Thomas J. Campanella, NYC Parks’ Historian in Residence and author of Brooklyn, The Once and Future City, returned to his hometown roots to talk about the history of Marine Park on Saturday, July 13th, at the Salt Marsh Nature Center, 3301 Avenue U.
The well-attended event, sponsored by the Salt Marsh Alliance (SMA), was one of over 35 activities on the 7th Annual Jamaica Bay Festival “City of Water Day” events calendar. Hosted by the Jamaica Bay-Rockaway Parks Conservancy, the Festival offered participants a chance to engage in a diverse array of recreational and educational activities while celebrating the natural beauty of Jamaica Bay.
SMA board member Debra Sturm introduced the program, which was a treat for many of the area residents there who wanted to learn more about their neighborhood from a native denizen who travels between Marine Park and Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, where he is an associate professor and director of undergraduate studies in the Department of City and Regional Planning.
“I grew up, literally, two blocks down East 33rd Street,” Campanella said. “This was our playground here back when they had carcasses of abandoned vehicles in the water looking like river rats.”
He spoke fondly of his childhood memories, which contributed to his interest in finding out more about his old neighborhood. It was easy to see his passion for the topic as he began the tale of the history and transformation of Marine Park beginning from the Ice Age when glacial outwash created Long Island, the “butt end” of which was Brooklyn.
From there was the story of the early Leni Lenape Indians whose wampum attracted the early Dutch settlers and drove the beaver industry; agricultural development supported by chattel slavery; Gerritsen Inlet aka Gerritsen Creek, on whose shores once stood the Gerritsen tide mill whose remnants can still be seen today behind the Salt Marsh Nature Center at low tide; and booming immigration that inspired numerous grandiose plans to develop the area by rich and powerful men to meet the needs of a burgeoning working class population.
There were numerous competing philanthropists, city planners and developers that emerged during the 1920s and 30s with plans, each one bigger than the next, including Charles Downing Lay, a landscape architect who drafted the initial and grandest design of Marine Park, but it was Robert Moses, the first citywide parks commissioner, who in the 1930s, quashed plans to turn Jamaica Bay, including the Marine Park Salt Marsh, into a vast industrial seaport and park complex and keep it in its natural state.
Campanella narrated his compelling tale with photographs depicting a kaleidoscope of historical markers impacting the area that captivated the audience’s imagination and prompted many comments and questions after the presentation, which led to a lively discussion.
SMA board member Bob Kaplan mentioned Superstorm Sandy, the last big storm that hit over a decade ago and the impact it had on the area.
“Those of you who live in this neighborhood, again, we can thank Robert Moses for not having flooded basements because this landscape here absorbed and held an enormous amount of surge water,” Campanella said. “Had that park been built with all that hardscape, this whole area would have been underwater.”
Many leaving the event spoke about how much they enjoyed the presentation. Flatlands resident and former SMA member Barbara Becker, who met Campanella previously and purchased his book, said that she found that he had a passion for Brooklyn history and you could see it in the book.
“He’s quite down to earth,” she said. “He’s knowledgeable and he’s accepting to other people’s input, and the fact that he lived up by Cornell and yet he stays here still and comes back and forth is quite impressive.”
I was there and it is an accurate article with the higlights and a conversational style that flows.