NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF PARKS PRESS RELEASES, JANUARY-DECEMBER 1935
http://home2.nyc.gov/html/records/pdf/govpub/41881935_press_releases.pdf
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Search Terms relevant to New Deal:
Park Department band (furnished by the Music Division, WPA)
Civil Works Administration [disappeared in Spring 1934]
C.W.A.
Department of Public Works
Federal Reemployment Service
Federal Re-employment Service
Harry L. Hopkins, Federal Works Progress Administrator
Home Relief
National Reemploymont Service
Public Works Administration
Temporary Emergency Relief Administration
T.E.R.A.
Work Relief
Works Division of the Department of Public Welfare (which is TERA)
Works Progress Administration
Other interesting search terms:
Bill Robinson
Advertising signs
New Deal projects announced in this archive:
11 Jan 1935 Brooklyn New section of Leiv Erikkson Park
between 8th Ave and Fort Hamilton Pkwy
Now called Leif Ericson Park and Square
18 Feb 1935 Manhattan Plan for redesign of City Hall Park
19 Feb 1935 Bronx Plans for reconstruction of Joyce Kilmer Park
28 Feb 1935 Bronx New playground at Union-Tinton Aves 161-163 Sts
No longer exists - Jane Addams HS is there now.
28 Feb 1935 Queens New playground in Chisolm Park in College Point
28 Feb 1935 Manhattan New playground on E.28th Street near 3rd Avenue
14 Mar 1935 All Renovation or reconstruction of 40 comfort stations
in parks in 1934
17 Mar 1935 Brooklyn Redesign and reconstruction of Grand Army Plaza
24 Mar 1935 Manhattan New health center at 115th St & Lexington Ave
with playground on roof
24 Mar 1935 Manhattan Remodeling of Heckscher Playground in Central Park
1 Apr 1935 Manhattan New Schiff Fountain in Seward Park
1 Apr 1935 Queens New playground at 32nd Avenue and 106th Street
1 Apr 1935 Brooklyn New playground at Vandervoort Ave & Cherry Street
16 Apr 1935 Manhattan Jay Hood Wright Playground, Haven Ave & 173rd St
21 May 1935 Bronx Henry Hudson Parkway Saw Mill River Parkway Extension
21 May 1935 Bronx Mosholu Baseball Field, 201st St and Webster Ave.
Frisch Field
3 Jun 1935 Bronx Reconstructed St. James Park, Jerome Ave & 132nd St
3 Jul 1935 Brooklyn Prospect Park Zoo
5 Jul 1935 (all) WPA Portable Theater presentations all summer
16 Jul 1935 Queens New Forest Park Golf Course
7 Aug 1935 Queens New Kissena Park Golf Course in Flushing
8 Aug 1935 Manhattan Development plan for Colonial (Bradhurst) Park
12 Aug 1935 Manhattan William McCray Memorial Playground 138th St,5th&Lex
12 Aug 1935 Manhattan Joseph Sauer Memorial Playground E.12th St Aves A&B
12 Aug 1935 Brooklyn William E Sheridan Memorial Playground 80-100 Grand St
12 Aug 1935 Queens Daniel O'Connel Memorial Playground 196 St & 113 Ave
12 Aug 1935 Queens Howard Van Dohlen Memorial Playground 138 St, 91 Ave
12 Aug 1935 Richmond Austin McDonald Memorial Playground Port Richmond
12 Aug 1935 Richmond Nicholas DeMatti Memorial Playground
Tompkins St between Chestnut Ave and Shaughnessy Lane
12 Aug 1935 Manhattan New playground at Corlears and Cherry Streets
12 Aug 1935 Brooklyn New playground on 95th St betweeen Avenues K and L
12 Aug 1935 Brooklyn New playground 3rd-4th Streets, 4th and 5th Aves
12 Aug 1935 Brooklyn New playground Atlantic Ave, Fountain Ave, Sunrise Hwy
12 Aug 1935 Brooklyn New playground 39th Street and Second Avenue
12 Aug 1935 Queens New playground in Alley Pond Park by parking field
12 Aug 1935 Queens New playground in Hillside Park by parking field
12 Aug 1935 Manhattan New playground at First Ave, Houston and 1st Streets
12 Aug 1935 Manhattan New playground at 150th St, 7th Ave. & Macombs Pl
12 Aug 1935 Queens New playground at 149th St and 25th Ave Flushing
12 Aug 1935 Richmond New playground on Harbor Road near Richmond Terrace
12 Aug 1935 Queens New playground at 243rd Road and 43rd Avenue
12 Aug 1935 Queens New playground at Poppenhausen Ave, 119th St
12 Aug 1935 Manhattan New playground on 28th Street, 2nd and 3rd Avenues.
12 Aug 1935 Brooklyn New playground Nostrand Avenue and Montgomery Street
12 Aug 1935 Bronx New playground on Park Ave between 150-151st Steets
12 Aug 1935 Brooklyn New playground at Vandervoort and Anthony Streets
12 Aug 1935 Queens New playground at Poppenhausen Ave, 119th Street
12 Aug 1935 Queens New playground on 52nd Ave, 106th-107th Streets
12 Aug 1935 Manhattan New playground on East Houston Street, 1st-2nd Avenue
12 Aug 1935 Brooklyn New playground Union, Hamilton, and Van Brunt Street
12 Aug 1935 Brooklyn New playground Remsen Avenue and Rutland Road
12 Aug 1935 Brooklyn New playground East NY Ave, Remsen and Utica Avenues
12 Aug 1935 Brooklyn New playground Remsen Avenue, 52nd-Winthrop Streets
12 Aug 1935 Brooklyn New playground Remsen Avenue, Winthrop-Clarkson Sts
12 Aug 1935 Manhattan New playground Rutgers and Henry Streets
12 Aug 1935 Brooklyn New playground New Utrecht Avenue and 71st Street
12 Aug 1935 Manhattan New playground Downing and Carmine Streets
12 Aug 1935 Manhattan New playground in Highbridge Park (180th & Amsterdam)
12 Aug 1935 Manhattan New playground Washington St, Horatio St-13th Street
12 Aug 1935 Manhattan New playground Washington St, 12th - Leroy Street
12 Aug 1935 Brooklyn New playground on Schermerhorn Street
12 Aug 1935 Manhattan New playground in Central Park, North Meadow, 100th St
12 Aug 1935 Bronx New playground in St.James Park, Jerome Ave, 193rd St
12 Aug 1935 Manhattan New playground in Carl Schurz Park
12 Aug 1935 Queens New Alley Pond Recreational Field
12 Aug 1935 Queens Newton Playground, 56th Ave and 92nd Street
30 Aug 1935 Brooklyn New playground at Snediker and Riverdale Avenues
30 Aug 1935 Brooklyn New playground at Stillwell Avenue and Avenue U
30 Aug 1935 Brooklyn New play area in McCarren Park
30 Aug 1935 Queens New children's play area in Laurelton playground
30 Aug 1935 Queens New play equipment in Highland Park
30 Aug 1935 Bronx New modern playground, location unspecified.
13 Sep 1935 Manhattan Plans for 19 new playgrounds in Central Park
15 Sep 1935 Queens New nature trail at Alley Pond Park
20 Sep 1935 Manhattan North Playground, Thos.Jefferson Park 1st Ave 111th St
20 Sep 1935 Brooklyn Sunset Park Playground at 5th Ave and 44th Street
20 Sep 1935 Bronx New playground at Cauldwell Ave and E.161-165 Street
20 Sep 1935 Queens New Middle Village Playground, 68th Rd. & 79th St.
20 Sep 1935 Queens New Jackson Pond Playground Forest Park
Myrtle Avenue and 108th Street
7 Oct 1935 Manhattan Central Park Harvest Festival WPA chorus & band
14 Oct 1935 Manhattan New playground W.Houston St, Sullivan & Thompson Sts
14 Oct 1935 Manhattan New playground Essex St, Rivington & Delancey Sts
14 Oct 1935 Manhattan New playground at York Avenue and E.68th St.
14 Oct 1935 Brooklyn New playground at E.3rd St, Ocean Pkwy, and Ave.P.
14 Oct 1935 Brooklyn New playground at Bedford Ave, Avenues X and Y.
14 Oct 1935 Bronx New playground at Hunts Pt & Spofford Aves & Faile St
14 Oct 1935 Bronx New playground at E.164 St & Teasdale Place
14 Oct 1935 Bronx Fort No.4, Reservoir Ave, University and Webb Aves.
14 Oct 1935 Bronx Jerome and Sedgwick Avenues
14 Oct 1935 Queens Bridge Plaza and 22nd Street
14 Oct 1935 Queens Bridge Plaza and 22nd at Crescent Ave and 27th St.
15 Oct 1935 Bronx Winter WPA Concerts at McCombs Dam Rec Building
15 Oct 1935 Brooklyn Winter WPA Concerts at Prospect Park Picnic House
21 Nov 1935 Queens Raymond O'Connor Park Playground, 32nd Ave & 209th St
21 Nov 1935 Manhattan New playground at Morningside Aveneu and 114th Street
21 Nov 1935 Manhattan New playground at Sixth Avenue and Minetta Lane
21 Nov 1935 Manhattan Thos.Jefferson Park (south portion) 1st Ave & 111th St
21 Nov 1935 Brooklyn New playground at Aberdeen St near Bushwick Avenue
21 Nov 1935 Brooklyn New playground at Third Avenue, Douglass & Degraw Sts
21 Nov 1935 Bronx Devoe Park East playground University Ave & W.188th St
18 Dec 1935 Manhattan New playground at W.Houston St, Sullivan-McDougal Sts
18 Dec 1935 Manhattan New playground at E.Houston St, Mott and Elizabeth Sts
18 Dec 1935 Bronx New playground at Cedar and Segwick Aves & 178 St
18 Dec 1935 Bronx New playground at Pennyfield avenue and Shore Drive
18 Dec 1935 Brooklyn New playground at Prospect and Greenwood Avenues
18 Dec 1935 Brooklyn New Heckscher Playground
Grove to Linden Streets near Wilson Avenue
18 Dec 1935 Brooklyn Howard and Atlantic Avenues
18 Dec 1935 Brooklyn Hopkinson Avenue and Dean Street
18 Dec 1935 Queens Bowne Park Playground
32 Avenue between 158 and 159 Streets
18 Dec 1935 Queens S.W. Corner Astoria Bouleverd and 90 Street
18 Dec 1935 Richmond Clove Lakes Park (small children's playground)
at Clove Road
18 Dec 1935 Richmond Clove Lakes Park (junior playground area)
at Victory Boulevard.
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[TABLE OF CONTENTS OMITTED]
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 June 28, 1935
The Henry Hudson Parkway Authority opened bids todey at three
o'clock at the headquarters of the City Park Department in the Arsenal,
Central Park.
The structure will be a reenforced concrete arch bridge
approximately 120 ft. in length with a 40 ft. clearance. It will carry four
lanes of traffic. Alternate bids were taken. The N.Y. & N.J. Engineering
Corporation, 60 East 4.2 Street, New York City, were the low bidders for
Design "A" - a bridge with stone facing, with a figure of $144,959.
Chas. Schaefer & Son, Buffalo, New York, were the low bidders for Design
"B", a bridge with concrete facing, with e figure of $122,127.50.
Work on the structure is to be started immediately end must be
completed by December 1, 1935.
Complete list of bidders is attached.
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 June 28, 1935
BID TABULATION
NAME ADDRESS DESIGN "B" DESIGN "A"
Chas. Schaefer & Son Buffalo, New York $122,127.50 $166,917.50
Poirier & McLane Corp. 33 West 42nd St, NY. 122,459.00 155,469.00
N.Y.& N.J.Eng. Corp. 60 East 42nd.St.N.Y. 135,650.00 144,959.00
Frank A.0'Hare Co.,Inc. 270 Medison Av. N.Y. 135,371.00 172,755.30
Woodcrest Constr. Co. Grand Cen.Terminal NY 139,303.00 171,768.00
Anthony Construction Corp 55 W.42nd St. N.Y. 151,430.00 181,900.00
Johnson, Drake & Piper Freeport, L.I.NY 151,882.00 192,797.00
Cleveorock, Inc. 420 Lexington Ave,NY 155,573.00 196,028.00
Garofano Construe. Co. 700 S.Columbus Ave. 161,890.50 19J,764.00
Mt. Vernon, N.Y.
-end-
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 June 14, 1935
The Henry Hudson Parkway Authority opened bids today at three
o'clock at the headquarters of the City Park Depsrtment at the Arsenal in
Central Park for the steel arch bridge over the Harlem River, connecting the
boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx.
Bids were taken on the bridge in two parts. The following is a list
of bidders with the amounts of their proposals for the steel superstructure:
NAME ADDRESS AMOUNT OF BID
American Bridge Co., Inc. 71 Broadway, NYC $ 865,208.59
McClintic Marshall Corp. Cunard Building, NYC 882,302.49
Taylor-Fichter Steel Const.
Co., Inc. 570 Seventh Avenue, NYC 917,480.00
Harris Structural Steel Co. 419 Fourth Ave., NYC 917,826.00
The Phoenix Bridge Co. 30 Church St., NYC 934,616.80
The following is a list of the bidders with the amounts of their
proposals for the concrete foundations and approach walls:
NAME ADDRESS AMOUNT OF BID
Thomas Crdmmins Cont. Co. 734 Lexington Ave., NYC $ 272,668.50
J. Leopold & Co., Inc. 60 East 42 St., NYC 284,270.00
Rodgers & Hagerty, Inc. 500 Fifth Ave., NYC 288,188.00
Anthony Const. Corp. 55 West 42 St., NYC 289,686.50
Garofano Const. Coğ, Inc. 700 S. Columbus Ave.,
Mt. Vernon, N. Y. 293,971.75
P. T. Cox Cont. Co., Inc. 154 Nassau St., NYC 294,000.00
Poirier & McLane 33 West 42 St., NYC 317,720.00
Senior & Palmer, Inc. 50 Church St., NYC 323,005.00
Woodcrest Const. Co. Grand Central Terminal
NYC 335,475.00
Joseph Metzer, Inc. 295 Madison Ave., NYC 356,595.00
Joseph L. Sigretto & Sons,Inc. 405 Lexington Ave., NYC 461,300.00
Construction work on this bridge will start immediately.
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 June 13, 1935
Although the response to the appeal of the Brooklyn Citizens'
Committee for the Prospect Park Zoo, formed by the Honorable Raymond
V. Ingersoll, Borough President of Brooklyn, and the Honorable Robert Moses,
Commissioner of Parks for the purpose of aiding in the stocking of the
Prospect Park Zoo with good specimens is gratifying, opportunity still exists
for those having the means and interest to contribute specimens or the funds
frith which to purchase them for the new zoo.
There is listed below the animals needed for the cages shown, and
the approximate costs:
House No. 2 Animals Heeded Cost
Cage 4 2 Zebra $900.00 each
" 6 1 pair Gnus 900.00 "
" 10 2 Kerabau Buffalos 400.00 "
House No. 3
Cage 2 1 pair Hippos 5500.00 "
" 5 1 Giraffe Price canot be quoted
House No. 5
Cage 1 1 pair Black Lepards 625.00 each
" 2 1 " Bengal Tigers -2 yrs. 1400.00 "
2 -4 " 1750.00 "
" 3 1 " Snow Leppards l250.00 "
10 1 " Jaguar 625.00 "
" 10 1 " Siberian Tigers 2500.00 "
" 12 1 " SingSing Water Buck 1000.00 "
" 16 1 " Nilgai 400.00 "
" 18 1 " Eland 900.00 "
The specimens needed, as listed above, involve a total expenditure
of approximately $35,000. Those interested are invited to communicate with Mr.
Louis C. Wills, president of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, 26 Court
Street, Brooklyn, N. Y., who is serving as chairmen of the Brooklyn Citizens'
Committee for the Prospect Park Zoo or to the Honorable Alfred B. Smith, who
is acting as "Renting Agent" for the zoo.
Each contributor will receive an appropriate certificate tearing the
signatures of former Governor Smith and Commissioner Robert Moses. A bronze
tablet of acknowledgment will be placed on the cages housing animals whose
cost was borne entirely by a single individual.
Prospect Park Zoo is to open on July 3rd. It will be one of the
finest zoos in the country for its size.
- end -
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[OMITTED: 5-PAGE LIST OF DONORS TO PROSPECT ZOO, JUNE 12, 1934.]
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 June 3, 1935
The Department of Parks is opening to the public on Sunday, June
9th, at three o'clock the newly reconstructed St. James Park, situated at
Jerome Avenue, north of Fordham Road, the Bronx.
This park is eleven and one half acres in area and was completely
replanned and reconstructed during the past four months. A Central Mall, with
wide bench line paths facing a centre turf panel, bisects the area taking the
place of the former dusty extension of 132nd Street. South of the Mall is a
large open lawn encircled by a promenade for park visitors. The northern
section is devoted principally to recreation activities. Twelve new tennis
courts have been provided and a completely equipped children's playground
occupies the space along Jerome Avenue.
The work this spring has involved the construction of paths,
the grading and top-soiling of the lawn areas and the setting out of 192
trees and 5865 shrubs. A recreational building, which will contain public
rest rooms, will be erected later in the year at the Jerome Avenue entrance
to the park.
George L. Quigley, Borough Director of the Department of Parks
of the Bronx will be chairman of the dedicatory exercises. The speakers
will be Commissioner Robert Mloses, John W. O'Brien, Chairman of the Bronx
Committee of the Park Association of New York, Alderman Joseph Kinsley
and Borough President James J. Lyons. The flag raising ceremonies will
be dignified by the presence of a Battery from the 253th Field Artillery
and the Commanding Officer of this Regiment, Col. Paul Loeser, vill attend.
The 258th Field Artillery Band will supply the music. At the conclusion
of the ceremonies Benediction will be pronounced by Rev. Arthur V.
Litchfield, Rector of St.James Protestant-Episcopal Church.
Following the opening of the park three exhibition tennis matches
will be played in which the best known amateur talent of the Bronx will
participate, viz: Ernest Kosland, Bernard Freedman, Daniel Freedman and
Allan Lovell members of the N.Y.U. Tennis Team, and Miss Millicent Hirsch
of the Crotona Park Tennis Association and Miss Bertha Heppner of Van
Cortlandt Park.
-end-
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 June 6, 1935
The past, present end future of New York's parks will be mirrored in
an exhibition of photographs, renderings, sketches and scale models to be held
in the International Building of Rockefeller Center from June 10 to June; 29.
Sponsored by the Municipal Art Society to honor the work of Commissioner
Robert Moses end the Park Department, the exhibition will show for the first
time all of the city park projects financed under the direction of
Commissioner Moses by municipal and relief funds, as well as the development
of city parks since 1850 end proposed changes for the future.
The exhibition will fill half of the second floor of the
International Building in Rockefeller Center. The exhibits contributed by the
Department of Parks of New York City, the Long Island Stfte Park Commission
and the TriBorough Bridge Authority, will be arranged in five sections
corresponding respectively to each of the five boroughs of New York City.
In the exhibit depicting the development of the Central Park Zoo, a
pair of live monkeys will swing from porches in a semi-circular cage. Special
keepers will feed, water and cere for the monkeys. Beside this cage panels of
photographs will show the contrast between the old zoo and the zoo as it now
exists, and also the new zoo developments in all the Boroughs. In the seme
exhibit will be shown the original plan of Central Park drawn by Olmsteed and
Vaux in the 1850's.
General park recreation areas proposed for the city will be
represented by plans and models of Highbridge Swimming Pool, Jackson Heights
Playground and Heckscher Playground Memorial.
The Triborough Bridge nov: under construction will be completely
illustrated by drawings and photographs assembled by the Triborough Bridge
Authority. Nearby a large relief map of Queens will show the proposed State
Parkway extension to the bridge and Brooklyn.
The Henry Hudson Bridge will, be illustrated by drawings of the new
structure over the Harlem River and Randall's Island by a map showing the
tennis courts, baseball diamonds and stadium.
Jones Beach State Park will be fully depicted in maps end
photographs of the park, photographs of the pool in operation, and air views
of the beaches, approaches and numerous recreational facilities.
Models will show the connection of the Interborough Parkway in
Queens with Pennsylvania Avenue and grade separations st Highland Boulevard,
and the grade separations and access drives at the junction of Grand Central
Parkway, Interborough Parkway and Queens Boulevard at Kew Gardens.
During the exhibition puppet shows for children will be given daily.
The terrace adjoining the exhibition rooms will be set with trees
and tables and the Park Orchestra will furnish music in the afternoons.
The exhibition will be open to the public without charge from
10:00 A. M. to 6:00 P. M. drily, including Sundays.
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IMMEDIATE RELEASE DEPARTMENT OF PARKS April 12, 1935.
BOROUGH OF BROOKLYN
City Editor
Easter Exhibit
Commissioner Moses announces that the Easter Show in the Park
Department Greenhouses, Brooklyn, will surpass anything that has heretofore
been done. It is anticipated that last year's attendance of over 150,000
people will be exceeded this year.
The Department will offer another masterpiece of horticultural
display. The huge cross, measuring thirty feet high and fifteen fee wide,
will be comprised of more than 3,000 of the finest Gigantium Lillies imported
from Japan, the sides banked with beautiful yellow Genesters and pearl pink
Rhododendrons, and the foundation laid out in a fine assortment of Azaleas in
every color and shade. Appropriate groups of plants will be placed for side
wall s and the entrance.
As easter is a little late this year, the Exhibit may not last
more than two weeks; therefore, the Park Department will have the Greenhouses
open in the evenings, starting Easter Sunday, until 8 P.M. Flood lights have
been installed to give the exhibit a beautiful blaze of color. The hours of
attendance are from 10 A.M. to 8 P.M. No children under sixteen years of age
will be admitted in the evenings unless accompanied by a guardian.
The Greenhouses are located in Prospect Park, 9th Street
and Prospect Park West, Brooklyn.
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Department of Parks
June 1st, 1935.
Hon. Thomas W. Hammond
Commissioner of Sanitation
Department of Sanitation
Municipal Building
New York City.
Dear Sir:
On May 22nd I discussed with you on the telephone and wrote
you that it would be necessary to stop the Sanitation Department's dumping
operations at Orchard Beach on July 1st next because these operations have
been entirely unsatisfactory. Since our order as to July 1st was issued, your
men have flagrantly violated our agreement and have littered the surrounding
community with garbage and refuse.
The Sanitation Department has failed to perform the necessary
work it agreed to do to confine its dumping operations within bulkheads
established between Hunter Island and Orchard Beach. There have been many
occasions where the Park Department forces have had to perform work which was
in obligation to your Department.
The Park Department has made daily inspections of the New
York City, Long Island and Westchester shores surrounding Orchard Beech.
Inspections yesterday disclosed that garbage and other refuse has been
permitted to float away from Orchard Beach.
I am writing to state that it will be necessary to stop the
Sanitation Department's dumping operations at Orchard Beach not later than
Saturday, June 8th. Your work must be so arranged as to vacate prk property
with all of your equipment and forces by noon of this day.
I also assume that you will clean all shores outside of park
property which your Department has littered.
Yours very truly,
Commissioner
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Released on May 22, 1935.
THE CITY OF NEW YORK
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
Arsenal
Central Park
STATEMENT TO THE PRESS
In answer to a number of inquiries as to filling at Orchard Beach for
the new bathhouse, beach end perking areas, the public is informed that all
dumping by the Sanitation Department will stop on July first.
