18 FEBRUARY 22, 2018 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
The many Queens connections to Jackie Robinson
The gravesite of Jackie Robinson, his son and his mother-in-law at
Cypress Hills Cemetery
BY THE OLD TIMER
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
One of the most transformative
fi gures in American history,
Jackie Robinson did more than
break baseball’s color barrier. He
helped bring the nation a few steps
closer toward achieving the “more
perfect union” that our Constitution
decreed, yet struggles to fulfi ll even
today.
Most Queens residents know that
Robinson’s memory lives on in two
prominent Queens landmarks: the
Jackie Robinson (nee Interboro)
Parkway linking Queens to Brooklyn
and the Jackie Robinson Rotunda, the
grand entrance to Citi Field, home of
the New York Mets in Flushing.
Few may realize, however, that
Robinson lived for a time in our
borough, specifi cally the Addisleigh
Park section of St. Albans. Two years
aft er joining the Brooklyn Dodgers,
Photo via Wikimedia Commons
Robinson and his family moved there
in 1949, buying a home located at 112-40
177th St., in the middle of the now-landmarked
community.
Like Robinson, Addisleigh Park
has a place in civil rights history —
though dubious at the beginning.
The suburban neighborhood was
developed in the early years of the
20th century, but each single-family
home built there included deed restrictions
which mandated that only
white people could purchase them.
Those same restrictions prohibited
white homeowners in the neighborhood
from selling their homes to
black buyers.
The segregation lasted for several
decades, but in the end, justice would
prevail. In the 1930s, white Addisleigh
Park homeowners sold their residences
to prominent African-American
entertainers based in New York, including
Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald
and Herbert Mills. Some Addisleigh
Park neighbors fi led lawsuits that the
segregational deed restrictions had
been broken; their lawsuits, however,
ultimately failed, and the cause of
progress and equality prevailed.
Robinson moved to Addisleigh Park
in 1949, a year aft er the Supreme Court
ruled that racially restrictive deed
clauses violated the 14th Amendment
of the U.S. Constitution. With his
wife, Rachel, and their children, the
Robinson family would remain there
through 1955 — the same year that
Jackie helped the Brooklyn Dodgers
win their fi rst and only World
Championship.
“We used it to move on to the next
stage of our lives,” Rachel Robinson
recalled in a 2008 interview with the
New York Daily News. “We had moved
around and hadn’t been sure of anything
— whether Jack would make it
with the Dodgers, or if we could ever
aff ord a home.”
The Daily News article notes that
the Robinsons purchased their Addisleigh
Park home for $100 and other
considerations, as outlined in the deed.
They loved the neighborhood so much
that they managed to convince Roy
Campanella, Jackie Robinson’s teammate
and star catcher for the Dodgers,
to purchase a home there as well.
The Dodgers, of course, left for Los
Angeles following the 1957 season;
Jackie Robinson, who had been traded
to the also-relocating Giants, refused
to go west and subsequently retired.
After leaving Queens in 1955, the
Robinsons headed to the suburbs, just
outside of Stamford, CT.
For the rest of his life, Robinson
would remain active in the Civil
Rights Movement nationwide, advocating
for an end to segregation while
also founding businesses to improve
the lives of African-Americans across
the country.
Aft er his death in October 1972, Robinson
returned to Brooklyn and was
laid to rest in Cypress Hills Cemetery,
which straddles the Brooklyn/Queens
border. He’s interred there alongside
his son, Jackie Jr. — who preceded his
father in death by a year — and his
mother-in-law.
A short distance away is the road
once called the Interboro Parkway,
which leads drivers from the Grand
Central Parkway in Kew Gardens
Hills through Forest Hills, Glendale
and Ridgewood into Brooklyn. The
city renamed the parkway in honor
of Jackie Robinson in 1997, one of many
tributes that year commemorating the
50th anniversary of Robinson breaking
baseball’s color barrier.
Etched on Robinson’s tombstone is
his most famous quote: “A life is not
important except in the impact it has
on other lives.” That quote also lines
the top of the Jackie Robinson Rotunda
at Citi Field, which honors his legacy
in baseball and American life. Citi
Field, of course, opened in 2009 as the
New York Mets’ new home, replacing
Shea Stadium; it was constructed in
much the same style as Ebbets Field,
the old Brooklyn Dodgers’ home.
In the rotunda, you’ll also fi nd a large
form of the number 42, Robinson’s
uniform number with the Dodgers,
which was universally retired by Major
League Baseball in 1997. Every major
league player, however, wears 42 in
games played on April 15 every season.
Share your history with us by emailing
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.
Photo via Google Maps
The former home of Jackie Robinson in the Addisleigh Park section of St.
Albans
