Fort Tilden: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Gateway National Recreation Area

Layton, Tim; Killion, Jeff

Situated along the south shore of western Long Island, Fort Tilden is a historic Army base commissioned in 1917 as part of the harbor defenses of New York, and transferred in 1974 to the National Park Service (NPS) as part of the Jamaica Bay Unit of Gateway National Recreation Area (NRA). Gateway NRA, which encompasses numerous former military and city park lands in lower New York Harbor and adjoining coastal areas, was established by Congress in 1972 along with Golden Gate National Recreation Area in San Francisco, as the first park systems specifically intended for urban recreation. The primary purpose of Gateway NRA is to “preserve and protect for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations an area possessing outstanding natural and recreational features.” Fort Tilden is located within the New York City borough of Queens, approximately six miles east of the mouth of New York Harbor, and on the eastern end of the narrow Rockaway Peninsula barrier beach framed by the great expanse of the Atlantic Ocean. The property includes a fortification area with defensive works, and a post and wharf (Quartermaster) area with support facilities such as barracks, warehouses, drill grounds, and a parade ground (see Site Plans at the end of the report). Today, Fort Tilden illustrates changes in management that, over the course of four decades, have altered and concealed its historic military character. From a largely open landscape with inconspicuous military works and a dense cluster of support buildings, the landscape today has evolved to a natural maritime woodland and recreational area that retain many traces of Fort Tilden’s historic strategic role in the New York harbor defenses. The landscape of Fort Tilden consists of three landscape character areas, which reflect the historic use and development of the property, as well as current park operations. These areas—the fortification, post, and wharf areas—are consistent in large part with the organization used in previous planning efforts, which identified the fortification area as “Fort Tilden/West” and the post and wharf areas as “Fort Tilden/East.” Within and separate from the park landscape is a U.S. Army Reserve Center on Rockaway Beach Boulevard, at the northeast portion of the fortification area. It is comprised of a 1950s-era group of buildings on approximately eight acres retained by the military after the park was created in 1974. It is the only remaining active military use within the original limits of Fort Tilden, and presently houses the 449th Maintenance Company.

Fort Tilden: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Gateway National Recreation Area

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