Kissena Creek

Kissena Creek, also known historically as Mill Creek, is a buried stream located in the neighborhood of Flushing in the New York City borough of Queens. Most of it flows beneath Kissena Park, Kissena Corridor Park, Queens Botanical Garden, and Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, where it merges with Flushing Creek. It originated in Hillcrest.^[1]

Headwaters

The headwaters of Kissena Creek were in a marsh located in the present-day neighborhood of Kew Gardens Hills.^[2] In the late 19th century, it served as a source for peat, a fossil fuel related to coal that forms from decayed plant matter. As Kew Gardens Hills gradually developed, the swamp shrunk in size with the street grid resting on top of it. The last holdout was a 23-acre parcel where the Opal Apartments and Lander College for Men now stand.

Fresh Meadows

Leaving the swamp, Kissena Creek flowed in a northeasterly direction through Fresh Meadows towards Utopia Parkway. One reminder of the stream's presence is the two-block Aguilar Avenue, a colonial-period curved path that detoured around the swamp. At Utopia Parkway, the stream was joined by a tributary flowing north from the present-day site of Utopia Playground, which had a kettle pond until 1941.^[3] The pond was located at the junction of Fresh Meadow Lane and 73rd Avenue, which was known as Black Stump Road. The ancient name is a reminder of a time when local property owners marked their boundaries with burned out remains of tree stumps.

Kissena Park

Kissena Pond

Located at the northwestern corner of Kissena Park, Kissena Lake was once fed by the creek and a smaller stream from the north that has since been buried with a playground built on top. In its center is a bird sanctuary isle constructed following the lake’s most recent restoration in 2003. The lake was used as an ice skating and ice harvesting site for much of the 19th century. Its use as a recreational site led the city to purchase land around it for a park in 1906.^[4]

In 1942, the Works Progress Administration drained the lake, cutting it off from natural sources and redesigned it as a “bathtub lake,” with a concrete shoreline and water piped in from the city’s aqueduct. Lacking natural aeration and warmed by its shallower depth and concrete shoreline, the lake suffered a buildup of algae, with a second draining in 1983 to clear away the invasive growth. In 2002, a $1.8 million restoration drained the lake in stages, resulting in its current appearance. At certain locations, a naturalistic shoreline was built, along with an isle in the middle and new sources of water coming in from wells and pipes.

Kissena Corridor Park

This section of the stream was buried in 1954 using soil from excavations for the nearby Long Island Expressway. Prior to the filling work, the stream was still visible in this area and occasionally caused flooding for surrounding homes in the Queensboro Hill neighborhood.

Queens Botanical Garden

Prior to 1963, the Queens Botanical Garden section of the stream was an undeveloped lot zoned as parkland. That year, the Queens Botanical Garden was moved to this location within the Kissena Corridor after being displaced from its original location in Flushing Meadows by the extension of Van Wyck Expressway.

In the QBG's 2001 Master Plan, a self-sustaining ecosystem was envisioned within the 39-acre parcel. A stream would form from rainwater collected atop the roof of its administration building, flowing through pools towards a wetland at the garden’s western edge. Runoff collected in the garden’s parking lot and other locations would also contribute to the stream. Part of this proposed stream follows the path of Kissena Creek.

From the Queens Botanical Garden, Kissena Creek flowed into Flushing Meadows, merging with Flushing Creek near the site of the present-day Fountain of the Planets. Flushing Creek is a tributary of East River, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean.

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