Jamaica Playground

What was here before?
This playground owes its name to the neighborhood in which it resides. Jamaica is the largest and most densely populated community in central Queens.

Its name derives from the area’s beavers (or Jameco in Lenape) who lived along the shores of Jamaica Bay. In 1655, the first English settlers arrived in Jamaica from Massachusetts and eastern Long Island. Within a year, they secured a land grant from the Dutch Governor Peter Stuyvesant, who named the area Rustdorp (rest-town). Rustdorp soon became the seat of Queens County. On September 8, 1664, the Dutch surrendered their New Netherland holdings to the English.

In 1683 the English governance organized the New York colony into ten counties, with Queens County encompassing present-day Queens and Nassau County. The English renamed Rustdorp as the Town of Jamaica; it included all lands south of what is now Grand Central and Jackie Robinson Parkways. During the Revolutionary War (1776-1783), the area was predominantly Tory and occupied by British Troops. In 1814, Jamaica became the first incorporated village in Queens County.

How did this site become a playground?
The City of New York acquired this land in 1941 to be a Jointly Operated Playground (JOP) for the newly constructed P.S. 40 (Samuel Huntington School). Beginning in 1938, the Board of Education (now the Department of Education) agreed to provide land next to schools where NYC Parks could build and maintain playgrounds that could be used by the school during the day and the public on evenings and weekends. The playground opened in 1943 as P.S. 40 Playground and was named in 1985.

The playground was rebuilt in 2023 to include multigenerational play areas and ground-level play panels that offer universally accessible sensory experiences for children. The project relocated and rebuilt the existing full-size basketball court, with the addition of two new basketball keys to serve as practice courts. A new seating area offers ample benches and game tables for park users and new trees and plantings have been incorporated throughout the site to offer increased shade. The revamped spray shower also includes new ground sprays to provide additional recreation space during the cold months when water is not in use.

Site access and circulation throughout the playground have also been improved, now featuring universally accessible ramps to provide easy and direct access to the renovated playground.