It is necessary at this time to explain again the problem which faces
the Park Department. Orchard Beech constitutes the best location and the only
one publicly owned for e substantial bathing area on any of the boundary
waters of New York City with the exception of Staten Island, Coney Islend and
the Rockaways. After an exhaustive study, the Park Department has started a
program of construction of outdoor swimming pools to meet the present and
future needs of other city neighborhoods where boundary waters can no longer
be safely used for bathing.
At Orchard Beach we found a totally inadequate bathing area and
bathhouses so badly constructed thrt they had to be torn down. It was
necessary to plan the new beach on a proper scale for the use of large
numbers of people. This necessitated a tremendous fill. I repeatedly asked
for sufficient funds to start this work on an adequate scale, and stated
that no impression could be made on it merely with relief work unless a much
larger percentage was made available for materiel and equipment.
As en alternative, and as part of the pressing problem of disposing
of city ashes, I agreed to have such ashes dumped at Orchcrd Beach and several
other areas. The assurances given us that cleen ashes would be dumped have
unfortunately not materialized. A certain amount of garbage end refuse, in
addition to ashes, have been dumped. At one time the boom which held beck the
dumped meterial, broke, and a good deal of this material floated out on
adjacent territory. This was the responsibility of the Sanitation Department,
and was cleaned up by them. Subsequently, a number of other precautions were
teken which have not been wholly satisfactory, and while the Sanitation
material has helped to solve our problem, we have decided that this dumping
must stop because of incidental nuisences.
I wish to make it entirely clear, however, that although subsequent
dredging end filling operations will be entirely free from the present
dumping nuisances, there is bound to be all the appearance of confusion,
disturbance of natural scenery and barring of the public, which go with all
major construction work of this character. I have lived through a good deal
of this kind of thing at Jones Beach and other places, and I suppose that
along with my associates, we shall have to go through with it again
here. There is no use in attempting to develop Orchard Beach on anything but
a large scale. In the end, our present plans will be justified. In the
meantime, we are doing piecemeal work on a tremendous undertaking. We
believe that this work will go faster under the revised and expended work
program beginning July 1st. This applies also to the road and parkway
system at Pelham Bay Park, the reconstruction of the Rice Stadium and other
scheduled improvements in this area.
ROBERT MOSES
Commissioner.
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 May 29, 1935
The Department of Parks announced today it will
sponsor a Science Exhibit and Fair for the general public June 1, 1935, at the
Prospect Park Picnic House and McCombs Dam Park Recreation Building, 165
Street & Jerome Avenue in the Bronx.
This Science Fair is one of the functions developed by
the Park Department to utilize children's summer leisure. Children of all
playgrounds are invited to attend this exhibit, which has been prepared by the
regular members of the Playground Clubs, supervised by the Playground
Directors.
The Fair will consist of two general divisions -
Nature Study and Mechanics- The Nature Study Division will include exhibits of
biological collections, insect and plant life, leaves and seeds, aquatic life
and bird life. The Mechanics Division will include model airplanes, home-made
radios, receiving and transmitting, model yachts, sailboats and other
handicraft activities. The exhibits will be judged according to age groups -
that is, the juniors and seniors will be classified and suitable awards given
in each class. There will be group exhibits from each playground, and the
children will also exhibit scientific collections developed during the school
term, such as biological collections, manual training exhibits, etc.
There will be no charge to attend the Fair or enter
an Exhibit.
-End-
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 May 27, 1935
A meeting of prominent citizens was held this afternoon in
the office of Borou£h President Ingersoll, at his invitation, in the
interest of obtaining specimens for the Prospect Park Zoo, which is nearing
completion.
Borough President Ingersoll opened the meeting and told of
raising funds for the old zoo when he was park commissioner some years ago.
He then introduced Mr. Moses, who pointed out the background of relief labor
and said that instead of putting the men to work on the streets and around in
the parks they wanted to undertake some projects of considerable magnitude. He
said that when he first took office he put the 69,000 men out on maintenance
and then they worked up the zoo project. He explained that a zoo project is
very intricate and very complex. He also pointed out the difference between
the Brooklyn zoo and the Central Park Zoo. In Central Park we had to build
around a lot of old buildings and in Brooklyn they started off with a clean
slate.
The main handicap is lack of exhibits. When he first took
office a lot of old decrepit animals were weeded out. He then tried to get
various balances together which were accrued to the Park Department to
purchase animals and submitted it to the Director of the Budget but several
objections were raised due to hard times and the buying and feeding of animals
against the people who were starving for want of food. He then talked to
Governor Smith and pointed out that there were plenty of people in Brooklyn of
means to provide animals. He also mentioned the fact that it was too far for
Brooklynites to go to the Bronx Zoo. He said the zoo would open July 4.
Borough President Ingersoll then introduced Mr. Wills,
President of the Chamber of Commerce, and it was voted to make him chairman of
the committee to raise funds. He is chairman of the Brooklyn Citizens
Committee to raise funds for the zoo and he had the power to appoint a
secretary and treasurer. He is turning his office over to the handling of any
details that come up. W. K. Schwartz was made treasurer and he thanked the
Governor for coming to Brooklyn. He thought it was a neighborly gesture. The
Governor was introduced and he spoke about being night superintendent in
Central Park Zoo; told how he can sit in his window and look out on the
zoo. Said that as many as 122,000 visited the zoo in one day and in no case
would the entire majority go to the Bronx Zoo. He also pointed out the old
conditions in Central Park - of the keeper having to sit with a rifle in case
of fire, and in contrast he pointed out the new arrangement in Brooklyn where
bears and elephants and elks can be viewed without looking through bars. He
recognized there has been some opposition to the zoo in Brooklyn but stressed
the point that it was ideal thing for the kids. He told of donating the
chimpanzee to the new Central Park Zoo. He mentioned that Mr. S. Klein, of
14th Street, had given a certified check for $5,000 for the purchase of
animals for the Brooklyn Zoo. These are some of the animals:
5 sea lions 2 lioness
2 gazelles 1 pair puma
2 gennette cats 1 " agouti
2 civet cats 1 " fallow deer
2 jaguarendi 1 " ocelots
1 pair of spotted hyenas 1 " Siberian badgers
1 " " striped " " 1 " binturongs
2 kangaroos 1 " African porcupines
2 chimpanzees 4 Elks
2 cages of tropical birds 5 Polar Bears
15 rhesus monkeys S Tibetian sun bears
1 pair spotted leopards
Governor Smith added as a point of interest that he would like to see 50,000
donations of $1 each rather than two or three people give, all the money so
it would be of more popular interest.
-End-
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SUMMER PROGRAM IN CITY FOR 1935
The Manhattan Council of Girl Scouts will conduct three day camps
in cooperation with the Park Department during the coming summer, beginning
July 8 and closing August 30.
The day camps will be at Inwood Park, which is near the 207th Street
Station of the Eighth Avenue Subway (Washington Heights Train), end East Side
of Van Cortlandt Park, which is near the Woodlawn Station of the Lexington
Avenue Subway (Woodlawn-Jerome Avenue Train), and West Side of Van Cortlandt
Park, which is near the Van Cortlandt Station of the Seventh Avenue Subway
(Van Cortlandt Park Train.).
There will be accommodations for 150 children in each center each
day for four days a week. Centers will open at ten o'clock in the morning
and close about three-thirty o'clock in the afternoon.
The program will include Scout craft, games, athletics, outdoor
luncheon, singing, interest groups, such as nature, hendcrrft, dramatics, folk
dancing and art. They will be open to all girls, including non-Scouts, between
the ages of eight and sixteen, in Manhattan. The children will be assembled at
about fifty-five playgrounds chosen as centers in various sections of
Manhattan and will be chaperoned to the parks by members of the playground
staffs.
There will be no cost for transportation to the children. Any social
welfare agencies, such as settlements, institutions, church organizations,
etc., may send children to the designated plrygrounds provided one leader is
furnished for each twenty children, and this arrangement has been made in
advance.
Manhattan has been divided into districts and rotating group
scnedules will be. arranged. It is probable that the same group can only
visit the parks once a week with free- transportation. Any child wishing to
attend more frequently may do so provided she can pay her own carfare.
Three members of the supervising staff will be selected by the
Manhattan Council and under the direction of one of their field executives.
Besides these leaders there will be others furnished by the Park Department.
The Park Department has put comfort conveniences, with water, etc., at the
disposal of these groups. The Board of Education has made it possible for
these children to take advantage of the eight cent lunch provided for their
day camps for any children desiring it. Any child who was receiving t free
lunch at a public school may receive lunch free of cost. Any child wishing to
bring her own lunch may do so and jaay also learn fire-building and out-door
cooking.
LIST OF PLAYGROUNDS
To be used as Meeting Centers for Day Camps.
West Side
Battery Park
Hudson & Clarkson Streets .
Columbus, Baxter, Mulberry and Bayard Streets
Downing Street near Bleecker
Model Playground, West 17th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues
95 Thompson Street
West Side Washington Street between Horatio and West 15th Street
Sixth Avenue, Mecdougal Street, Houston Street
West Houston between Thompson and Sullivan Streets
Chelsea, 27th Street, Ninth Avenue
DeWitt Clinton, 52nd Street, 11th and 12th Avenues
West 59th Street between Amsterdam and 11th Avenue
West 67th Street and 11th Avenue
Central Park, Sutro, 93rd Street
Riverside, 96th Street and Riverside Drive.
Morningside Park, 123rd Street end Morningside Drive
St. Nicholas Extension, 129th Street and St. Nicholas Terrace
William McCray, 138th Street, 5th and Lenox Avenue
St. Nicholas, 140th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue
Hamilton Park, 140th Street
J. Hood Wright Park, Ft. Washington Avenue, West 173rd Street
150th Street West of Seventh Avenue
150th Street Bradhurst (Colonial)
Carmansville, 151st Street and Amsterdam Avenue
High Bridge, 169th Street
High Bridge, 176th Street and Amsterdam Avenue
Payson Avenue end Dyckman Street
189th Street and Amsterdam Avenue
Isham, Seaman Street
Fort Tryon, 198th Street
East Side
Corlears Hook, South Jackson and Cherry Street
Corlears Hook Extension, Corlears end Cherry Street
Coleman; Cherry end Market Streets
Cherry, Monroe end Gouvernor Streets
Gulick; Broome, Delancey and Sheriff Street
Sophie Irene Loeb, Market and Henry Street
Rutgers Slip, Rutgers end South Street
Lewis end Rivington Streets
John J. Murphy, 17th Street and East River
Tompkins Square, 10th Street and Avenue A
William H. Seward, Canal and Jefferson Street
83 Roosevelt Street
Joseph C. Sauer, East 12th Street near Avenue B
Houston, Essex and Norfolk Streets
Houston, First Avenue and Ludlow Streets
Roosevelt Playground, Canal, Houston and Chrystie Streets
Northerst Corner of Rutgers and Henry Streets
Southside, 28th Street between Second tnd Third Avenues
St. Gabriel, 35th Street and Second Avenue
St. Catherine, 62nd end First Avenue
John Jay, 77th Street end East River
Carl Echurz, 84th Street and East River
Yorkville, 101st and Second Avenue
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
[FLYER FOR DECORATION DAY CONCERT, THURSDAY EVENING, MAY 30th, 1935,
NAUMBURG ORCHESTRA, CENTRAL PARK MALL]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE MALL -- CENTRAL PARK
THURSDAY EVENING, MAY 30TH, AT 8 O'CLOCK
DECORATION DAY
THE NAUMBURG ORCHESTRA
LEON BAEZIN, Conductor
Program
"The Star Spangled Banner"
1. Overture "Der Freishutz" von Weber
2. Symphony in C Major Schubert
Andante--Allegro ma non Troppo
Andante--Con moto
Allegro vivace
3. Symphonie Espagnolle Lalo
Allegro non Troppo
Andante rondo
JOHN CORIGLIANO
4. Les Preludes Liszt
5. Waltz "The Blue Danube" Strauss
"America"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
[DECORATION DAY HANDOUT ABOUT NAUMBURGS]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
[VICTOR HERBERT FESTIVAL PROGRAM FOR MAY 26TH 1935]
Gaelic Musical Society of America
BRANDON TYNAN, Chairman
Central Park Mall
SUNDAY EVENING, MAY 26th, 1935
At Eight-Thirty
NEW YORK STATE SYMPHONIC BAND
GUISEPPE CREATORE, Conductor
PROGRAM
1. March--Baltimore Centennial Herbert
2. GREETINGS MR. JAMES MCGURRIN
President, General American Irish Historical Society
3. Selection from WONDERLAND Herbert
4. BADINAGE Herbert
5. GEMS OF VICTOR HERBERT
Compiled and Arranged by Creatore
INCLUDING
Babes in Toyland
Red Mill
Mademoiselle Modiste
Naughty Marietta
The Serenade
The Fortune Teller
[GARBLED SECTION OMITTED]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 May 24, 1935
The Department of Parks announced today that Jacob Riis Park,
Rockaway, L.I., will reopen for the summer season Saturday, May 25. Locker
facilities will accommodate 8200. Prices will not be increased weekends or
holidays. Parking space will accommodate 5500 cars.
A food bar will dispense lunch and soft drinks. The Empire
dining room an adjoining terrace will serve luncheon and dinner, with dancing
throughout the evening.
Trained directors will supervise the playground, arranging
games for the children. A story telling hour at 11 AM and 2 PM will entertain
the younger children. Special events are planned for children and grownups on
the beach, playground and in the ocean.
-End-
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 May 21, 1935
The Department of Parks announced today that Manhattan
College, whose season record includes two victories over New York University,
and The Bronx Elks, one of the strongest amateur teams in the borough, will
vie for honors at the Mosholu Baseball Field, 201 Street and Webster Avenue,
The Bronx, Sunday, May 26, at 2:30 P.M. Bert Daniels, Manhattan's coach, has
promised to have his first string men in the game.
This field, recently reconstructed by relief workers
assigned to the Park Department, is one of the finest baseball plants in the
entire park system, with seating accommodations for 3500 plus 1000 park
benches. The diamond has been constructed according to big league
specifications and a very fast game can be expected.
The Park Department band will furnish music and the teams
will march across the field, forming the guard of honor for a flag raising
ceremony before the game. Another feature will be an exhibition by the 40 man
drill team of the Bronx Elks.
-End-
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 May 21, 1935
The Department of Parks announced today the beginning of
advertising of bids for the Henry Hudson Bridge across the Hudson River Ship
Canal from Inwood Hill Park to Spuyten Duyvil. Bids will be opened June 14.
The bridge will be built by the Henry Hudson Parkway Authority, of
which Commissioner Moses is sole member, as part of an express highway linking
Riverside Drive with the Saw Mill River Parkway. Last month the Authority
sold three million one hundred thousend dollars ($5,100,000) worth of bonds to
a banking syndicate to finance the project.
The structure will be a high level tangle arch bridge, with an 800
foot span, flanked by two steel viaducts each 500 feet long end by two 450 foot
reinforced concrete approach structures. It will carry a four lane concrete
roadway and heve a clearance above mean high water of 145 feet.
The contract, to be let next month by seeled bids, is for the
construction of the substructure end superstructure of the bridge. The
estimated cost of the work is one million dollers ($1,000,000). Work will
begin immediately after the award of the contract and the structure will be
completed in 1937.
The Henry Hudson Parkway is designed to eliminate the traffic bottle
neck at the drawbridge at 220th Street and Broadway. Eventually it will be a
link in a through parkway and express highway system extending from the
Battery in Manhattan to the Saw Mill River Parkway in Westchester.
The rest of the bond issue will be used for the construction of two
sections of the parkway and grade elimination bridges from the end of
Riverside Drive through Inwood Hill Park south of the bridge, and from the
northerly bridge head through Spuyten Duyvil. At Riverdale Avenue, section
three of the new parkway, known as the Saw Mill River Parkway Extension is
already under construction by the State Public Works Department on plans
approved by the City Park Department with the use of federal highway aid
funds.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
225
FOR RELEASE MONDAY, MAY 20, 1935.
THE CITY OF NEW YORK
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
Arsenal - Central Park
The last of the patients occupying the buildings of the House of
Refuge on Randalls Island were removed yesterday to Coxsackie.
Pursuant to Chapter 144 of the Laws of 1933, the title to the land
and buildings formerly occupied by the Society for the Reformation of Juvenile
Delinquents known as the House of Refuge, reverts to the City of New York and
become, established as a City park.
The buildings will he torn down immediately for the Department of
Parks by the Commissioner of Buildings, Manhattan, and construction of this
portion of Randalls Island will start immediately after the buildings are
demolished. Establishment of this new park area adds 50 acres to the City
Park System.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
May 7, 1935
The meeting with the Brooklyn and Long Is. Municipal Golf Association
was constructive and I will dictate a summary for you.
One of the things they requested was that Forest Park remain closed until
all of the courses could be opened. I asked them if the congestion at
Clearview would be relieved if we opened 9 temporary holes at Forest and they
all agreed that it would not make a bit of difference. The dry weather in
April did us a lot of damage, more at Forest than anywhere else and I suggest
a press release be issued that due to weather conditions the opening date for
Forest Park be postponed until the grass can stand the play.
John R. Van Kleek
Golf Architect.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 May 6, 1935
The Department of Parks announces that its City-Wide Marble
Shooting Contest for boys and girls which has been conducted in all of the
various park playgrounds throughout the city is nearing completion. The
championship will be determined on May 15, 1935, on the Plaza in front of City
Hall.
This annual marble shooting Contest has become an event which
is looked forward to with great interest by the children of the city and the
attachees of the Park Department have been hard put to it to take care of the
numerous entries. Boys and girls under 14 years of age have been competing
since the first part of April in this tournament in order to qualify for the
championship games at City Hall. Separate contests have been held for the
boys and girls, neither having met each other during the course of the
tournament. When the City Hall games take place the public is assured of
seeing the pick of the boroughs, since only the winners of the respective
boroughs will be chosen to play that day. Three boys from each borough will
meet three boys from each other borough and the same will be true of the
girls.
In addition to these contests it is planned to have the
winning boy meet the girl champion at a time and place to be fixed later, in
order to determine the question of whether the boys or girls excel in marbles.
-End-
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 April 29, 1935
The Department of Parks announced today the receipt of
a permit from the owners of the property bounded by Sutphin Boulevard,
88th Avenue, 148th Street and 89th Avenue, for the use of this area for
playground purposes for a period of one year at no cost to the city.
The property belongs to the Roman Catholic Diocese of
Brooklyn and this permission was granted by the Right Reverend Thomas E.
Malloy, D.C., Bishop of Brooklyn. The property comprises one complete block,
a little over two acres, plans for the playground include handball and
basketball courts and an area set aside for small children equipped with
apparatus.
The development of this playground and of many others
throughout the city is entirely dependent upon relief funds. These funds have
been steadily reduced so far as the Park Department is concerned. We now have
approximately half the amount for material which we had last summer and fall.
There are further threatened cuts in both men and materials. Under these
circumstances, scores of new playgrounds cannot be equipped and opened this
year. A complete statement on this subject giving the list of the playgrounds
which cannot be opened and their location in every borough of the city will be
furnished to the press next week in answer to hundreds of communications as to
why the promised new playgrounds are not being developed and opened faster.
-End-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 April 16, 1935
April 17, at 3:30 P.M., the Department of Parks will
officially open Jay Hood Wright Playground at Fort Washington Avenue to
Haven Avenue, north of 173rd Street, Manhattan. Approximately 250 children
will participate in the ceremonies by singing and dancing, addresses will be
made by Borough Director John W. Heaslip, Jr., Miss Ellen W.G. Phillips,
District Superintendent of the Board of Education; Forest L. Boyles, President
of the Washington Heights Chamber of Commerce, Alderman Elias H. Jacobs will
make the presentation and Gloria Woods and Paul Aronin, representing the
Spirit of the Park, will accept the playground.
Facilities, will consist of slides, swings, jungle gym,
see-saws, horizontal ladders and bars, soft ball diamond, wading pool and two
haildball courts. The recreation building will include a playroom and two
loggias. Floodlights will be installed for night use. Ten playground
directors will supervise this three-acre playground.
-end-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 April 12, 1935
CHILDREN PLANT GARDENS AT BETSY HEAD PARK
HOPKINSON AND BLAKE AVENUES, BROOKLYN, N.Y.
Monday, April 15, 1935, at 11 A.M.
The first group of 300 children will begin planting their first
crop of Scallions, Lettuce, White and Red Radishes Monday, April 15 at 11 A.M.
The children will be taken into the garden in groups of 40 and
given a demonstration planting on one of the little gardens, by a garden
instructor.
Tags bearing their names and the number of their little 4 X 8
ft. gardens are given to the children before planting. This tag entitles
ownership unless rules or regulations are broken.
An important lesson in responsibility is here given as every tag
bears upon it, the potent warning "if you lose your tag, you lose your plot."
Seeds and little garden tools are furnished by the Recreation
Division of the Department of Parks.
The resultant harvest of their quick growing spring vegetables
will be garnered in a "as ye sow, so shall ye reap" spirit and proudly taken
home by the little farmers.
The garden plots are planted intensively, several times during the
growing season, so that groups of different children in these congested areas
may learn some of the workings of nature and have a good time in doing so.
-end-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 April 15, 1935
The Department of Parks issued a development plan today for
the redesign and reconstruction of Highland Park, Interborough Parkway,
Jamaica Avenue, Warwick Street and Highland Boulevard, Queens.
The main play center will be between Highland Boulevard and
Jamaica Avenue, Tennis courts will be resurfaced. Fruit trees will surround
the children's gardens. The athletic field, separated from the tennis courts
by a large lawn, will contain three baseball diamonds. A field house will
contain men's and women's locker facilities and a children's playroom. A
wading pool eight inches deep and 160' by 90' will be located in front of the
house, A walk will circulate the athletic field and connect with a new
stairway in the northwest section leading to Highland Boulevard.
The Ridgewood Reservoirs will be surrounded by a shaded
walk. Shade trees, bushes and shrubs will be planted throughout.
A playground equipped with complete apparatus will be located west
of the reservoirs between Highland Boulevard and Interborough Parkway. A
shelter house will separate this section from the small children's play area
end picnic ground.
The old bandstand is to be altered and painted.
A fish pool, stocked with gold fish, will form part of the
redesigned flower garden, .around which will be bluestone walks.
All vehicular drives, except the one connecting Highland
Boulevard a.nd. the Parkway, will be superseded by walks. Parking space will
be provided southwest of the reservoirs.
The area of Highland Park is 96.08 acres, part of which is
in Queens and part in Brooklyn. The land was acquired by purchase gift and
surrender by the Department of Water Supply, Gas & Electricity. The land
purchased cost $501,370.60.
-end-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 April 13, 1935
The restoration of Terrace Bridge, located at the extreme northerly
end of the Mall, is rapidly nearing completion. The restoration, as far as
present conditions permit, follows the original design of Messrs. Olmstead and
Vaux.
A medium priced garden restaurant is being constructed under the
Bridge, with auxiliary facilities on the terrace, consisting of colorful
tables, chairs and umbrellas.
The restaurant is being provided primarily to serve light
refreshments to those attending concerts, dances and other activities on the
Mall.
The restaurant proper will be located under the Bridge with the
kitchen in the southeast corner end adjoining a bar where beverages and
sandwiches will be sold at popular prices. The terrace floor, which is done
in red brick, will serve those who prefer, the garden type restaurant of the
"Gay Nineties", or who wish to rest in the seats around the edge of the
fountain. The Bethesda Fountain, designed by Emma Stebbins and erected by the
City in 1873, serves as an appropriate background as does the lake just north
of it.
