Historic Structure Report, Historical Data: Jacob Riis Park Historic District
Unrau HD. 1981. Historic Structure Report, Historical Data: Jacob Riis Park Historic District. Historic Structure Report. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Denver Service Center, Denver, Colorado
Jacob Riis Park, located near the western end of the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens County, New York, is historically significant as a relatively unaltered example of a publicly-planned and designed municipal bathing beach in the 1930s. Named after Jacob A. Riis, a journalist and social reformer who did much to alleviate the plight of the New York City slums, the park was established to provide an inner-city beach and other non-commercial recreational facilities for the residents of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. Fully developed by June, 1937, the park was formally laid out with playing fields and recreational courts, an 18-hole "pitch 'n putt" golf course, a large mall and concession area, the largest paved parking facility in the world to date, a boardwalk and promenade that stretched for almost a mile along the beach, and a large bathing pavilion. The bath house is the most important historic structure in the park and is an excellent example of beachfront recreational architecture of the early twentieth century. The purpose of this study has been an effort to provide a thorough historic study of the Jacob Riis Park Historic District to insure that the stabilization/preservation treatment of these structures and sites is historically accurate.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Unrau, Harlan
- Date of Issue
- 1981-04
- Publisher
- Department of the Interior, National Park Service
- Units
- GATE , NER
- Keywords
- Architecture, bath house, bathing beach, Cultural, golf course, Historic Resources, Historic Sites, Historical, History, Jacob Riis, Jacob Riis Park, reacreation, Structures
- Subjects
- CRIS-HS: 040970: Jacob Riis Park - Back Beach Walkways , CRIS-HS: 008424: Jacob Riis Park - Ball Field Electrical Building , CRIS-HS: 040983: Jacob Riis Park - Bathhouse - Beach Pavilion , CRIS-HS: 040984: Jacob Riis Park - Bathhouse - Cabana Showers , CRIS-HS: 040985: Jacob Riis Park - Bathhouse - East Wing Pavilion , CRIS-HS: 008425: Jacob Riis Park - Bathhouse - Entrance Pavilion , CRIS-HS: 040986: Jacob Riis Park - Bathhouse - West Wing Pavilion , CRIS-HS: 040972: Jacob Riis Park - Bathhouse Walkways , CRIS-HS: 040973: Jacob Riis Park - Boardwalk , CRIS-HS: 008421: Jacob Riis Park - Boiler Room , CRIS-HS: 008423: Jacob Riis Park - East Mall Building , CRIS-HS: 008416: Jacob Riis Park - Garage , CRIS-HS: 008422: Jacob Riis Park - Golf Course Concession , CRIS-HS: 040975: Jacob Riis Park - Mall Walkway , CRIS-HS: 008417: Jacob Riis Park - Park Police Stables , CRIS-HS: 040976: Jacob Riis Park - Parking Lot , CRIS-HS: 040989: Jacob Riis Park - Pedestrian Subway , CRIS-HS: 040977: Jacob Riis Park - Promenade , CRIS-HS: 040987: Jacob Riis Park - Pump House , CRIS-HS: 008420: Jacob Riis Park - West Mall Building