Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, often referred to as Flushing Meadows Park, or simply Flushing Meadows, is a public park in the northern part of
Queens
Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...
,
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. It is bounded by
I-678 (Van Wyck Expressway) on the east,
Grand Central Parkway
The Grand Central Parkway (GCP) is a 14.61-mile (23.51 km) long parkway that stretches from the Triborough Bridge in New York City to Nassau County on Long Island. At the Queens–Nassau border, it becomes the Northern State Parkway, ...
on the west,
Flushing Bay
Flushing Bay is a tidal embayment in New York City. It is located on the south side of the East River and stretches to the south near the neighborhood of Flushing, Queens. It is bordered on the west by LaGuardia Airport and the Grand Central Park ...
on the north, and
Union Turnpike on the south. Flushing Meadows–Corona Park is the
fourth-largest public park in New York City, with a total area of .
Until the 19th century, the site consisted of wetlands straddling the
Flushing River
The Flushing River, also known as Flushing Creek, is a waterway that flows northward through the borough of Queens in New York City, mostly within Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, emptying into the Flushing Bay and the East River. The river run ...
, which traverses the region from north to south. Starting in the first decade of the 20th century, it was used as a dumping ground for ashes, since at the time, the land was so far away from the developed parts of New York City as to be considered almost worthless.
New York City Parks Commissioner
Robert Moses first conceived the idea of developing a large park in Flushing Meadow in the 1920s as part of a system of parks across eastern Queens. Flushing Meadows–Corona Park was created as the site of the
1939 New York World's Fair and also hosted the
1964 New York World's Fair. Following the 1964 fair, the park fell into disrepair, although some improvements have taken place since the 1990s and 2000s.
Flushing Meadows–Corona Park retains much of the layout from the 1939 World's Fair. Its attractions include the
USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center
The USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center is a stadium complex within Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York City, United States. It has been the home of the US Open Grand Slam tennis tournament, played every year in August ...
, the current venue for the
US Open tennis tournament;
Citi Field
Citi Field is a baseball stadium located in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in New York City, United States. It opened in 2009 and is the home field of Major League Baseball's New York Mets. The stadium was built as a replacement for the adjacent ...
, the home of the
New York Mets
The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. They are one of two major league ...
baseball team; the
New York Hall of Science
The New York Hall of Science, also known as NYSCI, is a science museum located in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in the New York City borough of Queens, in the section of the park that is in Corona. It occupies one of the few remaining structures fr ...
; the
Queens Museum
The Queens Museum, formerly the Queens Museum of Art, is an art museum and educational center located in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in the borough of Queens in New York City, United States. The museum was founded in 1972, and has among its pe ...
; the
Queens Theatre in the Park
Queens Theatre, formerly Queens Theatre in the Park and before that Queens Playhouse, is an American professional theatre, located in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, Queens, New York City, New York. Artistic and Executive Directors have includ ...
; the
Queens Zoo
The Queens Zoo is an zoo located in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York City. The zoo is part of an integrated system of four zoos and one aquarium managed by the Wildlife Conservation Society in partnership with the New York Ci ...
; the
Unisphere
The Unisphere is a spherical stainless steel representation of the Earth in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in the New York City borough of Queens. The globe was designed by Gilmore D. Clarke as part of his plan for the 1964 New York World's ...
; and the
New York State Pavilion
The New York State Pavilion is a historic world's fair pavilion at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Flushing, Queens, New York. It was designed in 1962 for the 1964 New York World's Fair by architects Philip Johnson and Richard Foster, with str ...
. It formerly contained
Shea Stadium
Shea Stadium (), formally known as William A. Shea Municipal Stadium, was a multi-purpose stadium in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, Queens, New York City. , demolished in 2009. The Flushing River continues to run through the park, and two large lakes called Meadow and Willow Lakes take up much of the park's area south of the
Long Island Expressway
Long may refer to:
Measurement
* Long, characteristic of something of great duration
* Long, characteristic of something of great length
* Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate
* Longa (music), note value in early music men ...
.
Flushing Meadows–Corona Park is owned and maintained by
New York City Department of Parks and Recreation
The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, also called the Parks Department or NYC Parks, is the department of the government of New York City responsible for maintaining the city's parks system, preserving and maintaining the ecolog ...
, also known as NYC Parks. Private, non-profit groups such as the Flushing Meadows–Corona Park Conservancy and the Alliance for Flushing Meadows–Corona Park provide additional funds, services, and support. The park is at the eastern edge of the area encompassed by
Queens Community Board 4
The Queens Community Board 4 is a local government in the New York City borough of Queens, encompassing the neighborhoods of Elmhurst, Corona, Corona Heights, Newtown, and also includes LeFrak City, Queens Center Mall and Flushing Meadows-Coron ...
.
Etymology
![Flushing Meadows–Corona Park-2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/Flushing_Meadows%E2%80%93Corona_Park-2.jpg)
The park is named after the nearby neighborhoods of
Flushing
Flushing may refer to:
Places
* Flushing, Cornwall, a village in the United Kingdom
* Flushing, Queens, New York City
** Flushing Bay, a bay off the north shore of Queens
** Flushing Chinatown (法拉盛華埠), a community in Queens
** Flushin ...
and
Corona
Corona (from the Latin for 'crown') most commonly refers to:
* Stellar corona, the outer atmosphere of the Sun or another star
* Corona (beer), a Mexican beer
* Corona, informal term for the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes the COVID-19 di ...
, which are separated by the park. The name "Flushing" is a corruption of the port town of
Vlissingen
Vlissingen (; zea, label= Zeelandic, Vlissienge), historically known in English as Flushing, is a municipality and a city in the southwestern Netherlands on the former island of Walcheren. With its strategic location between the Scheldt river ...
in the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
. By the 19th century, the word "flushing" had become associated with "a cleansing by rushing water". "Corona" was added to the name during the
1964 New York World's Fair.
History
Early years
During at least three
glacial period
A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate betwe ...
s, including the
Wisconsin glaciation
The Wisconsin Glacial Episode, also called the Wisconsin glaciation, was the most recent glacial period of the North American ice sheet complex. This advance included the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, which nucleated in the northern North American Cord ...
around 20,000 years ago, ice sheets advanced south across
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
carving
moraines, valleys, and hills. In particular, bays and
estuaries
An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environmen ...
were formed along the north shore of
Long Island. During glaciation, what is now Flushing Meadows Park was formed just north of the
terminal moraine
A terminal moraine, also called end moraine, is a type of moraine that forms at the terminal (edge) of a glacier, marking its maximum advance. At this point, debris that has accumulated by plucking and abrasion, has been pushed by the front edge ...
that runs across Long Island, which consisted of sand, gravel, clay and boulders. The moraine created a
drainage divide, with rivers north of the moraine such as the future
Flushing River
The Flushing River, also known as Flushing Creek, is a waterway that flows northward through the borough of Queens in New York City, mostly within Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, emptying into the Flushing Bay and the East River. The river run ...
emptying into the north shore. The Flushing Meadows site became a glacial lake, and then a salt marsh after the ice melted. Prior to glaciation, the Flushing River valley was used by the
Hudson River
The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...
to drain southward into the
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
.
Through the 19th century, the site continued to consist of wetlands straddling Flushing River. Species inhabiting the site included
waterfowl
Anseriformes is an order of birds also known as waterfowl that comprises about 180 living species of birds in three families: Anhimidae (three species of screamers), Anseranatidae (the magpie goose), and Anatidae, the largest family, which i ...
and
fiddler crab
The fiddler crab or calling crab may be any of more than one hundred species of semiterrestrial marine crabs in the family Ocypodidae, well known for their sexually dimorphic claws; the males' major claw is much larger than the minor claw, while ...
, with fish using water pools for spawning.
The area was first settled by
Algonquian Native Americans of Long Island (referred to erroneously as "
Mantinecocks").