The restaurant will be operated under a concession agreement with
the Department of Parks and will open about the 15th of May.
The restoration of Terrace Bridge includes the removal of the
comfort facilities which formerly existed on the west end of the enclosed
terrace. New and modern facilities have been erected on either side of the
stairs midway between the lower terrace and the Mall on the upper level.
-end--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 April 12, 1935
The Department of Parks announces that a tree will be dedicated to
the memory of General Sam Houston, first governor of the Republic of Texas, by
the Historic Nut Tree Planting Association in Heckscher Playground, Central
Park, at 2:00 P.M. April 14. Lt. Col. Lake, President of the Association will
make the presentation. The tree, which will be transplanted from General
Houston's old home at Huntsvilie, Texas, will be marked by a bronze plaque
denoting its historic nature.
Allyn R. Jennings, Landscape Architect, will represent the Park
Department.
Margaret Bell Houston, granddaughter of Sam Houston, will read "Song
from Traffic", an original poem. Addresses will be made by Prof. Dudley
F. McCollum, New York University; Borough Director John U. Heaslip, Jr.;
Mrs. Horace L. Hotchkiss and Colonel Martin L. Crimmins.
-end--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
MEMO TO: E P KING April 11, 1935
FROM: J.F. MURRAY
SUBJECT: PROPOSAL FOR OPENING OF THE BASEBALL SEASON AT
VICTORY FIELD, SUNDAY APRIL 14
2 P.M. Bandselections and maneuvers by G-rover Cleveland
High school band, under tho direction of Professor
Seifert.
2:30 PM Players of the Ravens Baseball Team and the Aztecs
Baseball team will line up on the field and led by
the band will parade to the flagpole and raise the
flag.
2:40 PM Each team will have ten minutes practice on the field.
3: PM Matthew Napear will throw out the first ball starting
the game.
John F. Murray
Supervisor Recreation
Queens
NOTE: THE Ravens and the Aztecs are rival teams of Grlendale
and played a 1-0 game at the end of last season. Both
are uniformed teams.
KSM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 April 11, 1935
OFFICIAL OPENING OF PARK BASEBALL DIAMONDS
The Department of Parks announces tho formal opening of 159
baseball diamonds Sunday afternoon, April 14. Mayor LaGuardia and the
five Borough Presidents have been invited to throw oat the first ball in
their respective boroughs.
Teams have been picked from those regularly using Park
diamonds. Each Borough Supervisor of Recreation issues permits for alternate
Saturdays and Sundays, for a period of two hours from 10:00 A.M . to 6:00
P.M., upon written application. Thus more teams can be taken care of and
consideration given to neighborhood teams.
The Schedule of openings is as follows:
In the Bronx the Raleigh Baseball Club will play the Bainbridge
Baseball Club at Van Cortlandt Park on Diamond 1 at 1:30 P.M. The Manhattan
Concert Band will furnish music.
In Brooklyn the Acme Arrows will vie against the Beverley
Baseball Club for the honor of winning the first game, to be played at 2:00
P.M. The New York State Symphonic Band will play incidental music.
In Manhattan the Holy Name Church team, under the direction of
Rev. A.W. Meyer, will contest the first game against the Lamport Manufacturing
Co. team, managed by Miss Teddye Wolf, on Diamond 3, North Meadow, Central
Park, at 2:00 P.M. Music will be furnished by the Park Department Band.
In Queens the Grovor Cleveland High School Boys' and Girls'
Band will lend color to the game between the Raven Baseball Club and the Aztec
A . C. at Victory Field, Forest Park, 2:30 P M. The Old Timers' Association
of Queens are invited as guests of honor.
In Richmond the Pleasant Plain Bears and West Brighton
Cardinals will play at Willow Brook Park at 2:M P.M.
Fair warning is given the big leaguers, because Park Department
employees are going to keep these diamonds in the best possible condition.
- End-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 April 8, 1935
The Department of Parks has made arrangements with the Department of
Sanitation to cover with clean sand the fill which the Sanitation Department
recently deposited in Orchard Beach at Pelham Bay Park.
The dredge "Empire State" which is owned and operated by W. H. Gahagan,
Inc., has been engaged by the Department of Sanitation for this work and will
proceed this week to Orchard Beach to start operation. The dredge has a
capacity of about 8,000 cubic yards a day.
The covering of this fill with clean sand, pumped over it by the
dredge, will remove every objection which can be raised freat a health,
standpoint.
-End-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 April 7, 1935
The Department of Parks announced today that commencing Easter
Sunday the Conservatory in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, will be open to the public
daily from 10 A.M. to 8 P.M. Easter is a little late, so the exhibit may not
last more than two weeks.
The masterpiece in this Easter horticultural display will be a huge
cross, thirty feet high and fifteen feet wide, planted with more than three
thousand of the finest Gigantcum Lilies imported from Japan. The sides will
be banked with beautiful Genista and pearl pink Rhododendrons, azaleas in
every color and shade will form the foundation. Floodlights have been
installed to bathe the display in a blaze of color.
Children under sixteen years of age will not be admitted in the
evenings unless accompanied by a guardian.
It is expected this year's attendance will far surpass the 150,000
people which visited the exhibit in 1934.
-end-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 April 7, 1935
The area adjoining Coney Island known as the Dreamland
Parking Space is to be developed as a recreation center, according to plans
announced today by the Department of Parks. It is bounded on the north by a
pedestrian way, on the west by West 8th Street, on the south by the Boardwalk
and on the east by West 5th Street.
The section immediately adjacent to the Boardwalk will be
regraded and resurfaced. It will contain ten handball courts, twenty-eight
paddle tennis courts and ten shuffleboard courts, to be separated equally by a
lawn. The remaining area will be developed principally as a great lawn for
archery and games. It will be enclosed and shaded by Sycamore trees, and
benches will be provided.
An underpass will connect the area east of the Municipal
Bath House, Heretofore this has been nothing more than a barren sand lot.
This section will be developed as sand play areas.
More than six hundred trees are to be planted in these two
main areas to provide needed shade.
The Boardwalk will be ten feet above the park. A four foot
bulkhead is to be erected under the Boardwalk. The space between the top of
the bulkhead and the boardwalk will be completely enclosed to separate the
beach and perk areas and to regulate ingress and egress between the two.
Seaside Park, northeast of this development, is to be
rehabilitated by the Department of Parks, following the existing design. The
plan, however, anticipates the eventual connection of Seaside Park and the
Boardwalk by a mall 150 feet wide.
"Dreamland Parking Space" was acquired by purchase March 14,
1912, at a cost of $2,552,436. It has an area of 11.56 acres and was
purchased at the same time the city bought Jacob Riis Park, an area of 258.58
acres. Although "Dreamland Parking Space" is less than 5% of the area of Jacob
Riis Park it cost approximately twice as much. It was purchased as an
addition to Seaside Park but was never developed as intended, and the decision
as to its use has long been in controversy. In 1923 the Department of Parka
of the Borough of Brooklyn paved the area and operated it as a parking space.
This was subsequently leased in 1926 to a private corporation for the parking
of automobiles. Last spring the Department of Parks cancelled the lease and
operated the parking area with its own employees. In 1927 a resolution waa
introduced in the Board of Aldermen to transfer the land back to the
Commissioners of tho Sinking Fund as a protest against the non-developmont of
the area as a park or playground and to release it for other use. How the area
is to be developed by the Department of Parks along the lines which induced
its purchase by the city.
The new facilities will muet tho need of a recreation center
in this section, separate and distinct from the beach at Coney Island.
Borough President Ingersoll's approval has been given.
These improvements will be made as soon as sufficient
work relief funds are available.
-End-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 April 6, 1935
The Department of Parks will initiate a new activity with the
inauguration of a "Science Exhibit and Fair" for the general public on June
1st, 1935. The fair will be held at two locations simultaneously--The Prospect
Park Picnic House in Brooklyn, and the Macombs Dam Recreation Building, at
165th Street and Jerome avenue in the Bronx. It is in line with the policy of
the Department to encourage this form of activity because of its aid to the
proper use of the new leisure time.
This exhibit will be prepared by the children of the various
playgrounds throughout the city under the supervision and guidance of the
Borough Supervisors of Recreation. It will consist of a showing of the many
articles of handicraft made by the children during the year, and an exhibition
of the various hobbies indulged in by them with the cooperation of the
playground directors.
The exhibit will be partitioned into two main divisions--
nature study and mechanics. There will be exhibits of home-made radios, both
receiving end tr nsmitting sets; model yachts and sailboats; model motorboats,
baskerty, mats, cabinet work, soap carving, knitting, bookbinding, hooked
rugs, entomological collections, collections of the flora and fauna of the
region, .and many other interesting exhibits. All exhibits will be prepared by
the children and will demonstrate the variety of handicraft work done in the
parks and playgrounds. The children will also exhibit the various scientific
collections developed by them during the school term, such as biological
collections, manual training exhibits, etc. Every park and playground in the
city will be represented by one or more exhibits. Arrangements are being made
to present prizes for the best exhibits, anotg the different age groups. There
will be no charge for entering an exhibit in the fair, neither will there be
any charge for admission.
-end-
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 April 5, 1935
Under the direction and guidance of playground directors, children
who attend the Department of Parks playgrounds are making great strides in the
amateur theatrical field. Their activities, which embrace all phases of
amateur dramatic work, provide excellent training as well as aiding to develop
hobbies. The boys and girls who take part in the shows engage in all details
of the work. They design and make costumes in the playground sewing classes
£ the boys design and construct scenery and attend to the lighting and
properties. The children range from six to sixteen years of age. Most of them
have had no experience in this field, but despite this handicap some
remarkably fine plays have been presented.
Many fine shows are scheduled for April. In Manhattan the plays
will be given Saturday afternoons at Carmine Street, Gyr/aiasium, Clarkson and
Varick Streets. Three or four plays will be given each afternoon, beginning
at 2:00 P.M. During intermissions while scenes are being changed the Dance
Group of the Gymnasium will present a series of modern and interpretative
dances.
Several dramatic functions are scheduled for the Bronx in April.
April 13 an "amateur hour" of thirty-six acts, which will include
representation from every Bronx playground, will be staged at Macomb's Dam
Recreation Building, 165th Street and Jerome Avenue. At 2:00 P.M., April 23,
children from Lyons Square Playground will present "Princess Chrysanthemum",
an operetta; April 24 children of St. Mary's West Playground will give "The
Queens Cross-Patch."
In Brooklyn, Queens and Richmond, where facilities are available,
plays will be given at various playgrounds. Information as to the time and
place of presentation may be secured from each Borough Director.
-end-
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 April 4, 1935
The Department of Parks will sponsor an extensive Soft Ball
Tournament in the city Playgrounds during the spring and summer months. This
game is comparatively new in New York City, but has been played for years in
the other cities of the country. The Park Department has sponsored Soft Ball
Tournaments in previous years, but not on the scale contemplated this year.
The game differs from the regular hard baseball in that it is played
on a smaller diamond, either grass or concrete, and a much larger and softer
ball is used. No other equipment than bats and balls are necessary for the
game, making it cheaper to play.
The tournament will start on April 20th, and will have five classes:
a. Boys under sixteen years.
b. Boys between sixteen and nineteen years.
c. Boys and men over nineteen years.
d. Married men
e. Girls and women over eighteen years.
The tournament will be conducted in all boroughs simultaneously. It
will be an- elimination tournament, to determine the winners in the respective
playgrounds. These winners will meet the teams from the other playgrounds,
beginning on or about May 20th. The tournament will continue throughout the
summer, with the semifinals taking place between August 25th and September
9th. Medals to the city champions in each class will.be awarded by the
Department.
Teams and players who wish to enter this tournament are requested to
communicate with the nearest playground, or with the Park Director of their
respective borough.
-end-
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[ILLEGIBLE BASKETBALL, SAILBOAT, AND SOCCER TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE OMITTED]
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201
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 Monday, April 1, 1935
Three areas, constructed with Work Relief Funds, are to be
opened by the Department of Parks on Monday (April 1). Two are playgrounds,
located at Vandervoort Avenue and Cherry Street, Brooklyn, and at 32nd Avenue
and 106th Street, Queens, and brings the total of playgrounds opened during
the past year to forty-nine. Another is the section of the William H. Seward
Park which has been developed as a formal setting for the Jacob H. Schiff
fountain.
The playground at Vandervoort Avenue and Cherry Street has an
area of nearly an acre. The land was acquired by the Sinking Fund Commission
by purchase at a cost of £22,500 and it was turned over to the Department
of Parks on April 3, 1924, for development as a playground, but the land lay
dormant and undeveloped until the present program of playground construction
was undertaken. It will contain a wading pool, a basketball court, eight
kindergarten swings, six large swings, two handball courts, two playground
slides, two kindergarten slides, eight see-saws, a horizontal bar, a set of
parallel bars, a climbing ladder and a jungle gym. The area will also have a
shelter house containing a playroom and conveniences. The exterior of the
building has been completed.
The playground at 32nd Avenue and 106th Street consists of
about a quarter of an acre. It has been leased to the Department of Parks by
the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. The lease runs until December
31, 1936. The play area will contain a bank of swings, four see-saws, a giant
stride and two slides. It will be opened at 3s30 P.M.
The section of the William H. Seward Park bounded by Hester,
Essex and Canal Streets has been developed along formal lines as an
appropriate setting for the Jacob H. Schiff Fountain, designed by the late
Arnold W. Brunner, architect, which is now being repaired and which will be
the central figure in the design. The work on the fountain itself has not yet
been completed and it will be put in place at a later date.
-End-
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 Sunday, March 24, 1935
The Heckscher Playground in Central Park was officially
opened on June 21, 1926.
The one person who did the most to overcome the opposition to
the establishment of a children's playground in Central Park was Sophie Irene
Loeb, a prominent social worker who was instrumental in obtaining much social
legislation in the State of New York.
The funds for the development of the playground were
donated by Mr. August Heckscher.
Through Mr. Heckscher's generosity, it has now become
possible to erect a memorial to Sophie Irene Loeb. This memorial will be
erected as the central feature in the area occupied by the Heckscher
Playground under a new plan recently prepared by the Department of Parks,
calling for the complete renovation and redevelopment of this area. The
memorial itself will consist of a carved stone group of statuary, which will
also provide drinking fountains for children, surrounded by a circular paved
area, all enclosed by heavy landscape planting.
The new plan for this development, recognizes the original
intent of Miss Loeb and Mr. Heckscher, that this playground should be used
primarily by the younger children. The feature of most interest to the small
children is a wading pool approximately 60' x 250'. In past years this pool
has been used simply as an open saucer of water, with no attempt at regulation
or prevention of contamination. The new plan calls for revising the
construction of this pool, so that it will fit more appropriately into its
natural rock location, and provides for restricted entrance and egress through
a sterilizing, chlorinated foot bath.
The ball field, which occupies about one half of the area of
the playground, has always been a bare expanse of dust and cinders with no
orderly layout. For days after every heavy rainstorm in the Summer this field
is nothing but a mud hole. It will now be regraded, properly drained, and
seeded. There will be four soft ball diamonds and two hard ball diamonds,
which will be permanently and properly located for the most efficient use of
the area for ball play|ng. This field will be laid out in such a way that it
can be used for football by the smaller boys and for field hockey by the
girls, during the seasons when baseball is not played.
The present recreation building, which served primarily as a
comfort station, will be remodeled to provide recreation rooms for cold and
inclement weather, and a heating plant will be installed so that it can be
used throughout the year. The present equipment of swings, see-saws,
playhouses, etc. will be increased and placed in an orderly arrangement, which
will make the playground usable for at least twice as many children as have
been able to take advantage of it under the present layout. In addition to
the present facilities, there will be added a few small grass areas on which
children can play croquet and other group games.
-End-
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Arsenal, Central Park March 22, 1935
Tel. Regent 4-1000
A joint announcement of the Department of Parks end the
Department of Health today made public the revised plans for the construction
of the new health center on the south side of 115th Street just east of
Lexington Avenue. The site, acquired through private purchase for the sum of
$103,120, is to be improved with a four-story brick building for use as a
District Health Center by the Department of Health. The original plans
prepared by the Department of Health have been modified so that the roof of
the new building is to be made into a playground by the Department of Parks.
The East Harlem Health Center is one of seven similar buildings for which the
P.W.A. has allotted funds. These buildings have been designed to suit the
needs of the district in which they are to be built, end wherever practicable
similar playgrounds provided by the Department of Parks will be made part of
the health center.
"I am delighted", said Commissioner Rice, "at the very
effective cooperation which Commissioner Moses hr.s given the Department of
Health. The addition of the roof playground adds immeasurably to the influence
of the Health centers. After all, the primary function of the centers is
health education and clean, safe end attractive playgrounds will help us in
our efforts."
The new building for the East Harlem Health Center will
be basement and two stories in height, of fireproof steel skeleton type
construction. Access to the roof playground, will be through direct outside
stairways and by elevator. The first floor will contain certain facilities for
general entrance and circulation, and the rooms required for the various
clinic and diagnosis services. The second floor will provide spr.ee for the
administrative staff and voluntary charity agencies connected with this work.
The plans for this building are being prepared by Henry C. Pelton, architects,
and will be ready for construction about the first of July. The building will
be ready for occupajicy about March, 1936. The estimated cost is approximately
$239,660.
While the roof playground is not entirely new, the
Department of Parks will spare nothing in the way of ingenuity in developing
this area into the city's most modern recreational center above street level.
It will be so designed and landscaped as to conceal from those using its
facilities that they are located on a roof and high above the street where the
air is better and competing influences are entirely removed. In addition to a
wading pool, the playground will be equipped with see-saws, swings, slides and
small playhouses.
Shaded aireas will be set aside for quiet games. A roof
loggia will contain a directors' room and all facilities, from which will
extend a shaded promenade and rest area which can be enclosed during the
winter months. The joint use and development of this property by the
Department of Health and Department of Parks was decided on at a conference
between officials representing the interests of these two departments. The
roof area was made available for playground purposes by certain minor
revisions in the original plans for the health center. The East Harlem
neighborhood, in which this health center is located, is in great need of
intensive health Service, recreation amd education.
The depression has caused a gradual return into this area
of those who, in mare prosperous times, had better homes elsewhere in the
city. The establishment of the East Harlem Health Center as one of the first
units in the city-wide plan of health centers, is essential to meet the health
needs of the local community, which is a tenement section, in which are some
of the most difficult social and economic conditions in New York City.
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 March 14, 1935
The Department of Parks is carrying on an extensive campaign of comfort
station renovation. Seventy-five per cent of these buildings were in poor
condition and in need of repair at the advent of the new administration. It
will be necessary, in many cases, to erect entirely new buildings to replace
the antiquated and temporary types of shelter in various parks. Many of these
buildings were erected in the late nineties and are still in use. They are
constructed of wood. The original fixtures, by now totally inadequate and
very unsanitary, are still in operation.
During the year 1934 construction of forty-five new playgrounds and
recreational buildings in which modern comfort facilities are located, was
begun. These are located as follows;
Manhattan - Inwood Hill; Central Park Zoo; Cherry, Monroe &
(18) Gouverneur Sts.; Gulick Playground; 17th St. Play-
ground; Thompson St.Playground; Roosevelt Park, where
four are located; Wm. McCray Playground; Lewis &
Rivington Sts.; Jos. C. Sauer Flayground; 83 Roosevelt
St.; Essex & Houston Sts.; Hamilton Fish Park; High-
bridge Park; J. Hood Wright Playground and Columbus
Park.
Brooklyn - Three at Leiv Eiriksson; Unnamed Playgrounds #4, 5, 10
(12) and 13; Gowanus House and Drier Offerman Playground;
Dyker Beach Golf House; Prospect Park Zoo, and Wm. E.
Sheridan Playground.
Bronx - Louis Zimmerman Playground; Vincent Ciccarone Play-,
(4) ground; 141st St. & Brook Ave.; and Pelham Bay Golf
house.
Queens - Flushing Memorial Playground; Corona Playground;
(6) Jackson Heights Model Playground; Van Dohlen Playground;
Daniel M. O'Connell Playground; and Chisholm Park.
Richmond - Jewett & Castleton Sts.; Austin J. McDonald Playground;
Nicholas DiMatti Playground; Barrett Park Zoo; and
Silver Lake Golf House.
Plans are in progress to renovate the comfort stations in the
following parks in the near future.
Manhattan -Seward Park; Bryant Park; Columbus Park; Carl Schurz
Park; Morningside Park; Washington Square Park;
Corlears Hook; McLaughlin Park; Chelsea Fark; John
Jay Park; Hamilton PI.; Hechscher Playground;
Yorkville Playground; Hudson Park; St.Catherines Park;
St. Gabriels Park; and in Central Park, North Meadow,
The Rambles, The .Ball Hause and the Tennis House.
Brooklyn - Cooper Park; Bushwick Park; Irving Square Park;
Ft.Greene Park; V/inthrop Park; Sunset Park; McLaughlin
Park; Fulton Park; Betsy Head Bath House; Carroll Park;
McKibben Playground; Red Hook Playground; Tompkins
Park; and City Park; and Saratoga Park.
Queens - Astoria Park; Tennis House in Forest Park; Highland
Park - Lower Level.
Bronx - Van Cortlandt Park - two; and St. Marys Park.
The comfort stations in the following parks will be demolished and replaced
by modern structures:
Manhattan - Battery Park; Mt. Morris Park; Stuyvesant Park, John
J. Murphy Park;, and in Central Park, the Dairy Comfort
Station; one located at Conservatory Lake; one at
110th St. & Lenox Ave.v and one near the tavern.
Brooklyn - Red Hook Park; Bowne Park; Tompkins Square Park;
Seaside Park; Lincoln Terrace Parks and in Prospect
Park; the Boat House; Comfort station at Park Circle;
The Flower House;, Croquet House; and the comfort
station at the Main entrance.
Bronx - Claremont Park, Franz Siegel Park; and Crotona Park
Square.
Uniformed attendants in charge of these comfort stations see
that they are properly maintained.
-end-
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 March 21, 1935
The final game of the city-wide Roller Skating Hockey Tournament
sponsored by the Recreation Department of the Department of Parks wall take
place at Roosevelt Park, Chrystie and Forsyth Streets, on Saturday March 23rd,
1935, at 1. P.M. This tournament has engaged the attention and interest of
the youth of the city to a great extent and a large attendance is expected at
the game.
Boys under eighteen years of age who are the pick of the city's
roller skate hockey players will participate in the game, to which many of the
professional hockey players of. the International Hockey League hae been
invited. The playoffs for the right to participate in Saturday's game have
been taking place- during the past week at the various playgrounds of the
Department of Parks, and the winners in each borough are being chosen.
In order to accomodate the large number of visitors who are
expected to attend the final game, arrangements are being made to have benches
installed, so that every spectator will be assured of a comfortable seat in
which to watch the game. The Park Department Band of sixty pieces will
furnish music for the occasion.
Through the courtesy of the Ice Club atop Madison Square Garden,
the Hockey goals used for this game will be those used by the professional end
amateur players in the ice hockey games which have proved so popular at
Madison Square Garden during the past winter.
During the tournament over one hundred teams from all parts of
the city have taken part in the tournament which had its inception during the
first week of February. All of tlie teams were strictly amateur end were,
coached to a large extent by the playground directors in charge at the various
playgrounds and recreational areas throughout the city.
