Found 102 blog entries tagged as New York City Parks.

October of 1929 played a very significant role in shaping the future for America. Many Americans are quite familiar with what happened at this time-even if they have a hard time remembering dates. During the end of the month, lyons_pool_staten islandthe stock market crashed. This brought upon the well-known Great Depression, which lasted through the 1930s.

By 1935, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt created the Works Progress Administration, which provided several million Americans with paying jobs. One of these jobs was the installation of eleven outdoor swimming pools in the City of New York. One of these pools was constructed on the waterfront between 1934 and 1936 in Staten Island's neighborhood of Tompkinsville. Once construction on the 2.56-acre site was completed,…

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fdr_boardwalk_south_beach_2_640During the nineteenth century, much of Staten Island was used as a summer resort for its neighboring boroughs.  This was especially so closer to the shore, where people had access to the beach.  By the beginning of the twentieth century, in 1906, an amusement park opened on the eastern shore of Staten Island.  The Happyland Amusement Park, located in South Beach, was a widely anticipated attraction-so much so that at the time of its opening, thirty-thousand people traveled to Staten Island for its grand opening.

In 1912, a carousel was constructed at Happyland Amusement Park. The carousel became the most popular attraction of the park.  However, it was not the only feature enjoyed by the amusement park's visitors.  Happyland Amusement Park also had such…

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Kaltenmeier Playground is located in the neighborhood of Rosebank on the North Shore of Staten Island. It is bordered by the streets of Virginia Avenue, Anderson Street, and Clifton Avenue. These streets also divide Kaltenmeier PlaygroundKaltenmeier Playground into three separate sections. The main lot, which is below Virginia Avenue, is a small parcel of land that is only about half an acre in size. This section of the park has been transformed from an empty lot into a local play area for the children of the community. The other two sections, which are both located above Virginia Avenue and separated by Anderson Street, are natural forests that have been left alone. Altogether, the three sections add up to about one acre of land.

Kaltenmeier Playground was named after…

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During the early part of the twentieth century, Louis A. Dreyfus founded the L.A. Dreyfus Company in the neighbhero_1_400orhood of Clifton.  This company was based off of a discovery of his in 1909, in which he was able to manufacture a chewing gum base.  After four years of steady growth, the L.A. Dreyfus Company had gotten so popular that the demand outweighed the supply by a great deal.  With not enough room to swing a cat, Dreyfus had to relocate his company to New Jersey.The Location of Hero Park puts it between Grymes Hill, Silver Lake, and Ward Hill.

In 1914, around the time of the L.A. Dreyfus Company's heightened popularity on Staten Island, the First World War had begun.  The United States had tried their best to stay neutral during the war.  Once…

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On July 7, 1997, roughly nine acres of land in the neighborhood of Graniteville were assigned to the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. This area of land is within the site known as Graniteville Swamp, which is five graniteville_park_swamptimes the size of the acreage assigned to the Parks Department.  On June 1, 2000, another addition was made to what is now known as Graniteville Swamp Park.  This little sliver of land, in addition to the original portion obtained by the Parks Department, account for close to nothing when they are compared to the size of the swamp.

Graniteville Swamp was originally surrounded by Forest Avenue to the north and west, South Avenue to the east, and Goethals Road North to the south. Morrow Street, which juts out of Forest Avenue…

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Eibs Pond Park is located on the North Shore of Staten Island. The park is bordered by the streets of Mosel Avenue, Palma Drive, and Hanover Avenue. Eibs Pond Park is approximately 17 acres of protected wetlands and is made up of three separate ponds.

eibs__pond_park_400Eibs Pond Park received its name from the Eibs family that lived on this land from the 1800s until 1971. The Eibs were a German-American family who used this land as a dairy farm in the 1800s. The Eibs used what is now known as Eibs Pond as a watering hole for their horses and cows.

Starting in the early 20th century Eibs pond was used for more than the Eibs' family watering hole. In 1914, the site of the pond was used in a couple of movies. Firstly, it was used in several episodes of The Perils of…

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When most people in the United States hear the name "Deere", they think of John Deere; and rightly so, as he is arguably the most famous of his family in the country.  For those of you who are only aware of his name's current Deere Park Sign Staten Islanduse as a brand name, John Deere was a blacksmith during the nineteenth century.  From Rutland, Vermont, Deere moved to Grand Detour, Illinois in 1836, at the age of thirty-two.  The following year, in 1837, John Deere opened a shop which dealt with the production of small tools.  That same year, he invented the first successful cast-steel plow.

John Deere would often have people come in to his shop to purchase a plow.  It would take some time for them to receive it, though, as he would have to construct it first.  Deere soon…

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Clove's Tail Park is located just below the south end of Clove Lakes Park. The location of the park is where it gets its name from since it is at the tail end of its northern neighbor, Clove Lakes Park. Clove's Tail Park is bordered by streets on three sides. To the east, it is bordered by Little Clove Road, while to the north and south it is bordered by Victory Boulevard and Windsor Road, respectively. This puts the park on the boundary between the neighborhoods of Sunnyside and Royal Oak, which is also known as Castleton Corners.

The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation obtained the land for Clove's Tail Park in 1954 from an Evangelical Lutheran Church. While the name of the church itself is not known, we do know that this church was…

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feild_1_400Clawson Playground is located in the Staten Island neighborhood of Oakwood. It is bordered by streets on just two sides. To the north is Adelaide Avenue and to the east is Clawson Street. Clawson Playground has the facilities of a baseball field, basketball hoops, a play unit, and an open grassy field. This park is connected to and is part of Public School 50's schoolyard.

Clawson Playground was named after the Clawson family. The Clawsons were one of the prominent Staten Island families starting in the late 18th century. They resided on New Dorp Lane until the mid to late 19th century in a colonial-style house. In the cemetery of the Church of St. Andrew's you can find twenty-seven members buried.

 

The New York City Department of Parks and…

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Blood Root Valley Park is loosely bordered by Forest Hill Road, Eastman Avenue, Manor Road, and Rockland Avenue. It is also connected to Willowbrook Park, LaTourette Park, and High Rock Park.Bloodroot Valley is also the location of the Greenbelt Nature center. The center hosts a number of inforational sessions about the park, looks at its history as well a provide insigt into the plantlife and animal species that exisit in the park. Nearby neighborhoods are Lighthouse Hill, and Willowbrook.

Blood Root Valley Park was given to the Department of Parks and Recreation in 1994 by the City of New York. This is one of the many parks that make up the Greenbelt. Blood Root Valley Park gets its name from the bloodroot plant. This is a rare plant which, on Staten…

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