They consisted of the "Canarsee" and "Rockaway"
Lenape groups, which inhabited coastal wetlands across Queens and Brooklyn.
Beginning in 1640, Dutch settlers moved into the area, establishing the town of Newtown to the west of the site (which would become
Elmhurst,
Corona
Corona (from the Latin for 'crown') most commonly refers to:
* Stellar corona, the outer atmosphere of the Sun or another star
* Corona (beer), a Mexican beer
* Corona, informal term for the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes the COVID-19 di ...
, and other areas in western Queens), and the town of Flushing to the east.
The meadows became known as the Corona Meadows. By 1666, the Native American population had been displaced from the Flushing Meadows site by European settlers, although a deed reserved the right to hunt on the land for the Native Americans. Several wealthy landowners began building farmhouses on the site in the mid-to-late 17th century. The meadows provided numerous natural resources for settlers, including timber, water, fertile soil, and grass and hay for grazing domestic animals. During the
American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...
, a farmhouse on the site of the modern
World's Fair Marina
The World's Fair Marina is a public marina in Flushing Bay, Queens, New York. It is located at the northern edge of Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, next to a long stretch of promenade around Flushing Bay, and near LaGuardia Airport and Citi Fiel ...
was used as a headquarters for British forces.
![Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Autumn](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Flushing_Meadows_Corona_Park_in_Autumn.jpg)
By the 1800s, primitive roads were established crossing the meadows, running along what are now
Northern Boulevard
New York State Route 25A (NY 25A) is a state highway on Long Island in New York, United States. It serves as the main east–west route for most of the North Shore of Long Island, running for from Interstate 495 (I-495) at th ...
and the
Long Island Expressway
Long may refer to:
Measurement
* Long, characteristic of something of great duration
* Long, characteristic of something of great length
* Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate
* Longa (music), note value in early music men ...
. Several railroads were also laid through the site, including lines of the
Flushing and North Side Railroad
The Flushing and North Side Railroad was a former railroad on Long Island built by Conrad Poppenhusen as a replacement for the former New York and Flushing Railroad. The railroad was established in 1868, was merged with the Central Railroad of Lo ...
(today's LIRR
Port Washington Branch
The Port Washington Branch is an electrified two-track rail line and service owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in the U.S. state of New York. It branches north from the Main Line at the former Winfield Junction station, just eas ...
and the defunct
Whitestone Branch
The Whitestone Branch was a branch of the Long Island Rail Road, running north and east along the left bank of the Flushing River from the Port Washington Branch near the modern Willets Point/Flushing sections of Queens, New York. It crossed the ...
). Shortly after the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
, the meadows became a waterfront resort due to its natural beauty, and affluent New Yorkers constructed homes in the area.
British saloon-keeper
Harry Hill
Matthew Keith Hall (born 1 October 1964), known professionally as Harry Hill, is an English comedian, presenter and writer. He pursued a career in stand-up following years working as a medical doctor, developing an off-beat, energetic performan ...
built the Flushing Bay Hotel and Pavilion on the future marina site.
Filling and use as a dumping ground
Around 1907, contractor Michael Degnon, whose firm constructed the
Williamsburg Bridge
The Williamsburg Bridge is a suspension bridge in New York City across the East River connecting the Lower East Side of Manhattan at Delancey Street with the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn at Broadway near the Brooklyn-Queens Expressw ...
, the
Cape Cod Canal, and the
Steinway subway tunnel (used by today's ), purchased large tracts of marsh near Flushing Creek.
At the time, the land was considered "all but worthless". Degnon envisioned using the site to create a large industrial port around
Flushing Bay
Flushing Bay is a tidal embayment in New York City. It is located on the south side of the East River and stretches to the south near the neighborhood of Flushing, Queens. It is bordered on the west by LaGuardia Airport and the Grand Central Park ...
, similar to a terminal he developed in
Long Island City.
By 1911, Degnon had created a plan along with the
United States Department of War
The United States Department of War, also called the War Department (and occasionally War Office in the early years), was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army, ...
and the Queens Topographical Bureau. The plan envisioned widening Flushing River and creating docks for ships, with numerous factories and freight facilities. Meanwhile, the residential areas of Corona were expected to become the primary residence for factory workers.
![Valley of Ashes](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/Valley_of_Ashes.jpg)
To create the port, beginning in 1910 Degnon proceeded to fill the land using household
coal ash
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when de ...
and street sweepings from Brooklyn. Degnon set up two companies of his own, one of which was contracted with the
New York City Department of Sanitation
The New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY) is the department of the government of New York City responsible for garbage collection, recycling collection, street cleaning, and snow removal.
The DSNY motto "New York's Strongest" was coined ...
.
He also contracted the Brooklyn Ash Removal Company, owned by
Fishhooks McCarthy, a member of the corrupt
Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York City political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society. It became the main loc ...
political machine. Residential ash was collected via trolleys of the
Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company
The Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT) was a public transit holding company formed in 1896 to acquire and consolidate railway lines in Brooklyn and Queens, New York City, United States. It was a prominent corporation and industry leader using ...
, and loaded onto freight trains which traveled via the
Long Island Rail Road branches, or other trolleys, which hauled the refuse to Corona.
[; ; ; ; ] The operation was referred to as a citywide refuse "conveyor belt," while the trains were nicknamed the "
Talcum Powder
Talc, or talcum, is a clay mineral, composed of hydrated magnesium silicate with the chemical formula Mg3Si4O10(OH)2. Talc in powdered form, often combined with corn starch, is used as baby powder. This mineral is used as a thickening agent ...
Express" because they often ran uncovered and deposited soot onto the surroundings. The northern end of the site was filled via now-conventional means, using dirt pumped from Flushing Bay which was being dredged to a lower depth. Material from the bay was extracted by an offshore hydraulic machine, and funneled through a pipe across Northern Boulevard, before being deposited onto the wetlands. The filling for the north meadow was complete in 1916.
The prospect of creating a port was halted in 1917 by material restrictions caused by
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, and a lack of federal support for the project. Industrial activities in the borough were fulfilled by existing terminals in Long Island City,
Maspeth
Maspeth is a residential and commercial community in the borough of Queens in New York City. It was founded in the early 17th century by Dutch and English settlers. Neighborhoods sharing borders with Maspeth are Woodside to the north; Sunnyside t ...
, Flushing, and College Point. Dumping of ash into the meadows continued, however, fueled by the increased use of garbage incinerators in the city. The area became known as the Corona Dump or Corona Ash Dumps. During nearly 30 years of filling, around 50 million cubic yards of ash and waste were dumped onto the meadows site. One particular mound of ash rose high and was called "Mount Corona". Other mounds rose high.
The average thickness of the ash was .
The dumps drew the ire of local residents, due to strong odors and being deemed unsightly, along with increasing rat infestations in the local neighborhoods. Much of the "street sweepings" collected consisted of horse
manure
Manure is organic matter that is used as organic fertilizer in agriculture. Most manure consists of animal feces; other sources include compost and green manure. Manures contribute to the Soil fertility, fertility of soil by adding organic ma ...
from horse-drawn carriages. In addition, many residents simply threw out normal garbage along with the coal ashes. The meadows were also considered one of the worst breeding grounds for mosquitoes in the city. The dump was famously characterized as "a valley of ashes" in
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term he popularize ...
's ''
The Great Gatsby
''The Great Gatsby'' is a 1925 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, near New York City, the novel depicts first-person narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby ...
''. Fitzgerald meanwhile described the Flushing River, now polluted from the dumps, as "a small foul river". The dumps and garbage trains were accused of facilitating a
polio
Poliomyelitis, commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Approximately 70% of cases are asymptomatic; mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe s ...
outbreak in Corona in 1916. The Brooklyn Ash Removal Company was brought to court by local residents in 1923 for "violation of the sanitary code" due to the smoke emitted from the dumps. As a minor concession, the company opened the Corona Park Golf and Country Club in 1931, on a tract near Nassau Boulevard (today's Long Island Expressway).
