Peter Chahales Park

The site was built in conjunction with the Queens-Midtown Expressway, now the Long Island Expressway; the City acquired the property in 1953 and assigned jurisdiction to Parks in 1957, and renovations were completed in June 2001. Its sign remembers the horse cars that once ran through the streets here: in August 1860 the Grand Street and Newtown Railroad laid down a double-track railroad, and that October the Grand Street line opened along the old stagecoach line to Calvary Cemetery, charging three cents per ride. By the end of 1884 horse cars were carrying an average of 7,668 passengers daily in Queens and Brooklyn. NYC Parks says the Maspeth Depot, built in 1885, was a few blocks from this parkland; Wikipedia instead says the park is the site of a former horse cart barn at Brown Place.