APRIL 15, 2022 www.qns.com RIDGEWOOD TIMES
35
BY WOODHAVEN CULTURAL AND
HISTORICAL SOCIETY
EDITORIAL@QNS.COM
@QNS
Dexter Park has led many lives.
Located on Jamaica Avenue, near
the Brooklyn-Queens border on the
west end of Woodhaven, Dexter Park was
a public park when it was founded in 1872.
Later, as the area all around it began to develop,
Dexter Park became a recreational
outlet. For a while, it was a popular area for
shooting pigeons. Maps of the property in
1901 show a dance hall, a bowling alley and
a hotel on the grounds.
Nobody knows for certain where Dexter
Park got its name. One story says it was
named after a horse that was buried on the
grounds. Another is that it was named after
a man named Charles Dexter, who owned
the land for a while.
As baseball became more popular, semiprofessional
leagues began forming to satisfy
the demand for the game. Teams from
all over began to play baseball at Dexter
Park around the turn of the century. And
that’s when Max Rosner enters the picture.
As a young man, Rosner was an immigrant
from Hungary who arrived here in
1892 and opened a cigar shop. He became
enamored with the game, played shortstop
for a while and eventually took over as
manager of the Bushwicks, a Brooklynbased
team that played frequently as
Dexter Park, which had become the home
field for the Brooklyn Royal Giants, one of
the top teams in the Negro Leagues.
Dexter Park became the full-time home
of the Bushwicks in 1913 and in 1922, Rosner
partnered with team owner Nat Strong and
became co-owners in the team. Together,
they bought Dexter Park for $200,000.
Almost immediately, they announced
plans to build a grandstand, made completely
from cement and steel, and seating
over 7,000 fans. Additionally, the new stadium
would also have wooden bleachers
that would accommodate 5,000 spectators.
The Bushwicks played other local semipro
teams but the majority of the time they
played against the famous Negro League
teams of that time, including the Homestead
Greys and the Black Yankees. Some
of the most famous African American players
of the time came to Woodhaven to show
off their skills, Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige
and Jackie Robinson among them.
Another popular opponent was the
House of David, a barnstorming team born
from a religious group. The players had
long hair and beards and used baseball to
raise money and spread their word. Sometimes,
they hired famous ball players that
would either grow beards or wear false
ones in order to play.
And after the major league season was
over, Rosner and Strong would bring in
All-Star teams from the National and
American Leagues, or teams called
World Series Stars, meaning that many
of the game’s greatest stars came to
Woodhaven.
Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig were regulars,
as was Hank Greenberg, Carl Hubbell,
Dizzy Dean, Jimmy Foxx, Joe DiMaggio and
Casey Stengel. Many other future Hall of
Famers came to play ball in Woodhaven.
On one memorable day in 1935, legendary
pitchers Dazzy Vance and Grover
Cleveland Alexander faced off against each
other in the first game of a doubleheader.
Rosner’s son Herman was a lawyer and
an electrician and it was he who set up the
light towers so that Dexter Park, on July
23, 1930, became the first stadium in the
nation to regularly feature night games,
five seasons before the first night game in
the Major Leagues (in Cincinnati in 1935).
Rosner was very generous with his
stadium, giving away free tickets regularly
and using the stadium for fundraisers for
good causes, such as selling war bonds. He
was so beloved in Woodhaven the Leader
referred to him as Uncle Max.
There were many factors that sealed
Dexter Park’s fate.
When Jackie Robinson broke the color
barrier, the best Negro League players
went into the Major Leagues and their fans
followed.
At around the same time, baseball began
televising games, especially the World Series.
This led to increased popularity for
Major League games. Attendance at Dexter
Park suffered and the Bushwicks folded.
In 1951 Rosner announced that Dexter
would host stock car racing and for the
next few years the roar of engines became
a familiar sound in that part of Woodhaven.
Racing gave Dexter Park a temporary
shot in the arm but it was short lived.
Rosner passed away in 1953 and a few
years later the park closed for good. The
property was sold and converted into
residential housing.
Today, only a marker erected by the
Woodhaven Cultural & Historical Society
reminds locals that there used to be a ballfield
here.
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
Photo courtesy of Woodhaven Cultural and Historical Society
The history behind Woodhaven’s Dexter Park
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