WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES JANUARY 11, 2018 25
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
parks — which off ered a relaxing, natural
place to get away from the hustle and
bustle of the city — were disappearing
as Ridgewood and Glendale were developed
into residential communities. One
could argue that it was only a matter
of time before the picnic parks would
disappear, but it’s not an exaggeration
to conclude that Prohibition certainly
accelerated their demise.
Take, for example, Schmidt’s Woods,
which covered 26 acres of Glendale off of
what is today the intersection of Myrtle
Avenue and 83rd Street. It was a place
designed for families looking to hold
big gatherings on weekends. The park
included swings for children, a substantial
number of picnic tables and benches,
baseball fi elds and even a soccer fi eld.
One of the big sellers at Schmidt’s
Woods was, naturally, beer. An
eighth-barrel of Welz and Zerwick
lager cost $1 and was delivered by an
attendant to the family picnic table.
Sometimes free pretzels were provided;
the salt, of course, kept the adults
thirsty for more beer.
It wouldn’t be long aft er Prohibition
hit that Schmidt’s Woods would become
a memory. It closed in 1925, one of the
last of the Glendale picnic parks to shut
down. The land was redeveloped for
housing.
Another picnic park that died during
Prohibition was Cypress Hills Park,
located at the southwest corner of Cypress
Avenue and Cypress Hills Street,
which was a particularly popular
attraction for the area’s German community.
The park included “Banzer’s
Lake,” a 600-foot long U-shaped lake
that was perfect for summer boating
The Frank brewery at the corner of Cypress Avenue and Hancock Street in Ridgewood.
and winter ice skating. Aft er Prohibition
took eff ect, Cypress Hills Park
hung on, surviving on family outings
and numerous functions held by local
fraternal, benevolent and church
organizations.
Cypress Hills Park closed in the late
1920s, and Banzer’s Lake was drained
and fi led in. Part of the land became
used as cemetery land, while the remaining
portion was included in the
construction of the Interboro (present
day Jackie Robinson) Parkway.
While Prohibition’s supporters
had good intentions, it turned out
that the ban on alcohol paved a road
to a diff erent kind of hell: organized
crime. Mobsters began lucrative bootlegging
operations, smuggling alcohol
into the United States for sale at local
speakeasies. More than 100,000 such
underground bars popped up across
New York City during Prohibition. The
sense of lawlessness, combined with
economic losses felt locally and nationwide
because of the ban and the Great
Depression, led to the ratifi cation of
the 21st Amendment in 1933 — which
repealed the 18th Amendment.
It wasn’t long before the suds fl owed
in Ridgewood again. In May 1915, the
Ridgewood Times reported that the
City Brewing Company, at the former
Frank Brewery, turned out 750 barrels
of Tally-Ho Beer every day and had
installed new storage tanks holding
290,000 barrels of beer. This enabled
the company to produce 1,400 beer
barrels every day by that October.
Ridgewood’s place in beer brewing
wasn’t the same aft er Prohibition, but
the neighborhood’s love of beer has
never waned. The tradition lives on in
the many micro-breweries that have
popped up in our area in recent years.
If you have memories to share with
us, send an email to editorial@ridgewoodtimes.
com (subject: Our Neighborhood:
The Way it Was) or write to
The Old Timer, ℅ Ridgewood Times,
38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361.
Any mailed pictures will be carefully
returned to you upon request.
The Diogenes brewery staff at a function in the early 1900s.
