Linden Park

What was here before? 
The southern, waterfront edge of what is now East New York was originally inhabited by the Jameco (or Yamecah), of the Algonquin nation, and was the fishing grounds for the Canarsie and Rockaway peoples. Dutch farmers founded the Town of New Lots in the 17th century, which displaced the native population. Early Dutch farming families owned this land for the next couple of centuries. By the late 1800s, this property was split between the Linington, Lott Wyckoff, and Rapelje heirs before it was ultimately sold off.

Development was slow on this immediate tract, and it largely remained open land. In 1946, the City condemned this property for the Linden Veterans Emergency Housing Project, which responded to the flood of veterans returning from World War II. That year the New York Times reported that in a single day 500 families applied for three single rooms and two available apartments. Rows of converted barracks, each with three apartments, were built across this and neighboring properties.

How did this site become a park? 
The veterans housing project was short-lived, and in 1947 a small parcel of land along Vermont Avenue was assigned to NYC Parks to build a playground. By 1953, the remaining tenants were relocated to make room for the construction of today’s Linden Houses. Two years later, local law transferred a second parcel to Parks to expand the playground. When it opened, there was play equipment, a sand pit, a spray shower, a horseshoe pitch, and a paved area for games and roller skating, which could be flooded in the winter for ice skating.

Linden Park was reconstructed in the 1980s, and fencing was added around the multipurpose area in 2000. Nearly twenty years later a series of capital projects restored the turf field and track, rebuilt the play and sitting areas, and the large asphalt multipurpose area was redesigned into a turf field, track, skate park, outdoor classrooms, and sports courts.

For years the park was simply known as J.H.S. 166 Playground after the adjacent school before it was renamed Linden Park in 1997. The eastern portion of this park closest to the school is a Jointly Operated Playground (JOP), which means it is used by the school during the day and by the public when school is not in session.

What is this park named for? 
This park is named after the bordering Linden Boulevard. Renamed three times, the thoroughfare was originally called Van Brunt Street in honor of the family whose ancestor Rutger Joesten Van Brunt immigrated to the town of New Utrecht, part of today’s Brooklyn, in 1653. In 1887, the Brooklyn Common Council changed the name of the street to Vienna Avenue, after the Austrian capital. The Common Council again changed the name of the street in 1924, designating it Lorraine Street, after the Lorraine region in eastern France. It is unclear when the street assumed its present name, Linden Boulevard, after American Linden trees that line the boulevard. Found along city streets and in parks, the American linden is known for its hardiness and ability to tolerate most soils—making it an ideal choice for New York’s parks.