Among the guests invited to be present at the game are: Miss Ida
Oppenheimer, of the Lower last Side Community Council; Miss Mary A. Kennedy,
Principal of Public School 91; Rev. Brother Amody, Director of La Salle
academy; Dr. William Kottman, Principal of Public School 65; Jack Filman, of M
.dison Square Garden; Mr. George S. Kirke, Principal of Public School 20;
Mr. Robert Brodie, Principal of Seward High School, Mr. Gustavus Kirby of the
Amateur Athletic Union; Harry Schlact, Esq., of the East Side Chamber of
Commerce, end a host of other figures in the world of sports and recreation.
-end-
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 March 17, 1935
The Grand Army Plaza, constituting the main entrance to Prospect
Park, Brooklyn, is to be completely rebuilt by the Department of Parks.
The general design will remain unchanged but the promenade around
the Bailey Memorial Fountain has been redesigned and the north entrances have
been relocated away from the existing subway grating which is to be completely
shielded by ground covering. The path around the oval is to be relocated
somewhat nearer to the street to increase the planting area. This path will
be shaded on either side by adequate plane trees. The promenade surrounding
the fountain will be constructed oi Belgian blocks with a flagstone border and
will be enclosed by a low hedge. A decorative curbing about 6 inches higher
than the promenade, will enclose the fountain and add to its setting.
The northern end of the oval is to be developed as a lawn banked on
both sides with planting.
The dividing street panels east and west of the oval are to be
regraded and planted with adequate trees. New street trees along the
sidewalks, east and west, will provide additional shade where needed.
The Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial Arch at the northern entrance
to the park was proposed by Mayor Seth Low. The cornerstone was laid on
October 30, 1889. The monument was completed in October, 1892, and was the
objective point of those taking part in the parade in memory of the 400th
anniversary of Columbus' discovery of America. John H. Duncan was
the architect.
Mr. Frederick William MacMonnies was the sculptor for the naval and
military groups flanking the archway and for the equestrian group symbolizing
Victory, which surmounts the arch. The equestrian figures in high relief of
Abraham Lincoln and General Ulysses Simpson Grant, were done by W.R. 0'Donovan
and Thomas Eakins.
This area was the scene of some of the fierce fighting which took
place in "The Battle of Long Island". It was on "Prospect Hill" that more
than 1,200 Americans lost their lives in the cause of liberty, and 1,000 were
taken en prisoner.
On April 17, 1860, the legislature enacted a law creating Prospect
Park. The park was designed by Messrs. Olmstead & Vaux, and is one of the
city's largest and most beautiful parks.
-end-
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 March 15, 1935
HOLLER HOCKEY TOURNAMENT
The Department of Parks announces an interborough Roller Hockey
Tournament to take place during the week of March 18, 1935. The teams to
participate in this tournament are those who have already won the
championships of their respective boroughs. Each borough is very anxious to
garner the championship of the city and the rivalry is already exceedingly
keen.
During the tournaments in the various boroughs the attendance at
every game was considerable, showing that the game of hockey as played on
roller skates has won a firm place in the hearts of the child in of the City
of New York. Every game was well attended not only by the children, but also
by many grown-ups as well.
In Richmond, the team representing the Model Playground at Jewett
and Castleton Avenues annexed the championship pf that borough, while the
Brooklyn crown was placed on the team of Bushwick Park Playground. The boys,
from College Point Playground in Queens took the title in that Borough. In
both the Bronx and Manhattan the rivalry is so keen that the champions have,
yet to be decided -- the leading contenders in the Bronx being the teams from
the Playground at 141st Street and Brook Avenue and from McCombs Dam Park; in
Manhattan, the team from West 59th Street Flaygrpund is fighting it out with
the team from Roosevelt Playground.
All eyes will be upon, the interborough tpurnament next week when
the respective champions meet each other to decide who will be the victor at
the final game to be played at Roosevelt Playground on March 23, 1935.
Hon. Fiorello H. LaGuardia, Mayor of the City of New York, has been invited to
act as honorary referee of this final game, at which prizes will be awarded tp
the winners The Park Department band will play and accomodations will be made
to take care of the numerous spectators who are expected to be present. The
players of the National Hockey League, including both the Americans and the
Rangers, have been invited to be present.
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 March 14, 1935
As a routine maintenance procedure, certain
valueless plants in the Kissena Park Nurseries have been removed by the
Department of Parks. This housecleaning has been reluctantly delayed for over
a year, but the mounting maintenance costs have finally forced the Department
to take this action. The present value of the stock which has been removed is
nil. If this same quantity of stock were in first class condition it would
cost about $8,000.00 if purchased in the open market today. None of the
material destroyed was in anything approaching first class condition. If the
destroyed material had been kept to be nursed back to health, which might have
been possible for a negligible proportion of the stock removed, the ultimate
cost per plant would have been far in excess of the cost of purchasing new
material. This housecleaning is a common commercial nursery practice and no
commercial nursery could or would afford to maintain stock of this nature.
All of this stock had been in this nursery for a number of years. Not a single
tree or plant of those destroyed was purchased during the past year.
The trees and plants destroyed suffered from one
or more of the following defects:
1. Plants either dead or dying.
2. Plants deformed by scars caused by fire or mechanical
injury due to careless cultivation, causing them to
be unhealthily deformed and in many cases resulting
in partially decayed trunks.
3. Trees with low branches and crooked trunks which will
never, in the opinion of experts, make satisfactory
mature trees for park or street planting.
4. Trees with branches so high from the ground that they
could not be trained to produce satisfactory trees
for any park use. These trees were weak-stemmed and
many required stakes to hold them up. They had been
removed from nursery rows where they had been grown
too close together for too many years.
5. Tree with mal-formed heads having bad branch format-
tion which showed that they should never have been
purchased by the City in the first instance, and which,
if allowed to grow, would have become dangerous to the
public for the following reasons:
(a) Trees with bad crotches which could have
been easily split open by a storm.
(b) Trees that had had their central leaders
cut, allowing serious decay in the trunks,
resulting in deformed side branches which
could easily be blown off by heavy wind.
(c) Trees damaged and setiously weakened by
infestation of borers.
-end-
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193
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 March 15, 1935
PARK DEPARTMENT TO PLANT STREET TREES
The Department of Parks is inaugurating the spring street
tree planting program by setting out four thousand trees. These trees will be
allocated among the five boroughs, 500 for Queens, 900 for the Bronx, 1,000
for Brooklyn, 1,200 for Manhattan and 400 for Richmond. They will be planted
mainly on parkways, streets bordering parks and main thoroughfares such as
Northern Boulevard in Queens, Jerome Avenue in the Bronx, Ocean Parkway in
Brooklyn, Convent Avenue in Manhattan, and Richmond Terrace in Richmond. Much
of the planting will consist of replacements of dead trees which have been
taken down.
The work of removing dead, diseased, dangerous and nuisance
trees has been carried on throughout the winter, together with pruning and
shaping of those street trees most in need of such treatment. The poplar,
especially, has been campaigned against vhere its well-known propensity
to uproot pavements, obstruct and damage sewers with its roots, and break
off or blow over in wind storms, is in evidence.
No poplars or other inferior street trees such as the silver
maple, will be planted or be permitted to be planted. The majority of the
projected street planting Will consist of plane trees, Norray maples, pin
oaks, scarlet oaks and lindens in sizes between 3" and 4" caliper. The average
price is $10,00, bringing the total to approximately $40,000.00 for street
trees. Because of the presence of Dutch Elm Disease in the region, no elms
will he set out at present.
The policy of the Park Department in regard to the planting
of street trees by private initiative remains the same as announced last
fall, with the exception that no deposit is required with the application
for a permit.
Permits for planting b}: individuals or organizations on city
streets will be issued by the Department except where conditions of soil,
usage and other factors indicate trees will not survive. Permits must be
secured before work is started, and the species, size and location of the tree
will be specified. Preparation of the soil, as well as the planting and any
placing of guards or gratings, must be done according to specifications of the
Park Department. The cost of the work, except supervision, must be borne
entirely by the individual or organization requesting permit.
Permits may be secured by applying by mail or in person,
to the local borough office of the Park Department.
MANHATTAN: Swedish Cottage, 79th Street and West Drive, Central Park.
BRONX: Zbrowski Mansion, Claremont Park.
BROOKLYN: Litchfield Mansion, Prospect Park, Prospect Park West and
5th Street.
QUEENS: The Overlook, Union Turnpike and Park Lane, Kew Gardens, L. I.
RICHMOND: Clove Lakes Field House, West New Brighton, S.I.
All street plantings by the Department or by individuals
will be maintained by the City.
-End-
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191
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 March 7, 1935
Through New York City
News Association
The Park Department recently leased from the Nev. York
Central Railroad four parcels of property which will be developed as temporary
playgrounds.
These pronerties, leased to the City for the sum of One
Dollar per year, are all located on Washington Street. One lies between Morton
and Le Roy Streets, and is approximately 200 x 50 feet; one between Perry and
Eleventh Streets, irregular, approximately 206 x 70 feet; one between West
12th and Jane Streets, approximately 160 x 64 feet; and the fourth between
Jane and Horatio Streets, approximately 170 x 70 feet.
The playgrounds will be fully equipped with children's play
apparatus. Handball courts and shufflfr~boards will be constructed for the
adults. Construction work will be started, shortly and the play areas will be
available in early summer. The work will be done by Work Relief forces.
-End-
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 February 27, 1935
The Park Department announced today the starting of work
on the extension of Riverside Park along the west side of the New York
Central Railroad tracks. Dirt and rock fill is being brought into the area
north of 72nd Street at the rate of 500 truck loads a day.
This addition to the park is part of the West Side
Improvement project. Permission has been obtained from the War Department to
extend the bulkhead line out fifty feet into the Hudson River from 72nd to
129th Streets. South of 83rd Street the fill will slope gradually up to a
level with the express highway extension over the tracks. North of 83rd Street
the express highway will be brought down on the fill at the water's edge.
The areas not occupied by the highway will be landscaped
and utilized·for various park activities. At 79th Street, which will be
carried down to the waterfront by means of a grade crossing elimination, there
will be a boat basin, and just to the south a large swimming bowl is planned.
At 96th Street there will be a second grade crossing elimination.
A total of 1,000,000 cubic yards of fill is required to
reclaim the entire area. Of this amount 800,000 cubic yards will come from the
railroad cut under construction by the New York Central from 42nd to 64th
Streets. Two contracts already have been let calling for delivery of 400,000
cubic yards during the next four months at the rate of 4,000 cubic yards a
day.
All the stone taken from the cut will be used to construct
a rip-rap wall along the park waterfront. Work on this wall is expected to
begin shortly. Relief labor will be used entirely. A squad of relief workers
aided by several cranes and "bull dozers" (grading machines) already are at
work on the dirt now coming in.
The first contract on the West Side Improvement providing
for retaining walls and foundations from 72nd to 77th Streets is expected to
be completed in thirty days. Poirer & McLane Corporation were recently
awarded a contract for $1,171,628.80 which includes approximately 8,000 tons
of steel for the highway over the tracks and which is now being fabricated. A
contract for the 79th Street grade crossing elimination will be let in the
near future.
The entire cost of the improvement up to 82nd Street is
estimated at $3,500,000. The fill for the park area is being supplied by the
railroad as part of its $18,000,000 project for taking the tracks off Eleventh
Avenue and placing them in the new cut, which is being opened up between Tenth
and Eleventh Avenues.
-End-
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, Central Park
Tel. Regent 4-1000 February 28, 1935
The Department of Parks announces the opening on Friday, March 1st,
of three playgrounds and the improvement of a small park at Gouveneurs Slip
and Front Street.
The playgrounds to open are located on East 28th Street, east of
Third Avenue, Manhattan; in Chisholm Park in College Point, Queens; and Union
Avenue to Tinton Avenue between 161st and 163rd Streets in the Bronx.
The playgrounds are all completely equipped with gymnastic and play
apparatus. Handball courts are provided in the large playground in the Bronx.
A modern shelter building now under construction in this playground will be
opened in the near future.
The park at Gouveneurs Slip and Front Street provides a needed
breathing space in a congested area. The park is beautifully landscaped with
trees and shrubs and is amply provided with benches.
Appropriate opening ceremonies will be held in all these areas.
-End-
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Arsenal, Central Park February 19, 1935.
Tel. Regent 4-1000
The Department of Parks announces the plan for the
reconstruction of Joyce Kilmer Park, north of the Bronx County Court House
between Walton Avenue and the Grand Concourse and extending from 161st Street
to 164th Street. The plan was prepared with the cooperation of the Borough
President of the Bronx and the work will be done jointly by the Park
Department and the Borough President.
Joyce Kilmer Park now consists of an area roughly
rectangular in shape between 162nd Street and 164th Street and three smaller
triangles separated from the large rectangular area by streets. The Grand
Concourse is narrowed down at about 162nd Street by these triangles and the
existence of the streets through the Park constitutes a disorderly arrangement
of traffic.
The new plan calls for the continuation of the Grand
Concourse through these small triangles. The panels planted with Linden trees
will be also carried through to 161st Street, The diagonal street through the
south end of the Park will be closed and the open well on 161st Street in
front of the Court House will be covered over.
All of the area remaining between 161st Street and 164th
Street and between Walton Avenue and the widened Grand Boulevard and Concourse
is included in the new Park layout. This new layout will afford a dignified
setting to the County Court House.
It will be built around a grass panel 900' long centering
on the Court House. The panel will be surrounded by tree shaded promenades.
The memorial fountain to Heinrich Heine, which is now located in one of the
small triangles to be eliminated, will be located at the north end of this
grass panel. An informal walk will be carried along the west edge of the Park
under shaded trees. The statue of Louis J. Heintz, which is in another of the
small triangles, will be relocated on the west side of the Park overlooking a
grass panel opposite 162nd Street.
-End-
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THE MONUMENT TO HEINRICH HEINE
1799 - 1856
The memorial is in the form of a decorative fountain in
white marble, the center of which is occupied by a figure of "Die Lorelei" on
a high pedestal. On one side is the portrait bust of Heine in low relief. The
base of the shaft is ornamented with mermaids on each side of shell like
basins into which water flows from the mouth of a dolphin.
The memorial is the work of Ernest Herter and bears
the following inscription:
HEINRICH HEINE
TO THE MEMORY OF THEIR GREAT POET THE GERMANS IN AMERICA
THE MONUMENT TO LOUIS J. HEINTZ
This monument was presented to the City in 1909 by a
Committee of Bronx citizens who sought to pay tribute to a former Street
Improvement Commissioner for his work in making possible the construction of
the Grand Concourse. It was the work of Pierre Feitu.
The monument consists of a granite pedestal which
bears the following inscription:
LOUIS J. HEINTZ
TO COMMEMORATE THE FOUNDING OF THE
PROGRESS AND PROSPERITY OF THE BRONX
A bronze portrait figure of Heintz is placed on the
pedestal and a bronze figure picturing Fame as a draped female figure, is
placed at the base of the pedestal.
-End-
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 February 18, 1935
The Department of Parks announces its redesign of City
Hall Park, to ba made effective after the demolition of the old Post Office
and the return of the land on which it stands to the city.
This plot, irregular in shape, will be completely redesigned,
the new plan includes a broad promenade on the axis of City Hall and
St. Paul's Chapel. The statue of Civic Virtue is to be removed. A new
fountain, more in keeping with existing surroundings, will be placed at the
intersection of Broadway and Park Row.
The entire park will be encircled by plane trees and hedges.
the shaded walks throughout the park will contain ample benches.
The bronze statue of Nathan Hale, presented to the eity in
1893 and designed by F. W. MacMonnies, and the one of Horace Qreeley, designed
by John Quincy Adams Ward and given to the city in 1916, will flank the main
facade of City Hall, with the statue of Nathan Hale on the west and the one of
Horace Greeley on the east side of the area.
The automobile entrance and parking space now directly In
front of City Ball will be removed to the rear of the building in the new
plan. This new design will open a beautiful vista of City Hall and the park
to those approaching the area from the south.
The Department of Plant and Structures has already announced
plans for a new elevated terminal to replace the unsightly structure located
on Centre Street, opposite City Hall Park.
The reconstruction work will be started this spring. With the
completion of the contract for the new Post Office on May 1, 1936, the present
Post Office will be demolished and the property returned to the Park
Department. When the Post Office is removed the Park Department will come back
and complete the new construction of this area of the Park on the Post Office
site. The present plan includes the future landscaping of this area.
-End-
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A SHORT HISTORY OF CITY HALL PARK
The City of New York acquired title to the land comprising
City Hall park in the year 1686, under the terns of the Deagan Charter, viz.:
"I do by these presents give and grant onto the
said Mayor, Aldermen and Commonalty of the said City of
New York all the waste vacant unpatented and unappropriated
lands lying and being within ths said City of New York and
on Manhattan Island aforesaid extending and reaching to the
low water mark," etc.
At that time the area was uncultivated. The park took its
form as the result of gradual evolution rather than by careful planning, the
first building to be erected within the area of City Hall Park is shown on the
map of 1788, just opposite what is now Murray Street, and this or another
small building is shown on this site until the building of the prison, then
known as the Bridewell, in 1776.
The first public building, an almshouse, was erectsd on the
site in 1736. Two small outhouses were later erected adjacent to the
almshouse, and in 1757 a small area, east of the workhouse fence, was enclosed
as a burial place for the poor of that institution. In 1797, a new almshouse
was erected in the rear of the first one, which was then demolished.
In 1745 the citizens erected a palisade and six blockhouses
as a protecting barrier against possible invasion by France, which country had
declared war on England the previous year. A powder magazine was also erected
a short distance southeast of the almshouse.
The Common Council named a committee in 1757 to build a
new gaol to cope with the growth of crime. This building stood 135 feet east
of the present City Hall and it it said to have cost less than $12,000. It
was the oldest Municipal building in the Gity at the time of its demolition
in 1903, and was known at various periods as the New Gaol, the Debtors'
Prison, the Provost, the Register's Office and finally as the Hall of Records.
The Common Council authorized the Committee on the New Gaol
to erect a public whipping post, stocks, cage and pillory opposite the gaol,
which waa used as a city prison until 1830. Then the City required improved
facilities for caring for its records asd the gaol was selected by a committee
of the Common Council for this purpose, and the building was remodeled into
what has been tarmed an "architectural nondescript". On completion it housed
the municipal offices and the depository of the city's records. One by one
the city officials were obliged to vacate to accommodate the ever increasing
volume of public records until in 1869 the building was occupied exclusively
by the City Register, and was known as the Register's Office and also as the
Hall of Records.
It was in 1897 that the City erected a new Hall of Records
on the north side of Chambers Street and ths Board of Aldermen voted to
place the old building under the supervision of the Natural Historical
Museum for use as a public museum but the building had to give way shortly
thereafter to the construction of a subway station at Brooklyn Bridge. The
American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society and other civic bodies
vigorously opposed the demolition of this old landmark but it was eventually
condemned as *unsafe" and "dangerous te life" and demolished in 1903.
Plans for a new prison were approved on March 17th, 1775f by
the Common Council, and this building was erected an the site between the
first almshouae and Broadway. During the Revolution it was used as a prison
for American Soldiers.
This structure furnished some of the materials used
in the Tomb's Prison in Centre Street when it was demolished in 1838.
It Is interesting to note that the new prison was erected
with funds partially supplied from a lottery, and that the City treasurer was
authorised to take 1,000 tickets "on and for the risque of the Corporation".
The lottery flan was also advanced as a means of finanoing in part the second
almshouse.
The second almshouse was built in 1797 and the old one was
removed. This building stood until 1857, a year of great financial distress,
when it was demaolished, partly for the purpose of giving work to the
unemployed.
Tna present City Hail, designed by Viacomb and Mangin, was
erected in 1803 on the site of the first almshouse. It cost $538,733, and
is recognised as one of the best examples of the period from an architectural
standpoint. The first City Hall was located at 73 Pearl Street and the second
stood on the site of the United States Sub-treasury at Nassau and fall Streets.
Other buildings located within the boundaries of City Hall
Park Included the Rotunda, a circular done-like structure erected in 1818 by
John Vanderlyn to be used as an art gallery. After the great fire in 1835 the
Rotunda served as a post office. In 1845 it was converted into offices and was
torn down in 1870 to allow for the development plan of the Department of
Parks.
The City Court House was built in 1852, west of the
Rotunda, and it has been known periodically as the Marine Court, the Court of
Sessions and the City Court.
The County Court House which fronted en Chambers Street in
the rear of the City Hall was begun in 1861. Its cost was estimated at
$16,000,000.
In 1867 ths southern end of City Hall Park, having an area
of 65,259 feet, was sold for $500,000 to the Federal Government for a post
office and Courthouse, which was ready for occupancy in 1875.
The "Common", as the park was termed under ths early regime
of the Dutch, dating frost 1626, was uted as a parade ground for the Soldiers
marching up from Fort Amsterdam.
During the Revolutionary far, American Soldiers were
quartered and drilled in the Fields, and the area fortified. It was here in
March 1776, that Alexander Hamilton became captain of Artillery and started on
his distinguished career; here that the Declaration of Independence was read
on its receipt on July 9th, 1776, to an eager and waiting populace.
In the early days the park was the focal point of official
receptions, asong which were ths gala reception to Lafayette on August 16,
1824; the celebration of the opening of the Erie Canal on November 24th, 1825;
Croton water celebration on October 14th, 1842; and the ceremonies incidental
to the laying of the Atlantic cable in august, 1858.
- End -
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 February 5, 1935
The Department of Parks announces the plan of
development of Randall's Island. This plan calls for the removal of
eighty-seven hospital buildings and other structures. The four hundred
patients in the House of Refuge are being moved to the state institution at
Coxsackie. These patients will vacate the Island before the end of the
winter, at which time the buildings they now occupy will be torn down.
Fifteen buildings are now being demolished under contract by the Triborough
Bridge Authority. Patients from the City Hospital far the Feeble Minded and
Tubercular are being distributed in other city institutions. All of the
buildings, except five needed for Park development, will be vacated by spring
and entirely demolished by either the Triborough Bridge Authority or the
Department of Parks.
The Park Department's plan utilizes one hundred of the
one hundred and fifty acres on the Island for active recreation. Thirty-two
acres are occupied by roads, paths, buildings and landscaped areas. Eighteen
acres are used for a tree-shaded promenade around the Island. A landing dock
for motor boats has been provided bn this esplanade.
A ramp is provided from the Triborough Bridge to the
Island at the meeting point of the three arms of the bridge to the Boroughs of
Queens, Manhattan and the Bronx. This ramp is arranged to accommodate
vehicles to and from each of the three boroughs without cross traffic. A
vehicular road is planned from the ramp around the south.shore of the Island
where a low level bridge is to be built toconnect Randall's Island with Ward's
Island to the south.
Twenty-four acres of parking space have been laid out
under the bridge. A bus station has been provided. Comfort facilities, a
gasoline station and a lunch c ounter are planned under the Triborough Bridge
to serve both the bridge traffic and the Randall's Island Park. Four of the
existing hospital buildings will be re-conditioned for park usage. One
building will be converted into a restaurant, another into a recreational
building and another into an administration building. An existing warehouse
will be utilized as a park service building. A fifth building in the park
will be moved and converted into a field house.
Eight acres of the park area are laid out for tennis courts.
They are built on each side of the New York Connecting Railway Viaduct.
Twenty-three acres on the north tip of the Island will be used as an athletic
field and it is large enough to accommodate three football fields or three
full sized baseball diamonds. Twenty acres are set aside on the south side of
the Island for another athletic field large enough t o provide four baseball
diamonds or three football fields. Two open play areas for adults take up
seventeen acres. A children's playground adjacent to the central recreation
building requires two acres. One acre has been set aside for old people to
play quiet games.