Park planning and World's Fairs
1939/1940 Fair and aftermath
![USA, New York Fortepan 16945](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/USA%2C_New_York_Fortepan_16945.jpg)
New York City Parks Commissioner
Robert Moses first conceived the idea of developing a large park in Flushing Meadow in the 1920s. At the time, he envisioned the site to become a "true '
Central Park
Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated ...
'", especially with much of city population moving to Queens and Long Island due to
urban sprawl
Urban sprawl (also known as suburban sprawl or urban encroachment) is defined as "the spreading of urban developments (such as houses and shopping centers) on undeveloped land near a city." Urban sprawl has been described as the unrestricted growt ...
. Moses also planned Flushing Meadows to be the westernmost of a chain of parks running across Queens, which would include
Kissena Park
Kissena Park is a park located in the neighborhood of Flushing in Queens, New York City. It is located along the subterranean Kissena Creek, which flows into the Flushing River. It is bordered on the west by Kissena Boulevard; on the north by ...
,
Cunningham Park
Cunningham Park is a park in the New York City borough of Queens. The park lies between the Grand Central Parkway to the south and the Long Island Expressway, and is bifurcated by the Clearview Expressway. The park is operated by the New York Ci ...
,
Alley Pond Park
Alley Pond Park is the second-largest public park in Queens, New York City, occupying . 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 Union Turnpike. The Cross ...
, and
Douglaston Park
Douglaston Park is a public park located in the Douglaston section of Queens, New York City. It contains a golf course named Douglaston Park Golf Course.
According to ''The New York Times'' it is also the name of the surrounding residential ar ...
.
In 1929, representatives from surrounding communities created a plan to turn the ash dump into a recreational complex, and presented them to Queens Borough President
George U. Harvey.
In 1930, Moses released plans for numerous parks and highways in the city. This included the
Grand Central Parkway
The Grand Central Parkway (GCP) is a 14.61-mile (23.51 km) long parkway that stretches from the Triborough Bridge in New York City to Nassau County on Long Island. At the Queens–Nassau border, it becomes the Northern State Parkway, ...
, the construction of which would require taking land from the ash dumps. One of the provisional projects listed was a "Flushing River Park", along with a "Flushing River Parkway".
The Brooklyn Ash Removal Company's contract with the city expired in 1933, and the city took over the company's assets and operations on May 25, 1934. The Brooklyn Ash property occupied around of the site, north of what is now the Long Island Expressway. The remainder of the meadows still contained natural wildlife. It was frequented by fur trappers, local residents collecting firewood and growing vegetables, and later, squatters during the
Great Depression. Areas of the dumps were also used for growing vegetables, with the soil fertilized by the garbage and manure.
In 1935, the site, now planned as "Flushing Meadow Park", was selected for what would become the 1939 World's Fair.
In addition to the ash dumps and undeveloped meadows, houses in Corona east of 111th Street, adjacent to the dumps, were condemned and added to the site, displacing residents.
The plans were drafted by Parks Department landscape architect
Gilmore David Clarke
Gilmore David Clarke (July 12, 1892 – August 8, 1982''New York Times'', August 10, 1982, p. B19: Gilmore D. Clarke, 90, is dead; designed major public works'.) was an American civil engineer and landscape architect who designed many park ...
and his partner Michael Rapuano, designed in
Beaux-Arts style.
Work on the World's Fair site began on June 16, 1936.
The project primarily involved leveling the ash mounds, with the leftover material used to fill other areas of the meadow. Two sites were excavated to create Meadow and Willow Lake, while much of the Flushing River was diverted into underground
culverts
A culvert is a structure that channels water past an obstacle or to a subterranean waterway. Typically embedded so as to be surrounded by soil, a culvert may be made from a pipe, reinforced concrete or other material. In the United Kingdo ...
. A
floodgate
Floodgates, also called stop gates, are adjustable gates used to control water flow in flood barriers, reservoir, river, stream, or levee systems. They may be designed to set spillway crest heights in dams, to adjust flow rates in sluices a ...
was built to prevent
tidal flow
Tidal is the adjectival form of tide.
Tidal may also refer to:
* ''Tidal'' (album), a 1996 album by Fiona Apple
* Tidal (king), a king involved in the Battle of the Vale of Siddim
* TidalCycles, a live coding environment for music
* Tidal (servic ...
from flooding the lakes.
In addition to recreation, the lakes would serve as repositories for excess storm runoff. The dirt from the lake sites was used as additional topsoil for the park.
The project was an around-the-clock job, with 450 workers operating on three daily shifts.
Workers had to combat the effects of high tide, and dust storms created by the ash. The work significantly changed the topography of the meadows, differing from that created by glaciation. Thousands of trees were transplanted to the fair site in order to create a natural landscape. Meanwhile, thousands of
Douglas fir timbers were driven into the ground to act as
pilings
A deep foundation is a type of foundation (architecture), foundation that transfers building loads to the earth farther down from the surface than a shallow foundation does to a subsurface layer or a range of depths. A pile or piling is a ...
for the foundations of the fair structures. The pedestrian plan called for numerous wide tree-lined pathways, including a central "Cascade Mall" leading to the
Trylon and Perisphere
The Trylon and Perisphere were two monumental modernistic structures designed by architects Wallace Harrison and J. Andre Fouilhoux that were together known as the Theme Center of the 1939 New York World's Fair. The Perisphere was a tremendous ...
, many of which would be retained for the park.
Faced with having to dispose of the mountains of ashes, Moses incorporated a significant portion of the refuse into the bases of several roadways that bordered or bisected the park.
[ This included the ]Van Wyck Expressway
Interstate 678 (I-678) is a north–south auxiliary Interstate Highway that extends for through two boroughs of New York City. The route begins at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Jamaica Bay and travels north through Queens and ...
(Interstate 678
Interstate 678 (I-678) is a north–south auxiliary Interstate Highway that extends for through two boroughs of New York City. The route begins at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Jamaica Bay and travels north through Queens and ...
) running along the eastern side of the park, the nearby Interboro Parkway (now Jackie Robinson Parkway
The Jackie Robinson Parkway is a parkway in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. The western terminus of the parkway is at Jamaica Avenue in the Brooklyn neighborhood of East New York. It runs through Highland Park, along the ...
), and the Long Island Expressway
Long may refer to:
Measurement
* Long, characteristic of something of great duration
* Long, characteristic of something of great length
* Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate
* Longa (music), note value in early music men ...
( Interstate 495) that divides the park into north and south halves. The Grand Central Parkway
The Grand Central Parkway (GCP) is a 14.61-mile (23.51 km) long parkway that stretches from the Triborough Bridge in New York City to Nassau County on Long Island. At the Queens–Nassau border, it becomes the Northern State Parkway, ...
separates a western lobe from the main part of the northern half, while the east-west Jewel Avenue bisects the southern half.[ The success of the Flushing Meadows site as a garbage dump-turned-park led Moses and the city to develop other wetlands in the city into parks via short-term refuse landfilling. This process was used to create Marine Park and ]Spring Creek Park
Spring Creek Park is a public park along the Jamaica Bay shoreline between the neighborhoods of Howard Beach, Queens, and Spring Creek, Brooklyn, in New York City. Created on landfilled former marshland, the park is mostly an undeveloped nature ...
in Brooklyn, and Ferry Point Park
Ferry Point Park is a park in the Bronx, New York City. The park site is a peninsula projecting into the East River roughly opposite the College Point and Malba neighborhoods of Queens. The park is located on the eastern shore of Westchester ...
in the Bronx. This was also the original plan for the Fresh Kills
Fresh Kills (from the Middle Dutch word '' kille'', meaning "riverbed" or "water channel") is a stream and freshwater estuary in the western portion of the New York City borough of Staten Island. It is the site of the Fresh Kills Landfill, forme ...
and Edgemere landfills, which remained open past their expected tenure and became large and long-term municipal waste sites.[; ] The Fresh Kills site is currently being developed into Freshkills Park
Freshkills Park is a public park being built atop a former landfill on Staten Island. At about , it will be the largest park developed in New York City since the 19th century. Its construction began in October 2008 and is slated to continue in p ...
