This interactive map explores the individuals whose names grace public spaces across the borough of Queens.
I.S. 227 Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong (1901-1971) is widely regarded as one of the most innovative and influential figures in jazz, known for both his trumpet improvisations and his distinctive singing voice. He also broke down numerous racial divides in the music and entertainment worlds, becoming the first Black performer to get featured billing in a major Hollywood film ("Pennies From Heaven," 1936) and the first Black host of a national radio show (Fleischmann's Yeast Show, 1937).
Born in New Orleans in 1901, Armstrong grew up impoverished in a racially segregated city. He dropped out of school in fifth grade to work, and developed a close relationship with a local Jewish family that gave him odd jobs and nurtured his love of music. By the age of 11, Armstrong wound up in the Colored Waif’s Home for Boys, where he joined the band and studied the cornet in earnest. Upon his release from the home in 1914, he began working as a musician on Mississippi riverboats and other local venues. His reputation skyrocketed, and by the early 1920s he moved north, performing and recording with jazz bands in Chicago and New York.
Throughout the 1920s and '30s, Armstrong made dozens of records with his own and many other ensembles, toured extensively, and began performing in Broadway productions and movies. After some business and health setbacks, and in response to changing musical tastes, Armstrong scaled his group down to a six-piece combo in the 1940s and resumed touring internationally, recording albums and appearing in movies. Some of his biggest popular hits came in the later years of his career, including "Hello Dolly" (1964) and "What A Wonderful World" (1967). His grueling schedule took its toll on his heart and kidneys and in 1968 he was forced to take time off to recuperate, but he began performing again in 1970. Armstrong died in his sleep in July 1971, just a few months after his final engagement at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York.
Armstrong and his fourth wife, Lucille Wilson, purchased their home in Corona in 1943, shortly after they were married, and lived there for the remainder of their lives. I.S. 227, a public middle school serving grades 5 through 8, is located approximately one mile from their home, which is now the Louis Armstrong House Museum, offering public tours, concerts and educational programs.
Captain Dermody Triangle
Captain William Chrysostom Dermody was a dedicated and outspoken abolitionist who was killed in the Civil War. He was born in Nova Scotia, Canada, in 1830 but came to New York with his family as a young child. He volunteered with the 67th New York Infantry and served in Company K, the first regiment of Long Island volunteers. The backbone of the regiment was formed by members of Henry Ward Beecher’s Abolitionist Plymouth Church Congregation in Brooklyn Heights. It was organized in Brooklyn on June 24, 1861, and the soldiers left for Washington, D.C., on August 21, 1861. The regiment fought in many battles throughout the war, including the Battle of Spotsylvania.
The Battle of Spotsylvania took place in Fredricksburg, Virginia, from May 8 to 21 in 1864. A numerically superior Union force met with a smaller but vigorous Confederate force anxious to avenge their previous losses at Gettysburg. During the two weeks of the battle, a total of 152,000 men fought (100,000 Union soldiers and 52,000 Confederate) and 30,000 lives were lost. During May 12 and 13 in particular, Gen. Ulysses Grant managed to capture nearly an entire division of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s army and came close to cutting the Confederate army in half. It was at this point that Dermody lost his life, being mortally wounded on May 12 and dying the following day. His remains were buried on the battlefield at the time. In 1865, the Fredericksburg National Cemetery was established to reinter and memorialize the almost 20,000 soldiers who died there. A marker for Dermody can be found in the cemetery. His parents, Patrick and Lavinia Boyd Dermody, are buried in Flushing's Mount St. Mary Cemetery.
The plot of land located on 216th Street and 48th Avenue had been the site of the local two-room schoolhouse. In 1866, the site was dedicated to the memory of Captain Dermody by a ceremonial meeting of a Union and Confederate veteran, each planting a special tree: a maple to represent the North and a sycamore to represent the South. The trees were to grow together as a symbol of the communal hope for a better union. A monument was placed in the square with the inscription, “For a Better Union 1861-1865”; it remains there today. Every Memorial Day, the Bayside Historical Society lays a wreath at the park to commemorate Captain Dermody and those who fought in the Civil War.
The Board of Aldermen (predecessor of the City Council) officially named this property for Captain William C. Dermody on March 15, 1937. The name was changed simply to Captain Dermody Triangle on July 29, 1997, by an executive decree from Commissioner Henry J. Stern. A low stone wall bounds the triangle.
Saul Weprin Street
Saul Weprin (1927 - 1994) was an American attorney and politician. He was a member of the New York State Assembly and served as its Speaker from December 1991 until his death in 1994.
Weprin was born to Jewish immigrants in Brooklyn and graduated from Brooklyn Law School in 1951, in the late 1950’s he became president of his co-op apartment board in Hollis, Queens, and in 1962 he became Democratic leader of the 24th Assembly District. In 1971, Weprin won in a run for the New York State Assembly and was re-elected many times remaining in the Assembly until he died in 1994. Weprin was an opponent of the death penalty and a supporter of abortion rights. He pushed the first gay rights bill through the Assembly, sought to increase state aid for schools in New York, and defended the state's Medicaid and welfare programs against cuts proposed by the Republican-controlled Senate.