The athletic fields and playgrounds have been laid out around
a stadium on the westerly shore of the Island. This stadium occupies five
acres of ground, and will be built around a quarter mile cinder running track.
A full sized baseball diamond and football field have been laid out within the
stadium. The stands will be approximately three-quarters of an ellipse in
plan and while they will be constructed to seat 10,000 people they have been
designed so that the capacity can be greatly increased if necessary. The
stands look out over the last River and the new East River Parkway approach to
the Triborough Bridge in Manhattan.
All of the recreational facilities on the Island will be
fitted into the general landscaped area. Trees and shrubs will be planted to
provide shade.
The Park will be operated by the Department of Parks for
organized games and as a city-wide sports area. Athletic teams will use the
area under permit from the Department.
The Park Department is now operating one hundred and sixty
baseball diamonds, three hundred and seventy-four tennis courts; fifty-four
soccer fields, forty-eight football fields and seventeen running tracks
throughout the City. Additional facilities planned in other City parks will
include one hundred and forty-six baseball diamonds, three hundred and
ninety-one tennis courts, ninety-four football and soccer fields and thirteen
running tracks. They include a new running track in Central Park, a new
stadium in Van Cortlandt Park, a stadium in Marine Park in Brooklyn, an
athletic field in Flushing Meadows in Queens, an athletic field in Alley Pond
Park on the Grand Central Parkway and the athletic area in the Red Hook
district of Brooklyn. Many of the larger playgrounds have running tracks and
facilities for field sports. These athletic fields are scattered all over the
City and serve largely the local communities.
The Park Department will develop athletic teams in the local
playgrounds in each of the boroughs and organize borough championships for the
several sports. The new sport center in Randall's Island will provide a place
for interborough competition.
The plan of Randall's Island has been developed jointly by the
City Park Department and the Triborough Bridge Authority, with a view to
opening the new Park to public use when the Triborough Bridge is opened to
traffic on July 1, 1936.
The Department of Parks has sent to Arthur S. Tuttle, State
Engineer of the Federal Public Works Administration the attached letter in
relation to the development of Randall's Island.
- End -
February 5, 1935.
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THE CITY OF NEW YORK
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL
CENTRAL PARK
February 5th, 1935.
Mr. Arthur S. Tuttle
State Engineer
Public Works Administration
2 Lafayette Street
New York City
Dear Sir:
In accordance with the terms of the
Triborough loan agreement, there was apparently submitted to you by the
Triborough Bridge Authority, shortly before January 1st, 1934, a plan for
the development of park and recreational facilities on Randall's
Island. This plan was submitted before the Triborough Bridge Authority was
reorganized. I do not know who was responsible for its preparation.
Apparently it did not originate in any of the existing city park departments
or in the old park board, although the park authorities were and still are
wholly responsible for this development. This plan was merely a rough sketch
by draftsmen obviously not familiar with proper park and playground
planning. It does not represent the facilities required by the public, nor
those which will attract visitors on foot, by car or by bus, to Randall's
Island, thus producing an important part of the revenues required to make
the Triborough project self-supporting. The original plan was also made in
the absence of information as to the ramps on Randall's Island and the low
level bridge to Ward's Island.
As a matter of information I am attaching the revised
plan for park and recreational developments on Randall's Island, on which
work will shortly be started by the Park Department in cooperation with the
Triborough Bridge Authority.
The fixing of toll charges to Randall's Island, so
as not to discourage public use and at the same time to produce revenue, is
a matter which will have to be worked out with great care.
Yours very truly,
(Signed) ROBERT MOSES
Commissioner
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[MAP OF RANDALL'S ISLAND PARK]
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 February 1, 1935
The Department of Parks announces an agreement between the
Heckscher foundation for Children, the Department of Health and the Department
of Parks for the acquisition of the recreational and health clinic in
Brooklyn, formerly operated by the Heckscher Foundation.
This development lies in the block bounded by Central Avenue, Grove
Street, Wilson Avenue and Linden Street in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn.
The Board of Estimate recently approved the acquisition of this
property and instructed the Health Department, Park Department and Comptroller
to negotiate for its acquisition. The property was purchased in 1928 by the
Heckscher Foundation at a cost of $112,925.00 and the Park Department
announces that by the payment of a first mortgage, amounting to $43,000.00,
the Heckscher Foundation is willing to transfer title to the City. The
Comptroller approved the purchase and all that remains is the formal execution
of the necessary deeds and instruments of transfer. The Heckscher Foundation
has spent $64,000.00 in the development of the property in addition to the
original purchase price of $112,925.00.
The Department of Health will undertake immediately the operation
of a full health clinic in the existing building. The building was formerly
run as a dental clinic with two fully equipped dental rooms. The clinical
area will be rearranged to afford free services for an entire health center.
The Park Department will utilize part of the building for a recreational area
in conjunction with the playground. The area outside of the building is
ideally arranged for a l½ acre playground. The playground will be
modernized and rebuilt and opened to the public in the spring of this year.
The portion which is already equipped will be put into immediate operation
under the supervision of the Department of Parks.
-end-
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 January 11, 1935
The Department of Parks will open an additional section of of Leiv
Eiriksson Park, Brooklyn, on Monday, January 14, 1935, at 2:30 p.m. This area
is bounded by 66th and 67th Streets and Eighth Avenue and Fort Hamilton
Parkway. It contains a wading pool, complete playground apparatus and a
recreation building between Eighth and Ninth Avenues, and a formal park
extending to Fort Hamilton Parkway.
Selections by the Park Department Band will open the program. The
Honorable Raymond V. Ingersoll, President of the Borough of Brooklyn will be
the principal speaker and preside during the exercises which include addresses
by the Honorable Rolf A. Christensen, Consul General of Norway Major Sigurd J.
Arnesen, representing the Norwegian Societies; and Dr. C. O.Pedersen Rector of
the Norwegian Hospital; and selections by the Norwegian Men's. Chorus.
The color ceremony consisting of a call to colors and the playing
of the National Anthem and the Norwegian Anthem will conclude the program.
The official party will then inspect the area.
The play facilities, between Fourth and Sixth Avenues were
officially opened October 12, 1934. After the opening on Monday only the
section between Sixth to Eighth Avenues remains to be completed. This area,
which will be opened later in the year, will have a formal park between Sixth
and Seventh Avenues and ten tennis courts between Seventh and Eighth Avenues.
-end-
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[TABLE OF CONTENTS 7/29/1935-12/31/1935 OMITTED]
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[BLANK LETTERHEAD OF JOHN V. LINDSAY, MAYOR, OMITTED]
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[TABLE OF CONTENTS 7/1/1935-7-26/1935 OMITTED]
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 December 23, 1935
The Department of Parks has completed plans for the development of a
playground for small children at the site of the Casino in Central Park.
The development will occupy one and one-querter acres of land, which
is approximstely the area now occupied by the Casino restaurant building and
the parking space that is set aside for the convenience of the Casino patrons
on the knoll in the rear of the bandstand at the Mall.
The playground will include a large wading pool and will be equipped
with kindergarten swings, sand boxes and other small apparatus for young
children. Benches will be installed for mothers and nurses. The whole area
will be surrounded by an arbor and new peths and landscaping will connect the
playground to the surrounding park features.
The construction of the playground will require eight weeks of work
and the building and shelter can be finished a month later. The Park
Depertment is ready to start construction on this development as soon as the
Casino is vacated.
End
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 December 18, 1935
The Department of Parks announces the opening of thirteen new
playgrounds Thursday, December 19, at 3:30 P M - bringing the total to 116 new
playgrounds since January 19, 1934.
The playgrounds to be opened in Manhattan are:
West Houston Street between Sullivan and McDougal Streets
East Houston, Mott and Elizebeth Streets
In the Bronx two playgrounds are at:
Cedar Avenue between 178 Street and Sedgwick Avenue.
Fort Schuyler Park, Pennyfield avenue and Shore Drive.
Four playgrounds are located in Brooklyn:
Prospect and Greenwood Avenues
Heckscher - Grove to Linden Streets near Wilson Avenue
Howard and Atlantic Avenues
Hopkinson Avenue and Dean Street
In Queens two playgrounds will be opened:
Bowne Park Playground, 32 Avenue between 158 and 159 Streets
S.W. Corner Astoria Bouleverd and 90 Street.
In Richmond two playgrounds will be opened:
Clove Lakes Park (small children's playground) at Clove Road
Clove Lakes Park (junior playground area) at Victory Boulevard.
Some of the funds used in the construction of the Bowne Playground
were obtained through a bequest of the late Theodore Foulk of Flushing, who
was particularly interested in playground development.
Facilities and Equipment include- 88 small swings; 72 large
swings; 36 seesaws; 14 playhouses; 15 large slides; 11 sand tables; 10 garden
swings; 7 small slides; 7 small tables; 6 handball courts; 6 jungle gyms; 5
shuffleboard courts; 5 wading pools; 4 parallel bars; 3 horizontal bars; 3
horizontal ladders; 3 horseshoe pitching, etc.; 2 basketball courts, 1 shower.
The Heckscher Playground in Brooklyn was purchased from the
Heckscher Foundation; the playgrounds at West Houston and Essex Streets,
Manhatten, and Prospect Avenue, Brooklyn, were acquired from the Board of
Transportation.
Simple ceremonies will mark the opening of all these playgrounds.
END
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 December 18, 1935
The Department of Parks announced today that the Jeannette Park
Oyster Bar at Coenties Slip and South Street will be opened Thursday, December
19.
This bar replaces one of the oldest oyster establishments along
the waterfront, the original having been in operation since 1849. It will be
operated by Patrick J. O'Connor, who succeeded his father, in the old bar's
management in 1905.
The new structure, which is recessed into the wall of the park is
of brick construction. The walls and floors are of terrazzo and the equipment
is modern throughout. The new building faces South Street and the East River.
The concession will serve clams and oysters on the half shell,
clam broth, oyster, clam and fish stews and chowders and fried clams and
oysters.
- END -
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[PICTURE OF OYSTER BAR, JEANETTE PARK, MANHATTAN.]
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[BLANK LETTERHEAD OF JOHN V. LINDSAY, MAYOR, OMITTED]
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[AERIAL VIEW OF ??? OMITTED]
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[BLANK LETTERHEAD OF JOHN V. LINDSAY, MAYOR, OMITTED]
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 November 21, 1935
The Department of Parks will open seven new playgrounds Friday,
November 22 a t 3:30 P. M.
Harry L. Hopkins, Federal Works Progress Administrator, Mayor La
Guardia, Park Commissioner Robert Moses, Victor Ridder and George U. Harvey,
Borough President of Queens, will speak at the opening of Raymond O'Connor
Park Playground, 32nd Avenue and 209th Street, Queens. Including these, 105
playgrounds will have been opened since January 1934.
Three playgrounds are located in Manhattan: Morningside Avenue and
114th Street (Morningside Park); Sixth Avenue and Minetta Lane; and Thomas
Jefferson Park (south portion) at First Avenue and 111th Street.
Two playgrounds in Brooklyn are at Aberdeen Street near Bushick
Avenue and at Third Avenue, Douglass and Degraw Streets.
In the Bronx: Devoe Park (east playground) at University Avenue
and West 188th Street.
In Queens: Raymond O'Connor Park at 32nd Avenue and 209th
Street.
Facilities and equipment in these playgrounds include: 2 basketball
diamonds, 1 basketball court, 4 bocci courts, 4 handball courts, 2 horizontal
bars, 2 horizontal ladders and 3 horse shoe pitching courts for adults; for
the youngsters, 6 jungle gyms, 96 kindergarten swings, 9 large slides, 72
large swings, 1 paddle tennis court, 4 parallel bars, 14 playhouses, 6 sand
tables, 36 see-saws, 6 shuffle board courts, 4 small slides and 3 wading
pools.
The playgrounds at Minetta Lane, Manhattan, and Aberdeen Street,
Brooklyn, were acquired from the Board of Transportation. The playground at
Third Avenue and Degraw Street, Brooklyn, is being developed on private
property acquired on a permit basis.
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[GARBLED DEVOE PARK OPENING CEREMONIES PROGRAM OMITTED]
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PROGRAM
OPENING CEREMONIES
THOMAS JEFFERSON, PARK - SOUTH PLAYGROUND
First Avenue - 111th Street
MANHATTAN
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22nd, 1935
AT 3:30 P.M.
WILLIAM J. ALLAN
ASSISTANT BOROUGH DIRECTOR, PRESIDING
William J.. Allan, Assistant Borough Director,
Introductory Remarks
Address: Abraham Weiner, Principal, P. S. 85
Address: Miss Mary L. Herbert, Principal, P.S. 102
Horseshoe Pitching Games - By Playground Children
and Young Men
Shuffle Board Games - By Playground Children
and Young Men
Boccie Games - By Playground Children
and Young Men
Group Games - By Playground Children
and Young Men
Ladder of Progress
Call to Colors
Raising of Flag
National Anthem
Cutting of Ribbon - By Carmine Cangro
Boy to accept Playground - John Massaro
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 Monday October 8, 1935
The Park Department has arranged with the Dock Department and the
Borough President's ofifice for the redevelopuent of Marie Curie Avenue from
East 65rd Street to East 70th Street.
The present street, 108 feet wide, from the wall of Rockefeller
Institute and Cornell medical Center to the East River bulkhead line will be
re-constructed with an 18-foot sidewalk along the west side, a 40-foot
drivevay and a 50-foot promenade along the river. A double row of trees will
be planted in the promenade and the walk between the trees and alon the
bulkhead wall will be lined with comfortable benches, facing the River.
This development will furnish an attractive rest spot and promenade
in what is now a drab dirty loading place for refuse scows.
-end-
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[DIAGRAM: PROPOSED PROMENADE ON MARIE CURIE AVENUE]
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[BLANK LETTERHEAD OF JOHN V. LINDSAY, MAYOR, OMITTED]
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 November 1, 1935
Roller hockey, the newest sport activity featured by the Department
of Parks on its November athletic program, is occupying the youth of New York
City.
Playground teams, coached and trained by recreation leaders, are
competing in a sectional elimination tournament which is scheduled to be
concluded Saturday, November 9. Borough winners will then clash in a
round-robin series for the city roller hockey title.
The game is an exhibition of speed and skill on roller
skates. Players, carrying wooden bladed sticks, bat a rubber or wooden puck
toward enemy goal cages. Six players compose a team. The rink is usually an
asphalt stretch with a playing surface of at least 150 feet x 50 feet. The
teams play three fifteen minute periods with ten minute intermission spells
between periods.
Sixteen roller hockey sixes started in the race for the Manhattan
play-off position. Eight determined teams swung into action in each of the
other boroughs. The Bronx final will be decided on the rink located at 164th
Street between River and Jerome Ayenues.
As the embryo Bill Cooks, Ching Johnson and Frank Bouchers skate up
and down seeking goals interest runs high. The team usually bring with them
regiments of youthful supporters from home playgrounds. The action is fast
every minute of play. Clean play prevails throughout. The tournament is
expected to be an annual feature of the Recreation Division of the Department
of Parks.
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 October 30, 1935
The Department of Parks has planned a newplayground with kindergarten
equipment one of the most important factors.
Children between the ages of three and six nay register. Attendance is
not compulsory but every effort is nade to arouse the children's interest so
they want to attend daily. Activities are held outdoors when possible.
Programs set up by Playground Directors have contributed in a large
measure to such popularity. Educational work and play are divided into
periods psychologically and physically best for the chil- dren. Quiet
sessions with blocks, beads and pegboards may be followed by various forms of
ball games. Story telling and dramatization build the imagination and tend
toward self-expression. Handwork of paper cutouts, pasting and coloring
broadens the child's constructive power. Playground Kindergarten equipment is
used under careful supervision. Rest periods are intermittently well placed.
Mothers are aware of the many advantages of these projects. Educational,
moral, physical and social values alone guarantee their popularity. Too,
parents have well founded security during the hours the children are
supervised and taught. In several Centres, Mothers partake in the activities
and willingly help the teachers.
Some of the Kindergartens for pre-school children are located at the
following places. Hours from 10 to 12 Noon daily, except Sunday. Attendance
varies from 30 to 100 daily.
MANHATTAN
McCray Carmansville
Morningsido 123rd Sutro
Hudson West 17th St.
Sauer West 134th St. Gym.
Highbridge 189th Carmine St. Gym.
BROOKLYN
Betsy Head Heckscher McKinley
New Lots Drier Off erman Gravesend
Bushwick Kelly Memorial Lincoln Terrace 2:3:P.M.
Lindsay Bay Parkway Sheridan
3rd St.& 4th Ave. Schermerhorn Red Eook
McLaughlin
BRONX
141st St.Brook Ave.Crotona East 163rd St. & Tinton Ave.
St. Mary's East Crotona West Cauldwell
Lyons Square Ciccaronc Echo
St. James Zimmerman Mosholu
Macombs Ext. Fort #4
QUEENS
Jackson Heights John Andrews
Von Dohlen Kissena
Anawanda O'Connell
Dry Harbor
RICHMOND
Faber De Matti
Model Richmond
Stapleton
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 November 2, 1935
The Department of Parks extends a cordial invitation to view its annual
fall chrysanthemum show at the Prospect Park Greenhouse, Prospect Park West
and 9th Street. Beginning Sunday, November 3, the exhibit will be open every
day from 10:00 A. M. to 4:00 P.M.
More than 4,000 pots of chrysanthemums are included in this display, which
is one of the most magnificent exhibited.
The ground bed is laid out in groups of various formations, with the
popular large bloom varieties in all shades of pink, yellow, red and
bronze. Some of the attractive plants are of the Pooketts, Turners, Johns
S. Bush, Rise of Day and the Melba. 75 varieties in small size chrysanthemums,
such as the Pompons and Anemone, are banked on the sides of the show house.
Some of the outstanding chrysanthemums to be exhibited are the Titan
Tangerine Bronze, Norman Pink and Bronze, Mrs. Harrison Craig-Orange and
Crimson, Betty Rose Pink and Yellow, Crimson Glow and Crimson Red.
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 October 29, 1935
Thursday, October 31, 1935 the Department of Parks will celebrate
Hallowe'en in an elaborate fashion. Parties, shows, carnivals and festivals
will be held in various playgrounds and recreation areas throughout all
boroughs from morning until night. Children and adults will caper in the
merriment of these events.
An afternoon program will be presented by playground directors. A
mystery play, magic shows and thrilling games will comprise the afternoon
entertainment. Witches, cats and owls will create the proper atmosphere for
the audience. All children are invited to come and enjoy a happy hallowe'en at
parties in the following playgrounds:
Manhattan
Highbridge 180 Street 2:00 P.M.
Riverside 96 Street 1:30
Payson Avenue 3:00
Isham and Seaman 3:00
Roosevelt Chrystie & Forsythe Sts. 4:00
Bronx
Tinton Ave. E. 161 Street 11:00 A.M.
Crotona West Fulton Ave. E 174 St. 4:00 P.M.
Brooklyn
27 Avc. & Bay 46 St. 3:30 P.M.
Drier Offerman Ave. S. - E. 14 St. 3:30
Kelly 57 St. - 18 Ave. 3:30
Gravesend & Dyker
Queens and Richmond
All Playgrounds 4:00 P.M.
An evening performance will take place on the Mall in Central Park
from 8:30 to 11:00 P.M. with an exciting Hallowe'en show and roller skating
carnival. This affair vail include all the usual settings appropriate to this
Festival, rattling skeletons, shivering goblins, grinning pumpkins and hooting
owls. A one-act play, "The Canterville Ghost", by Oscar Wilde, performed by
the Little Theatre Group will open the program, followed by a good American
Folk Dance. Various comedy acts of clowns, magicians and acrobats will be
furnished by the Circus Unit of the Works Progress Administration. A large
group of playground directors will do a rustic dance called the
"Lancers". Music will be furnished by the Colonial Dance Orchestra under the
direction of Mr. Arthur Thompson.
The public is invited to take part in the procession of costumed
skaters. Prizes will be awarded to those in most novel costumes. Skating acts
will be exhibited by several popular city rinks. The remainder of the evening
will be devoted to roller skating for the general public.
All are invited to come to these festivities and enjoy a gala
Hallowe'en.
- end -
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 October 28, 1935
The Department of Parks will formally rededicate the Washington Irving
Statue at Irving Place between 16th and 17th Streets, New York City, at 2:30
P.M. October 29.
Washington Irving High School students, accompanied by the Park Department
Band, will open the ceremony with "America The Beautiful". Miss Aileen
L. Bowdoin, ten year old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Temple Bowdoin,
grandson of George Sullivan Bowdoin, husband of Julia Irving Grinnell, who was
a great niece of Washington Irving, will unveil the monument. Speakers
include Edward C. Zabriskie, Principal of the Washington Irving High School;
Dr. John H. Finley of the New York Times; Paul C. Jennewein, representative of
the National Sculpture Society and member of the National Fine Arts
Commission, and Allyn R. Jennings, Landscape Architect of the Department of
Parks. In conclusion the band and students will render "America".
Dr. Joseph Wiener presented the bust to the city in 1885. In 1888
M. C. D. Borden, president of the Board of Commissioners of the Department of
Public Parks, recommended that the statue be placed in Bryant Park, where it
stood until 1932. When the Federal Hall replica was erected in Bryant Park,
the monument was stored under the Brooklyn approach to the Williamsburg
Bridge. Friedrich Beer, who died, 1859, was the sculptor.
-end-
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SINGLES HORSESHOE PITCHING MATCH BETWEEN WESTCHESTER AND NEW YORK
The Park department announces that final arrangements have been made for an
inter-city singles horseshoe pitching match between Westchester and the City
of New York at Heckscher Playground, Central Park, October 26, at 2:00 P.M.
The match will consist of three games Fifty points constituting each game. The
contestant winning two out of three games will be declared the winner. A gold
medal will be awarded the winner and silver to the loser.
A return match has been arranged for November 2nd at Mew Rochelle.
The following players will represent the respective teams at both
matches;
NEW YORK: Vito Felieccia
John Wilkinson (alternate)
WESTCHESTER: Dominick Sharkey
Charles Seacord (Alternate)
Following are the officials for the match at Heckscher Playground
October 26th:
DIRECTOR: Thomas P. O'Gara
REFEREE: James McCafferey
Judges: Charles Harris
Lou Ziegler
William S. Newman
SCORERS: Oscar T. Stewart
John Myles
Bernard Healy
Joseph Murphy
Thomas F. Walsh
Portable bleacher seats will be erected for this match to take care of the
large number of spectators expected to attend. Keen competition is anticipated
because the contestants are the champions of their respective cities.
-end-
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 October 23, 1935
THE BELVEDERE - CENTRAL PARK
The Belvedere in Central Park is to be appropriately marked by The
Department of Parks with a bronze tablet to be placed on the southwest corner
of the building. It will contain a likeness of the founder and first director
of the Municipal Weather Bureau, Dr. Daniel Draper, and the following
inscription:
BELVEDERE TOWER
Erected in 1869 as a lookout tower now
housing the New Yorlc Meteorological
Observatory, founded in 1868 by Dr.
Daniel Draper who was director of this
Observatory until 1912 the work then
taken over and continued by the United
States Weather Bureau.
A towerlike structure on the knoll at 79th Street was contemplated in the
original design for Central Park by Olmstead and Vaux, to afford facilities
for the gathering and shelter of visitors at this picturesque and attractive
point. Work on the Belvedere was commenced during June, 1867. The Belvedere,
built of granite in the form of an old Victorian Castle, was constructed in
1867.