.
In November 1939, a water main
A water distribution system is a part of water supply network with components that carry potable water from a centralized treatment plant or wells to consumers to satisfy residential, commercial, industrial and fire fighting requirements.
Definit ...
running through Flushing Meadows Park to supply water to Flushing failed. Unlike the fair buildings, the pipeline was not built on piling foundations and eventually sank into the marsh and landfill. In January 1940, Borough President Harvey demanded an investigation into the main's construction take place, while the Board of Estimate allocated $50,200 for repairs. Following the closure of the Fair in 1940, the site was supposed to be cleared in order to develop and open Flushing Meadows as a city park. The onset of World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, however, delayed the project. The profits from the World's Fair were supposed to pay for the development of the park, but in spite of its success the fair turned a financial loss. Only two permanent attractions were opened in 1941: an ice skating rink and roller rink in the New York City Building, and a public pool located in the New York State Marine Amphitheatre (now demolished). The latter utilized the pool used for '' Billy Rose's Aquacade'' during the fair.
In the meantime, some of the buildings from the 1939 Fair were used for the first temporary headquarters of the United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
beginning in 1946. The former New York City Building was used for the UN General Assembly during this time. Moses attempted to sell Flushing Meadows as a permanent headquarters for the UN, which would have required new structures and a complete redesign of the fair ground layout. The proposal was rejected however, due to concerns over the strength of the former marshland for building construction, the lack of "scenic beauty" in the meadows, and the distance from Manhattan. The UN moved to their now-permanent headquarters in 1951. The New York City building was later refurbished for the 1964/1965 Fair as the New York City Pavilion, featuring the Panorama of the City of New York, an enormous scale model of the entire city. It is one of two buildings that survive from the 1939/40 Fair, and the only one that remains in its original location. (The other is the Belgium exhibition building, disassembled and moved to the campus of Virginia Union University
Virginia Union University is a private historically black Baptist university in Richmond, Virginia. It is affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA.
History
The American Baptist Home Mission Society (ABHMS) founded the school as Rich ...
in 1941.) It is now the home of the Queens Museum of Art
The Queens Museum, formerly the Queens Museum of Art, is an art museum and educational center located in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in the borough (New York City), borough of Queens in New York City, United States. The museum was founded in 1 ...
, which still houses, and occasionally updates, the Panorama. The remainder of the park, meanwhile, had fallen into disrepair, with wild animals moving back into the area. Only minor upgrades to the park occurred during this time.
1964/1965 Fair
The Flushing Meadows site was selected in 1959 for the 1964 World's Fair. Gilmore D. Clarke and Michael Rapuano were retained to tailor the original 1939 park layout for the new fair. Three structures were retained from the 1939 Fair. Meanwhile, several new structures and attractions were created including the Unisphere
The Unisphere is a spherical stainless steel representation of the Earth in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in the New York City borough of Queens. The globe was designed by Gilmore D. Clarke as part of his plan for the 1964 New York World's ...
, Shea Stadium
Shea Stadium (), formally known as William A. Shea Municipal Stadium, was a multi-purpose stadium in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, Queens, New York City. , the New York Hall of Science
The New York Hall of Science, also known as NYSCI, is a science museum located in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in the New York City borough of Queens, in the section of the park that is in Corona. It occupies one of the few remaining structures fr ...
, and Queens Botanical Garden
Queens Botanical Garden is a botanical garden located at 43-50 Main Street in Flushing, Queens, New York City. The site features rose, bee, herb, wedding, and perennial gardens; an arboretum; an art gallery; and a LEED-certified Visitor & Adm ...
; the latter three were intended as permanent attractions for the future park. The Unisphere, built as the theme symbol for the 1964/1965 World's Fair, has since become the main sculptural feature of the park. It stands on the site occupied by the Perisphere
The Trylon and Perisphere were two monumental modernistic structures designed by architects Wallace Harrison and J. Andre Fouilhoux that were together known as the Theme Center of the 1939 New York World's Fair. The Perisphere was a tremendous ...
during the earlier Fair. The Van Wyck Expressway was extended north through the park site along the right-of-way of the former World's Fair Railroad. Moses and the Parks Department also prepared post-fair plans to finish Flushing Meadows Park, as well as Kissena Corridor Park and Kissena Park, projected to be complete by 1967.
In early 1964, the New York City Council added "Corona
Corona (from the Latin for 'crown') most commonly refers to:
* Stellar corona, the outer atmosphere of the Sun or another star
* Corona (beer), a Mexican beer
* Corona, informal term for the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes the COVID-19 di ...
" to the park's name; the park was now named "Flushing Meadows–Corona Park", in preparation for that year's World's Fair. Councilman Edward Sadowsky explained that this was intended to correct an injustice: "The people of Corona have long lived in the aroma of a junkyard or a dump named for their community. Now, when there is something beautiful to be seen, there is no mention of the name Corona." Following the fair, most of the remaining $11.6 million from the fair funds, as well as money from Moses' Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority
The Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority (TBTA), doing business as MTA Bridges and Tunnels, is an affiliate agency of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority that operates seven toll bridges and two tunnels in New York City. In terms of traf ...
, were used to rehabilitate the site into a true park. Flushing Meadows–Corona Park was transferred from the World's Fair Corporation back to the Parks Department, and opened on June 3, 1967.
Post-World's Fairs
Late 20th century
Although the park was opened, it had yet to become the grand park Moses had originally envisioned. In August 1967, new parks commissioner August Heckscher II
August Heckscher II (September 16, 1913 – April 5, 1997) was an American public intellectual and author whose work explored the American liberalism of political leaders including Woodrow Wilson.
Early life
Heckscher was born in Huntington ...
sought to begin improvements on the park in order to turn it into the "Central Park of the 20th century." A new plan for the park had been designed by architects Marcel Breuer
Marcel Lajos Breuer ( ; 21 May 1902 – 1 July 1981), was a Hungarian-born modernist architect and furniture designer.
At the Bauhaus he designed the Wassily Chair and the Cesca Chair, which ''The New York Times'' have called some of the most i ...
and Kenzō Tange
was a Japanese architect, and winner of the 1987 Pritzker Prize for architecture. He was one of the most significant architects of the 20th century, combining traditional Japanese styles with modernism, and designed major buildings on five con ...
, but the project did not receive funds due to communication issues with the New York City Comptroller
The Office of Comptroller of New York City, a position established in 1801, is the chief financial officer and chief auditor of the city agencies and their performance and spending. The comptroller also reviews all city contracts, handles the s ...
's office. By 1972, little development had taken place to improve the park, while many World's Fair structures remained in disrepair. The disrepair was systematic within the park system, a product of lack of funding during that decade's fiscal crisis
A budget crisis is an informal name for a situation in which the legislative and the executive in a presidential system deadlock and are unable to pass a budget. In presidential systems, the legislature has the power to pass a budget, but the e ...
. This state of disrepair continued into the 1980s.
In 1975, a group of traditionalist Catholics
Traditionalist Catholicism is the set of beliefs, practices, customs, traditions, liturgical forms, devotions, and presentations of Catholic teaching that existed in the Catholic Church before the liberal reforms of the Second Vatican Council (1 ...
started to assemble at the old Vatican Pavilion exedra
An exedra (plural: exedras or exedrae) is a semicircular architectural recess or platform, sometimes crowned by a semi-dome, and either set into a building's façade or free-standing. The original Greek sense (''ἐξέδρα'', a seat out of d ...
monument of the 1964 New York World's Fair to have evening rosary prayer vigils, having been obligated to relocate from Bayside, Queens
Bayside is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. It is bounded by Whitestone to the northwest, the Long Island Sound and Little Neck Bay to the northeast, Douglaston to the east, Oakland Gardens to the south, and Fresh Meado ...