Albert Shanker School for Visual & Performing Arts
Joseph P. Addabbo Memorial Bridge
In the course of his 25 years in politics, Joseph Addabbo (1925-1986) won much respect from his colleagues, constituents and community for his ability to be just, compassionate and effective. A lifelong resident of Ozone Park, he was educated at City College and St. John’s University, where he received his law degree in 1946. Addabbo began his career as a lawyer.
First elected to represent the 6th District in Queens in 1960, Addabbo, a Democrat, was re-elected to Congress 12 times. He supported legislation to benefit the elderly, education, small businesses, veterans benefits, and appropriation of funds for economically depressed areas. As Chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense (1979-1986), Addabbo played a powerful role in both shaping and challenging national defense policy. He worked to curb defense spending, sponsored legislation to halt the Vietnam War, and advocated a nuclear freeze while at the same time bolstering defense contracts for New York. Addabbo served in Congress until he died on April 10, 1986.
J.H.S. 067 Louis Pasteur Middle School
Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) was a French chemist and microbiologist, best known for his invention of the pasteurization process. He attended the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, earning a master's degree in science and an advanced degree in physical sciences before going on to earn his doctorate. He later married Marie Laurent and they had five children together, but only two survived until adulthood.
Throughout his career, Pasteur was an important figure in researching molecular asymmetry, and his works in fermentation supported the germ theory of disease. By 1863, Pasteur had developed the process which bears his name, reducing the amount of microorganisms in milk and other liquids. He also contributed to the principle of vaccination and successfully immunized a patient from rabies in 1885. In 1888, the Pasteur Institute was named for him in Paris. 
P.S. 26 Rufus King
Rufus King (1755-1827) was a distinguished lawyer, statesman and gentleman farmer. The son of a wealthy lumber merchant from Maine, King graduated from Harvard in 1777, served in the Revolutionary War in 1778, and was admitted to the bar in Massachusetts in 1780. He was a member of the Confederation Congress from 1784 to 1787, where he introduced a plan that prevented the spread of slavery into the Northwest Territories. King was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1787, and made his most famous contribution to American history as a framer and signer of the U.S. Constitution.
After his marriage to Mary Alsop in 1786, King relocated to New York and was appointed to the first U.S. Senate, serving from 1789 to 1796 and again from 1813 to 1825. An outspoken opponent of slavery, he led the Senate debates in 1819 and 1820 against the admission of Missouri as a slave state. King served as Minister Plenipotentiary to Great Britain from 1796 to 1803 and again from 1825 to 1826. In 1816 he was the last Federalist to run for the presidency, losing the election to James Monroe.
In 1805, King purchased land and a farmhouse in Jamaica; this house is now the King Manor Museum, a New York City landmark. It is located approximately 4.5 miles from P.S. 26, a public elementary school serving grades pre-K through 5.
Rathaus Hall
Rathaus Hall on the campus of Queens College, 2022.
Murray Fox Way
Murray Fox (1927-2015) served in the United States Navy and later was a long-time Sunnyside resident who was active in the Kiwanis Club of Sunnyside for over 20 years serving as president for a number of those years. He also served as the Kiwanis Club Lt. Governor of the Queens West Division. He also operated Fox’s Variety Store on the north side of Greenpoint Avenue and was very involved with charitable events throughout the community.
Women's History Spotlight On: Activists and Organizers
In March, we celebrate Women's History Month by spotlighting the many female-identifying activists and organizers honored in the borough of Queens with place names.
Robert F. Kennedy Bridge
More info coming soon. If you have information about a named place currently missing from our map, please click on "Add/Edit" and fill out the form. This will help us fill in the blanks and complete the map!
Rabbi Ben Zion Bokser Square
Rabbi Ben Zion Bokser (1907 - 1984) was a leading figure in Conservative Judaism, a scholar, and the spiritual leader of the Forest Hills Jewish Center in Queens for 50 years.
Rabbi Bokser was born in Liuboml, which was then a part of Poland, and emigrated to the United States at the age of 13 in 1920. He attended City College of New York, the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and received his PhD in 1935 from Columbia University. He taught for many years as an adjunct professor of political science at Queens College, City University of New York. Bokser served as the rabbi of Forest Hills Jewish Center starting in 1933 and remained in that position for more than fifty years. He served for a two-year period as a United States Army chaplain during World War II and organized aid for Jewish soldiers.
Bokser was an advocate for social justice and took a position in favor of the construction of a housing project for the poor during the Forest Hills housing controversy of 1966-1972. He fought against the death penalty in New York state.
