Patricia A. Brackley Park (Queens, NY)

This park honors Patricia Brackley (1940-1999), a dedicated gardener and local volunteer. Born in New Kensington, Pennsylvania, Brackley graduated from Indiana’s Purdue University in 1961 and moved to New York to work as a schoolteacher. In her spare time, Brackley served as president of the Shore Garden Club of Belle Harbor and Neponsit in the Rockaways and as vice-president of the Second District of the Garden Clubs of New York State. An expert florist in her own right, Brackley became an accredited flower show judge and wrote a gardening column for her local newspaper, The Wave.

Dedicated to the beautification of her Rockaway community, Patricia Brackley took it upon herself to renovate the neighborhood’s Cronston Triangle, a small median separating busy Beach Channel Drive from Beach 125th Street and Cronston Avenue. With special care, she designed plantings, seats, and a sprinkler system for the park. Spending $10,000 from her own funds to make those designs become a reality, Brackley also helped beautify the nearby Beach Channel Drive median and worked with neighborhood storeowners along Beach 129 Street to plant trees and flowers in front of their establishments. After fighting cancer for several years, Brackley died in January 1999. In September 2000 this property, which she cared for over the years, was renamed by Commissioner Stern to honor Patricia Brackley’s many years of dedication.

Surrounded by a major thoroughfare and residential neighborhood, the park’s greenery provides relief for the adjacent community. The area contains a number of benches and multiple flowerbeds. Included within the beds are begonias (Begoniaceae), low junipers (Juniperus communis), marigolds (Tagetes), ornamental grasses, tulips (Liriondendron tulipifera), Honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos) and London plane trees (Platanus x acerifolia).