. This was led by a woman named Veronica Lueken who claimed she was experiencing visions
Vision, Visions, or The Vision may refer to:
Perception Optical perception
* Visual perception, the sense of sight
* Visual system, the physical mechanism of eyesight
* Computer vision, a field dealing with how computers can be made to gain un ...
there of the Virgin Mary
Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of ...
, and giving out supposed messages from heaven, frequently apocalyptic in nature. At its height in the late 20th century, thousands of people attended the nightly events, held on different feast days
The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context do ...
.[ One event in June 1983 attracted fifteen thousand pilgrims.][ Despite the events' popularity, Bishop ]Francis Mugavero
Francis John Mugavero (June 8, 1914 – July 12, 1991) was an American Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Brooklyn from 1968 to 1990.
Early life and ordination
Francis John Mugavero (pronounced Ma-GUV-e-ro) was born on June 8, 1914 in the ...
, then Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn
The Diocese of Brooklyn is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in the U.S. state of New York. It is headquartered in Brooklyn and its territory encompasses the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. ...
, stated in a 1986 "Declaration Concerning the Bayside Movement" that the events lacked credibility. After Lueken's death in 1995, and her husband's death in 2002, their followers divided into two small camps that continued to visit the park for vigils.
Additionally, in 1978, the US Open tennis tournament was moved from the West Side Tennis Club
The West Side Tennis Club is a private tennis club located in Forest Hills, a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. The club has 38 tennis courts in all four surfaces ( clay court, Har-Tru, grass court and hardcourt), a junior ...
in Forest Hills to Flushing Meadows Corona Park. The tournament was originally held in the Singer Bowl
The Singer Bowl was the former name for a stadium in the northeastern United States, located in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in the New York City borough of Queens. It was an early example of naming rights in large venues.
History
The sta ...
stadium (renamed the Louis Armstrong Stadium
Louis Armstrong Stadium is a 14,000-seat tennis stadium at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City, one of the venues of the US Open. It opened for the 2018 US Open as a replacement for the 1978 stadium of the same n ...
), a 1964 World's Fair structure which was renovated and expanded for the tournament. Other parts of the park were also repaired or expanded for the tournament, including the fountains of the Unisphere.
Arne Abramowitz became administrator of Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in 1986 and soon began planning a renovation of the park. The following year, NYC Parks announced an $80 million rehabilitation of the park. The renovation had been planned since the early 1980s but had been deferred due to a lack of funding. The grounds of the park's northern section were landscaped in 1992, and the restoration of the Unisphere was completed in May 1994. Since the early 1990s, the New York State Pavilion's ledges, steps, and fountain grates have been utilized by skateboarders and featured in famous east coast skateboarding videos.
Early 21st century
By the early 2000s, the park had become the residence of a number of homeless people. This fact received attention after five possibly homeless individuals abducted, raped, and threatened to kill a woman who had been sitting with her partner at the nearby Mets–Willets Point subway station.
Several improvements were made to Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in the 2000s and 2010s. The Flushing Meadows–Corona Park Conservancy was formed in 2002 to advocate for parkland in the area. The $66.3 million Flushing Meadows Natatorium
The Flushing Meadows Corona Park Natatorium and Ice Rink, also known as the Flushing Meadows Corona Park Pool and Rink or Flushing Meadows Natatorium, is a facility in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Queens, New York City, with an Olympic-sized poo ...
, encompassing an Olympic-sized public indoor pool and an NHL
The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...
regulation-sized skating rink, opened in 2008. The facility is the largest recreation complex in any New York City park, at . This was followed by the opening of Citi Field
Citi Field is a baseball stadium located in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in New York City, United States. It opened in 2009 and is the home field of Major League Baseball's New York Mets. The stadium was built as a replacement for the adjacent ...
, a new baseball field to replace Shea Stadium, in 2009.
Another public-private partnership, the Alliance for Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, was created in 2015. It commenced construction on, or announced plans for, several improvement projects at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park. These included a plan to restore the New York State Pavilion, as well as the construction of a "mist garden" in the park's Fountains of the Fairs. Other projects included the construction of a promenade around Meadow Lake and the rehabilitation of the World's Fair Playground and the marina. In 2015, Flushing Meadows–Corona Park also started hosting the Queens Night Market, a summertime food market that features cuisine from dozens of countries. The market became popular due to its affordability, since all food cost a maximum of $5–6. Another food festival, the World's Fare, started in 2017 and is hosted in Citi Field's parking lot on about the third weekend of May. Restoration of the New York State Pavilion began in 2019, as did work on the Fountains of the Fairs. The Fountains of the Fairs were dedicated in October 2020.
In early 2022, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...
(NOAA) gave a local group, the Waterfront Alliance, a $530,000 grant to study the effects of climate change at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park after U.S. representative Grace Meng
Grace Meng (born October 1, 1975) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the U.S. representative for New York's 6th congressional district since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, her district is in the New York City borough of ...
had requested the grant the previous year. The park was extremely vulnerable to flooding because of its topography and because of sea level rise
Globally, sea levels are rising due to human-caused climate change. Between 1901 and 2018, the globally averaged sea level rose by , or 1–2 mm per year on average.IPCC, 2019Summary for Policymakers InIPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cry ...
caused by global warming
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
. Climate scientists had predicted that parts of the park would be flooded regularly by the 2050s and that the entire park could be underwater by the 2080s. At the time, the city government was spending $350 million on various upgrades at the park.
Description
Layout
The layout of Flushing Meadows–Corona Park retains much of Gilmore D. Clarke and Michael Rapuano's Beaux-Arts planning from the 1939 and 1964 World's Fairs. The northern section of the park, the former fair grounds, revolves around large paved pathways which during the fairs led to focal points such as pavilions, fountains and sculptures. The Trylon and Perisphere
The Trylon and Perisphere were two monumental modernistic structures designed by architects Wallace Harrison and J. Andre Fouilhoux that were together known as the Theme Center of the 1939 New York World's Fair. The Perisphere was a tremendous ...
, and later Unisphere, were placed at the main axial point. The Unisphere and Queens Museum
The Queens Museum, formerly the Queens Museum of Art, is an art museum and educational center located in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in the borough of Queens in New York City, United States. The museum was founded in 1972, and has among its pe ...
currently sit at the west end of the main promenade. Near the center of the promenade (called Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gr ...
Promenade on the north side, and Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
Promenade on the south side) are the Fountains of the Fairs, which sit in the median of the paths. At the far east end is the Fountain of the Planets, originally called the Pool of Industry. This layout was used to guide fair goers to exhibits. The layout was based on Gian Lorenzo Bernini's plan for St. Peter's Square
Saint Peter's Square ( la, Forum Sancti Petri, it, Piazza San Pietro ,) is a large plaza located directly in front of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, the papal enclave inside Rome, directly west of the neighborhood ( rione) of Borgo. B ...
in Vatican City
Vatican City (), officially the Vatican City State ( it, Stato della Città del Vaticano; la, Status Civitatis Vaticanae),—'
* german: Vatikanstadt, cf. '—' (in Austria: ')
* pl, Miasto Watykańskie, cf. '—'
* pt, Cidade do Vati ...
. The main promenade, measuring , was provisionally called the "Cascade Mall" during its construction, and later named the "Constitution Mall" during the first fair. Many former exhibit and pavilion sites have since been replaced with soccer fields ( artificial turf or dirt and grass), while others have been left as open grass fields.
The southern portion of the park is largely occupied by Meadow and Willow Lake. The two lakes, along with the Pool of Industry/Fountain of the Planets in the former fair grounds, are fed by the Flushing River
The Flushing River, also known as Flushing Creek, is a waterway that flows northward through the borough of Queens in New York City, mostly within Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, emptying into the Flushing Bay and the East River. The river run ...
