26 OCTOBER 11, 2018 RIDGEWOOD TIMES www.qns.com
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
Swinging into the history of Forest Park
BY THE OLD TIMER
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
We begin a two-part series
this week on Brooklyn
Forest Park and some of the
incredible features that generations of
Queens residents have come to enjoy
for more than a century.
Wait ... Brooklyn Forest Park? This
may sound strange, but it was Forest
Park’s original name. The park’s roots
were actually planted three years
before the five boroughs united to
become greater New York City.
In 1895, the City of Brooklyn — at the
time, the third most populated city in
the U.S. (only New York and Philadelphia
were larger) — decided to build
a park with recreational facilities for
those who resided in the western district
of Brooklyn. After investigating
various sites, it was found the best
location would be in Queens County,
outside the city.
There was a large vacant acreage
and the transportation from Brooklyn
using the new electric trolleys was
satisfactory.
Accordingly, they started to dicker
with landowners along Myrtle Avenue
in Glendale, Woodhaven and
Richmond Hill, with the object of acquiring
500 acres. They offered prices
substantially above the market and
had no difficulty in purchasing the
land they wanted. However, because
of the numerous owners involved,
and the delays in closing title, it took
several years to buy the land.
But before they could start to develop
the park, Brooklyn became part of
New York City on Jan. 1, 1898, and the
name was changed to Forest Park.
Alexander Fields, a New York dry
goods merchant, lived in a house on
the hill north of Myrtle Avenue at
what is now 108th Street in Richmond
Hill. There was a pond on his property
adjacent to Myrtle Avenue. He sold it
to the city of Brooklyn, and his home
was eventually used for the superintendent’s
house for the park.
Jarvis Jackson became the first superintendent
and the pond eventually
became known as Jackson’s Pond. The
children in the neighborhood fished
in the pond for carp and catfish. They
also used the pond to sail model boats.
Jackson Pond’s mud bottom was
replaced with brownstone pebble
gravel in 1931, which was subsequently
improved through a Works Progress
Administration project 10 years later.
However, by 1966, the pond’s base became
structurally unsound, and the
Parks Department filled it with concrete
to construct a new playground
and basketball courts.
A hot house was opened at Forest
Park Heights and eight men were
employed to supply plants for the
park. The Queens County Park Commissioner’s
Office was installed in the
Overlook, a building in a section of the
park north of Metropolitan Avenue in
Forest Hills.
TEEING OFF AT THE PARK
In 1905, a golf links was opened, one
of the first in the area. Copied after
the courses in Scotland, using the
natural terrain, it had 18 holes, with
the first four holes being along Park
Lane South. Eventually this part of
the course was changed and the holes
relocated.
A communications building for the
New York City Fire Department was
located where the green for the fourth
hole had been. This building at the
corner of Woodhaven Boulevard and
Park Lane South remains active today,
with its workers helping firefighters
answer the call of duty for any and all
emergencies.
Caddies earned 25 cents for 18 holes;
this was long before the days of golf
carts. Most of the holes on the course
had names as well as numbers. The
ninth through 15th holes were located
along Myrtle Avenue with names like
“Lake Hole,” “Camelback,” “Old Glory,”
“Roadway” and “Cabbage Patch.”
Photos via Ridgewood Times archives and Wikimedia Commons
The Oak Ridge clubhouse
The Jackson Pond Playground in Richmond Hill
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