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Jamaica, the largest and most densely populated community in central Queens, derives its name from the Jameco (meaning “beaver”) Native Americans, who lived along the shores of what is now Jamaica Bay. In 1655, the first English settlers arrived in Jamaica from Massachusetts and eastern Long Island. Within a year, they secured a land grant from the Dutch Governor Peter Read more...
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Jamaica Bay is an 18,000-acre wetland estuary surrounded by the Rockaway Peninsula to the South, Brooklyn to the West, and Queens to the East, and includes approximately 10,000 acres of parkland managed by the National Park Service and NYC Parks as an urban national park. Comprising an area almost equal to the size of Manhattan, the bay consists of numerous Read more...
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This park honors John Thompson Hoffman (1828-1888), a career politician who served as both Mayor of New York City (1866-68) and Governor of New York State (1869-73). Born January 10, 1828, in Sing Sing, New York (later called Ossining), Hoffman attended Union College, and graduated in 1846. Returning to Sing Sing to study law, he was admitted to the New Read more...
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This playground takes its name from Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. The university was founded in 1636, only 16 years after the arrival of the Pilgrims at Plymouth. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard was named in 1638 for its first benefactor, John Harvard, a minister from Charlestown, Massachusetts who bequeathed half of his Read more...
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This playground, located at 155th Avenue between 84th and 85th Streets, is named in honor of Harold Schneiderman (1926-1985), a local resident who lived nearby. Born in Buffalo, Schneiderman lived the last 25 years of his life in Howard Beach, and was involved in a wide number of community and charitable organizations. Schneiderman, owner of over a dozen supermarkets, was Read more...
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This park honors Daniel A. Haggerty (1884-1965), a Queens public servant for 18 years. Born in Brooklyn on September 13, 1884, Haggerty left school, moved to Queens, and began working for the Charles H. Eddy advertising agency. He was employed there for 43 years, eventually becoming the firm’s treasurer. While at the Eddy firm, Haggerty was elected Democratic leader of Read more...
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This playground pays tribute to the memory of World War I veteran Howard Ames Von Dohlen (1895-1918). Born in Ozone Park, Queens, Von Dohlen graduated from a local public high school and began work at the brokerage firm V.C. Brown. Von Dohlen was a member of the Men’s Club Epiphany Church of Ozone Park, and was also Superintendent of the Read more...
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“Hollis” was not developer Frederick W. Denton’s first choice for this neighborhood’s name. He wanted to call it Woodhull, after General Nathaniel Woodhull, who was captured and mortally wounded by the British in 1776, at what is now 197th Street and Jamaica Avenue. However Steuben County already had a Woodhull, so he named this area after his own birthplace in Read more...
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This Brooklyn Heights park, aptly named for the sloping space it occupies, is located east of Columbia Heights and south of Vine Street. Acquired by Parks in 1946 and in 1947 during the proceedings for the mapping of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, then known as the Brooklyn-Queens Connecting Highway, this site was not needed for the highway construction itself, so it Read more...
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This park honors George Upton Harvey (1881-1946) Queens Borough President from 1928 to 1941. Born in County Galway, Ireland, on August 15, 1881, the Harveys moved to Chicago when George was five years old. His father founded The International Confectioner, a trade paper, and after working there Harvey served as a correspondent and photographer for the Army and Navy journal. Read more...