, which flows north through both lakes and underneath the fountain as a subterranean river
A subterranean river is a river that runs wholly or partly beneath the ground surface – one where the riverbed does not represent the surface of the Earth. It is distinct from an aquifer, which may flow like a river but is contained within a per ...
towards Flushing Bay
Flushing Bay is a tidal embayment in New York City. It is located on the south side of the East River and stretches to the south near the neighborhood of Flushing, Queens. It is bordered on the west by LaGuardia Airport and the Grand Central Park ...
. The two lakes are connected by a narrow channel, forming a peninsula in between the lakes. During the 1939 Fair, Meadow Lake was temporarily named "Fountain Lake" and "Liberty Lake". The land around Meadow Lake contains much of the park's true "parkland", with open grass, picnic and grilling areas, and baseball and cricket fields. During the fairs, the land on the north shore and part of the eastern shore of the lake was used as an amusement area, with large parking lots added on the east and west shores for the 1964 Fair. The lots were removed and converted to parkland after the 1964 Fair. The Willow Lake area of the park is a nature reserve
A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...
. The area around Willow Lake originally also contained sports fields and park trails, until it was fenced off and turned into a preserve in 1976.
The park is entirely circumscribed by highways constructed by Robert Moses. Its eastern boundary is formed by the Van Wyck Expressway (I-678). The south and west ends of the park are bound by the Grand Central Parkway
The Grand Central Parkway (GCP) is a 14.61-mile (23.51 km) long parkway that stretches from the Triborough Bridge in New York City to Nassau County on Long Island. At the Queens–Nassau border, it becomes the Northern State Parkway, ...
, with the Kew Gardens Interchange
The Kew Gardens Interchange is a complex junction in Kew Gardens, in the center of the New York City borough of Queens serving nearly 600,000 vehicles daily.
Description
The Kew Gardens Interchange is located roughly midway between LaGuardia A ...
situated at the southernmost point. The northern edge of the park is bound by the expressway
Expressway may refer to:
* Controlled-access highway, the highest-grade type of highway with access ramps, lane markings, etc., for high-speed traffic.
* Limited-access road, a lower grade of highway or arterial road.
*Expressway, the fictional s ...
portion of Northern Boulevard (New York State Route 25A
New York State Route 25A (NY 25A) is a state highway on Long Island in New York, United States. It serves as the main east–west route for most of the North Shore of Long Island, running for from Interstate 495 (I-495) at the ...
) which connects the Grand Central and the Whitestone Expressway. The park is bisected by the Long Island Expressway
Long may refer to:
Measurement
* Long, characteristic of something of great duration
* Long, characteristic of something of great length
* Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate
* Longa (music), note value in early music men ...
, at the approximate south end of the former Corona Ash Dumps, which separate the northern and southern halves of the park. Jewel Avenue and its interchange with the Grand Central further separate the southern section into two halves, with Meadow Lake to the north of Jewel Avenue and Willow Lake to the south.[; ; ] Access to the park is limited due to a lack of public transportation reaching many areas of the site, and presence of the highways at the perimeters of the park separating the site from local neighborhoods. The park also has very few formal entrances from local neighborhoods; this is a vestige of the World's Fairs, where access was controlled.
Studies by various groups have separated the park into a different number of sections. A study by the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation divides the park into three areas: the "historic core" (former World's Fair grounds), Meadow Lake, and Willow Lake. The Flushing Meadows Corona Park Strategic Framework Plan divides the park into a total of seven "zones": the Marina along Flushing Bay (containing the World's Fair Marina
The World's Fair Marina is a public marina in Flushing Bay, Queens, New York. It is located at the northern edge of Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, next to a long stretch of promenade around Flushing Bay, and near LaGuardia Airport and Citi Fiel ...
), the "Sport Center" (containing Citi Field
Citi Field is a baseball stadium located in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in New York City, United States. It opened in 2009 and is the home field of Major League Baseball's New York Mets. The stadium was built as a replacement for the adjacent ...
and the USTA
The United States Tennis Association (USTA) is the national governing body for tennis in the United States. A not-for-profit organization with more than 700,000 members, it invests 100% of its proceeds to promote and develop the growth of tennis, ...
), "West Park" (a small section extending west of the Grand Central Parkway and the fair grounds, housing the New York Hall of Science
The New York Hall of Science, also known as NYSCI, is a science museum located in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in the New York City borough of Queens, in the section of the park that is in Corona. It occupies one of the few remaining structures fr ...
and the Queens Zoo
The Queens Zoo is an zoo located in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York City. The zoo is part of an integrated system of four zoos and one aquarium managed by the Wildlife Conservation Society in partnership with the New York Ci ...
), the "Recreation & Garden Botanical Area" (extending east of the fair grounds along the Kissena Creek
Kissena Creek (also Mill Creek or Ireland Mill Creek) is a buried stream located in the neighborhoods of Flushing, Fresh Meadows, Hillcrest, and Kew Gardens Hills in the New York City borough of Queens. Kissena Creek originates in a now-filled ...
corridor, housing the Queens Botanical Garden
Queens Botanical Garden is a botanical garden located at 43-50 Main Street in Flushing, Queens, New York City. The site features rose, bee, herb, wedding, and perennial gardens; an arboretum; an art gallery; and a LEED-certified Visitor & Adm ...
), the "Historic World's Fair Core Area", Meadow Lake, and Willow Lake.
Size
Flushing Meadows–Corona Park is the fourth-largest public park in New York City. It was long believed to be in size, but a survey concluded in 2013 found its actual size to be when accounting for major roads and other exclusions within the park's perimeter. This does not take into account a disputed claim that the neighborhood of Willets Point, along the north edge of the park, is itself part of the park.
Ecology
The two lakes and the remainder of Flushing Creek are separated by a flood gate or dam called the "Porpoise Bridge" or "Tide Gate Bridge", located just south of the Long Island Rail Road's Port Washington Branch
The Port Washington Branch is an electrified two-track rail line and service owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in the U.S. state of New York. It branches north from the Main Line at the former Winfield Junction station, just eas ...
trestle, at the north end of the Flushing Meadows Golf Center. The dam only permits northward flows towards Flushing Bay to pass, while blocking south-flowing waters. As its name implies, the dam also acts as a bridge, carrying pedestrian and vehicular traffic over the creek. It measures wide and long. The lakes are fed by groundwater
Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated ...
.
Prior to human development, Flushing Meadows was originally a tidal marsh
A tidal marsh (also known as a type of "tidal wetland") is a marsh found along rivers, coasts and estuaries which floods and drains by the tidal movement of the adjacent estuary, sea or ocean. Tidal marshes are commonly zoned into lower marshes ( ...
, with Flushing Creek receiving south-flowing waters from the tides of Flushing Bay. Although the lakes were built as freshwater lakes and dammed to mitigate tidal effects, flooding continues to affect the park. The lakes are also highly eutrophic
Eutrophication is the process by which an entire body of water, or parts of it, becomes progressively enriched with minerals and nutrients, particularly nitrogen and phosphorus. It has also been defined as "nutrient-induced increase in phytoplan ...
, due to nutrients such as phosphorus
Phosphorus is a chemical element with the symbol P and atomic number 15. Elemental phosphorus exists in two major forms, white phosphorus and red phosphorus, but because it is highly reactive, phosphorus is never found as a free element on Ear ...
from the former marshland seeping into the water, leading to the death of fish in the lakes. The regular tidal action that would filter the lakes is prevented by the dam. In addition, the lakes are subject to pollution and storm runoff from the nearby highways, via pipes which feed into the lakes.
Because of its connection with Flushing Bay, several fish species native to marine habitats regularly swim into and inhabit Meadow and Willow Lakes. Fish species native to Meadow Lake include American eel, largemouth bass
The largemouth bass (''Micropterus salmoides'') is a carnivorous freshwater gamefish in the Centrarchidae ( sunfish) family, a species of black bass native to the eastern and central United States, southeastern Canada and northern Mexico, bu ...
