Alley Pond Park is the second-largest public park in Queens, New York. It occupies 624.78 acres, most of it acquired and cleared by the city in 1929, as authorized by a Board of Estimate resolution in 1927 [1]. The park is bordered to the east by Douglaston, to the west by Bayside, to the north by Little Neck Bay, and to the south by the Lincoln Turnpike. It is run and operated by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Queens is geographically the largest of the five boroughs of New York City in the United States, and the most ethnically diverse county in the U.S. It is coterminous with Queens County in the State of New York and is located on western Long Island. ... 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1927 (MCMXXVII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... Douglaston, a community of the borough of Queens in New York City with a population of about 6000 (1990 Census) is on the north shore of Long Island, bordered on the east by Little Neck, on the south by West Alley Road, and on the west by Douglaston Parkway. ... Bayside is the name of a neighborhood in Queens County of New York City, New York in the United States of America. ... The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation is the branch of government of the City of New York responsible for maintaining the citys parks system, preserving and maintaining the ecological diversity of the citys natural areas, and furnishing recreational opportunities for citys residents. ...

Cross Island Parkway transects the park from north to south; Long Island Expressway and Grand Central Parkway are at its borders. Cross Island Parkway is part of the Belt Parkway system that runs around the perimeter of Queens County in New York City. ... The Long Island Expressway (LIE) is one of the interstate highways with the designation of Interstate 495. ... The Grand Central Parkway is a parkway that stretches from the Triborough Bridge in New York City to Nassau County in Long Island. ...

South of the Long Island Expressway there are woodlands, and north of it there are meadowlands.

The Alley Pond Environmental center with a library, a museum, animal exhibits is located in the park.

Geology and Ecology

The park occupies part of a moraine, a ridge of sand and rock, that was formed by a glacier 15,000 years ago, at the southern terminus of the Minnesota Ice Sheet. Boulders dropped by the glaciers on the hillsides of the southern end of the park still remain, as do scattered “Kettle Ponds” formed by melting ice. The valley features both fresh water, draining into the valley from the hills and bubbling up from natural springs, and salt water from Little Neck Bay; this promotes ecodiversity, with freshwater and saltwater wetlands, tidal flats, meadows, and forests accommodating abundant bird life. [2]

History

What is now Alley Pond Park was once home to the Mattinecock, who harvested shellfish from Little Neck Bay. The English began to colonize the area by 1673, when Charles I granted Thomas Foster 600 acres, on which he built a stone cottage near what is now Northern Boulevard. Mills were built on Alley Creek by Englishmen Thomas Hicks and James Hedges, while other colonists used the valley as a route to Brooklyn and the Manhattan ferries. George Washington (1732-1799) is thought to have used this route for his 1790 tour of Long Island. The valley's usage as a passage, or perhaps its shape, may ulitmately account for its name; in any case, an 18th century commercial and manufacturing center there became known as "the Alley". Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. ... Watermill of Braine-le-Château, Belgium (12th century) A watermill is a structure that uses a water wheel or turbine to drive a mechanical process such as flour or lumber production, or metal shaping (rolling, grinding or wire drawing). ... This article is about Thomas Hicks, the athlete. ... Brooklyn (named for the Dutch city Breukelen) is one of the five boroughs of New York City. ... The Borough of Manhattan, highlighted in yellow, lies between the East River and the Hudson River. ... George Washington (February 22, 1732–December 14, 1799)[1] led Americas Continental Army to victory over Britain in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), and was later elected the first President of the United States. ... Map showing Long Island; to the north is Connecticut and to the west are New York City and New Jersey. ...

Despite this center and light industrial uses that dated back to Hicks' and Hedges' mills, the area remained agricultural and largely unspoiled into the 20th Century. In 1908, as motorists sought attractive areas for expeditions, William Vanderbilt (1849–1920) built his privately run Long Island Motor Parkway through the area in 1908. The Long Island Motor Parkway (LIMP), also known as the Vanderbilt Parkway and Motor Parkway, was one of the first limited-access automobile highways, privately constructed on Long Island, New York. ...

By the 1920s, automobiles were proliferating faster--and so were people, as the population of Queens doubled during that decade. With open space becoming less plentiful, the City of New York began setting aside land for parks, and it acquired the Alley site for this purpose on June 24, 1929. Later that year, the Parks department expanded the park into 330 newly acquired acres surrounding the alley and removed some older structures. After this acquisition had been approved, Mayor James J. Walker (1881–1946) declared that "there is no better site in Queens". For the magazine called automobile, see Automobile Magazine. ... James J. Walker is more than one person: Jimmy Walker, mayor of NYC James J. Walker (boxer) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

In 1935, the park officially opened with ceremony attended by Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia (1882–1947) and Parks Commissioner Robert Moses (1888–1981) Already, the park boasted 26 acres of new playing fields; the Alley Pond Park Nature Trail, which was the city's first of its kind; a 23-acre bird sanctuary; bridle paths; tennis court; picnic areas; and a 200-space parking lot. The Parks Department added a 2.5-mile bicycle path in 1937, having acquired and converted Vanderbilt's parkway. Fiorello Henry LaGuardia (born Fiorello Enrico LaGuardia December 11, 1882–September 20, 1947) was the Republican Mayor of New York for three terms from 1934 to 1945. ... Robert Moses with a model of his proposed Battery Bridge Robert Moses (December 18, 1888–July 29, 1981) was the master builder of mid-20th century New York City, Long Island, and other suburbs. ...

Throughout the 1930s, the Parks Department, as it now recognizes on its websiite, acted with more "zeal" for recreation than for the other purpose of parks: conservation. [3] The Department fllled in much of the Valley's marsh lands to construct recreational facilities and roads (namely, the Long Island Expressway and Cross Island Parkway). By 1974, the Department and City had begun to make the environment a higher priority, creating the Wetlands Reclamation Project to rehabilitate the park's natural wetlands. In 1976, The Alley Pond Environmental Center opened with a mission of educational and ecological education. For conservation purposes, the City acquired over $10.9 million worth of new land for the Park, and in 1993, almost $1 million was spent to restore the Picnic Grove, renovate two stone buildings, and reconstruct the playground and soccer field. [4]

References

• [New York City Parks Department--Alley Pond Park]
• Alley Pond Environmental Center