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A lengthy gash of green known as the Kissena Corridor can be seen on Queens maps, running from Flushing Meadows-Corona Park at its western end all the way east to Cunningham Park at Francis Lewis Boulevard on the east. The Queens Botanical Garden between College Point Boulevard and Main Street forms its western end, while a narrow patch is slotted between Colden Street and 56th Avenue/56th Road, seen in the above photo on a recent February afternoon.

The gash “widens” into Kissena Park proper, which is divided into a “parklike” northern section and a more “natural” southern section, between Kissena Boulevard, Rose Avenue, Oak Avenue, Booth Memorial Avenue and 164th Street. East of that, the Kissena Corridor’s narrowest sector runs from Fresh Meadow lane to the Long Island Expressway, after several blocks’ interruption by the Kissena Golf Course between 164th and Fresh Meadow Lane.

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The Kissena Corridor is there because it is the ancient right-of-way for a long-vanished railroad. In the early 1870s, Scottish immigrant and department store magnate Alexander T. Stewart purchased plots of land from local farmers and built the Central Railroad of Long Island as a means to connect western Queens with a new development of his, Garden City.

The railroad was a financial failure and survived for just a few years, yet the railroad, built over 140 years ago, still survives…after a fashion… as a park, which matches its fate with that of the High Line on the west side of Manhattan.

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The CRLI is remembered by a memorial of sorts and the Kissena Park gate at Kissena Boulevard and Rose Avenues. There’s wrought iron locomotive art on the fences, and pavement that looks like railroad tracks on the sidewalk.

 

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Finally, a plaque describing the old railroad was placed in the location.

Just as we’re speculating about what would happen if the Long Island Rail Road Bay Ridge freight line through the heart of Brooklyn and into Ridgewood, Queens, could be fitted for mass transit, or perhaps the old Ozone Park to Rockaways LIRR branch, abandoned since 1962, could be used again for rail, it’s fun to speculate what would have occurred if Stewart’s line was a success. It would mean a direct connection from the LIRR Port Washington Branch to Garden City, serving the Queens communities of Fresh Meadows, Hollis Hills, Bellerose and Floral Park; the street grid in those areas, after over 140 years, still allows for a a railroad right-of-way! Oh well… the full second Avenue Subway will be built before any transit initiatives favoring Queens are even discussed!

Read much more on the Central Railroad of Long Island here.

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Kissena Park, meanwhile, has hidden mysteries and as mentioned before, still has a rural aspect, especially its southern section. NYC’s only pro bicycle track is on Booth Memorial Avenue off Parsons, and there are more scattered surprises around. The park has an extensive series of bridle trails, but they won’t be used as often now that the Auburndale Stables have closed their doors.

Though I lived a few blocks away for 14 years and visited Kissena Park frequently I had never before noticed this World War I tribute called Memorial Knoll, a boulder inscribed with the words “to those who gave their lives for their country in the world war.”

From NYC Parks: “The six-ton granite boulder, Flushing’s first memorial to what was then known as the Great War, was dedicated June 5, 1921, and unveiled by Boy Scouts in front of a crowd estimated at several hundred and a delegation that included a band from Fort Totten and representatives from American Legion posts and religious organizations. The boulder itself was unearthed during the construction of the golf house at the Flushing Country Club on Jamaica Avenue and its inscription was carved by local stoneworkers Prowse & Sugden. Most of the $275 cost of the memorial by the Flushing United Association was spent on simply moving the boulder.” 

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The borough of Queens installed a Korean War memorial staute in Kissena Park in 2007. The bronze memorial was sculpted by William Crozier and depicts a solitary soldier carrying a rifle, heavily coated in the cold Korean winter. The apex of the memorial pedestal shows five soldiers carrying a stretcher, scaling mountainous terrain.

On the rear of the pedestal are inscribed the names of all 172 Queens soldiers who died during the conflict, and the names of persons and groups supporting the project. The Korean War Veterans Memorial Association and then-City Councilman John Liu assisted in assembling the funds necessary for the plaza, while the South Korean government, New York State and private donations raised funds for the sculpture in 2007.

 

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A natural body of water fed by springs connecting to the Flushing River was named Kissena by 19th-century horticulturalist and park developer Samuel Parsons, and is likely the only Chippewa (a Michigan tribe) place name in New York State. Parsons, a Native American enthusiast, used the Chippewa term for “cool water” or simply “it is cold.” After Samuel Parsons died in 1906 the family sold the part of the plant nursery to NYC, which then developed Kissena Park, and the other part to developers Paris-MacDougal, which set about developing the area north of the park. Kissena Park attained its present size in 1927. In 1942, the streams were filled in and Kissena Lake was bordered with concrete.


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