14 JULY 8, 2021 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
Forest Park is full of beauty, but it is also full of Woodhaven history
PRESENTED BY THE WOODHAVEN
CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
For a combination of beauty and
history in Woodhaven, you’d be
hard pressed to beat Forest Park.
For starters, the park itself celebrated
its 125th anniversary last year, having
been founded in 1895 as Brooklyn’s
Forest Park.
Although much of Forest Park’s 538
acres consists of natural woodland, the
park itself was planned and designed
by landscape architect Frederick Law
Olmsted. Originally envisioned as
one giant, continuous park stretching
from Brooklyn all the way to Jamaica,
changes in population and the resulting
development reduced the scope of
that plan.
A nine-hole golf course was opened
to the public and by 1905, the popularity
of the golf course would prompt it to
expand to 18 holes, originally stretching
south all the way to Ashland Avenue,
where residential homes marked
the start of Woodhaven proper.
As part of the expansion, a Dutch
Colonial golf clubhouse was built on
the course in 1905 by the architectural
fi rm of Helmle, Huberty & Hudswell,
which also designed the landmark
Williamsburgh Savings Bank tower
in Brooklyn. The golf course is still active
and the beautiful clubhouse today
is called Oak Ridge and serves as the
home of the Forest Park Administration
offi ces.
If you go east from the old clubhouse,
you’ll eventually reach the Seuff ert
Bandshell (pronounced Soy-fert), a
nearly 100-year-old bandstand named
aft er bandleader George Seuff ert Sr.
For many years, Seuff ert and his band
entertained people at the bandshell
and it was offi cially named in his honor
in 1979.
A little further along, you’ll come
across the Forest Park Carousel, which
was designated as a landmark by the
city of New York in 2013.
Artistically, the Forest Park Carousel
is particularly notable as it was the
handiwork of the legendary master
carver Daniel Muller. Muller came to
the United States from Germany as a
child in the 1880s and as a young man
he and his brother worked for Gustav
Dentzel, a renowned carousel builder
in his own right.
Dentzel’s father built carousels
back in Germany going back to the
mid-18th century. Muller took advantage
of the opportunity to learn all of
Courtesy of Woodhaven Cultural and Historical Society
these old-world skills from Dentzel
and blended it with his own realistic
style to carve out a name for himself .
In 1903, D.C. Muller and Bro. Company
was founded.
Muller’s carvings were notable
not only for being very beautiful and
realistic; in some cases the carvings
were militaristic, with horses sporting
bugles, swords and canteens. Over 14
years, D.C. Muller and Bro. created
over a dozen carousels but, sadly, today
only two remain: one in Cedar Point,
Ohio, and ours right here in Forest
Park.
The Forest Park Carousel contains
three rows of carvings; the outer row
contains 13 standing horses, three menagerie
animals and two chariots. The
inner two rows each contain 18 jumping
horses (for a total of 36). While the
Forest Park Carousel is oft en referred
to as a Muller carousel, you will also
fi nd a few carvings from Dentzel and
Charles Carmel, another notable
carousel artist of the same era, on the
inner two rows.
Not far from the carousel you will
fi nd one of the most beautiful spots in
New York City, the Greenhouse at Forest
Park. It was designed by legendary
greenhouse builders Lord & Burnham,
who also built the New York Botanical
Garden, the United States Botanic
Garden in Washington, D.C., and the
Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh.
Flowers and plants throughout
parks in Queens and Brooklyn are
grown right here, as they have been
for over 100 years.
And if you continue walking east you
will cross Woodhaven Boulevard and
reach Victory Field, a large recreation
complex with baseball fi elds, a running
track and a handball court. Victory
Field was named aft er the Unknown
Soldier of World War 1. Today the track
portion of Victory Field is named aft er
longtime Woodhaven Assemblyman,
the legendary Frederick D. Schmidt.
Forest Park is full of beauty, but it is
also full of history and visitors to the
park 100 years ago would be pleasantly
surprised to see so much of their history
preserved and beloved by the
current residents of Woodhaven.
* * *
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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