, northern snakehead
The northern snakehead (''Channa argus'') is a species of snakehead fish native to China, Russia, North Korea, and South Korea, ranging from the Amur River to Hainan. It has been introduced to other regions, where it is considered invasive. In ...
(an invasive species), and white mullet. Willow Lake is named for the many species of willow
Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist s ...
plants which inhabit the area. Invasive phragmites
''Phragmites'' () is a genus of four species of large perennial reed grasses found in wetlands throughout temperate and tropical regions of the world.
Taxonomy
The World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, maintained by Kew Garden in L ...
, a genus of wild grasses, are also abundant. Attempts to kill the phragmites with pesticides have led to further fish kill. Numerous berry-producing trees and shrubs near Willow Lake attract several migratory bird species. The biodiversity
Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') l ...
of the lakes has been found to be much lower than other water bodies of comparable size.
Notable structures
Attractions
Near the northern end of the park, adjacent to Willets Point is the "Sport Center" zone, where the US Open tennis tournament is held. In 2006, the tennis center was named USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center
The USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center is a stadium complex within Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York City, United States. It has been the home of the US Open Grand Slam tennis tournament, played every year in August ...
after professional tennis player Billie Jean King. Its center court is Arthur Ashe Stadium
Arthur Ashe Stadium is a tennis stadium at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York City. Part of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, it is the main stadium of the US Open tennis tournament and has a capacity of 23,771, ...
, and its secondary stadium court is Louis Armstrong Stadium
Louis Armstrong Stadium is a 14,000-seat tennis stadium at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City, one of the venues of the US Open. It opened for the 2018 US Open as a replacement for the 1978 stadium of the same n ...
. Citi Field
Citi Field is a baseball stadium located in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in New York City, United States. It opened in 2009 and is the home field of Major League Baseball's New York Mets. The stadium was built as a replacement for the adjacent ...
, the home of the New York Mets
The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. They are one of two major league ...
since 2009, sits at the far north end of the park. Shea Stadium
Shea Stadium (), formally known as William A. Shea Municipal Stadium, was a multi-purpose stadium in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, Queens, New York City. , the Mets' previous home and prior host to the New York Jets football team, once stood adjacent to the area now hosting Citi Field
Citi Field is a baseball stadium located in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in New York City, United States. It opened in 2009 and is the home field of Major League Baseball's New York Mets. The stadium was built as a replacement for the adjacent ...
.
In addition to the existing stadiums, several other sports venues have been proposed for the park. In the 1950s, Flushing Meadows was one of several proposed sites for the relocation of the Brooklyn Dodgers, until the franchise moved to Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
in 1958. A racing circuit to host a Formula One
Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...
grand prix event was proposed for New York City, with one of the potential circuits to be built around Meadow Lake, first for the 1975 season, and later for the 1983 season. The plans were opposed by the local community and environmental groups, and the race was postponed and ultimately cancelled by 1985. One of the alternate sites, the Meadowlands Sports Complex
The Meadowlands Sports Complex is a sports complex located in East Rutherford, in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. The facility is owned and operated by the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority (NJSEA).
The complex currently con ...
in New Jersey, would host the Meadowlands Grand Prix
The Meadowlands Grand Prix was a CART IndyCar race held at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey from 1984 until 1991. The event was the first major auto race in the New York City metropolitan area since the 1937 Vander ...
Champ Car
Champ Car World Series (CCWS) was the series sanctioned by Open-Wheel Racing Series Inc., or Champ Car, a sanctioning body for American open-wheel car racing that operated from 2004 to 2008. It was the successor to Championship Auto Racing Teams ...
event in 1984. Also in the 1980s, the New Jersey Generals
The New Jersey Generals were a franchise of the United States Football League (USFL) established in 1982 to begin play in the spring and summer of 1983. The team played three seasons from 1983 to 1985, winning 31 regular season games and losing ...
of the United States Football League
The United States Football League (USFL) was a professional American football league that played for three seasons, 1983 through 1985. The league played a spring/summer schedule in each of its active seasons. The 1986 season was scheduled to be ...
(USFL) proposed to relocate to the park, with a new stadium to be built in Willets Point adjacent to Shea Stadium. The plans dissolved when the USFL folded in 1985. Shortly afterwards, the New York Jets rejected a plan to take over the proposed stadium. In the 2010s, a Major League Soccer stadium was proposed in the park after MLS founded New York City FC
New York City Football Club is an American professional soccer club based in New York City that competes in Major League Soccer (MLS), the highest level of American soccer, as a member of the league's Eastern Conference. The club is co-owned b ...
, the New York area's second soccer team. After examining several sites in the New York area, New York City FC finally decided on building its proposed 25,000-seat stadium in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park by 2016, deeming the park as the only viable location for a stadium. The stadium, which would have been located on the site of the Pool of Industry/Fountain of the Planets, was heavily opposed by the community, which forced the team to change its plans and play at Yankee Stadium
Yankee Stadium is a baseball stadium located in the Bronx, New York City. It is the home field of the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball, and New York City FC of Major League Soccer.
Opened in April 2009, the stadium replaced the orig ...
for an unspecified amount of time.
The park's Meadow Lake contains a boat house, one of two structures that remain from the 1939 World's Fair, the other being the Queens Museum
The Queens Museum, formerly the Queens Museum of Art, is an art museum and educational center located in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in the borough of Queens in New York City, United States. The museum was founded in 1972, and has among its pe ...
. Rental boats are available at the boathouse for rowing and paddleboating, and Meadow Lake is also the site of rowing activities for non-profit Row New York, with teams practicing on the lake for much of the year. Meadow Lake also hosts the annual Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in New York
The Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in New York is an annual sporting and multicultural event held in August on Meadow Lake in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York to celebrate the fifth moon (or the fifth month) of the lunar calen ...
, and teams from New York practice in Meadow Lake during the summer months. The American Small Craft Association (TASCA) also houses a fleet of over a dozen sloop-rigged sailboats, used for teaching, racing, and recreation by the club's members. Bicycling paths extend around Meadow Lake and connect to the Brooklyn–Queens Greenway. The Willow Lake Trail, a nature trail around Willow Lake, was partially reopened in 2013 and is part of the Willow Lake nature preserve. The 78th Avenue gate to the lake remains shuttered and inaccessible despite being the closest gate to the subway station. The chronic lack of maintenance of this portion of the trail has led to ordinary residents to resort to clearing the trail itself. The many recreational playing fields and playgrounds in the park are used for activities that reflect the wide ethnic mix of Queens; soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
and cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
are especially popular.
Some World's Fair buildings continued to be in use after the 1964 Fair. The Flushing Meadows Carousel
The Flushing Meadows Carousel is a carousel located in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in the New York City borough of Queens. It contains four rows of figures, including 64 jumping horses, 7 standing horses, 1 menagerie animal (a lion), and 2 char ...
, opened as part of the 1964 Fair, operates in the northwestern part of the park. The New York Hall of Science
The New York Hall of Science, also known as NYSCI, is a science museum located in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in the New York City borough of Queens, in the section of the park that is in Corona. It occupies one of the few remaining structures fr ...
, founded during the 1964 World's Fair, was one of the country's first science museums and still operates in its original location at the park's northern corner. The New York State Pavilion
The New York State Pavilion is a historic world's fair pavilion at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Flushing, Queens, New York. It was designed in 1962 for the 1964 New York World's Fair by architects Philip Johnson and Richard Foster, with str ...
, constructed as the state's exhibit hall for the same World's Fair, is also a feature of the park. However, no new use for the building was found after the Fair, and the structure sits derelict and decaying, although it was repainted yellow in 2015. Next to the New York State Pavilion is the Queens Theatre in the Park
Queens Theatre, formerly Queens Theatre in the Park and before that Queens Playhouse, is an American professional theatre, located in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, Queens, New York City, New York. Artistic and Executive Directors have includ ...
