New Deal Construction

During the 1930s, workers manufactured sweeping landscapes using heavy machinery and people power to create Crocheron Park today. The Tennis Court Comfort Station and Gazebos are brick structures that remain, with the Comfort Station having its original slate roof. 

The creation of the park took decades of advocacy from residents, which began soon after the Crocheron House burned down in 1908. In 1923, newspaper headlines read "Ancient Tweed 'Refugee' to be Sold" continued that Charles U. Powell, chief engineer in charge of Queens Topographical Bureau, had prepared a map of the proposed park and that extended to neighboring estates. 

 Work was funded from the Works Progress Administration (WPA), it was one of hundreds of development projects that Robert Moses oversaw for New York during his tenure. While the community had been using the land as a park for decades, the construction greatly expanded the community's use of the park, providing paths, comfort station, recreation fields, and improved vehicle access to the shoreline with the Alley Pond Connector (now Cross Island Parkway).