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 city's aeronautical engineer Clarence D. Its second choice was an existing airstrip on Barren Island in southeastern Brooklyn. The committee recommended Juniper Valley as the first location for an airfield. : 4 The Hoover committee identified six general locations in the New York metropolitan area where an airport could be built. In mid-1927, Herbert Hoover, the United States Secretary of Commerce, approved the creation of a "Fact-Finding Committee on Suitable Airport Facilities for the New York Metropolitan District". Before Rothstein could unload the swamp, he was murdered in 1928. 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. 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 88 acres (36 ha) of Juniper Swamp. Development Ī key figure in the eventual transformation of the swamp into the park is Arnold Rothstein, a mobster. In the 1920s, the area of the swamp east of the railroad and west of what became the tennis courts was called Metropolitan Heights Fairground and was used as a race track for horses, dogs, automobiles and motorcycles. The railroad has marked the western edge of the park since then. In 1916, the New York Connecting Railroad carved a deep cut through the eastern side of the swamp to create a new railroad route. 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. In 1822, Thomas Pullis purchased 32 acres (13 ha) of land for farming at the eastern side of 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. White cedar and the opportunistic eastern red cedar, Juniperus virginiana, that subsequently took hold lent its name to the swamp. View of Juniper Valley Park in the winter, facing west towards Manhattan.ĭuring 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.
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