, originally the 1964 Fair's "Theaterama" attraction, which moved into its current building in 1993. Terrace on the Park
Terrace on the Park is a banquet hall in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York City. The building was constructed by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to serve as the heliport for the 1964 New York World's Fair. The build ...
, a banquet and catering facility, was originally the 1964 World's Fair's official helipad. The Queens Museum, which became the headquarters of the United Nations General Assembly
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Curr ...
after the 1939 Fair, was adapted as the 1964 Fair's New York City Pavilion building. After the fair, it was subdivided into the Queens Center for Art and an ice-skating rink, the latter of which was removed when the museum was expanded in 2013.
Other buildings remained for a while after the 1964 Fair's conclusion to see if a new use for them could be found, but were subsequently demolished. This included the Travel and Transportation Pavilion, destroyed in 1967 after a failed conversion to a fire station
__NOTOC__
A fire station (also called a fire house, fire hall, firemen's hall, or engine house) is a structure or other area for storing firefighting apparatuses such as fire engines and related vehicles, personal protective equipment, fire ...
, and the Federal Pavilion, demolished in 1977 after great deterioration. One such parcel became the site of the Playground for All Children, one of the first playgrounds designed to include handicapped-accessible activities. The design competition for the playground was won by architect Hisham N. Ashkouri
Hisham N. Ashkouri ( ar, هشام أشكري, born August 15, 1948) is a Boston and New York City, New York-based architect.
Ealry Life
Ashkouri was born August 15, 1948 in Baghdad, Iraq. He graduated first in class in 1970 with a Bachelor of Ar ...
; the facility was completed in 1984, and it was refurbished and reopened in 1997.
Art installations
Immediately outside the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center
The USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center is a stadium complex within Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York City, United States. It has been the home of the US Open Grand Slam tennis tournament, played every year in August ...
is a sculpture by Eric Fischl
Eric Fischl (born March 9, 1948) is an American painter, sculptor, printmaker, draughtsman and educator. He is known for his paintings depicting American suburbia from the 1970s and 1980s.
Life
Fischl was born in New York City and grew up on s ...
called ''Soul in Flight''. The sculpture, unveiled in August 2000, is a 14-foot bronze nude statue that serves as a permanent memorial to Arthur Ashe and includes one of his favorite quotes, "From what we get we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life."
In January 2022, sculptor Sherwin Banfield unveiled ''Going Back to the Meadows'', a statue of Queens-born LL Cool J. Located in David Dinkins Circle, the installation depicts him in a Kangol bucket hat and Cuban link chain, holding up a solar-powered boombox loaded with a cassette of his 1985 debut album, ''Radio
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...
''. The sculpture, which is planned to remain through November 2022, features speakers that are timed to play LL Cool J's music for five hours on several days of the week.
Other infrastructure
This park also contains three Metropolitan Transportation Authority
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a public benefit corporation responsible for public transportation in the New York City metropolitan area of the U.S. state of New York. The MTA is the largest public transit authority in th ...
(MTA) maintenance facilities: the Jamaica subway yard, the Corona subway yard, and the Casey Stengel Bus Depot
MTA Regional Bus Operations operates local and express buses serving New York City in the United States out of 29 bus depots. These depots are located in all five boroughs of the city, with the exception of one located in nearby Yonkers in Westc ...
. The Jamaica Yard is located at the very south end of the park site, beyond Willow Lake, while the Corona Yard and Casey Stengel Depot are located across from Citi Field.
Transportation
The New York City Subway
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October 2 ...
and Long Island Rail Road both serve the park's northern end. The IRT Flushing Line
The IRT Flushing Line is a rapid transit route of the New York City Subway system, named for its eastern terminal in Flushing, Queens. It is operated as part of the A Division. The Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT), a private operator, ...
subway station at Mets–Willets Point serves the , and the similarly named LIRR station serves the Port Washington Branch
The Port Washington Branch is an electrified two-track rail line and service owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in the U.S. state of New York. It branches north from the Main Line at the former Winfield Junction station, just eas ...
. These stations are located at the northern end of the park adjacent to the Corona Yard and bus depot, primarily serving Citi Field and the USTA. The 111th Street subway station is located just outside the park grounds, serving the Hall of Science. The buses all travel through the park, but only the Q48 stops within the park perimeter, serving Citi Field and the USTA. The Q58 and Q88 stop outside either side of the park and cross the park via the Horace Harding Expressway, while the Q64 crosses the park along Jewel Avenue/69th Road.
In popular culture
The "Valley of Ashes" described in F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term he popularize ...
's novel ''The Great Gatsby
''The Great Gatsby'' is a 1925 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, near New York City, the novel depicts first-person narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby ...
'' (1925) is a fictional location said to have been inspired by the site of Flushing Meadows–Corona Park when it was still a dump, as well as by nearby Willets Point.
In the movie ''Men in Black
In popular culture and UFO conspiracy theories, men in black (MIB) are purported men dressed in black suits who claim to be quasi- government agents, who harass, threaten, or sometimes even assassinate unidentified flying object (UFO) witnesse ...
'' (1997), the saucer-shaped restaurants atop the observation towers of the New York State Pavilion were portrayed as real alien UFOs used as a display to disguise its appearance to the public. Edgar the bug attempts to use one to escape the planet, but not before being shot down by the agents, when it then attempts to climb aboard the second ship but is stopped by Jay, who tricks it into coming back down. Scenes for the film ''Men in Black 3
''Men in Black 3'' (stylized as ''MIB³'') is a 2012 American science fiction action comedy film directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and starring Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, and Josh Brolin. It is the third installment in the ''Men in Black'' film se ...
'' (2012) were also filmed at Flushing Meadows. That film features a scene that recreates Shea Stadium
Shea Stadium (), formally known as William A. Shea Municipal Stadium, was a multi-purpose stadium in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, Queens, New York City. , demolished in 2009, during the 1969 World Series.
The intro to the long-running 1990s sitcom ''King of Queens
''The King of Queens'' is an American television sitcom that ran on CBS from September 21, 1998, to May 14, 2007, a total of nine seasons and 207 episodes. The series was created by Michael J. Weithorn and David Litt, who also served as the sho ...
'' was partly shot in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park. In 2001, during the first season of ''The Amazing Race
''The Amazing Race'' is an adventure reality game show franchise in which teams of two people race around the world in competition with other teams. The ''Race'' is split into legs, with teams tasked to deduce clues, navigate themselves in forei ...
'', the Unisphere at Flushing Meadows Park served as the Finish Line. In 2014, it served as a stop on the first leg of Season 25
A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...
.
In the Marvel Cinematic Universe
The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on a series of superhero films produced by Marvel Studios. The films are based on characters that appear in American comic books published by ...
, the Stark Expo
The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) media franchise features many fictional elements including locations, weapons, and artifacts. While many of these features are based on elements that originally appeared in the American comic books publishe ...
—first featured in ''Iron Man 2
''Iron Man 2'' is a 2010 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Iron Man. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures, it is the sequel to '' Iron Man'' (2008) and the third film in the Marvel ...
'' (2010)—takes place at the Flushing Meadows–Corona Park and appears in multiple films in the series, including '' Captain America: The First Avenger'' (2011) and briefly in '' Spider-Man: Homecoming'' (2017).
In early 2018, musician Paul Simon announced that he would perform his final live concert at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park on September 22, 2018. Simon had grown up near the neighborhood and had visited the park frequently.
References
Citations
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External links
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The Playground For All Children
Entities within the park
New York World's Fair 1964/1965
New York State Pavilion
Tent of Tomorrow
– New York State Pavilion
World's Fair Carousels
{{DEFAULTSORT:Flushing Meadows-Corona Park
Parks in Queens, New York
Robert Moses projects
World's fair sites in New York (state)
1939 New York World's Fair
1964 New York World's Fair
Urban public parks
1939 establishments in New York City
Skateparks in the United States
Skateparks in New York City