30 MARCH 11, 2021 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Juniper Valley: From swampland to parkland
BY THE OLD TIMER
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
Middle Village residents take
a great deal of pride in Juniper
Valley Park, the 55-acre
oasis where generations of families
have enjoyed beautiful springtime
days roaming the playground, running
the basepaths or simply lounging
around under the trees.
It’s almost hard to believe that, as
recently as 80 years ago, the park
didn’t even exist — and, in fact, that
most of that area was uninhabited
swampland that, for a time, briefly
became a municipal dumping
ground.
The Juniper Swamp has an amazing
history that was chronicled in
“Our Community: Its History and
People,” a book published in 1976
by the Greater Ridgewood Historical
Society. The following excerpt
shows that the swamp dated back
to the colonial period of the 17th
century, and in the 1920s became
the site of a con game pulled by
one of New York’s most notorious
mobsters:
The Juniper Swamp was much in
evidence in 1694 as well as up to a
few decades ago, when it began to be
developed and filled in, along certain
areas.
The swamp area was roughly
bounded by 69th Street (Juniper
Avenue) on the west, Juniper Valley
Road (Juniper Swamp Road) on the
south, and Caldwell (Johnson) Avenue
and Dry Harbor Road on the north
and east. It was a favorite resort for
berry-pickers in the summer and ice
skaters in the winter.
In the middle 1920s, a section of the
New York Connecting Railroad was
laid through the swamp, with great
excavation difficulties. The balance
had been developed after World War
II in the 1950s and the early 1960s,
with rows of private dwellings as well
as a large park and recreation area
called Juniper Valley Park.
These dwellings are built on wooden
piles because of the swampy ground
conditions existing for a number of
yards below grade. Ondulations can
be observed on the older streets in the
area, such as Penelope Avenue, which
is caused by unstable ground conditions
below grade.
In the mid-1920s, Arnold Rothstein,
a notorious gambler, purchased the
88-acre swamp site, which he tried to
subdivide and sell as a development
for a large profit. He called this area
“Rothstein’s Estates.” He had built a
row of empty shell houses which gave
the appearance as being a development.
It became a case celebre when
A view of the Juniper Swamp in the 1930s before it was transformed into part of Juniper Valley Park.
the “Rothstein Phantom Village” was
uncovered as a fraud.
Rothstein was shot to death in 1928,
and his estate sold the property to
the city for approximately the same
amount equal to the back real estate
taxes owed. When he became aware
that the swamps contained valuable
peat moss, Robert Moses, who was in
charge of the 1939-40 World’s Fair,
had it removed and used for top soil
on the fairgrounds in Flushing.
Little did Arnold Rothstein know
Photos courtesy of NYC Department of Municipal Records
that the peat moss was worth over a
million dollars.
The cliche “crime doesn’t pay”
certainly fits with regard to Rothstein’s
episode of housing fraud in
Middle Village. Ironically, he was
called “The Brain” in many corners
because of his business acumen,
which he applied to criminal ventures
in the 1910s and 1920s.
Gambling was one of Rothstein’s
obsessions, and there were rumors
that he was involved in the infamous
“Black Sox Scandal,” in which eight
members of the 1919 Chicago White
Sox were paid to throw the World
Series that year against the Cincinnati
Reds.
Rothstein vehemently denied
accusations that he helped bribe
White Sox players, and he was
never indicted in connection of the
scheme. Eight White Sox players
were indicted for the conspiracy
and ultimately acquitted at trial —
but banned from the game for life
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