Kissena Corridor Park

What was here before?

Once Native American lands of the Mantinecock tribe, this area of Queens was sparsely populated well into the 20th century. The property was once the site of the pumping station for the Mount Prospect Reservoir built in 1859. The pumping station’s foundation and water main pipes were excavated in order to build the playground.

How did this site become a playground?

The land for this playground was acquired by NYC Parks in 1940. The playground is part of a larger 45.6-acres “emerald necklace” of parkland that was set aside in 1947 to connect Flushing Meadows Corona Park with Kissena Park and Cunningham Park and meet the needs of the growing borough of Queens. Following the completion of a sewer line, the Department of Sanitation partially filled the areas now comprising the corridor park through its landfill program and NYC Parks used the right of way to build ball fields, walkways, a bicycle path, landscaping, and several playgrounds, including this one.

The playground, formerly called Underhill Playground for an adjacent street named for an early settler of Long Island, opened on June 16, 1953. Rebuilt in 1997, the playground was designed with imaginative features including a decorative steel fence of silhouettes, a golden ring-shaped spray shower, and bronze doll-like figure based on the Russian folk tale of Vasalisa, in addition to a teen area with Afro-Brazilian inspired bronze drums and concentric paving circles illustrating their musical reverberations. The playground also includes athletic courts for handball, volleyball, basketball, and tennis.

Who is this playground named for?

In 2020, as part of an NYC Parks initiative to expand the representation of African Americans honored in parks, this playground was named for jazz vocalist Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996). Born in Newport News, Virginia, Fitzgerald moved as a child to Westchester County with her mother and stepfather. After the death of her mother, she went to live with an aunt in Harlem where she skipped school and her grades suffered. The authorities placed her in the Colored Orphan Asylum, a Bronx orphanage, and later to a state reformatory school, The New York Training School for Girls.

Fitzgerald began singing in the streets of Harlem before landing an amateur night performance in the world-renowned Apollo Theater at age 17, where she won first prize. Her next pivotal performance was with the Tiny Bradshaw band with bandleader Chick Webb at the Harlem Opera House. This connection led to various performances and her first hit on the radio, “A Tiskit A Tasket.” When Webb died in 1939, Fitzgerald took over the role of bandleader and changed the name to Ella and Her Famous Orchestra. She would go on to record nearly 150 songs between 1935 and 1942. From 1948 to 1952, she lived in East Elmhurst before moving to the Addisleigh Park historic district, which was home to an enclave of well-known jazz musicians in the southeast Queens neighborhood of St. Albans.

With the decline of big band tours, Fitzgerald started scat singing and recorded “Flying Home” which was regarded as one of the most influential jazz records of the 1940s. To this day she is renowned for her exquisite velvety tone, stylish phrasing, and heartfelt vocal delivery. Her long and influential career produced many hits and monikers like “First Lady of Song” and “Queen of Jazz.” Fitzgerald died at the age of 79 in her home. She earned several awards that include the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and National Medal of Art.