The Weather Bureau, which now has its headquarters and instruments in
the Belvedere, was originally established in the Arsenal in 1869, when the
Commissioner of Parks was directed to maintain a meteorological observatory
within the park. Dr. Daniel Draper, whose family enjoyed a high reputation in
the field of science, was placed in charge and directed its activities until
his retirement in 1912.
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 October 23, 1935
PRESERVING LEAVES FOR COMPOST
The advent of mechanized equipment, with the consequent decrease in
live stock throughout the eastern section of the country surrounding Now York
City, has made it necessary for the Park Department to develop a proper
substitute for natural animal manure. The cost of supplying the proper
quantity of manure, moreover, on projects under construction is prohibitive.
The Park Department, therefore, has been preserving leaves gathered
from the various parks and building compost . piles near greenhouses,
nurseries and other work areas of the Department in the five boroughs.
The piles are usually made 6 feet wide and 6 feet high, the length
depending on the location. A two foot layer of loose leaves is first laid down
and a four inch layer of top soil with chopped sod spread over it. Hydrated
lime or ground limestone is distributed over this layer at the rate of one
half pound per square yard. Another two foot layer of loose leaves and a three
inch layer of manure are added. Each layer is soaked with water as it is
added. This layering process continues until the pile, when compacted, is
five to six feet high.
The pile is left intact for 6 months, watered from time to time so
that it will not dry out, then it is turned over by forking three times a
year,
The compost can be used after 18 months but for fine work it usually
requires three years to thoroughly decompose.
Animal manure is added for the development of bacteria to hasten the
decay of the leaves and for each cubic yard of manure added twelve yards of
leaf compost is produced after shrinkage has taken place. The material is used
for mulching flower beds, deciduous plant areas, and most important,
broadleaved evergreens, such as Rhododendrons, Laurel and Azaleas, planted
throughout the Park System.
The Department favors allowing the leaves to remain where they fall
in the shrub plantings on informal areas but removing them from lawn
areas. Observation has shown that lawn areas "go through" the winter best
without any protective covering. When leaves are left on the lawn the grass
underneath the covering "sweats" and becomes susceptible to fungus, mold and
general physiological breakdown.
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[GARBLED ANNOUNCEMENT OF HALLOWEEN SHOW OMITTED]
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 October 18, 1935
At the request of the City Park Department and the Marine parkway
Authority, a public hearing was held today at the War Department in the Army
Building for the construction of a bridge over the Rockaway Inlet, to be known
as the Marine Parkway Bridge, which will be a double leaf bascule type with a
series of approach spans totaling 3600 feet in length. The clearance will be
50 feet when the bridge is closed, which is sufficient to accommodate all
present water traffic without lifting the bridge. The bridge tower will not
interfere with aviation and will be flood-lighted. This bridge is to be part
of the Marine Parkway extending from Marine Park and Flatbush Avenue to Jacob
Riis Park on the Rockaway Peninsula.
The Marine Parkway Authority which is set up as a municipal
corporation within the Park Department is authorized to issue bonds for Marine
and Jacob Riis Parks and their connection by the means of a parkway across
Rockaway Inlet. The cost of this project will be approximately $5,000,000.00
and will be amortized by toll. The ferry which, at the present, is the only
means of access to the Rockaway Peninsula from Flatbush Avenue and surrounding
territory affords a poor facility for motorists due to limited service and
long delays. The bridge is an urgent public necessity since present traffic
routes on Long Island leading to the Rockaway Peninsula are overburdened with
traffic and weekend peak-loads, cause traffic tie-ups and confusion. The
bridge will not only shorten the traveling time to the Rockaway Peninsula for
many thousands of motorists but will serve to relieve congestion that now
exists on other arteries.
The financing of the bridge and park and parkway facilities is being
negotiated with a group of bankers. It is impossible to finance any bridge
but a bascule or jack-knife bridge. A high level bridge or tunnel cannot be
financed.
-end-
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[SKETCH OF PROPOSED MARINE PARKWAY BRIDGE OVER ROCKAWAY INLET]
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[BLANK LETTERHEAD OF JOHN V. LINDSAY, MAYOR, OMITTED]
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 October 19, 1935
The Department of Parks will hold indoor social
dancing through the winter months, commensing October 21st
at the following locations:
Monday and Wednesday - McComb's Dam Extension
Recreation Building,
165th Street & Jerome Avenue,
Bronx.
Tuesdty and Thursday - Prospect Park Picnic House
Prospect Prk West
Fifth Street Entrance,
Brooklyn.
Dancing will start at 8:30 P.M. and last until 11:00 P.M.
The Knickerbocker Dance Orchestra conducted by Mr.
Myron Komun and the Gothm Dance Orchestra conducted by Mr.
Harry Raderman will alternate weekly. The bands are furnished
by the Music Division of the Works Progress Administration.
-end-
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October 10, 1935
PRESS RELEASE - CHILDREN'S ONE-ACT PLAYS
The Department of Parks announces that the one-act play contests for
children will be held on Saturday, October 12, at 2 p.m. at the Macomb's Dam
Extension Building, 165th Street and Jerome Avenue, Bronx, instead of at the
Mall in Central Park.
The winners will receive a pennant in addition to a gold-plated city
seal medal for each member of the cast.
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[BLANK LETTERHEAD OF JOHN V. LINDSAY, MAYOR, OMITTED]
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 October 14, 1935
The Department of Parks will open twelve new playgrounds throughout
the city on Monday, October 14th at 4:00 P.M.
Mayor La Guardia, Park Commissioner Robert Moses, General Hugh
S. Johnson, Victor Ridder, Bronx Borough President James J. Lyons will speak
at the opening of the Macomb's Dam Playground at Jerome and Sedgwick Avenues
in the Bronx. Their speeches will be rebroadcast to the other playgrounds.
Including these, 98 playgrounds will have been opened since January, 1934.
Five playgrounds are located in Manhattan at West Houston Street
between Sullivan and Thompson Streets; Essex Street between Rivington and
Delancey Streets; Sixth Avenue between West Third Street and Minetta Lane; the
Southeast corner on Minetta Lane and Sixth Avenue; and York Avenue and 68th
Street. The latter property was developed for adult and child recreation by
the Park Department on a two year permit from the Rockerfeller Foundation.
Besides the usual play apparatus it is equipped with handball and basketball
courts.
Two playgrounds in Brooklyn are between East Third Street, Ocean
Parkway and Avenue P, and at Bedford Avenue to Mansfield Place, Avenues X
and Y.
In the Bronx they are at Hunts Point and Spoffard Avenues and Faile
Street; East 164th Street to Teasdale Place East of Boston Road; Reservoir
Avenue between University and Webb Avenues (Fort No.4) and at Jerome and
Sedgwick Avenues.
The two playgrounds in Queens are at Bridge Plaza and 22nd Street
and Bridge Plaza at Crescent Avenue and 27th Street.
Three playgrounds have wading pools, six have handball courts, four
have basketball courts and eight have jungle gyms, swings, slides, seesaws,
and other outdoor gymnasium equipment.
-end-
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 October 10, 1935
FORT TRYON PARK
Fort Tryon Park, an area of seventy acres of natural terraces,
rocky cliffs and wooded slopes, at the end of Washington Heights in Manhattan,
will be opened by the Department of Parks on Columbus Day, October 12, at
noon. The speakers will include Mayor LaGuardia, Park Commissioner Robert
Moses, General Hugh S. Johnson and John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
The main entrance to the park where the exercises will be held is
at the northerly end of Fort Washington Avenue. The park area extends
northerly to Dyckman Street, including the playground at the corner of Dyckman
Street and Broadway, which has been in use for several months.
This new park was formerly the estate of C. K. G. Billings and was
acquired by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., some years ago. The design of the park
is by Olmsted Brothers who have supervised its construction for
Mr. Rockefeller. The Department of Parks has installed conduits, paving and
other utilities. It is understood that the total cost to Mr. Rockefeller is
acquiring and improving the property, now deeded to the city, was
$7,000,000. The Department of Parks has spent more than $800,000 on roads,
paths, waterlines and drainage.
A concession building is located about 500 feet north of the
entrance, occupying the site of the old Billings stables. Like most of the
walls end buildings of the park, it is constructed of natural stone taken from
a fifty foot cut carved through a hill in the middle of the park to provide
access from Riverside Drive. One of the most interesting features is the
series of terraces constructed oa the site of the Old Billings castle, which
was destroyed by fire in March 1925. These terraces rise forty feet supported
by walls of native stone and resemble somewhat the original Fort Tryon which
at one time occupied the site.
Fort Tryon was the northerly outpost of old fort Washington and
was so named by the British after its capture on November 16, 1776. It
played an important part in the defense of Manhattan Island. Three small
six-pounder cannon supplementing a battalion of Virginia and Maryland
soldiers about 600 in number essayed to check 4,600 Hessians armed with a
battery of howitzers. Two attacks were repulsed but the final charge
resulted in a butchery of the garrison witnessed by Washington himself.
The heroism of Margaret Corbin, the first American woman who took
an active part in actual warfare in defense of American liberties, forms a
chapter in the story of the defense of Tort Tryon. She accompanied her
husband and shared with him his life as an artilleryman. On the occasion of
the assault she was aiding him in loading and cleaning one of the guns when,
at the most critical moment he was killed. She immediately took charge of
the cannon and loaded and fired it herself with "skill and vigor" until she
herself was wounded.
A fine granite and bronze monument dedicated at the time of the
Hudson-Fulton celebration in 1909 commemorates the defense of Fort Tryon and
bears the following inscription:
On this Hilltop Stood
Fort Tryon
The Northern Out-work of Fort
Washington
Its Gallant Defence Against
The Hessian Troops by
The Maryland and Virginia Regiment
16 November 1776
was shared by
Margaret Gorbin
The first American woman
To take a Soldier's Part
In the War for Liberty
Erected under the Auspices of
The American Scenic and Historic
Preservation Society
This park area is situated on one of the highest points ia Manhattan
and commends an impressive view across the Hudson River to the Palisades and
northerly up the Hudson far into Westchester end Rockland Counties. Despite
Its very rugged terrain, the park contains mare than a aile of motor drives
connecting both Riverside Drive and Fort Washington Avenue, eight miles of
walks and ten acres of broad lawns.
It is a spot of natural beauty and abounds in fine trees, including
hundreds of good specimens of elms, oaks, hickories, maples, beeches, sycamore,
sassafras sad large quantities of dogwood. An alpine rock garden has been laid
out on the easterly slope of the park. A profusion of trees, shrubs, plants
and flowers have been planted and the slopes have been cultivated and improved
with rock Hewers, shrubs and vines.
"The Cloisters", a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and
containing a museum of medieval art and architecture, is being constructed
within the park with funds also supplied by Mr. Rockefeller at a cost of
approximately $2,500,000. This structure is expected to be completed in
about two years.
End
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 October 12, 1935
The Department of Parks is initiating a new series of indoor
concerts commencing October 15th, as follows:
McComb's Dam Extension Building - 8:00 to
10 P.M. - Tuesdays and Thursdays
Prospect Park, Picnic House - 8:00 to 10 P.M.
Wednesdays and Fridays
The Park Department band is furnished by the Music Division,
Works Progress Administration. Mr. G. Iaseili is conductor of the 56 piece
band.
A series of musical selections is planned at these locations
during the winter Months.
The inauguration of the first indoor concert series is in keeping
with the policy of this Department to furnish as many recreational programs
for adults as possible.
-end-
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 October 11, 1935
The annual Holier Skating Contest will be conducted
in every park playground throughout the five Boroughs during
week of October 7 to 12th.
Boys and girls 16 years of age and under are eligible. This age
group is divided into two classes according to height viz; 5 ft. 5 inches
and 4 ft. 8 inches.
Eliminations will be held in all the playgrounds to determine the
playground representatives. These representatives will compete in Borough
finals for the purpose of selecting those boys and girls who will represent
their respective boroughs in the interborough contests at which the City
Champion ship will be decided.
The program of the various contests is as follows:
Eliminations in all playgrounds, all boroughs
during week of October 7 to 12th.
Brooklyn - Borough Finals - October 19th -
Z:00 P.M. at City Park Playground.
Queens - Borough Finals - November 2nd -
2:00 P.M. at Jackson Heights Playground.
Manhattan -Borough Finals - November 2nd - 2:00 P.M.
at Centre Drive, Central Park.
Bronx -Borough Finals - October 26 - 2:00 P.M.
at 164th St. and Jerome Avenue. & River Ave.
Richmond - Borough Finals - October 26 - Z:0O P.M.
at Martlings Road, Clove Lakes Park.
Inter-Borough finals will take place on November 9 at
2:00 P.M. at Centre Drive, Central Park.
-end-
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 October 8, 1935
A Costume Koller Skating Garnival will be staged by the
Department of Parks at the Model Playground, 84th Street and 50th Avenue,
Jackson Heights, Friday October 11th, at 8 P.M.
Roller skating enthusiasts are invited. Participants itiust be
costumed. There will be general skating and exhibitions of fancy skating.
The prettiest and funniest costumes will receive prizes.
Awards will be -aade for the following:
Prettiest Lady
Htudsomest Man
Prettiest Couple
Funniest Lady
Funniest Man
Funniest Couple
Prettiest Oiri under 15 years
Funniest Boy under 15 years
Most Novel.
Forward entries, to Kecreation Burcuu, Dopartment
of Parks, Kew Gardens, L.I.
The Department of Parks Band will play. The area
will be suitably decorated. Adaission is free.
-end-
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 October 7, 1935
The Department of Parks will conduct a large outdoor
Harvest Festival on the Mall in Central Park, Tuesday, October 8 at 8 P.M.
The stage will be decorated to depict a typical harvest
scene. The bounty of harvest, corn stalks and autumn leaves will form a
setting for the folk dances of many lands which will be performed by adult
groups from the Park Department and the Folk Festival Council in national
costumes representative of the leading nations.
75 trained singers from the Music Division of the Works
Progress Administration will sing Harvest songs and hymns. The Manhattan
Concert Band will be furnished by the Concert Division of the Works Progress
Administration,
Cooperation has been received by the following
organizations:
The Folk Festival Council
The American Folk Group
Swedish Folk,Dance Society
Friends of Swedish Folk Dance
Finnish Folk Dance Society of Imatra
Ukrainian Dancers' Club
Don Avion's Greek Dancing Group
The Music and Concert Division of the
Works Progress Administration
National Recreation Association
Program is attached.
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HARVEST FESTIVAL
The Mall, Central Park, New York
October 8, 1935 8:00 P.M.
PROGRAM
Presented by the Department of Parks in conjunction with
The Folk Festival Council
and
The Music and Concert Division of the Works Progress Administration
*
Overture - "Finlandia" Sibelius Manhattan Concert Band
Prologue - Growth of Crops, The Elements, The Reapers - Playground Group
Processional "Come Ye Thankful People Come"
"Turkey in the Straw" American Folk Dance Playground Group
Russian Harvest Hymn Chorus
Don Avion's Greek Dancing Group
a- The Kalamatiano
b- The Hasapika
Corn Shuckin' Song Chorus
Alice Higney a- Irish Hornpipe
b- Irish Jig
"Down South" - Myddelton Manhattan Concert Band
Finnish Folk Dance Society of Imatra
a- Sappo
b- Uhtuankatrill
Song of the Reapers Chorus
Ukrainian Dancers' Club
a- Kolomeyka
b- Dance of the Wind
"Songs of Old Folks" - Lake Manhattan Concert Band
Alice Higney Irish Reel
Home on the Range Chorus
Swedish Folk Dance Society and Friends of Swedish Folk Dance
a- Fjallnaspolska
b- Schottis i turer
"Yankee Rhythm" - Lake Manhattan Concert Band
American Folk Group The Lancers Parts 1 & 5
Recessional "Alleluia"
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 October 3, 1935
The Department of Parks announces that the Recreation Division
will conduct for the first time a One-Act Play Contest for children, which
will be held on the Mall in Central Park, October 5th at 2 P.M., and October
12th at 2 P.M.
Five plays vail be presented each Saturday. Casts comprise
playground children from all boroughs and the plays will be rated as
follows:
1. Type of Play (suitable for children)
2. Plot
5. Acting
4. Phonetics
5. Scenery
6. Costumes
The following are the plays to be presented:
October 5th, October 12th
Manhattan Doll Pageant The Three Bears
Brooklyn Betty Behave The Snow Witch
Bronx The Pot Boiler Tea in Algebra
Queens Mistress Mary The Knave of Hearts
Richmond This-a-Way and The Prayer of the
That-a-Way Forest Spirit
The following have been invited to act as judges:
Commissioner Paul Moss Department of Licenses
Miss Madeline Stevens National Recreation Assoc.
Miss Joy Higgins Little Theatre Group
Miss Sue Ann Wilson Savage School for Phy.Ed.
Mrs. Lionel Sutro Womens International League
for Peace and Freedom
For the past year the field of dramatics has been stressed as a
part of the recreational program. Several excellent children's plays htve
been produced by the Playground Directors to bring out the children's
inherent ability.
Elimination contests have been held in all boroughs for the past
few months. The above dates asxk the final contest to determine the best
children's performance from the city playgrounds. It is to be hoped that
this contest will serve as an incentive for better and increased children's
plays.
-end-
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 October 1, 1935
The Department of Parks announced today the opening of bids in
Albany by the Department of Public Works for the construction of a bridge
carrying the Henry Hudson Parkway under a park road in Van Cortlandt Park.
The low bid submitted for the Park Road Bridge was by Naclerio
Construction Company, Inc. with a bid of $328,925.80.
This bridge will be 170 fuet long and have a clearance of 15
feet. The contract also includes approximately a mile of grading.
The State, in conjunction with the Department of Parks of the City
and the Henry Hudson Parkway Authority, is constructing the parkway from
the city line to the intersection of Spuyten Duyvil Parkway and Riverdale
Avenue. From this point to Riverside Drive the project will be built and
financed from funds supplied by the Henry Hudson Parkway Authority, of which
Commissioner Moses is sole member. The plan of the parkway includes service
roads, parkway landscaping, and the elimination of street intersections.
With the letting of the present bridge contract a total of four have been
designed and advertised by the State. The briges at Fieldston Road, Broadway
and Yonkers Division of the New York Gentral Railroad, are already under
conetruction.
Contracts have been let by the Authority for the $1,200,000
single arch bridge across the Harlem River at Spuyten Duyvil and the grade
elimination bridges at Dyckman and Kappock Streets. Construction is moving
on schedule and the Henry Hudson Parkway should be opened in 1937.
The parkway will by-pass the bottleneck at the Broadway
drawbridge, where there is much congestion, and will connect the Bronx and
Westchester directly with Riverside Drive, the George Washington Bridge and
West Side Express Highway. When completed the parkway will be the most
direct route to upper New York State and New England.
-end-
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[RENDERING OF BRIDGE]
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 September 28, 1935
Mr. James V. Mulholland, Director of Recreation and
Maintenance in the Department of Parks, has been designated by Commissioner
Moses to represent the Department at the National Recreation Conference
which will take place in Chicago, Illinois, from September 30 to October 4,
inclusive.
Mr. Mulholland has had considerable experience, not only
in the Department of Parks but in the Department of Education in New York City
and has held every position in the Extension Division of the Department of
Education from Junior Assistant Teacher to Supervisor of Playgrounds and
Community Centers. During the course of his experience in recreational work,
he has also been a teacher in the elementary schools, junior high schools and
high schools under tho Department of Education and has acted, at different
times, as examiner of candidates for playground licenses in the Board of
Education.
A strong advocate of wading pools for playgrounds, he
installed the first wading pool in Manhattan in 1923. Ho believes in
all-year playgrounds and the widest possible use of all recreational
facilities in the City of New York. He is the founder of the New York City
Recreation Conference which will be held this year under the auspices of New
York University.
Mr. Mulholland has recommended to Commissioner Moses
a broad recreational program for the public parks and many of his
recommendations have been accepted. He also acts as a consultant to the
Division of Design of the Department of Parks in laying out recreational
facilities under its jurisdiction.
Mr. Mulholland will speak at the National Recreation
Congress on the subject: "To What Extent Has the Emergency Program Developed
the Wider Use of Facilities Which Were Never Before Operated for Recreation?
To What Extent Will This Emergency Use Contribute Toward Their Permanent
Availability?" He has also been invited to speak before The Woman's City
Club of Chicago on the major recreational facilities in Ncv York City, and
how they are conducted.
END
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK SEPTEMBER 20, 1935
Tel. Regent 4-1000
The Department of Parks announced today that five playgrounds
located in the various boroughs throughout the City will be opened with
appropriate ceremonies September 23 at 3:30 P.M. Mayor LaGuardia and
Commissioner Moses will participate in the opening of the north playground
at Thomas Jefferson Park, 111th Street and First Avenue. This is an area of
about three and one-half acres, equipped with a wading pool, two soft ball
diamonds, a roller skating track, play houses, seesaws, jungle gyms, etc.
In Brooklyn, the Sunset Park Playground at Fifth Avenue and 44th Street, a
little over an acre in size will be equipped with the usual apparatus for
small children. In the Bronx a playground at Cauldwell Avenue between East
161st and 165rd Streets will be equipped with a wading pool, shuffle board
court, handball courts, swings, slides, seesaws, etc. Two playgrounds will
be opened in Queens: the Jackson Pond Playground in Forest Park, located at
Myrtle Avenue and lO8th Street, where facilities will consist of a wading
pool end the usual small children's play apparatus and the Middle Village
Playground, 68th Road and 79th Street, where there will be two handball
courts and the usual children's play facilities.
Four of these properties always have been under the
jurisdiction of the Department of Parks but were never developed. The
Middle Village Playground was obtained on a permit basis from private owner.
- end -
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 September 15, 1935
The Department of Parks announces that the nature trail at Alley
Pond Park, Queens, will be opened with appropriate ceremonies Saturday,
September 14 at 5 P.M.
Exercises will be held at the playground north of the Grand
Central Parkway, off Springfield Boulevard. Addresses will be made by
several speakers interested in the construction and operation of nature
trails. Princess Yellow Rose Yellow Robe will talk on Indian life along the
trail and tell Indian stories. Girl Scouts, under the direction of Miss
E. Ford and members of Boy · Scout Troop #89, accompanied by
Mr. J.H. Britton, Asst. Scout Executive of Queens, will take purt in the
exercises.
Park employees have been developing the nature trail during the
past few months to have it ready for inspection tomorrow. The trail is
about one mile long. A walk approximately four feet wide has been cleared
so that students may view the specimens without difficulty. 250 labels have
been placed on the specimens giving the names of trees, shrubs and other
items of interest. The main part of the trail is devoted to plants, birds,
and geology and is laid out about two of the kettle hole ponds which are
frequent in this section on Harbor Hill Moraine. Another section including a
deep kettle hole, though mostly dry, has been marked specially as a geology
trail. New specimens will be added from time to time. During the coming
Fall and Winter, typical plants from different sections of Long Island will
be planted so that when this work is finished there will be a cross section
of all plants found on Long Island.
At the conclusion of the exercises Saturday a tour of the trail
will be made under the direction of the Park Department guides, who have
been assigned to this work.
-end-
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[DRAWING OF ENTRANCE TO ALLEY POND PARK NATURE TRAIL]
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#304
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 September 13, 1935
The Department of Parks will start construction today with relief forces
on nineteen new children's playgrounds in Central Park. They have been
located around the edges of the park at pedestrian entrances. These
marginal playgrounds will provide recreation in areas designed for play for
thousands of small children who can get exercise, air and sunshine only in
Central Park. This new program will not interfere with the maintenance and
use of the rest of the park substantially as it was planned in the middle of
the last century.
