Even Without Its Hall, Roy Wilkins Park
Has Something For Everyone

By Shams Tarek

Most parks in New York City are singular in purpose: to provide open space for outdoor activities.

A 53-acre park in Southeast Queens, though, is proving to be an exception to that rule.

Roy Wilkins Park, formally dedicated in 1982 after the federal government donated the land years earlier, is not just a vast open space in Jamaica, but the center of scores of indoor and outdoor activities for thousands of local residents.

And while an ambitious $10 million history project is on indefinite hold for the park, a non-profit organization charged with running Roy Wilkins Park is now working to make it as well-equipped for the community as it can be.

Roy Wilkins Park started life as a gift from the federal government.

The Department of Defense ran the St. Albans Naval Hospital on a hundred-acre plot of land where the park now exists in the 1940s; when the hospital closed in 1974, the federal government gave the land to the Veterans Administration, which now runs an extended care facility on the site.  In 1977, the VA gave 53 acres of unneeded land to the City of New York, which decided to use the land – mostly open space dotted with underground bunkers – as a park.

The land lay in limbo for several years, until it was finally dedicated at the request of then-councilman Archie Spigner as Roy Wilkins Park in 1982.

With the dedication came $3.3 million in city money to begin the development of the park, which was to be managed and maintained by the new Southern Queens Park Association (SQPA).  The SQPA, which oversees a plethora of activities, is the park’s main keeper to this day.

Another major milestone for the park came in 1986, when the city allocated $5.3 million for the transformation of the land’s 50,000-square-foot hospital building into the Roy Wilkins Family Center.

The Family Center is host to all of SQPA’s indoor activities, which cover interests that are athletic, social, educational and civic in nature.

Next to the Family Center was the former naval officers’ club and ballroom; it was converted for use as the headquarters of the Black Spectrum Theatre Company, a local performance troupe founded in 1970 that puts on plays and other acts that focus on community and race issues.

The next major addition to the park was to be a $10-million-dollar African American Hall of Fame.

But Sept. 11 and other hiccups postponed that project rather quickly.

With Spigner and former SQPA director Solomon Goodrich both pushing hard, former Borough President Claire Shulman allocated $10.2 million for the project, first conceived in 1991.

But leadership changes both at Borough Hall and the SQPA (both heads retired) combined with the recent fiscal crisis killed the funding and put the project on hold indefinitely.

The private sector had no money to give, and other elected officials couldn’t help much.

Congressman Gregory Meeks recently said he couldn’t get any federal money for the Hall of Fame, and State Senator Malcolm Smith said he wasn’t involved in the project.  State Assemblyman William Scarborough put in a request for $250,000, and had been given a “verbal promise,” he said, that was never fulfilled.

Dan Andrews, a spokesman for Helen Marshall, the current borough president, said the Hall of Fame program “is somewhat stalled.”

“It’s not on the front burner at this time,” Andrews said, “given the severity of the capital cuts.  At this point in time, it’s under review.”

With the indoor Hall of Fame on the back burner, park advocates are focusing instead on more immediate, critical needs.

The park isn’t well lit at night, parking is limited and bathrooms need expansion and repair.  The theater needs new air conditioning, and the Family Center has 6,000 square feet of undeveloped space, according to SQPA Director William Nelson, who started the job in July, right after Goodrich’s retirement.

One of the most dramatic problems at the park is on the football field.  The water drainage system needs improvement, and eroding soil exposes concrete bunkers installed when the federal government still owned the land, creating a dangerous environment for the peewee leagues that use the park.

While the commitments are much lower than anyone expected, some elected officials have pledged to come to the rescue of the park.

Borough President Helen Marshall has secured $1 million for lighting, bathroom and Family Center renovations, Nelson said.

Councilman Leroy Comrie, Spigner’s successor, has secured $1.3 million for repairing the football field, Nelson said.  Comrie has also secured $75,000 to fix the air conditioning in the gym and theater, which Nelson said “never worked” but should within the next few weeks.

Recreational activities are big draws at Roy Wilkins Park.  The 53-acre space is home to numerous teams, leagues, clubs and classes, catering to men, women and children of all ages.

Sports include organized basketball, tennis and track, including coaching and competition.  There are also baseball fields and handball courts at the park.

Athletic standouts include the Rosedale Jets Football Association, which features kids ages six to 13 including a cheerleading squad, as well as the Youth and Tennis league.

Other physical activities include aerobic, dance and martial arts instruction.  A staff of coaches supervise table tennis and chess games, and the Family Center features an Olympic-size pool equipped to handle the disabled.

There’s also professional music instruction for piano, bass, drums and reeds.

Roy Wilkins Park is not only a nexus for athletics and games, but for cultural events, too.

The park has played host to some of Southeast Queens’ biggest Kwanzaa and African American History Month events.  But those are only occasional; the Black Spectrum Theatre is a year-round cultural presence.

Founded in 1970, the Theatre hosts plays, films and videos “examining issues of concern to the African-American community, particularly African-American youth” for 25,000 people every year, according to a press kit.

Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, considered the first couple of the black stage, are regulars at Black Spectrum productions.

When the company isn’t performing in its Roy Wilkins Park theater, it’s on the road all over Southeast Queens with its “Queens Theatre on Wheels Mobile Stage and Repertory Company.”

Featuring a 32 by 24 foot stage five feet off the floor, a 30-piece lighting system and full concert sound, the Theatre on Wheels always draws big crowds.

Educational activities also abound at Roy Wilkins Park.

Programs for young children include after-school tutoring and homework help, fourth and eighth grade state exam preparation classes and basic computer classes.

An “Alternative to Detention” program, run by the Department of Probations, provides “a community-based parole option” for kids ages 10 to 17, featuring educational coursework, counseling and job preparation and life skills workshops.

Older students, up to any age, can take computer classes or attend a paid “Networking Academy” that teaches people how to use the ubiquitous Cisco computer network hardware.  They can also get their GED and take parent leadership courses that help them with the act of parenting.

Parks are naturally good places to learn about and help the environment.  Roy Wilkins is no exception.

A four-acre vegetable garden that’s popular with kids yields crops with a market value of about $100,000 every season.  A separate garden just for senior citizens was started in 1989.

The park is also host to programs in which kids learn about local foliage and wildlife.