He served as a program editor for the Eternal Light, the Jewish Theological Seminary's radio program, was a professor of homiletics at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and participated in the Conference on Science, Philosophy and Religion and the Institute for Religious and Social Studies, both seminary-run programs. He was chair of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly from 1959–1960, 1963–1965, and 1980-1984. Among the books he wrote were ''Judaism and the Christian Predicament,'' a study of Jewish-Christian relations; ''Judaism: Profile of a Faith'' and ''Jews, Judaism and the State of Israel.''
Phil "Scooter" Rizzuto Park
Phil “Scooter” Rizzuto (1917-2007) was born in Brooklyn to Italian parents but moved with his family to Glendale, Queens, in his youth. He played baseball at P.S. 68 in Glendale and Richmond Hill High School, which he left before graduating to play in the major leagues. Although disregarded by some local teams because of his height (5’ 6”), he convinced the New York Yankees to sign him in 1937.
After proving himself in the minor leagues, Rizzuto played shortstop for the Yankees starting in 1941 and, after serving in the Navy from 1943 to 1945, played the remainder of his career with the team from 1946 to 1956. His superb defense and offensive contributions helped the team win 10 American League pennants and eight World Series during his 13 years with the club.
After finishing second in MVP voting in 1949, he followed with a career year in 1950 in which he achieved career highs in multiple categories, including hits (200), batting average (.324), on-base percentage (.418) and runs (125), while winning the AL MVP Award. As a shortstop, he led all AL shortstops in double plays three times, putouts twice and assists once. By the time he retired in 1956, he left the game with a batting average of .273, 1,588 hits, 149 stolen bases, 38 home runs, 563 RBI and five All-Star Game selections.
Rizzuto was hired quickly afterward by the Yankees as a broadcaster in 1957 and would announce for the team for 40 years, retiring in 1996. He was beloved by new generations of fans who adored his style – his “Holy Cow!” signature line is recognizable to this day.
The Yankees retired Rizzuto's uniform number 10 in 1985 and placed a plaque in his honor in their stadium's Monument Park. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1994, recognizing his career of more than 50 years in the game.
Phil "Scooter" Rizzuto Park opened in 1938 as Smokey Oval Park, a reference to the Long Island Railroad terminus, which was a landing area of soot and ash from the railway smoke. The park was renamed in 2008 to honor Rizzuto.
Ella Fitzgerald Playground
More info coming soon. If you have information about a named place currently missing from our map, please click on "Add/Edit" and fill out the form. This will help us fill in the blanks and complete the map!
RUN-DMC JMJ Way
Jason Mizell (1965-2002) who went by the stage name Jam Master Jay, was born in Brooklyn, NY, on January 21, 1965. As a child, he was musically inclined, picking up the drumsticks and learning to play bass. As a teen Mizell’s family moved to Hollis, Queens. From this neighborhood he began to change the music industry.
He teamed with Joseph Simmons (stage name Run) and Darryl McDaniels (stage name DMC) to form the group Run-DMC in the early 1980s. Known as pioneers of rap, the group helped bring hip hop to the mainstream and were the first rap artists to broadcast on MTV. Run-DMC were the first rappers to have a gold album (Run-D.M.C., 1984), as well as the first to go platinum (Raising Hell, 1986) and multiplatinum (Raising Hell, 1987).
Aside from Run-DMC, in 1989, Mizell launched JMJ Records, a successful record label that signed famous artists like 50 Cent and Onyx. Additionally, he starred in films such as Die Hard (1988), The Bounty Hunter (2010), and Friday Night Lights (2004). Mizell was murdered in his recording studio in Jamaica, Queens, on October 30, 2002. Although the case lay unsolved for many years, in February 2024, Karl Jordan Jr. and Ronald Washington were convicted of his murder.
The sign at the corner of 205th Street and Hollis Avenue honors Jam Master Jay in his former neighborhood of Hollis. A nearby mural created by Art1airbrush reinforces Run-DMC’s ties to the neighborhood.
P.S. 015 Jackie Robinson
Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson (1919-1972) will forever be remembered and honored as the first Black player in Major League Baseball. Born in Georgia, he was raised by a single mother along with his four siblings. His early success as a student athlete led him to UCLA, where he became the first athlete to win varsity letters in four sports (baseball, football. basketball and track).
After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, he played for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues in 1944 and was selected by Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey as a player who could start the integration of the white major leagues. Robinson was recognized not only for his baseball talents, but because he was thought to have had the right demeanor for the challenges he would ultimately face.
Robinson made his National League debut on April 15, 1947, as Brooklyn's first baseman. In spite of the abuse of the crowds and some fellow baseball players, he endured and succeeded in the sport. He won the Rookie of the Year Award that year. Two years later, he was named the National League MVP, when he led the league with a .342 batting average, 37 steals and 124 RBI. A few select players, like Dodgers’ shortstop Pee Wee Reese, were particularly supportive of Robinson in spite of the taunting and jeers and helped him excel. In Robinson’s 10 seasons with the Dodgers, the team won six pennants and ultimately captured the 1955 World Series title.
