Chaplain Rock Triangle

This triangle is named in honor of Chaplain James E. Rock (1880-1941), who served for six years as Chaplain for the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church at 216th Street and 38th Avenue in Bayside, Queens. Rock was born in Brooklyn on April 7, 1880, and studied at Brooklyn’s St. Francis College and St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore, Maryland. After his ordainment in May 1914, Rock took a position at Immaculate Heart of Mary parish and later served as a pastor at St. Michael’s Church in Flushing.

During World War I, Rock traveled to Europe as a chaplain in the United States Army. The pastor left for the front in 1918 and, in 1919, became the chaplain at the First Army Headquarters at Chateau-Thierry, France. Upon returning to New York, Rock became a chaplain at St. Hugh’s Church in Huntington Station, Long Island. In 1935, Rock was named pastor at Sacred Heart church, a position he would keep until his death in 1941.

Throughout his lifetime, Chaplain Rock was actively involved in the communities in which he worked. Rock helped neighborhood residents obtain food, clothing and fuel during the Great Depression. He was also the chaplain for the St. John’s Home for Boys on St. Mark’s and Albany Avenues in Brooklyn, served as commissioner for the Brooklyn Catholic Boys Brigade and, in 1937, was named to the National Board of Chaplains for Catholic War Veterans. Rock also allowed his 80-acre estate in Highland Hills, New York, to be used as a summer camp for the youth he worked with throughout the year.

Chaplain Rock Triangle, named in 1941 and located at 221st Street and 41st Avenue, contains brick-lined sidewalks, common chokecherry bushes (Prunus virginiana) and pin oak trees (Quercus palustris) that provide the park with shade. The triangle is part of the Greenstreets program, a collaboration between Parks and the Department of Transportation whose goal is to convert paved street properties, such as triangles and malls, into green spaces.