WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES DECEMBER 28, 2017 25
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
Ridgewood and Glendale picnic parks gave way to local churches
BY THE OLD TIMER
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
Up until the early decades
of the 20th century, picnic
parks across Ridgewood and
Glendale were a popular spring and
summer destination for thousands
of local families who wanted to enjoy
good food, drink and company in the
great outdoors.
As the neighborhoods developed
from rural to urban communities, the
picnic parks began to disappear from
the landscape. While most became
homes and new businesses, one particular
picnic park in eastern Glendale
— known as Emerald Park — transformed
for a much higher purpose.
The roots of Emerald Park took hold in
1891, when German immigrant Eugene
Schaefer purchased a 10,000-square-foot
lot at the southeast corner of Myrtle
Avenue and Martin Avenue (now 88th
Place). Ignatz Martin, the developer for
whom the street was named, sold the site
to Schaefer for a loft y $1,200.
Schaefer constructed a one-story
wooden frame dance hall at the site
as well as a two-story wooden frame
building which had a ground-fl oor saloon
and a hotel above it. Schaefer and
his family took up residency at the hotel,
and spare rooms were rented to guests.
In about 1908, Schaefer sold the
property to Henry Walter, who established
Emerald Park. The S. Liebmann
& Sons Brewing Company of Bushwick
loaned Walter money to complete the
purchase in exchange for a mortgage
on the premises and an agreement that
Emerald Park would exclusively serve
their beer to customers.
Two years later, Walter opened a
small saloon on Martin Avenue just
north of a wagonshed that the nearby
Glendale Park Hook and Ladder Company
13 of the Newtown Volunteer
Fire Department previously used.
Again, S. Liebmann & Sons Brewing
held the mortgage on the property.
Three years later, in September
1913, the volunteer fi re department
disbanded, as the New York City Fire
Department took over fi re response
operations in Queens. S. Liebmann &
Sons sold the mortgages on Emerald
Park and the Martin Avenue saloon in
July 1916 to John Probst.
Emerald Park had competition from
another picnic park located directly
across the street — Florida Park — on
the northern side of Myrtle Avenue.
As with so many other businesses
that served alcohol at the time, Prohibition
— which took eff ect in January
1920 — severely impacted Emerald
Park’s business. Management closed
the picnic park but continued to operate
a restaurant at the location. Local
resident Anna Vogel purchased the
property from the estates of Karolina
Walter and William Berner in 1923.
But out of their struggles came opportunity
for two churches to expand
their presence in the community.
St. John’s Lutheran Church of
Williamsburgh, founded in 1844
and numbering more than 1,500 congregants,
had outgrown by 1927 its
house of worship on Maujer Street in
East Williamsburg and sought a new
home. Initially, they took up residence
at Florida Park and began holding services
there that year.
Meanwhile, the Roman Catholic
Diocese of Brooklyn saw the increasing
Catholic population in Glendale —
which had been served by St. Pancras
Church on present-day 68th Street
— and believed the time had come to
build a second church in the eastern
section of the community.
On Aug. 28, 1928, Bishop Thomas
Molloy, leader of the Diocese of Brooklyn,
purchased land on the north side
of Copeland Avenue (present-day 78th
Avenue) from 83rd to 85th streets
from the heir of John Vanderveer,
who owned a farm in the community.
Molloy established the parish of Sacred
Heart of Glendale, and the site
would be developed into the permanent
church and parish school.
Msgr. George D. Sherman was
appointed pastor of Sacred Heart and
rented the former Emerald Hall dance
hall as Sacred Heart’s temporary
church. St. Pancras Parish donated
some old pews.
Sacred Heart celebrated its first
Mass at Emerald Park on June 29, 1929.
To get to Mass, the faithful entered
through an opening in a fence on
Myrtle Avenue and then went into
the dance hall through a side door.
More than 300 parishioners joined
the church from the outset.
Ground was broken on the new
Sacred Heart Church at 83- 17 78th
Ave. on Feb. 14, 1930. The cornerstone
was laid on Aug. 10, 1930, and the fi rst
Mass was celebrated in the partially
completed church on Sept. 14, 1930.
Msgr. Sherman lived in a two-family
home at 77-27 85th St. in Glendale and
used this has his rectory until enough
funds were raised to build a permanent
rectory in 1935. Sacred Heart’s fi rst
pastor was much revered throughout
the community, and his name lives on
today through the charitable works of
the Knights of Columbus Council 5103,
which is named in his honor.
St. John’s Lutheran, meanwhile, soon
realized it couldn’t stay at Florida Park,
aft er the city condemned the property
in order to build the Interborough
(present-day Jackie Robinson) Parkway.
Fortunately, to fi nd another new home,
all they needed to do was look across
the street once Sacred Heart relocated
to its permanent Glendale church.
The Lutheran congregation purchased
Emerald Park from Anna
Vogel, Fred Wolfe and Ruth Wolfe in
September 1936 and altered the existing
buildings to construct its new
church; St. John’s Lutheran Church
was dedicated on June 6, 1937.
Twenty years later, the congregation
opened St. John’s Lutheran School,
which educated students through the
eighth grade for more than 50 years.
Declining enrollment and fi nancial
diffi culty, however, forced the school
to transform itself into an early childhood
center in 2013.
Reprinted from the Jan. 1, 2015, issue
of the Ridgewood Times.
If you have memories to share with us,
send an email to editorial@ridgewoodtimes.
com (subject: Our Neighborhood:
The Way it Was) or write to The Old
Timer, ℅ Ridgewood Times, 38-15 Bell
Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361. Any mailed
pictures will be carefully returned to
you upon request.
Photos via Ridgewood Times archives
This picture shows 77th Avenue in eastern Glendale in the mid-1930s,
just as the area was being developed from farmland into a residential
community.
Photo: Robert Pozarycki/RIDGEWOOD TIMES
Before Sacred Heart Church’s permanent home was constructed on 78th
Avenue in Glendale, as pictured above, the parish’s fi rst years were celebrated
at the former Emerald Park picnic grounds on Myrtle Avenue off
88th Place. As it happened, the park would later become the site where
St. John’s Lutheran Church erected its house of worship.