Robinson’s struggles and achievements paved the way for Black players in baseball and other sports. When he retired after the 1956 season, he left the game with a .313 batting average, 972 runs scored, 1,563 hits and 200 stolen bases. After baseball, Robinson operated a chain of restaurants and coffee shops but continued to advocate for social change, serving on the board of the NAACP. He died of a heart attack in 1972.
Robinson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame as its first Black player in 1962. On April 15, 1997, 50 years after his major league debut, his uniform number 42 was retired from all teams of Major League Baseball, a unique honor to this day. Ten years later in 2007, April 15 was declared to be Jackie Robinson Day. In Robinson's honor, all major league players, coaches and managers wear the number 42 on that day.
Max Rosner Way
Max Rosner (1876 – 1953), aka “Uncle Max,” was an important figure in baseball history as an owner of the Minor League baseball field Dexter Park – the birthplace of night baseball – and a Woodhaven resident.
Rosner arrived in the United States from Hungary in 1892 and eventually opened a cigar shop on Jamaica Avenue and Forest Parkway in Woodhaven. He became enamored with baseball and even played shortstop for a while before becoming a manager. In 1922, Rosner partnered with Nat Strong, and they became co-owners of the semi-pro team the Bushwicks, and together they bought Dexter Park for $200,000. They immediately announced plans to build a grandstand and wooden bleachers that would accommodate an additional 5,000 spectators. Max Rosner’s son Herman was an electrical engineer, and he set up the electric lights that were used for the first night baseball games.
Dexter Park was also the home field for the Brooklyn Royal Giants, one of the top teams in the Negro Leagues. The Bushwicks played other local semi-pro teams but much of the time they played against the famous Negro League teams of that time, including the Homestead Grays and the Black Yankees. Some of the most famous African American players of the time came to Woodhaven to show off their skills, with Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige and Jackie Robinson (all future Hall of Famers) among them. When the Major League season was over, many top national players came to Dexter Park to play on All-Star teams - Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig were regulars, as was Hank Greenberg, Carl Hubbell, Dizzy Dean, Jimmy Foxx, Joe DiMaggio and Casey Stengel. They and many other future Hall of Famers came to play ball in Woodhaven.
Dexter Park’s heyday ended with the advent of televised baseball games and, more importantly, when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947. After that, the best Negro League players went into the Major Leagues and their fans followed. In 1951, Rosner announced that Dexter Park would host stock car racing, and for the next few years the roar of engines became a familiar sound in that part of Woodhaven. Rosner passed away in 1953, and a few years later the park closed for good. The property was sold and converted into residential housing.
Max Rosner Way is located at the site of the former Dexter Park entrance.
P.S. 220 Edward Mandel
Edward Mandel (1869-1942) was an associate superintendent of the New York City schools. His family immigrated to the United States when he was young, settling in New York. He graduated from NYC public schools, City College at NYU and Teachers College at Columbia University. He also earned a law degree. He taught in city schools before becoming principal of several schools and eventually becoming Associate Superintendent of Schools from 1923 until his retirement in 1939. He helped develop educational policy and was founder of the teacher's pension system. He believed that vocational education was needed in public schools and that schools should teach "good citizenship." After his retirement he started a law practice with his son Austin. He lived in Forest Hills, Queens for much of his adult life and was a member of Thomas Jefferson Democratic Club.
King Manor Museum
Rufus King (1755-1827) was a distinguished lawyer, statesman and gentleman farmer. The son of a wealthy lumber merchant from Maine, King graduated from Harvard in 1777, served in the Revolutionary War in 1778, and was admitted to the bar in Massachusetts in 1780. He was a member of the Confederation Congress from 1784 to 1787, where he introduced a plan that prevented the spread of slavery into the Northwest Territories. King was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1787, and made his most famous contribution to American history as a framer and signer of the U.S. Constitution.
After his marriage to Mary Alsop in 1786, King relocated to New York and was appointed to the first U.S. Senate, serving from 1789 to 1796 and again from 1813 to 1825. An outspoken opponent of slavery, he led the Senate debates in 1819 and 1820 against the admission of Missouri as a slave state. King served as Minister Plenipotentiary to Great Britain from 1796 to 1803 and again from 1825 to 1826. In 1816 he was the last Federalist to run for the presidency, losing the election to James Monroe.
The earliest part of the King Manor building dates to the mid-1700s. In 1805 Rufus King purchased the farmhouse and a 90-acre farm for $12,000. He planted orchards, fields and some of the stately oak trees that still survive near the house. King added the eastern section of the house and a summer kitchen, and introduced Georgian and Federal design elements, such as the dining room with its curved end wall and the neoclassical marble fireplace in the parlor.
