WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES JANUARY 26, 2017 29 OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS Ringling Bros. and its link to Ridgewood BY THE OLD TIMER [email protected] @RIDGEWOODTIMES For adults of a certain age, the news earlier this month that the Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus will be ceasing operations this spring was almost as impossible to believe as the death-defying stunts of a trapeze artist. Before the advent of radio, television and the internet, it was “The Greatest Show on Earth” that any American kid could want to see. For 146 years, children of all ages marveled at the three-ringed spectacle before them, full of magicians, acrobats, clowns and a treasure trove of exotic animals brought over from across the globe. In recent years, the Ringling Bros./ Barnum & Bailey Circus entertained generations of New York City children with springtime shows at Madison Square Garden and (more recently) the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Competing entertainment options are largely to blame for the demise of the Ringling Bros./Barnum & Bailey Circus. The brand also took a hit over allegations that the circus animals were mistreated, and many of the creatures (such as elephants) were phased out of the program altogether. Now the circus is closing for good, but its connection with the children of Ridgewood from years past will remain forever. For years, the Ringling Bros./ Barnum & Bailey Circus pitched its circus tent on farmland north of the present-day intersection of Myrtle and Cypress avenues, which was then part of the Wyckoff Estate. Every year, the circus animals would come to Queens by a special train and pulled into the Greenville Freight Yard in New Jersey, where Ringling Bros. & Barnum & Bailey Combined Circus, held on the Peter Wyckoff Farm (1920). the circus cars were loaded on barges and fl oated across New York Harbor to dock in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, where the loaded circus cars were lift ed off the fl oat barge and placed on the tracks of the Manhattan Beach Division of the Long Island Rail Road. The steam locomotive then hauled the circus train to Cooper and Wyckoff avenues in Ridgewood, which was at ground level. The train was unloaded and the animals and performers paraded through the streets of Ridgewood to the circus tents near Myrtle and Cypress avenues. In 1913, the Manhattan Beach Division of the Long Island Rail Road was elevated on an embankment. This eliminated the circus train unloading at Cooper and Wyckoff avenues in Ridgewood. The land on the north side of Myrtle Avenue at Cypress Avenue had been sold to Bauer & Stier, which erected houses on the land. But the show went on. The circus began off -loaded at Irving and Flushing avenues at ground level, and the tents near the DeKalb Avenue trolley car barn (near Seneca Avenue). The circus grounds were bounded by Cypress Avenue, DeKalb Avenue, Troutman Street and 200 feet west of Onderdonk Avenue. Samuel Streeter, who was Peter Wyckoff’s son-in-law, made the arrangements with the circus, who always gave him a number of free passes. In turn, Mr. Streeter handed out the passes to the children of the various families who rented from the Wyckoff Estate, some of the old farm houses along Flushing Avenue. Of course, those circus grounds would also eventually be developed, and the circus stopped coming to Ridgewood. The circus train kept coming to Queens, however, for decades thereafter while the Ringling Bros./Barnum & Bailey Circus played at Madison Square Garden. The elephants that were part of the show for years would disembark the train in Long Island City, then walked through a closed Queens Midtown Tunnel late one weeknight to bring them to “The World’s Most Famous Arena.” A 2009 picture of circus elephants walking into the Queens Midtown Tunnel in Long Island City. (Photo courtesy of MTA) Circus animals parading along Cypress Avenue at Myrtle Avenue (about 1911).
RT01262017
To see the actual publication please follow the link above