Flushing MeadowsòÀÓCorona Park (Referred to as Flushing Meadows Park, or simply Flushing Meadows), is a public park in Queens, New York. It contains the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, the current venue for the U.S. Open tennis tournament; Citi Field, the home of the New York Mets baseball team; the New York Hall of Science, the Queens Museum of Art, the Queens Theatre in the Park, the Queens Zoo, and the New York State Pavilion.
The park was created from the former dumping ground, which was characterized as “a valley of ashes” in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. The site, known at the time as the Corona Ash Dumps, which was cleared by Parks Commissioner Robert Moses in preparation for the 1939-1940 World’s Fair. The original name for the new parkland was “Flushing Meadow Park.” In early 1964, the New York City Council added “Corona” to the park’s name, so that the park was named “Flushing Meadows-Corona Park”, in preparation for the World’s Fair.
When: every second Sunday of the month, weather permitting.
Where: In front of the ‘Rocket Thrower’ statue on Astronaut Court in the Park.
2016 Observing Dates
(11:00 am – 1:00 pm)
May 15
Jun 12
Jul 10
Aug 14
Sep 11
Oct 9
Nov 13
Getting to Flushing Meadows-Corona Park
CAR: Grand Central Pkwy, Whitestone Expwy bet. 111 St. and College Point Blvd, Park Drive E.
TRAIN: Take the Main Street-bound 7 train to 111th Street. Walk down 111th, past the New York Hall of Science.
For further instructions, visit the NYC Parks Department website: http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/flushing-meadows-corona-park/