By the time of Rufus King’s death in 1827, the estate had grown to 122 acres. King’s eldest son John Alsop King lived here and updated the house with Greek Revival details, such as the entrance portico. Cornelia King, granddaughter of Rufus, was the last family member to occupy the house. After her death in 1896, the house and the remaining 11 acres were bought by the Village of Jamaica, and the property came under the jurisdiction of the Parks Department in 1898.
King Manor has operated as a museum since 1900 under the care of the King Manor Association of Long Island, Inc. The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the house and park are designated New York City landmarks. King Manor Museum is open on a regular basis for tours, educational programs and community events.
Lewis H. Latimer House
Lewis Howard Latimer was an African American inventor and humanist. Born free in Massachusetts, Latimer was the son of fugitive slaves George Latimer and Rebecca Smith, who escaped from Virginia to Boston in 1842. Upon arrival, George Latimer was captured and imprisoned, which became a pivotal case for the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts. His arrest and the ensuing court hearings spurred multiple meetings and a publication, “The Latimer Journal and the North Star,” involving abolitionists like Frederick Douglass. The large collective effort eventually gained George his freedom by November 1842.
Against this backdrop, Lewis Latimer was born in 1848. Latimer’s young life was full of upheaval as his family moved from town to town while tensions in the country continued to mount before the Civil War broke out in 1861. In 1864, Latimer joined the Union Navy at age 16. After the conclusion of the war, Latimer was determined to overcome his lack of formal education; he taught himself mechanical drawing and became an expert draftsman while working at a patent law office. He went on to work with three of the greatest scientific inventors in American history: Alexander Graham Bell, Hiram S. Maxim and Thomas Alva Edison. Latimer played a critical role in the development of the telephone and, as Edison’s chief draftsman, he invented and patented the carbon filament, a significant improvement in the production of the incandescent light bulb. As an expert, Latimer was also called to testify on a number of patent infringement cases.
Outside of his professional life, Latimer wrote and published poems, painted and played the violin. He was one of the founders of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Queens and was among the first Civil War veterans to join the Grand Army of the Republic fraternal organization. He also taught English to immigrants at the Henry Street Settlement.
The Lewis H. Latimer House is a modest Queen Anne-style, wood-frame suburban residence constructed between 1887 and 1889. Latimer lived in the house from 1903 until his death in 1928. The house remained in the Latimer family until 1963 when, threatened with demolition, it was moved from Holly Avenue to its present location in 1988. In 1993, it was designated a New York City Landmark. The historic house now serves as a museum that shares Lewis Latimer’s story with the public and offers a variety of free educational programs.
The Latimer House is owned by the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, operated by the Lewis H. Latimer Fund Inc., and is a member of the Historic House Trust.
Allama Iqbal Avenue
Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938) was a writer, philosopher and politician who is widely revered in the Asian subcontinent. He was also a scholar, lawyer, and well-known poet whose poetry in the Urdu language is world-renowned. Muhammad Iqbal is commonly referred to as the honorific Allama, meaning “very knowing and most learned.” He was born in Punjab on November 9, 1877, which was under the jurisdiction of the British Raj (1858-1947) at the time. Before Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Pakistan's founding father, established the new state in 1947, Allama Iqbal foresaw its creation. He had a vision of a culturally and politically independent Muslim state that promoted the ideals of Muslims and combatted the oppression and discrimination they experienced living in India.
Influenced by the democratic principles held in the United States constitution, Allama Iqbal advocated for a Muslim state that promoted the ideologies of “life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.” As such, Allama Iqbal revived the two-nation theory which inspired Muhammad Ali Jinnah to create an exclusively Muslim state. The American Pakistani Advocacy Group (APAG), the organization responsible for initiating this street co-naming in honor of Allama Iqbal, chose this location in the South Richmond Hill area to mark it as the epicenter of APAG’s community service work for the Pakistani diasporic communities residing in Queens and beyond.
John F. Kennedy Expressway
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) was the 35th President of the United States (1961-1963) -- the youngest man and first Roman Catholic elected to the office. On November 22, 1963, when he was hardly past his first thousand days in office, he was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, becoming also the youngest president to die.
Moore Homestead Playground
Clement Clarke Moore (1779–1863) was a professor of Oriental and Greek literature at New York's General Theological Seminary from 1823 to 1850. He also donated a large piece of land that he had inherited, located in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood, to the seminary.
The Moore family was among the earliest settlers of Elmhurst, Queens, having been granted 80 acres there in the mid-1600s. Prior to the colonization of Elmhurst, the land was considered part of the Canarsie and Munsee Lenape territories. The Moore Homestead, built by Captain Samuel Moore of the Newtown militia, lasted from 1661 to 1933. The Moore family intermarried with many other colonial families in the area. Clement Moore spent much of his childhood at the family estate in Newtown. P.S. 13 in Elmhurst is also named in Moore's honor.
