Cunningham Park is a park in the

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle ...

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

. The park lies between the

Grand Central Parkway The Grand Central Parkway (GCP) is a 14.61-mile (23.51 km) long parkway that stretches from the Triborough Bridge in New York City to Nassau County on Long Island. At the Queens–Nassau border, it becomes the Northern State Parkway, ...

to the south and the

Long Island Expressway Long may refer to: Measurement * Long, characteristic of something of great duration * Long, characteristic of something of great length * Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate * Longa (music), note value in early music mens ...

, and is bifurcated by the

Clearview Expressway Clearview or clear view may refer to: Entertainment * ''Clearview'' (album), the seventh studio album by the Finnish rock band Poets of the Fall Companies * Clearview AI, a facial recognition company * Clearview Cinemas Clearview Cinemas w ...

. The park is operated by the

New York City Department of Parks and Recreation The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, also called the Parks Department or NYC Parks, is the department of the government of New York City responsible for maintaining the city's parks system, preserving and maintaining the ecolo ...

History

New York City acquired land to build a park, named Hillside Park, in 1928. Major W. Arthur Cunningham served in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

as a member of the 165 Infantry of the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

. A resident of Forest Hills, Major Cunningham successfully ran as a Republican for the position of controller of New York City in 1933. After being sworn into office, Cunningham found that the city was deeply in debt and had insufficient funds to repay its debts. Cunningham also found that the city had been far behind in collecting property taxes from landowners. Cunningham said that the city must collect the delinquent property taxes, and that the property tax rate would likely need to be increased in order for the city to stay afloat. Cunningham disclosed all the financial troubles of the city in order to better inform the public. Cunningham died of a heart attack while riding a horse in Asharoken, Long Island. He was 39 years old. His body was buried in Calvary Cemetery near

Long Island City Long Island City (LIC) is a residential and commercial neighborhood on the extreme western tip of Queens, a borough in New York City. It is bordered by Astoria to the north; the East River to the west; New Calvary Cemetery in Sunnyside to th ...

. Queens Borough President George U. Harvey considered Cunningham a dear friend of his, and he thought that Cunningham's untimely death was caused in part by his worries about the city's problems. In 1935, the Board of Aldermen voted in favor of renaming Hillside Park in honor of Cunningham. In June 1936, a memorial to Cunningham was erected in park in the following month. The memorial was a flagpole set in bronze with an inscribed stone base. Major Cunningham's seven-year-old son, John Arthur Cunningham, unveiled the plaque at a ceremony.Cunningham Park: History
. ''

''. Retrieved June 6, 2018. In 1940, New York City bought a piece of land in order to connect discontinuous segments of

Francis Lewis Boulevard Francis Lewis Boulevard is a boulevard in the New York City borough of Queens. The roadway is named for Francis Lewis, a Queens resident who was a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence. The boulevard zigzags across Queens by in ...

and to expand Cunningham Park. A granite and bronze memorial to Major Cunningham was created by sculptor

Emil Siebern Emil Siebern (1888 – 1942) was an American sculptor. He was born in New York City, one of six children – five brothers and one sister – of immigrant German parents and studied art at Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art i ...

and installed next to the Cunningham memorial flagpole in 1942.

Bike trails

The

Long Island Motor Parkway The Long Island Motor Parkway, also known as the Vanderbilt Parkway, Vanderbilt Motor Parkway, or Motor Parkway, was a roadway on Long Island, New York, in the United States. It was the first roadway designed for automobile use only. The parkway ...

provides a bike path through Cunningham Park, west to

Kissena Park Kissena Park is a park located in the neighborhood of Flushing in Queens, New York City. It is located along the subterranean Kissena Creek, which flows into the Flushing River. It is bordered on the west by Kissena Boulevard; on the north by ...

and east to Alley Pond Park, part of the Brooklyn-Queens Greenway. Mountain biking trails run throughout northern areas of the park which include two major sections connected by an overpass that runs across the

. Trails are signed by level and range from beginner to expert.

References

External links

Cunningham Park

Partnership for Parks: Cunningham Park
{{Protected areas of New York City Parks in Queens, New York Urban public parks Bayside, Queens Fresh Meadows, Queens