WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES MARCH 11, 2021 31
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
Young saplings were planted in Juniper Valley Park in 1940. This is located close to where the tennis courts are today.
by Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw
Mountain Landis.
Rothstein would meet his demise
in 1928, shot dead during a business
meeting at a Manhattan hotel, in
retaliation for falling into heavy
debt with a fellow gambler, George
“Hump” McManus, who was tried for
the Rothstein hit but acquitted due
to a lack of evidence.
In truth, the 88 acres of land
which the city acquired from Rothstein’s
estate was just a portion of
the Juniper Swamp land. Part of
the area had, by the 1920s, been
converted into a racetrack for horse,
dog, automobile and motorcycle
races. The track, known as Metropolitan
Heights, was about 7/8 of a
mile in circumference and occupied
what’s today the western corner of
the park, from the tennis courts to
the gated baseball diamonds.
There’s also the portion of the
park which includes the Pullis Farm
Cemetery, located off the presentday
intersection of Juniper Boulevard
North and 81st Street. The
cemetery is said to be one of the few
remaining farm burial grounds in
New York City. Three graves remain
in place at the cemetery, which is
surrounded by a stone wall and a
wrought-iron gate.
Construction of Juniper Valley
Park began in 1938 under the direction
of Moses, who realized that the
swamp not only had valuable peat
moss but also major potential as a
beautiful community park. Using
workers funded through the Works
Progress Administration, a New
Deal program under the direction
As the sign reads, the NYC Sanitation Department established a landfi ll at Juniper Valley Park, using refuse to
help fi ll the gaps and smooth out the land to develop the public space in the late 1930s to the late 1940s.
of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Administration,
the city created an
oasis that included two major
playgrounds, four baseball fields,
handball courts, tennis courts and a
sprinkler area. More than 160 shade
trees were planted along with thousands
of bushes.
As of 1949, the city developed twothirds
of the 55-acre site as an active
park land; the remaining third, on
the western end near 71st Street
and Lutheran Avenue, remained
largely undeveloped until 1967. At
that point, the last of the swampland
was cleared to make room for more
baseball fields and Brennan Field,
a soccer/football field enveloped
within a running track.
Today, Brennan Field is a popular
venue for various sports organizations
such as Blau Weiss Gottschee,
a youth soccer club, and is home to
the annual Relay for Life, a 24-hour
fundraiser for the American Cancer
Society.
Sources: “Our Community: Its History
and People,” Greater Ridgewood
Society, 1976; Brownstoner and the
Juniper Park Civic Association.
* * *
If you have any remembrances or
old photographs of “Our Neighborhood:
The Way It Was” that you would
like to share with our readers, please
write to the Old Timer, c/o Ridgewood
Times, 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY
11361, or send an email to editorial@
ridgewoodtimes.com. Any print photographs
mailed to us will be carefully
returned to you upon request.
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