The use of Central Park has been the subject of controversy for over a
generation. It is one of the finest examples of park design in the world,
and a model of intelligent planning for the advent of the huge population
which Olmstead and Veux and their sponsors anticipated in uptown Manhattan.
The great lawns and groves were not laid out for active recreation in
the plan of 1856. They were laid out to create the effect of rural scenery
cut off from the view of urban surroundings. When they were built there was
plenty of open space around the park for children to play in, and active
recreation areas within the park were not necessary. In recent times the
skyscraper and the automobile have to some extent necessitated a
reconsideration of the original conception, and the urgent need of active
play areas has become an even more important factor in the revision of
plans. It is an acknowledged fact that [DOCUMENT ENDS HERE]
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SEPTEMBER 11th, 1935
COPY OF
TELEGRAM TO
GENERAL HUGH S JOHNSON
WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION
111 EIGHTH AVENUE
NEW YORK CITY
DEAR HUGH
THE PARK DEPARTMENT HAS REQUISITIONED AND ITS EXECUTIVES HAVE
REPEATEDLY REQUESTED YOU AND YOUR SUBORDINATES IN THE WORKS PROGRESS
ADMINISTRATION TO FURNISH SIX HUNDRED AND FIFTY EIGHT FOREMEN GENERAL
FOREMEN AND MINOR FIELD EXECUTIVES TO BOSS ELEVEN THOUSAND ADDITIONAL
MEN RECENTLY SUPPLIED TO THE PARK DEPARTMENT STOP PLEASE REFER TO
CORRESPONDENCE KITH YOU AND TO YOUR OWN MEMORY OF OUR CONVERSATIONS STOP
ALSO TO CONVERSATIONS WITH THE MAYOR AND EARLE ANDREWS ON THIS SUBJECT
STOP ALSO ASK MRS ROSENBERG WHETHER OR NOT SHE REMEMBERS THAT SHE AGREED
TO REMIND YOU OF THE IMPORTANCE OF PROVIDING FOREMEN IN ADVANCE OF THE
ARRIVAL OF THE NEW MEN STOP ALSO RECOLLECT THAT I HAVE REPEATEDLY
ASKED YOU TO INSPECT AND DISCUSS THESE MATTERS WITH ME IN THE FIELD AND
THAT YOU HAVE EITHER REFUSED TO GO DEFERRED APPOINTMENTS OR BROKEN THEM
STOP
IN THE FACE OF THESE FACTS ONLY TWENTY EIGHT FOREMEN HAVE BEEN
FURNISHED AND YOUR ASSISTANTS SAY THAT THEY DO NOT KNOW WHERE TO GET ANY
MORE STOP THE PARK DEPARTMENT CAN GET THESE MEN IN LESS THAN FORTY EIGHT
HOURS FROM CONTRACTING AND ENGINEERING ORGANIZATIONS IF YOU CANNOT FIND
THEM ON RELIEF OR THROUGH THE UNITED STATES REEMPLOYMENT SERVICE STOP
ARE WE AUTHORIZED TO GO OUT AND HIRE THESE MEN OR CAN YOU FIND SOME
EXPEDITIOUS WAY TO GET THEM STOP
PLEASE DO NOT LET ANY ONE CONFUSE YOU AS TO THE RERATING OF
TEMPORARY FOREMEN FOR RELIEF MEN BEFORE YOU CAME TO TOWN OR AS TO THE
SUPERINTENDENT QUESTION WHICH YOU AGREED TO SETTLE ON FRIDAY OF THIS
WEEK OR AS TO TECHNICAL MEN STOP I AM TALKING ABOUT PLAIN ORDINARY
ADDITIONAL FOREMEN AND MINOR EXECUTIVES FOR THE NEW MEN YOU SENT US AND
WE NEED SIX HUNDRED AND FIFTY EIGHT OF THEM STOP
AS YOU KNOW WE HAVE REFERRED BACK TO YOU ALL ADDITIONAL MEN
SENT US SINCE LAST FRIDAY AND BEGINNING ON MONDAY OF NEXT WEEK WE SHALL
HAVE TO BEGIN SENDING BACK A CONSIDERABLE NUMBER OF THE OTHER TEN THOUSAND
MEN FURNISHED BY YOU WITHOUT SUPERVISION UNLESS THIS MATTER IS SETTLED
IMMEDIATELY STOP
MAY I ADD THAT I STILL THINK YOU ARE A GRAND FELLOW PERSONALLY
AND THAT I HAVE NO DOUBT OF YOUR INTENT TO MAKE WORK RELIEF ACTUALLY
WORK BUT SOMEHOW YOUR DECISIONS AND AGREEMENTS DO NOT FIND THEIR WAY
THROUGH YOUR ORGANIZATION AND GET INTO EFFECT
ROBERT MOSES
COMMISSIONER
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September 10, 1935.
In answer to your Questions as to labor conditions
on park relief projects, the following are the facts:
1. There is an immense amount of loafing on park jobs due
primarily to the fact that in the last few weeks almost 11,000 new men have
been assigned to us by General Johnson without supervision. The total number
of new supervisors provided for these men is twelve. On any reasonable
theory, some 700 supervisors would be reauired. This is to be considered in
the light of the fact that an enormous amount of paper work had to be gone
through in setting up the projects indicating exactly the number of
supervisors reauired, material, etc. Most of the work on these forms was
done many weeks ago.
I have repeatedly called the attention of General Johnson
to the need of providing supervisors, particularly foremen, with the new
men, and this has been the subject of innumerable conferences and memoranda
from the General Superintendent and the Park Department staff to General
Johnson's staff. I have repeatedly warned the Works Progress Administration
that we would positively stop taking men unless foremen were provided with
them. All this has had absolutely no effect, excepting that General Johnson
has told me several times it would be taken care of. This matter, among
others, was taken up by the Mayor personally with General Johnson. In spite
of all of these efforts on our part, men have been furnished without
supervision, and we therefore, after repeated warnings, notified the Works
Progress Administration on September 5th that we would take no more men. I
wish particularly to emphasize the fact that I am not referring here to
superintendents in charge of large numbers of men and large projects. I am
referring simply to the foremen and minor supervisors who must be present to
hold men together to produce work and what is also important, to protect the
public. In spite of the refusal of the Park Department to take additional
men, and after it had been repeatedly pointed out to the Works Progress
Administration that it would bo criminal to turn relief workers loose in
parks without supervision, hundreds of additional men were sent to the parks
without any notification to the Park Department. When these men were
rejected by the Park executives, the payroll clerks and other employees of
the Works Progress Administration staff, over whom the Park Department has
no control, ordered the men to stay in the parks and told them they would be
paid even though they did not work. As a result, hundreds of men have been
lying around in the parks, doing absolutely nothing excepting jeering at
workers, shooting crap, drinking and generally creating a nuisance and a
menace to the public. Let me also emphasize that we already have 10,000 new
men previously assigned to us whom we are attempting to put to work at all
sorts of chores without supervision and who are today practically
uncontrolled.
As indicating the lack of a sense of responsibility on the part of the Works
Progress Administration, Colonel Mehaffey, the chief assistant to General
Johnson within the last twenty-four hours asked the General Superintendent
of Parks, when the latter called his attention to existing conditions and
asked for the removal of the idle men, "What are you getting so excited
about?"
2. I stated yesterday in answer to questions which I could not
ignore, and I repeat, that numerous vagrants have been sent to the Park
Department as relief workers. These are men whose addresses are those of
municipal and other lodging houses. A number of them have been positively
identified by park officials as persons who have previously been evicted
from the parks. I have no objection whatever to taking care of as many of
the Works Progress Administration's problems as we can reasonably assume
consistently with our other responsibilities under the charter and to the
public. We cannot, however, have people unsuited for the work dumped by the
Works Progress Administration into the middle of Central Park and into our
playgrounds without the slightest warning and without even the courtesy of
an explanation. I have nothing against these men and neither have any of the
other park executives. There doubtless are ways in which this problem can be
met, but this has got to be done by intelligent cooperation and a common
understanding of the problem and not by stupid, arbitrary and arrogant
action on the part of assistants to General Johnson who do not make the
slightest pretense of consulting local officials, who do not know that they
are playing with dynamite, and who, quite incidentally seem to ignore the
fact that the Park Department must produce some results to justify the
$84,000,000 of taxpayers' money allotted to it for these very relief
projects.
ROBERT MOSES
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 September 11, 1935
The Department of Parks announces that the Nature Trail ct Alley
Pond Park vdll be formally opened at 2:30 Saturday Afternoon, September 14.
The Trail is located a short distance from the parking field,
north of the Grand Central Parkway and winds for three quarters of a mile
through the densely wooded slopes down to and around the Turtle Pond,
following a different route to the point of its beginning.
A four foot path has been cleared through the wooded area to form
the Trail and over two hundred signs describing the plant and animal life to
be found in the vicinity have been attached to the trees along the Trail.
The plant and animal life inhabiting this area have been
classified, and a liesurely hour can be spent along the Trail.
Native varieties of trees range from the stately White Oak down to
a sapling of Chestnut growing out of an old Chestnut stump killed by the
dreaded chestnut blight.
The smaller plants range from Solomons Seal and Jack-in-the-Pulpit
to the Cinnamon Fern and hosts of others.
The trees and plants are labeled with common and Latin names,
with interesting information and anecdotes giving the uses of the trees and
woodland plants by the Indians and pioneers.
An hour's ramble over the Nature Trail, reading the pages of
Nature's open book, will leave, among many other impressions, one of greater
love and respect for our ever silent and useful friends, the trees.
Representatives of various clubs interested in these
Nature Trails have been invited to speak.
-end-
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 September 6, 1935
SHORE PARKWAY EXTENSION
Rapid progress is being made by the contractor on the Shore
Parkway Extension alonr the Narrows at Fort Hamilton. The Long Island
Dredging Company recently completed the work of placing 100,000 cubic yards
of sand fill alon£ the proposed parkway. This material was obtained by
hydraulic dredging from the bottom of the Narrows and pumped in place behind
the sea wall which is now under construction. The contractors building the
3500-foot long granite faced sea wall have been progressing this work as
fast as the filling operations permit. Today the new wall was connected
with the old sea wall which runs along Shore Road. The connection was made
at a point several hundred feet west of the U.S. Reservation Dock. This
operation completed the setting of the large granite blocks used for the
wall face.
The next contract to be lot will consist of placing about a half
million yards of hydraulic fill for the parkway foundation. This contract
will be advertised for bids this fall.
The Shore Parkway Extension will extend from the existing dead
end at Shore Road and 4th Avenue to Cropsey Avenue at Bay 8th Street.
Between these points the aligment of the parkway will follow the shore line
of Fort Hamilton and through Dyker Beach Park. This section of the Shore
Parkway, when completed, will provide two 3-lane roadways, separated by a
grass panel.
Shore Parkway eventually will be a part of a circumferential
boulevard which will connect the oxisting Shore Road with Marine Park,
Brooklyn, by way of Cropsey and Emmons Avenues.
END
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[PHOTO]
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 August 30, 1935
The Department of Parks announced today the opening of six
playgrounds Labor Day. Three are located in Brooklyn, two in Queens and one
in the Bronx. The Brooklyn playgrounds are located at Snediker and Riverdale
Avenues, Stillwell Avenue and Avenue U and a large play area in McCarren
Park. The Riverdale and Snediker playground has an area of about one
acre. Facilities will include a wading pool, apparatus, etc. The playground
at Stillwell Avenue and Avenue U, about three and one-quarter acres, will
have a wading pool and the usual play apparatus. McCarren Park has been
reconstructed to provide play facilities for large and small children.
In Queens the Laurelton playground, about one-half acre,
transferred from the Board of Education, will be developed as a small
children's play area.
The playground in Highland Park will be equipped with small
children's play apparatus.
In the Bronx an open area of about one acre has been developed
as a modern children's playground and will include a wading pool.
The playgrounds will be open at 10:30 A.M. Appropriate
ceremonies will be conducted in all the boroughs, including the exhibition
of playground games, flag raising, band concerts, etc. The Mayor and
Commissioner Moses will make a tour of inspection.
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 August 26, 1935
The Henry Hudson Parkway Authority opened bids today at
three o'clock at the headquarters of the City Park Department in the
Arsenal, Central Park.
The structure will be a reinforced concrete rigid frame
bridge approximately 100 feet in length with a 16 foot clearance carrying
the Henry Hudson Parkway over Kappock Street. It will carry six lanes of
traffic. Doyle and Doyle, Inc., 72 Carman Road, Scarsdale, New York, were
the low bidders with a figure of $59,4.85.00.
Work on the structure is to be started immediately and
must be completed by January 2nd, 1936.
Complete list of bidders is attached.
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 August 26, 1935
BID TABULATION
NAME ADDRESS BID
Doyle and Doyle, Inc. 72 Carman Roed, Scarsdale, N.Y. $59,485.00
Walter Kidde, Constructors, Inc. 140 Cedar Street, N.Y.C. 59,809.50
Garofano Construction Co., Inc. 700 S.Columbus Ave.Mt.Vernon, N.Y. 64,157.00
Frank A. O'Hare Company, Inc. 270 Madison Avenue, N. Y. C. 67,400.00
Poirer and McLane 33 Y-est 4£nd Street, N. Y. C. 73,665.50
Rusciano and Son Corp. 728 East 212th Street, N.Y.C. 73,878.00
Chas Shaffer & Son, Inc. 40 West 72nd Street, N.Y.C. 78,277.50
Cleverock, Inc. 420 Lexington Avenue, N.Y.C. 83,493.50
Thos.Crimmins Contracting Co.. 734 Lexington Avenue, N.Y.C. 84,997.50
- end -
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 August 22, 1935
Since the opening of the concert season throughout the City Parks, on
June 11th, an average attendance of from 5 to 25 thousand persons has been
recorded. It has been estimated that attendance this summer has been the
largest of any concert series to date.
The public's regular attendance at these symphonic and band concerts is
an indication of the intense interest and appreciation of an eager audience
to hear so-called "good music."
In addition to the works of the well known composers, increased
interest has been evinced in the scores of more recent American
compositions. This is in part due to the policy of the Concert Unit of the
Works Progress Administration to give a prominent place to the music of
American composers in all programs.
The Goldman Band series has just concluded the 18th season
of summer concerts on the "Mall", and it has been arranged to fill
them with concerts by: New York Civic, Brooklyn Symphony, Bronx
Symphony, Greenwich Sinfonietta Orchestras, and New York State
Symphonic, Manhattan Concert, end Park Department Bands.
A schedule of concerts for September is attached.
-end-
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 August 22, 1935
The Department of Parks announces that a Choral and Dance
Recital will be given by the Polish Singers Alliance of America on
the Mall in Central Park Sunday, August 25 at 3:00 P.M.
Under the direction of Mr. Henry Ziranoch, over 200 well trained adult
singers will take part in several choral numbers which include male and
mixed choruses. Also, there will be several solo and quartet selections.
Z. Salacyinski, a young violinist of exceptional talent, will be the
soloist for the evening.
The program will be varied by two folk dances in national
costume, Krakowiak and Mazur, to the accompaniment of typical lively
Polish music.
This is the first Park Department presentation of an outdoor musical
festival and a large attendance is expected.
A program is attached.
-end-
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 August 12, 1935
The Department of Parks is erecting at the Arsenal
in Central Park in Manhattan, at the Litchfield Mansion in Prospect Park in
Brooklyn, at Zbrowski Mansion in Claremont Park in the Bronx, at the
Overlook in Forest Park in Queens, and at the Field House in Clove Lakes
Park in Staten Island graphic indexes of progress in developing its program
of playground construction. At each of these park borough headquarters a
"playground progress thermometer" is being built as shown on the attached
sketch. A ladder with a rung to indicate each playground in the program will
be erected for each of the five boroughs. Playgrounds built and opened
since the consolidation of the former five separate park departments into
the city-wide Department of Parks will be shown by buff rungs, those under
construction by red, those being designed by blue, and those where areas
have baen acquired and are scheduled for construction by white. Actual
progress of work will be shown.
The schedule of 160 new playgrounds announced by
the Park Department on January 1st of this year has been increased by
forty-three new areas, making a total to be completed by next summer of 203
new recreational units. Seventy-three of these play areas have already been
opened to the public. Seventy of these were constructed with city, state
and federal relief funds by the Park Department and three of them were
developed by the Long Island State Park Commission and the New York State
Department of Public Works in conjunction with the construction of the Grand
Central Parkway through Alley Pond and Hillside Parks in the Borough of
Queens. The following is a list with the dates on which these facilities
were opened:
July 15 A B Manhattan Wm. McCray. 138th Street bet. 5th Ave. & Lex.Ave.
(War Memorial)
A B Manhattan Jos. C. Sauer. E. 12th St. bet. Ave. A & B
(War Memorial)
A B C Bronx Louis Zimerman. S. side Britton bet. Barker and
Olinville (War Memorial)
A B Bronx Vincent Ciccarone. S.W. cor. S. 188th St. &
Hughes Ave. (War Memorial)
A B C Brooklyn Wm. E. Sheridan, 80-100 Grand St. (War Memorial)
A B C Queens Daniel M. 0'Connell. 196 to 197 Sts., 113 to
114 Aves. St. Albans. (War Memorial)
A B C Queens Howard A. Von Dohlen. 138 St. to 138 Place.
Archer to 91st Ave. Jamaica (War Memorial)
A B C Richmond Austin J. McDonald. Bet. Forest & Myrtle Aves.,
E. of Broadway, Port Richmond (War Memorial)
A B C Richmond Nicholas DeMatti. W. side Tompkins St. bet.
Chestnut Ave. & Shaughnessy Lane (War Mem.)
Aug 11 A B Manhattan 95 Thompson Street.
A B Manhattan N. W. Cor. of Lewis & Rivington Streets.
A B Manhattan 83 Roosevelt Street.
C Manhattan S. E. cor. Corlears & Cherry Streets
A B C Manhattan S. side of W. 17th St % bet, 8th and 9th Aves.
A B Manhattan Central Park - Great Lawn, N. W. cor. opp.
85th Street.
A B Manhattan N.W. cor. Payson Ave. & Dyckman St. S.E.
cor. Inwood Park,
A B Manhattan S. W, cor. 141st St. & St. Nicholas Ave, N.E.
cor. St. Nicholas.Park.
A B C Bronx N. 3. cor. Brook Avenue & 141st Street.
A B Brooklyn W. side 95th Street bet. Avenues K and L.
A B C Brooklyn 3rd to 4th Sts., 4th to 5th Aves. Site of Old
Gowanus House.
C Brooklyn S. Side Atlantic Ave. bet. Fountain Ave. &
Sunrise Highway,
A B C Brooklyn 39th Street and Second Avenue
A B C Queens 25th to 30th Aves. 84th to 85th Sts., Jackson
Heights
A B C Queens Alley Pond Park, adj. to Parking Field.
A B C Queens Hillside Park, adj. to Parking Field.
A B Richmond N. E. cor. Jewett & Castleton Avenues.
Sept 5 A B Manhattan S. W. cor. Riverside Dr, & Bway. N.E. cor.
Fort Tryon Park
Sep. 14 A B C Manhattan Chrystie & Forsythe Sts. bet. E. Houston &
Canal Sts, (Sara D. Roosevelt Parkway)
Sep. 28 A B C Manhattan N. E. cor. 6th Ave. & W, Houston Street.
A B Manhattan E. Side 1st Ave. bet. Houston & 1st Streets.
Oct. 5 A B Manhattan S. Side E. Houston St. bet. Essex & Norfolk
Streets.
Oct. 12 A B Manhattan Baxter, Mulberry, Baird & Park Sts. N. sec.
Columbus Park
A B Bronx Reservoir Ave, bet. Sedgwick & Webb Ave. N.
end of Old Fort #4 Park.
A B C Brooklyn Bet. 4th Ave. & 6th Ave. 66th to 67th Sts.
N.W. end Leiv Eiriksson Park (2 blocks)
A B Queens N. E. corner Corona Ave, & 102nd Street
Oct. 19 A B C Manhattan S. W. cor. Monroe and Gouveneur Streets.
A B Manhattan S. side Delancey St. bet. Columbia & Sheriff Sts.
Oct. 28 A B C Brooklyn S. W. cor. Fulton & Classon Streets.
A B C Brooklyn S. W. cor. Park & Taafe Place
Nov. 5 A Manhattan N. side of 150th St. bet. 7th and Macombs Pl,
Nov. 9 A B Brooklyn Dreier-Offerman Playground. W. side Cropsey
Ave., S. Bay 46th Street,
A B C Queens S. E. cor. 149th St. & 25th Avenue, Flushing.
Dec. 10 A B Richmond W. Side Harbor Road. S. of Richmond Terrace
1935
Jan. 15 A B C Brooklyn Bet. 8th Ave. & Ft. Hamilton Pkway., 66th to
67th Sts, (2 blocks) Leiv Eiriksson Park)
Feb. 1 B Queens 243rd Road and 43rd Avenue
March 8 A B C Queens Poppenhausen Ave, 119th St., College Point.
A B Manhattan S. Side 28th St. bet, 2nd and 3rd Avenues.
A B C Bronx Tinton to Union Avenues, bet, 161st & 163rd Sts.
A B Bronx W. side Reservoir Ave. bet. Strong & 197th
St. Fort #4
A B C Brooklyn S. E. cor. Nostrand Ave. & Montgomery St.
March 15 A B Bronx Park Ave. bet. 150th and 151st Street.
April 1 A B C Brooklyn N. E. cor. Vandervoort & Anthony Streets
A B Queens 52nd Ave. bet. 106th & 107th Streets
Apr. 17 A B C Manhattan Fort Washington Ave. & 173rd St. J.Hood Wright Park
May 1 A B C Manhattan E. Houston bet. 1st & 2nd Ave.
A B C Brooklyn Union, Hamilton & Van Brunt Street
May 15 B C Brooklyn S. E. cor. Remsen Avenue, Rutland Road
B C Brooklyn E.N.Y. Ave., Remsen & Utica Avenue
A B Brooklyn W. S. Remsen, E. 52nd St. to Winthrop Street
A B Brooklyn W. S. Remsen, Winthrop to Clarkson Streets.
May 16 A B Manhattan N. E. cor. of Rutgers & Henry Streets
May 24 A B C Brooklyn New Utrecht Ave. & 71st Street
May 29 A Manhattan Downing & Carmine Streets
June 5 A B Manhattan 180th St. & Amsterdam Ave. W.Central part of
Highbridge Park
B C Manhattan W.S. Washington bet. Horatio & W. 13th St.
B Manhattan W.S. Washington - 12th to Leroy St. (3 parcels)
A B C Brooklyn S. side Schermerhorn St.
June 8 B C Manhattan 100th Street - North Meadow, Central Park
June 9 A B Bronx S.E. cor. Jerome Avenue & 193rd St.
N.W. cor. St. James Park
June 20 A B Manhattan N.E. cor. East End Avenue & 84th St Carl Schurz Pk
July 26 B C Queens Alley Pond Park Recreational Field
August 9 A Queens Newtown Playground, 56th Avenue & 92nd Street
The Park Department has planned 110 playgrounds
with relief funds furnished by the Temporary Emergency Relief Administration
and they will be constructed with relief forces supplied by the Works
Progress Administration. Thirty-seven of these to be built with relief
funds replace old makeshift and inadequate playground areas in centers of
congested population with modern, fully equipped recreational centers and 73
are on new areas added to the system.