Clement Clarke Moore was born and raised in the Chelsea area of Manhattan. He wrote on a variety of topics but is best known today as the author of the enduringly popular Christmas poem, "A Visit from St. Nicholas." The poem was first published anonymously in 1823, and there has been debate over its true authorship. Many scholars believe it was actually written by Henry Livingston, Jr., but decisive proof has been elusive. The poem became a classic popularly known as "The Night Before Christmas” and brought the idea of Santa Claus to mainstream culture. It's been said that Moore was inspired to write the poem for his grandchildren by regaling them in the nostalgic times of his youth, where he would visit family at their ancestral property. Though he never lived there, when he would visit, he stayed at one of the outlier homes - where the 80-20 Broadway apartment building now stands.
Moore died in Newport, Rhode Island in 1863.
Doreen J. Angrisani Street
Doreen J. Angrisani (1956-2001) worked for Marsh & McLennan at the World Trade Center. She was killed in the terrorist attack of September, 11 2001.
Cardozo Playground
Benjamin N. Cardozo (1870-1938), former Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court (1932-1938). Justice Cardozo is notable for both his defense of the New Deal’s social programs during his six short years at the Supreme Court and his advocacy for the common-law approach throughout his judicial career.
Born in New York City to a Portuguese Sephardic Jewish family, Justice Cardozo was tutored by Horatio Alger and various home tutors as a youth, before being admitted into Columbia College at age fifteen. Cardozo had ambition to restore his family’s honor, after his father, Judge Albert Cardozo of the Supreme Court of New York, achieved notoriety for his involvement with the corrupt Tweed ring. The elder Cardozo resigned in 1872, just before he could be impeached. After the younger Cardozo’s graduation from Columbia College and a few years at Columbia Law School, he joined his father’s law practice and entered the bar. In 1914, Cardozo was appointed to the Court of Appeals, he would serve eighteen years at the court - five of which at the head.
Following Oliver Wendell Holmes’s retirement from the United States Supreme Court in 1932, Justice Cardozo was named to the Supreme Court by President Herbert Hoover. This appointment earned him the distinction of being the second Jewish judge to be appointed to the Supreme Court, after Justice Louis Brandeis. Despite later describing himself as an agnostic, Justice Cardozo volunteered within the Jewish community throughout his life. He was a member of the Judean Club, a board member of the American Jewish Committee, and a member of the Zionist Organization of America at various points. At the point of his appointment to the Supreme Court, he resigned from all offices except for his membership on the Executive Committee of the Jewish Welfare Board and on the Committee on the Advisor to the Jewish students at Columbia University. On the Supreme Court, he was one of the “Three Musketeers” - the nickname given to the three liberal members of the Court that supported the New Deal agenda, including Justice Brandeis and Justice Harlan Fiske Stone. He is noted for his defense of social security and old-age pensions in particular.
The City of New York acquired the land for this playground in April 1955, and it opened in August 1957 as J.H.S. 198 Playground. The playground contains benches and a softball field for the school and the community. Parks Commissioner Henry J. Stern changed the name in 1985 to Benjamin Cardozo Playground, physically commemorating the life of a man who left an indelible mark on New York City.
Robert H. Goddard High School of Communication Arts and Technology
More info coming soon. If you have information about a named place currently missing from our map, please click on "Add/Edit" and fill out the form. This will help us fill in the blanks and complete the map!
Booth Memorial Avenue
William Booth (1829-1912) was the founder and general of the Salvation Army (1865). Booth was born in Nottingham, England on April 10, 1829. Booth’s father was born into poverty but was determined to build his wealth which he did but soon lost it during Booth’s teenage years. In 1842, at the age of thirteen, Booth was sent to work at a pawnbroker’s shop by his father in order to assist with the family’s financial circumstances. Booth did not like his job but it was here where he experienced and observed firsthand the plight of the poor. In 1844, at the age of fifteen, Booth began attending Broad Street Wesley Chapel where he had his first religious conversion experience. In 1849 Booth moved to London in order to find work. During this time, Booth joined a chapel in Clapham where he met his future wife Catherine Mumford. In 1855, Booth and Catherine got married.
William Booth found the structure and function of the church to be too restrictive. He wanted to spread the teachings of God directly to the people. He wanted to connect with those who could not or were not allowed to attend church. These people tended to be the poor and less fortunate. In 1861, Booth decided to part ways with the church and become an independent revivalist, since the church did not agree with his beliefs. In 1864, Booth began offering services in the streets of London. Booth preached to people from all walks of life. Booth preached to the poor, homeless, hungry, and destitute. His practices would eventually form an organization that would function under the name “The Christian Mission.” Within 10 years, the organization would amass 1,000 volunteers with the goal of spreading faith everywhere and to everyone. Today “The Christian Mission” is known as the “Salvation Army.” The “Salvation Army” currently has millions of volunteers helping those in need all around the world. This organization has a presence in over a hundred countries due to Booth’s efforts in creating a solid foundation.
