Early years . During the
American Revolutionary War in the 18th century, occupying
British troops cut down most of the trees in the vicinity, and some of the swamp's peat was mined to burn for heat.
White cedar and the opportunistic eastern red cedar,
Juniperus virginiana, that subsequently took hold lent its name to the swamp. In what was perhaps the first recreational use of the area, during winter, the swamp's frozen ponds were a popular location for
ice skating. In 1822, Thomas Pullis purchased of land for farming at the eastern side of the swamp. The family cemetery he established by 1846 on its grounds remains today within Juniper Valley Park as one of the few surviving farm burial grounds in New York City.
Development A key figure in the eventual transformation of the swamp into the park is
Arnold Rothstein, a mobster. Rothstein is widely suspected of significant involvement in the throwing of the
1919 World Series, known as the Black Sox Scandal, and soon thereafter using his gains to purchase of Juniper Swamp. In the 1920s, he tried to sell the swamp to New York City for use as an airport, but only after first attempting to increase its apparent value by constructing on it a phantom village of 143 homes that were little more than facades. The Hoover committee identified six general locations in the
New York metropolitan area where an airport could be built. The committee recommended Juniper Valley as the first location for an airfield. Its second choice was an existing airstrip on
Barren Island in southeastern
Brooklyn. The city's aeronautical engineer
Clarence D. Chamberlin chose the Barren Island location because it was already dredged for marine traffic; it was close to
Jamaica Bay, which would allow
seaplanes to also use the airport; and it was city-owned, while the land in Middle Village was not. The plan was opposed by Queens borough president
George U. Harvey, who did not want to build on land owned by Rothstein; Harvey instead preferred a site near
Jamaica, further east in central Queens. In response, the RPA stated that the Juniper Valley site had already been identified by the Hoover committee as suitable for an airport. In March 1931,
New York City Comptroller Charles W. Berry suggested a competing proposal that would instead use Rothstein's land in Juniper Valley as a public park. The original plan was to acquire at a cost of $475,000 (though the land was appraised at $624,375), but in August 1931, a revised plan was submitted that would acquire at a cost of $418,551.50. New York City acquired Juniper Swamp at the rate of $5,700 per acre as settlement with the Rothstein estate for back taxes, and immediately tagged it for development as a public park. In 1935, the
New York City Board of Estimate approved the purchase of for Juniper Valley Park at a cost of $250,000. News of the park, coupled with improvements of
Works Progress Administration (WPA) efforts, ushered in a wave of housing growth in the vicinity that continued through the 1960s. Not long after the park's creation was announced, developer
Stewart Willey purchased 1,500 lots upon which he would develop houses. By 1938, eight developers were proposing to build 1,592 homes at a total cost of $8.75 million. The WPA started constructing houses in the area in 1941. To accommodate the new houses, Eliot Avenue was widened and extended to the
Horace Harding Expressway (now Interstate 495). In 1939, Sanitation Commissioner William F. Carey and Health Commissioner Dr. John L. Rice were indicted on charges of violating the New York City Penal and Sanitary Codes, specifically of "unlawfully dumping raw garbage and maintaining a public nuisance" and of "dumping under or on top of water, or on land, any refuse in which...offensive and unwholesome material is included." Carey and Rice, both cabinet members under Mayor
Fiorello H. La Guardia, surrendered to the
Long Island City Courthouse and were released without bail. In 1977, the parking lots were closed due to excessive noise at night. The roller rink opened in 1999 at a cost of $600,000. The baseball fields were renovated, but this soon led to accumulations of
ponding because of improper drainage. In May 2001, the old worn-out
cinder track around the Brennan field was replaced with a 400-meter
all-weather rubber based track. The old concrete bleachers have been replaced with aluminum seating. The renovation project, costing $1,560,000, was funded by
Thomas Ognibene, the Queens city councilman at the time. Between late 2013 and July 2014, the
bocce courts were renovated. ==References==