This location of Dwyer Square or Gosman-Bragaw Farm Park is near an Indian
Trail (Woodside Avenue) that was the main road from western Queens to
the Village of Newtown. It ran along a tongue of dry land between the
swamps of "Long Trains Meadow" (towards Jackson Heights),'Wolf
Swamp' (towards Maspeth) and 'Burger's Sluice' (along Northern Boulevard.)
This strategic point was garrisoned by Hessians during the Revolution.
The slight hump in the terrain at 51st Street was once a beaver dam.
Isaac Bragaw, a descendant of one of the earliest French Huguenots in
New Amsterdam,purchased this land in 1713. During the early decades of
the nineteenth century, William Gosman purchased the farm. He surveyed
and laid out streets after 1875.
Northern Boulevard, was once called Jackson Avenue, and originally the
’Hunters Point, Newtown and Flushing Turnpike.’ It was named
for Turnpike President John C.Jackson, whose leadership and effort road
made the road possible. This important road ran six miles in a straight
line from Flushing to his home at 51st Street and Newtown Road thence
following the headwaters of Dutch Kills to Vernon Avenue in Hunters Point.
This great highway, destined to become the most important in Queens,
cost $40,000 and opened on July 13, 1860. It had milestones, gravel roadbed,
and maintained a tiny tollhouse and gate that collected tolls of 9 cents
for carriages. Foot traffic was free.
On September 3, 1859, the Long Island Rail Road formed the ‘New
York and Jamaica Railroad Company’ to build a line between Jamaica
Junction to Hunters Point, and thereby gaining direct access to Manhattan
via the 34th Street Ferry. Passenger and freight service began on May,
1861.
Rainey Park, at foot of 34th Avenue (formerly Pierce Avenue) was to be
the original anchorage for the Queensborough Bridge. 34th Avenue was to
be the grand boulevard leading from the bridge out to Long Island.
About 1900, much of the area near the rail line was under water. It was
called Purdy’s Pond.
Near the rail trestle on 48th Street, stood Madison Square Garden Bowl,
a wooden sports arena. World Championship boxing bouts were decided here
in the 1930s and 1940s. Max Schmelling, Jack Sharkey, James Braddock and
Max Baer all fought here.
Between 1944 and 1962, the site contained the Army Postal Concentration
Center, a massive 22-acre building with 650,000 sq ft. Nearly 10,000 civilians
and 1,500 military personnel worked around the clock to deliver mail to
service people around the world. It handled 500,000 packages a day. The
facility cost $ 3.5 million.
