiast, Richard Post.
With 1,257 acres, Flushing Meadows Corona Park is New York City’s second largest park. Reclaimed from an industrial wasteland made famous in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby,” the land — covering nearly as much space as one and a half Central Parks — has been developed into the borough’s premier public park.
In 1934, Robert Moses was appointed as the first citywide parks commissioner, and in the ensuing years he directed a massive expansion and upgrading of Queens parks facilities.
To make way for the New York World’s Fair of 1939-40, the city reclaimed the massive Flushing ash dump and began its transformation into a great urban oasis. Since 1914 the Brooklyn Ash Removal Company had been dumping on the site, and dirt excavated for subway construction had also been placed there.
After the 1964-65 World’s Fair, a few of the fair buildings were adapted for reuse, such as the Hall of Science and the Singer Bowl, and the pavilion that became the Queens Zoo aviary. Shea Stadium opened in 1964 and welcomed the New York Mets to Queens.
Flushing Meadows Corona Park has become a mecca for the multitudes of all backgrounds and ethnicities that flock there to picnic, play soccer and attend its many cultural festivals.
This walk is part of a series of programs offered by the historical society to explore the subject of its current exhibition, “Queens Jewels: A History of Queens Parks.” The exhibition is on view through Sept. 21 at the society’s Flushing headquarters, Kingsland Homestead, 143-35 37th Ave.
For more information call 718-939-0647, Ext. 17.
