WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES OCTOBER 14, 2021 25
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
life 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 present-day 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 of the
Young saplings were planted in Juniper Valley Park in 1940. This is located close to where the tennis courts are
today. Photo courtesy of NYC Municipal Records, reprinted with permission
Franklin D. Roosevelt Administration,
the city created an oasis that included
two major playgrounds, four baseball
fi elds, 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 fi elds and Brennan
Field, a soccer/football fi eld 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.
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.
Photo courtesy of NYC Municipal Records, reprinted with permission
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