Springfield Park is a public park in

Springfield Gardens Springfield Gardens is a neighborhood in the southeastern area of the New York City borough of Queens, bounded to the north by St. Albans, to the east by Laurelton and Rosedale, to the south by John F. Kennedy International Airport, and to the w ...

, in southeast

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 most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. It consists of , including the sizable Springfield Lake at its center. It is located on the west side of

Springfield Boulevard Springfield Boulevard is a major north/south roadway that runs through the eastern section of Queens, New York (state), New York. It is long and goes from New York State Route 25A, Northern Boulevard in Bayside, Queens, Bayside, to 147th Avenue ...

between 145th Road and 147th Avenue, less than a mile north of

JFK Airport John F. Kennedy International Airport (colloquially referred to as JFK Airport, Kennedy Airport, New York-JFK, or simply JFK) is the main international airport serving New York City. The airport is the busiest of the seven airports in the New ...

. It is maintained by the

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 ...

History

Springfield Park is located in a low-lying area that once had many springs, which is why 17th century settlers named the area Spring Field. Those settlers built a pond for irrigation purposes in the area that later became the park. As early as 1750 a

grist mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the Mill (grinding), grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist i ...

operated at the south end of the pond, which was connected to the water supply system of the City of

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

in 1854. In 1932 a nearby sewer construction project destroyed the pond, which had already become polluted and was no longer used for water supply. The city then filled in the area for use as a park. In 1964 the city assigned control of all former water supply areas, including Springfield Park, to the Parks Department. A proposal in the 1970s by the city to convert the park into an industrial facility was successfully opposed by community activists led by New York State Assembly member Guy Brewer. The area remained a park, though it became rundown. In 1999 the rehabilitation of the park began with the reconstruction of a playground. As of 2013, the park, according to the Parks Department website, "contains two full-size basketball courts, two baseball diamonds, two tennis courts, swings, a spray shower, play equipment with safety surfacing, benches, a flagpole with a yardarm, and a central pond with two bridges." In October 2012 the city started the construction of a $69 million project to improve drainage of stormwater in the Springfield Gardens neighborhood. The project, which is slated to be completed in 2014, also seeks to improve water quality in Jamaica Bay, the ultimate destination of all stormwater in the area. A key element of these improvements is a new "Bluebelt", the city's word for a manmade wetland that stores and cleanses stormwater before discharge into an

estuary 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 environm ...

. New storm sewers will discharge stormwater into a "forebay" in the northern part of Springfield Park, where sediment will settle out of the water, and through an open channel into the existing Springfield Lake. The channel will have a marshy border featuring native wetland plants. The lake will be dredged to twice its current depth in order to improve water quality and discourage algae blooms.

References

{{Protected areas of New York City Parks in Queens, New York Urban public parks Jamaica, Queens