Kissena Corridor Park

What was here before?

This site is adjacent to Kissena Creek which is currently buried beneath the park and surrounding neighborhoods. It was once a source for peat which can be used as a form of fuel. The creek was filled in the 1930s.

How did this site become a park?

The city purchased most of the land for Kissena Corridor West by condemnation between 1944 and 1947. Some additional land was added by the Department of Sanitation's landfill program, which filled in marshland. Parks then landscaped this new addition and built a bicycle path, walkways, and ball fields.

This park was previously named Booth Memorial Playground, for the adjacent street, and was renamed in 1992 for Captain Mario Farjardo. The playground offers two small basketball courts, two handball courts, and play equipment.

Captain Mario Fajardo Park is part of the larger Kissena Corridor Park, which is a series of interconnected open spaces. Kissena Corridor Park West, the greenway linking Flushing Meadows-Corona Park and Kissena Park, is further connected to Cunningham Park through Kissena Corridor East. These linked greenspaces were part of an effort by Parks Commissioner Robert Moses (1888-1981) to develop an "emerald necklace" in the growing borough of Queens. "Kissena," is said to mean "it is cold" in the Native American Chippewa language.

Who is this park named for?

Captain Mario Fajardo (1961-1991) emigrated from Ecuador to Flushing, Queens with the rest of his family when he was 12-years-old. He attended John Bowne High School, and in 1984, graduated from the Citadel, a military college in Charleston, South Carolina, with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering. He entered the military that summer.

During his service, he was stationed in Korea; Fort Bragg, North Carolina; and Honduras. On August 23, 1990, he was sent to the Persian Gulf as a member of the 27th Engineer Battalion (Combat) (Airborne), 20th Engineer Brigade (Airborne) of the XVIII Airborne Corps. On February 26, 1991, shortly before Operation Desert Storm ended, Fajardo was commanding a company of men in an operation to remove unexploded American bomblets from an airfield in Iraq. A pile of the bomblets exploded, killing Fajardo and six of his men. Fajardo was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star. In addition to this playground, Captain Fajardo is remembered on the Major Eugene T. McCarthy Memorial dedicated to Gulf War Veterans in Brooklyn, NY.