Aristotle
Aristotle (384 BCE-322 BCE) lived in ancient Greece, and is known as one of the most highly regarded philosophers and scientists in human history. Though he was prolific in many fields, some of his most famous contributions include creating a discipline of formal logic, zoology, and his ethical and political theories. He studied under and with Plato in Athens, which is reflected in many of his writings. In his later years, Aristotle founded his own school called the Lyceum where he taught students and lectured to the larger public for free.
Rainey Park
Thomas Rainey (1824-1910) a resident of Ravenswood, Queens, was one of the main contributors to the bridge across the East River between Manhattan and Long Island City. Rainey spent 25 years and much of his fortune on this bridge. The project was initially highly favored by the community, but it lost momentum in the financial Panic of 1873. Due to this, the burden of organizing and refinancing the company fell on him, first as treasurer in 1874, then as president in 1877. However, the project once again lost steam in 1892
.
After the consolidation of New York City in 1898, the project gained new momentum and the bridge was finally built at Queens Plaza, a few blocks south of the proposed location. On opening day in 1909, Rainey realized his dream as he crossed the new bridge with Governor Charles Evans Hughes. The new bridge entitled the "The Queensboro Bridge," fulfilled its promise by tying the Borough of Queens into Greater New York. For his efforts, Rainey received a gold medal inscribed “The Father of the Bridge.”
In 1904, the City of New York acquired several acres of waterfront property. The concrete “sea wall,” built where the park meets the East River, was completed in 1912, by which time Rainey had passed away. To honor his public spirit, the city named the property Rainey Park.
The Cynthia Jenkins School
Cynthia Jenkins (1924 - 2001) was a resident of Springfield Gardens, Queens, a former state assemblywoman, community activist, and a librarian with the Queens Public Library in Southeast Queens, New York.
Essie Cynthia Burnley was born in Nashville, Tennessee, and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, where she graduated with a B.A. from Louisville Municipal College. She met her future husband, Joseph D. Jenkins (1921–2011), a World War II U.S. Army veteran and insurance broker, at a military dance. The couple had one son, Rev. Joseph D. Jenkins Jr. and lived in Springfield Gardens, Queens.
Burnley Graduated with an MS in Library Science from Pratt Institute in 1966 and worked at Queens Public Library for two decades, beginning in 1962. She worked in every Southeast Queens branch of the Queens Library, including Far Rockaway, Rochdale Village and Cambria Heights, where she served as branch manager. She later sued the city to stop the closure of the Southeast Queens library branches based on their circulation. In 1969, along with fellow librarian Ernestine Washington and others, Jenkins helped to form the Black Librarians Caucus.
1969 was also the year that Jenkins founded the Social Concern Committee of Springfield Gardens, an education program, and through that the Housekeeping Vendor Agency and the Social Concern Community Development Corporation, a home health attendant service was created. At the time of her death these two organizations employed over 2000 people.
Jenkins took her first steps in politics in the early 1970s, when she was appointed to the state committee for the 29th Assembly District. Jenkins became a Democratic district leader for the 29th Assembly District in 1978. Four years later, when she was successfully elected to that Assembly seat, Jenkins made history as the first African American woman elected to public office in Southern Queens. In her 12 years in the Assembly, Jenkins served as chairperson of the Subcommittee on Affirmative Action and a delegate to the Governor’s Conference on Libraries in 1990 and the White House Conference on Libraries in 1991. In the 1980s she was instrumental in the state’s decision to bring a Veterans Home to St. Albans. As a former librarian, Jenkins was known in Albany as an advocate for libraries, books, and literacy.
Francis Lewis High School
Francis Lewis was born in 1713 in Wales. He attended school in England then moved to New York for business. Lewis was later taken prisoner in France before returning back to New York where he made a home in Whitestone. He was a member of the Continental Congress for years before the Revolutionary War and was a signatory of the Declaration of Independence.
Chaney-Goodman-Schwerner Clock Tower
The Chaney-Goodman-Schwerner Clock Tower sits atop the main library on the campus of Queens College.
The Roy Wilkins Park
Roy Wilkins was born on August 30, 1901. After graduating from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, he worked for the weekly newspaper, the Kansas City Call. His reporting on the treatment of blacks in Army flood control projects helped to bring about change. In 1931 he began working with the NAACP, eventually serving as as Executive Director from 1955-1977. In 1963 her helped organize the March on Washington. In 1967 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Lyndon Johnson.
Lt. Clinton L .Whiting Square
Lieutenant Clinton L. Whiting (1894 – 1918) was a First Lieutenant in the 308th Infantry during World War I. He was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for Heroism in Action on August 4, 1919, for his performance on the battlefields of France.
While on an advance through the Argonne Forest, on September 28, 1918, Whiting led his men into a key position in a marsh covered by wire, grass, and stunted brush despite heavy enemy fire. During the battle, he was seriously wounded by a machine gun bullet and died of his wounds on October 23, 1918.