The following is the program of the Department of
Parks for the opening of these one hundred and ten playgrounds in the five
boroughs:
A B C Brooklyn S. side Schermerhorn St.
Aug. 23 A B C Queens Highland Park Playground.
A B Queens Laurelton Playground. Brookville Blvd.,
South of 136th Ave.
A B Brooklyn Riverdale, Van Sinderen and Snediker Aves,
A B C Bronx Crotona Park Playground. W.S. 173rd St. &
Fulton Ave.
Aug. 27 A B C Brooklyn Avenue U and Stillwell Avenue
Sep. 6 A B C *Brooklyn McCarren Park Playground. Driggs Ave. & Lorimer
Street
A B Bronx Cauldwell Ave. bet. E. 161st & 163rd Sts.
Sep. 14 A B C *Manhattan Thos.Jefferson Playground. 1st Ave.to E.River &
E.lll to E. 114th Street.
A B C *Brooklyn Sunset Park Playground. 5th Avenue & 44th Street
Sep. 20 A B *Queens Jackson Pond (Forest Park) Kyrtle Ave., 109th St.
A B C Queens Corona Golf Playground. 47th Ave. & 111th St.
Sep. 27 A B Brooklyn Bet. S. 3rd St., Ocean Parkway and Avenue P
Sep. 28 A B C Bronx Hunts Point & Spoffard Avenues, Faile Street
Oct. 4 A B C Brooklyn Bedford Avs. to Mansfield Place, Aves. X and Y
A B Bronx E. 164th Street to Teasdale Pl., E.of Boston Rd.
Oct. 10 A B *Bronx Reservoir Ave. bet. Univ. & Webb Aves. Fort #4
A B Queens 68th Road, 79th Street and 69th Avenue
Oct. 12 A B C Manhattan 67th & 68th Streets, York and 1st Avenue
A B Manhattan E. Houston St. bet. Mott and Elizabeth Streets
C Manhattan S. Houston St. bet. Elizabeth St. & Bowery
A B Manhattan W. Houston St. bet. Sullivan & Thompson Sts.
A B Manhattan W. Houston St. bet. Sullivan & McDougal Sts.
A B Manhattan McDougal and Houston Streets
Oct. 15 B Manhattan Avenue A and 3rd Street
Nov. 15 A Manhattan Essex St. bet. Rivington & Delancey Sts,
A Manhattan Essex St. bet. Delancey & Broome Streets
Nov. 21 B C Manhattan Circle Lawn. 106th St. & Central Park West
A B *Richmond Rosebank Playground. Virginia to Clifton Ave.
off Bay St.
Nov. 29 A B Manhattan S.E. Corner Kinetta Lane and Sixth Avenue
A B *Manhattan Sixth Ave. bet. W. 3rd Street and Minetta Lane
A B *Manhattan Sixth Ave. bet. 3rd Street and W. 4th Street.
A Bronx DeVoe Park, University Avenue & W. Fordham Road
DECEMBER
A B Manhattan Edgecorabe Avenue and West 169th Street
A B *Manhattan Morningside Park Playground,
Morningside Ave. & 114th St.
A B C *Manhattan Hamilton Fish Playground. S. Houston,
Stanton,Sheriff & Pitt St.
A B Manhattan Central Park Great Lawn - opp. 85th St.W.E.cor.
C Brooklyn Smith, Carroll and First Place
B Brooklyn 10th Street, 2nd to 3rd Avenues
C Brooklyn Smith Street, Luqueer to Huntington Streets
A Bronx S.W. cor. 176th Street, Bryant Avenue
A B Queens 127th & 128th Streets, bet. 14th and 15th Aves.
A B Queens 35th Avenue bet. 33rd and 34th Streets.
A B Queens S. W. cor. Astoria Blvd. and 90th Street.
JANUARY 1936
A B C * Manhattan Highbridge Park Playground, Amsterdam Ave.
& W.189th St.
C * Manhattan North Meadow, Central Park. 97th St. & Transvers.
Road
A * Manhattan Inwood Hill Park Playground. Payson Ave. &
Dyckman St.
A B C Brooklyn 23rd Street between 4th and 5th Avenues
B C Brooklyn Howard and Atlantic Avenues
A B * Queens Forest Park. 79th Street, Myrtle Avenue
A B C Queens O'Connor Park Playground, 32nd to 33rd Ave.-
210th St.
A B C Richmond Clove Lakes Park Recreational Area. Victory
Blvd., Clove Rd.
A B C Richmond Clove Road and Clove Lake Park
FEBRUARY
A B C Brooklyn Aberdeen Street near Bushwick Avenue.
A B C * Brooklyn Heckscher Playground. Grove & Linden Sts.,
Central 8: Wilson Aves.
Bronx 253rd Street and Jerome Avenue
A B C Queens Flushing Playground. 46th Avenue bet. 164th &.
165th St.
A B C Richmond Mill Road, Weed Avenue
MARCH
A B C * Manhattan Chelsea Park Playground. 10th Ave. W. 27th &
W. 28th Sts.
A B C * Manhattan Isham Park Playground, Seaman Avenue & Isham St
A B C Brooklyn Kent Avenue and Broadway
A B * Brooklyn McLoughlin Park Plgd, Bridge,Tillary,Jay,Cathed.
A B C * Brooklyn Tompkins Park Plgd, Tompkins & Lafayette Aves
A B C Brooklyn Prospect Ave. bet. Greenwood & Ft. Hamilton Pkwy
C Brooklyn White ,McKibben & Bogart Streets
A Brooklyn Sullivan Place west of Nostrand Avenue
A B C Brooklyn Newtown Barge Ter. Plgd. Commercial & Dupont Sts.
A B C Brooklyn Williamsburg Housing Development-Soholes St.,
Manhattan Ave. & Graham Ave,
C * Bronx Parade Ground, 242nd Street to City Line
A B Bronx E.146th St., Grand Concourse, Walton Avenue
A B C Queens Springfield Blvd. bet. Sheffield & 147th Ave.
APRIL
A B C * Manhattan Seward Park Plgd, Canal,Hester,Essex &
Jefferson Sts.
A B * Manhattan S. half Tompkins Sq.. Plgd,
10th St. bet. Ave A & B.
A B C * Manhattan Heckscher Plgd. 62nd St. & W. Drive, Central Park
A B C * Brooklyn Bushwick Park Plgd. Knickerbocker & Irving Aves.
C Brooklyn 2nd Avenue from 36th to 38th Streets (& Starr St.
A B C Brooklyn Blake and Euclid Avenues
B C Brooklyn Ave. V to Y, West 10th to W. 11th Sts.
A B C Bronx Bronx Park Playground, Boston Road
A B C Bronx W. l78th St., Sedgwick & Cedar Avenue
A B * Queens Bowne Park Plgd. 32nd Ave, bet, 158 & 159th Sts.
A B * Queens Bridge Plaza 1. Crescent & 27th Sts.
bet. 42 & 43 Sts.
C * Queens Bridge Plaza 2. 22nd & 23rd Sts. Bridge Plaza S.
A B C * Queens Astoria Park Plgd. Astoria Blvd. off 23rd Avenue
A B C Queens N. Conduit Avenue and 149th Avenue
MAY
A B C * Manhattan St. Gabriel's Plgd. 1st Ave.,35th to 36th Sts.
A B C * Manhattan Mt. Morris Park,120th to 121st St., Madison Ave.
B C * Brooklyn Seaside Park W. 8th St.W. 5th St., Seabreeze Ave.
Ocean Parkway to Beach Front.
A B C * Brooklyn Dyker Beach Playground.
Two Units -1 86th St.& 7 Ave, 2 86th St.& 14 Av.
A B C Brooklyn Bayview,Neptune Aves, W. 25th to W.-31st St .
A B C Queens Crocheron Park Plgd. 35th Ave. & 214th Place
A B C Queens N. Conduit Ave. bet. 80th & 88th Sts.
JUNE
A B C Manhattan Corlears Hook Plgd.,
Corlears, South, Jackson, and Cherry Sts.
A B C Brooklyn Carnarsie Park Plgd. E. 93rd St.& Seaview Ave.
B C Brooklyn Bergen Beach Plgd, Bergen Ave., Aves. X & Y
A B C * Brooklyn Betsy Head Plgd. Dumont-Livonia-Douglas-
Hopkinson and Blake Avenues.
A B C * Brooklyn Bay Parkway, Avenue P , West 12th Street
C Bronx Williamsbridge Res.Plgd. E.208th St & Bainbridge
A B C Queens N. Conduit Avenue, 117th & 121st Sts
JULY
A B Manhattan Harlem Housing Plgd.
W. 151st St. 7th Ave.-Harlem Riv.
A B C Manhattan Colonial Park,Bradhurst & Edgcombe Aves.,
W.145 to 155th St.
A B C Manhattan Randalls Island Park, East and Harlem Rivers
A B C Brooklyn Red Hook Recreation Center. Foot Henry St. on
Gowanus Bay
C Bronx Fort Schuyler, Throggs Neck, Ft. of Penfield Ave.
A B C Bronx Macomb's Dam Park - Entire Park
A B C Bronx Rodmans Neck - Pelham Bay Park
A B Queens Beach 73rd St. & Rockaway Beach-S. of R.B. Blvd.
A B C Queens Juniper Valley Park & Plgd. NYCRR to Dry Harbor
Road, 62nd to 63rd Avenues.
A B C Brooklyn Marine Park North of Avenue U
B C Brooklyn Prospect Park Parade Ground
In addition to the playgrounds listed above, the following 14
areas will bo developed by the City Park Department and the Long Island State
Park Commission on excess land acquired for tho Triborough Bridge project and
will be opened by July of next year.
GRAND CENTRAL PARKWAY EXTENSION
B C Queens 135th Street and Union Turnpike
A B Queens 58th Avenue and Marginal Street
B C Queens 55th Avenue and Marginal Street
A B Queens 52nd Avenue and Marginal Street
B C Queens 49th Avenue and Marginal Street
A B Queens 46th Avenue bet. 111th St. and Marginal St.
A B Queens Pell Avenue and 37th Avenue
A B Queen 97th Street and Ditmars Boulevard
EAST RIVER DRIVE
A B Manhattan 119th and 120th Streets
A B Manhattan 104th and 105th Streets
A Manhattan 93rd Street and Pleasant Avenue
B C Manhattan 103rd and 104th Streets
A B C Manhattan 123rd, 124th and 125th Streets and 1st Ave.
(under bridge)
A B C Manhattan 107th Street Pier
The following six playgrounds will be constructed on or
adjacent to Health Center buildings by tho Department of Parks and the
Department of Health and will be operated by the Park Department:
A B Manhattan 115th Stroot bet* Lexington & 3rd Avos, (Roof)
A B Manhattan Chelsea Park, 9th Avo, 27th to 28th Sts. (Roof)
A B Bronx East of Alexander Avo, 140th to 141st Sts.
A B Bronx North side of Westchestcr Ave, Commonwealth and
St. Lawrence Avenues,
A B Queens 31st Street and 14th Avenue
A Brooklyn Baltic & Court Streets (Roof)
The character of development of each playground has been
carefully studied to satisfy tho recreational needs of the neighborhood in
which it is located. Some of these playgrounds are designed exclusively for
infants and mothers, some for children of kindergarten age, some for adults
and adolescents and some for combinations of those groups.
The general type of use for which the play areas are
planned is indicated by letters opposite each unit on the above lists, "A"
indicates a park for mothers and infants, "B" for older children, and "C"
for adolescents and adults. The dilapidated areas to be relocated and
rebuilt are marked by asterisks (*) All of the play areas constructed for
adolescent or adult recreation will be flood-lighted and constructed so that
they may be open at night until bedtime. All are designed for use tho full
year. They will be planted with as many trees and shrubs as possible.
In addition to the new playgrounds above described, all
new outdoor swimming pools will be so designed that they can be used in the
Fall, Summer and Spring for play purposes, and so far as possible Winter
play facilities will be provided in connection with construction of
bathhouses.
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[FANCIFUL RENDERING OF DEPARTMENT OF PARKS PROGRESS OF WORK ON NEW PLAYGROUNDS]
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 August 9, 1935
The Department of Parks has determined the location and completed the
development plan of a major recreational center in Harlem. For over a year
the Department has been searching this section of the city for an area large
enough to provide space for the active play and recreation which it is
providing in other neighborhoods, and which Harlem lacks. No area large enough
to accommodate all the units required and at a price the city could pay could
be assembled. It was decided to convert Colonial Park from its present
informal plan into a park for active play.
Its location, between 145th and 155th Streets and between Edgecombe
and Bradhurst Avenues, is ideal.
The topography of the park is well suited to the various units to be
built. Edgecombe Avenue is supported above the park by a high stone
retaining-wall built on an escarpment along the west side of the area. The
rocky slope occupies less than half of the park area and the east side along
Bradhurst Avenue is level with the boundary street, The wooded steep slopes
will not be disturbed and a ten-block long promenade will be reconstructed at
the foot of the wall on the ledge. The whole lower section will be rebuilt
into active recreational units.
An outdoor swimming pool and gymnasium will be built between 145th and
147th Streets. The pool will be 100 meters long and will be equal to any
other pool in the city. The roof of the modern bathhouse will be utilized for
the deck of the pool and spectator seats will be terraced against the rock
ledge. The area used for a swimming pool in the summer can be converted into
an outdoor gymnasium during seasons of no swimming. The south wing of the
building will be built as a yearround athletic hall, modern gymnasium and
general recreation center for Harlem.
A music shell will be built into the north wing of the bathhouse and will
center on a tree shaded concert and dance plaza which terminates a mall from
147th to 150th Streets.
The existing comfort station at 149th Street will be renovated and
enlarged into a play house and flanked by playgrounds for small children.
The largest meadow in the park which extends from 150th to 152nd Streets
will be devoted to field sports and other adult recreation. A third
playground for larger children, which will include a wading pool, is located
between 152nd and 153rd Streets.
The entire area will be landscaped and liberally equipped with benches.
Harlem will have a complete athletic center equal to any planned for any
neighborhood in the city.
Construction will be started this summer with relief forces. The park
will not be closed to the public during reconstruction.
A development plan of the reconstructed area is attached.
-END-
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[MAP: DEVELOPMENT PLAN - COLONIAL PARK]
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[MAP: DEVELOPMENT PLAN - COLONIAL PARK]
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 August 7, 1935
The Department of Parks announced today the opening of the new
Kissena Park Golf Course in Flushing, located at the junction of the North
Hempstead Turnpike and Fresh Meadow lane.
At the official opening ceremonies, Friday, August 9 at 2:00 P.M.,
Mr. Ira strong, President; will represent the Broadway Chamber of Commerce of
Flushing; Mr. Harry Lewis, President, will represent the Kissena Park
Improvement Association; Mr. Charles L. Wise, Vice President, will represent
the Flushing United and Mr. Harry Sweeny, Jr., Borough Director of Parks in
Queens and John R. Van Kleek, golf architects will represent the Park
Department.
The first foursome to play the course will be made up of
representatives of various civic organizations. A foursome representing the
various city golf courses, including Pelhams Glearview, Forest Park and Dyker
Beach will follow the official foursome. Permit holders are invited to play
on the opening day, and will be started according to the system in force at
all city golf courses.
Reservations will not be made for August 10 and 11, but can be made
for August 17 and 18 by telephone to the Borough Park Department oifice at the
Overlook in Hew Gardens.
-end-
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 July 16, 1935
The Park Department announced today the opening of the Forest Park Golf
Course, Queens, Thursday, July 18, at 2:00 P.M. The old Forest Park course
has been entirely rebuilt with new greens and tees in line with the most
modern golf architecture.
Appropriate ceremonies, which include a bugle call to colors and raising
of the flag, have been arranged.
Borough Director Harry Sweeny, representing the Park Department, will
direct the opening ceremonies.
Borough President Harvey will tee off the first ball.
A foursome representing the Queens Golf Club, the Clearview Golf Club,
Dyker Beach Park Golf Club and Shore View Golf Club will play the first round.
Four professional golfers from the following municipal golf courses will
represent the Park Department
Pat Doyle - Kissena
Tony Grego - Clearview
George Jolimay - Kissena
Joe McMahon - Forest Park
- end -
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 July 16, 1935
The Department of Parks announced today that
work on the superstructure of the West Side Highway from 72nd to 76th Streets
is well under way. The foundations for this section were completed several
months ago.
An interesting feature of the contract which has just been completed is
the connection of the steel for the new structure to that of the existing
structure south of 72nd Street. The location of the steel of the temporary
ramp at 72nd Street is such that a section had to be removed in order to make
the connection of the new steel to the existing framework. In order to
accomplish this with a minimum disturbance of traffic, the work was done at
night, and was accomplished without inconvenience to motorists using Riverside
Drive and the existing section of the Express Highway.
The work under this contract is being performed by Poirier and McLane, at
a cost of approximately $1,172,000. The American Bridge Company and the Harris
Structural Steel Company have a joint contract for the steel work. The
foundations were installed by the Atwell Company.
Transition between the construction south of 72nd Street, which consists
of long span steel girders and that north of 73rd Street in Riverside Park,
which consists of informal field stone walls, is being accomplished by
structural steel arches. These arches intersect at an angle rather than being
continuous, as is usual in this type of construction. Most of the arches have
been placed and steel is arriving at an encouraging rate, so that in a
comparatively short time the superstructure up to 76th Street should be
completed.
Plans for the structure beyond 76th Street are now being rushed to
Completion.
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[MAP OF RANDALL'S ISLAND PARK]
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[MAP OF RANDALL'S ISLAND PARK]
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254
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 July 8, 1935
The Department of Parks announced today that the bridge spanning the
Harlem Ship Canal, which was recently advertised and awarded by the Henry
Hudson Parkway Authority, is actually under construction. The Thomas Crimmins
Contracting Company, with a low bid of $272,678.50 on the substructure, is
busily engaged in the construction of the south pier of the bridge. The
entire contract, including the superstructure which was swarded the American
Eridge Company, whoso low bid was $365,208.59, will be finished by January
1937.
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[PHOTO OF HARLEM SHIP CANAL BRIDGE CONSTRUCTION]
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 July 5, 1935
Mayor LaGuardia's efforts to secure for the public well produced plays that
could be given outdoors, resulted in the experiment of the Portable Theatre
Drama presentations in the Park last year. These were provided by the Drama
Division of the Department of Public Welfare. The experiment proved to be so
successful that several new productions have been added to the repertory,
among these two Gilbert and Sullivan shows. Last year as many as 12,000
persons were recorded as witnessing one of the performances. With a larger
cast prepared to give several operettas this summer, it is expected that the
attendance record will be increased.
The shows are scheduled to begin in all Boroughs on Monday, July 8th at 8:15
P.M., with the exception of the Mall which will commence on July 15th. These
plays will continue, daily, except Sunday, throughout the summer.
Attached hereto is a complete list of park sites in the five Boroughs and the
days on which the Portable Theatre will be seen at each.
The following are the plays that be shown in each Borough this week;
BROOKLYN "Pirates of Penzance"
QUEENS "The Fall Guy"
BRONX "The Rivals"
MANHATTAN "Button, Button"
RICHMOND Vaudeville Unit #2
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tel. Regent 4-1OOO July 5th, 1935.
PORTABLE THEATERS
Locations and Playing Days -- 1935
BROOKLYN
Mondays Fort Green Park DeKalb Ave. & Cumberland St.
Tuesdays Owl's Head Park Shore & Colonial Rds. 67 St.
Wednesdays Gravesent Park 18th Ave. & 56th St.
Thursdays Wm. B. Kelly Mem. Ave. S. & 14th St.
Fridays Prospect Park Gate #3 Ocean Ave. Lincoln Rd
Saturdays Lincoln Terrace Eastern Pkwy. Rochester Aye.
QUEENS
Mondays Forest Park Park Lane So. & 89th St.
Tuesdays Anawanda Grandview Ave. Stanhope St.
Wednesdays Jacob Riis Park Rockaway Beach Blvd.
Thursdays King Jamaica Ave. 150th St.
Fridays Jackson Hts. 84 - 85 St. 30th Ave.
Saturdays Astoria Park Hoyt Ave. & East River
BRONX
Mondays Franz Siegel 153rd St. Mott Ave.
Tuesdays Crotona Park 175 St. Fulton & Arthur Ave.
Wednesdays Bronx Pk. East Union Port Rd. & Sagamore St.
Thursdays Pelham, Rice Stadium Eastern Blvd. opp. Westchester Ave.
Fridays De Voe Park University Ave. Fordham Rd.
Saturdays St. Mary's Park Trinity Ave. opp. 147th St.
MANHATTAN
Mondays Mall, C.P. (7/15) 72nd St. Central Park
Tuesdays Wash· Square Waverly Place & 5th Ave.
Wednesdays Colonial Park 145th St. & Bradhurst Ave.
Thursdays Chelsea Park 27th St. & 10th Ave.
Fridays Corlears Hook South & Cherry Sts.
Saturdays Roosevelt Park Rivington & Forsyth Sts.
RICHMOND
Mondays Clove Lake Park Slosson Ave. Victory Blvd.
Tuesdays Silver Lake Park Eddy St. Forest Ave.
Wednesdays Cardinal Bowl Rosebank
Thursdays Semlars Park Grant City
Fridays Fitzgeralds Fields Nelson Avenue
Saturdays Wolfes Pond Park Cornelia Ave. Holston St.
Johnson Terrace
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 July 3, 1935
The new Prospect Park Zoo, located on what was the Duck Pond, is one
of the most modern and beautiful menageries in the country. The main
entrance is on Flatbush Avenue, about 440 feet from the Lefferts Mansion. A
stone stairway leads from the street to the lower level where the six brick
buildings comprising the zoo are situated. In the center of the building
group is a seal pool, from which walks radiate, giving the landscape the
shape of an open fan.
The buildings house lions, horned animals, monkeys and birds. The
hippopotami and elephants reside in a large domed building in the center of
the group. Two huge decorative cages display a hawk and eagle. A restaurant
occupies a corner of the garden. Along the street level are two shelters
for visitors.
The bears' dens, of huge boulders simulating a mountain side, are
built into the slope which rises toward Flatbush Avenue. To the spectator,
nothing seems to stand between them and the animals. However, an 18 foot deep
moat filled with water prevents the bears escaping. This is known as the
Hagenbeck method of display, adopted by zoos in St. Louis, Washington and
Chicago.
Plans were prepared by work relief architects and engineers and the
cost of construction and labor was covered by work relief funds.
The response to the appeal of the Brooklyn Citizens' Committee for
the Prospect Park Zoo, formed by the Hon. Raymond V. Ingersoll, Borough
President of Brooklyn, and the Hon. Robert Moses, Commissioner of Parks, for
the purpose of stocking the empty cages has been most generous. More
specimens are needed and those interested are invited to communicate with Mr.
Louis C. Wills, President of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, 26 Court
Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. Hon. Alfred E. Smith is acting as "Renting Agent" for
the zoo. A bronze tablet of acknowledgment will be placed on the cages of
animals whose cost was borne entirely by an individual.
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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEL. REGENT 4-1000 July 1, 1935
The Department Parks announces the opening of its first
children's farm garden at the DeMatti Playfield, Staten Island, July 5 at
1:50 P.M.
This garden is artistically laid out with a stone garden house
in the center and two plots on either side for little vegetable
gardens. Shrubbery and trees, surround the garden. .
Implements and insect mounts and other instructive and
interesting garden requisites have been supplied by the Park Department, as
well as a garden teacher well versed in the ways of children and cut worms.
Facilities for 100 individual gardens have been provided.
-end-
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