Forest Park (Queens, New York)
The park contains 165 acres (67 ha) of trees, including the largest continuous oak forest in Queens. Some trees are more than a century and a half old. The park sits on hills left behind by the Wisconsin glacier and is a haven for native plants and wildlife in the midst of the city's sprawl. In addition to the park's large full-time bird population, migratory birds pass through in the spring and fall.
Several trails are available for area residents and urban day hikers. Other facilities include playgrounds, a carousel, a running track, two dog runs, a pond, tennis courts, basketball courts, baseball fields, a skate park, and a golf course. The park is operated and maintained by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.
History
Early development
The Wisconsinian glaciation molded this land between 20,000 and 10,000 years ago and left the Harbor Hill Moraine, a series of small hills known as “knob and kettle” terrain, including Forest Park. The land was inhabited by the Rockaway, Lenape, and Delaware Native Americans when the Dutch West India Company settled the area in 1635.
The site of Forest Park was occupied by various landowners until the late 19th century, when City of Brooklyn officials looked for land for a large public park. In 1892, the New York State Legislature authorized the park search, and the Brooklyn Parks Department purchased the first parcel of this space on August 9, 1895, whereupon the name Brooklyn Forest Park was first used. Because of the numerous private landowners involved, the park had to be assembled in 124 parcels, finishing in 1898. James S. T. Stranahan, the onetime president of the Brooklyn Board of Park Commissioners, originally envisioned one large park extending eastward to Jamaica, Queens and westward to Park Slope, Brooklyn. However, the city's rapid development made this impossible, and today, the largest remnants of this proposed landscape are Forest Park and the 526-acre (213 ha) Prospect Park in Brooklyn.
In 1896, the landscaping firm of Olmsted, Olmsted & Eliot was contracted to provide a plan for the park. Frederick Law Olmsted surveyed the park and designed Forest Park Drive. Existing residential buildings were auctioned and disassembled and removed. A nine-hole golf course opened in 1901. Its club house, which was designed in the Dutch Colonial Revival style by the firm of Helmle, Huberty & Hudswell (who also designed the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower), and which now houses the park's Administration Office, first opened in 1905.
Carousels designed by Daniel Muller were added in 1918; one of them was destroyed by fire in 1966, and the other in 1972. Jackson Pond was used for fishing and ice skating, but was filled in for redevelopment.
Recent development
During the park's centennial celebration in 1995, 100 trees were planted as a part of Operation Pine Grove, funded by American Forests and the Texaco Global Re-leaf Program. Parks uses the greenhouse, built in 1910, to grow trees and plants for many other city parks. In addition, the kettle ponds in the forest provide a haven for bird watching. Forest Park Drive between the Bandshell and the entrance to the Jackie Robinson Parkway rides along the top of the glacial moraine. In the winter, when the trees are bare, people who walk or drive along the route can see a panoramic view of Southeast and Southwest Queens, JFK Airport, Southeast Brooklyn, and all the way to Rockaway Beach nearly 10 miles (16 km) away.
A number of the parks' trees were destroyed in Hurricane Sandy and one fallen tree damaged the structure housing the Forest Park Carousel, but the damage was repaired and the carousel reopened in March 2013. The Forest Park Carousel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.