Paul Russo Way
The following text was written by Paul Russo's brother George:
Paul was a humble and devout Christian young man. Passing at the age of 33, his life was short but meaningful. He was a person of integrity who devoted his later life to the ministry of the less fortunate.
Tending to the homeless, building shelter for the poor in Third World countries and bringing the spiritually disenfranchised to the Lord became his mission. He was also entrepreneurial and business-savvy, always giving back to others whatever success he earned through his hard work. The last months of his life were an inspiration to those who witnessed the selfless acceptance of his medical diagnosis offered for the healing of others.
Paul was a heroic saint to those who knew him best.
George Washington As Master Mason
Born on February 22, 1732 in Westmoreland County, Virginia, George Washington was born into a prosperous family, and was privately educated. He gained early experience as a land surveyor, and then joined the militia, serving as an officer in the French and Indian Wars from 1755-1758. Rising to the rank of colonel, he resigned his post, married Martha Dandridge (1731-1802), and returned as a gentleman farmer to the family plantation at Mount Vernon, Virginia, where he resided with his wife, Martha.
He soon reentered public life, and served in succession as a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses (1759-1774), and as a member of the First and Second Continental Congresses (1774-1775). Upon the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775, Washington was made Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army. His military prowess and inspirational leadership held the colonial armies together against overwhelming odds, and secured the evacuation and defeat of the British in 1783.
Washington again retired to Mount Vernon, but his dissatisfaction with the new provisional government, caused him to resume an active role, and in 1787 he presided over the second federal constitutional convention in Philadelphia. He was then unanimously chosen first president of the United States, and was inaugurated at Federal Hall in New York City on April 30, 1789. Washington was reelected to a second term in 1893, declined a third term, and retired from political life in 1797. Often referred to as “the father of our country,” Washington is universally regarded as having been instrumental in winning the American Revolution and in the establishment of the new nation.
This statue honors George Washington’s close association with the Free and Accepted Masons, a fraternal order founded in 1717, and dedicated to human liberty, religious tolerance, and fellowship. He was installed as first master of Alexandria Lodge on April 28, 1788. The first version of this statue was created by De Lue in 1959 for the Louisiana Lodge. A full-size faux-patined plaster model was displayed at the Masonic Pavilion of the New York World’s Fair of 1964-65 in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.
Following the fair, the sculptor was commissioned to create this replica in bronze, and with the assistance of former Parks Commissioner and Fair President Robert Moses (1888-1981), a site was selected for permanent placement near the former Masonic Center. The statue, cast in Italy, and positioned on a pedestal of North Carolina pink granite, was dedicated on June 3, 1967, the same day in which the World’s Fair Corporation returned the park back to the City. Additional copies of the statue were installed at the Masonic Hospital in Wallingford, Connecticut and at the Detroit Civic Center in Michigan.
Kiely Hall
Kiely Hall on the campus of Queens College
John Golden Park
John Lionel Golden (June 27, 1874-June 17, 1955) was a playwright who, at one time, had a Broadway theater named after him (202 W 58 Street).
Golden and his wife opened their huge property in Bayside to the neighborhood for recreational activities. When they died, they donated the property to the city with the stipulation that it remain a park. The land is now Crocheron Park and a portion is designated as Golden Field.
According to Wikipedia, as a songwriter, Golden was best-known as lyricist for "Poor Butterfly" (1916). He produced many Broadway shows and four films.
P.S. 013 Clement C. Moore
Clement Clarke Moore (1779–1863) was a professor of Oriental and Greek literature at New York's General Theological Seminary from 1823 to 1850. He also donated a large piece of land that he had inherited, located in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood, to the seminary. Moore wrote on a variety of topics but is best known today as the author of the enduringly popular Christmas poem, "A Visit from St. Nicholas." The poem was first published anonymously in 1823 and there has been debate over its true authorship; many scholars believe it was actually written by Henry Livingston, Jr., but decisive proof has been elusive. The poem became a classic popularly known as "The Night Before Christmas” and brought the idea of Santa Claus to mainstream culture. Moore died in Newport, Rhode Island in 1863.
The Moore family was among the earliest settlers of Elmhurst, Queens, having been granted 80 acres there in the mid-1600s; Clement Moore spent much of his childhood at the family estate in Newtown. The Moore Homestead Playground, also in Elmhurst, is named in the family's honor. Prior to the colonization of Elmhurst, the land was considered part of the Canarsie and Munsee Lenape territories.
James A. Bland Playground
James Alan Bland (1854-1911) was an African American musician and composer of popular songs, including "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny," formerly the official state song of Virginia. Bland was born in Flushing to educated, free African American parents. While attending Howard University he became enthralled with the banjo and learned to play it. In the late 1870s, Bland began his professional career as a member of the first successful all-Black minstrel company, the Georgia Minstrels. Later he worked in minstrel shows throughout Europe and the United States, becoming the highest-paid minstrel singer in the country. He performed for Queen Victoria and the Prince of Wales at Buckingham Palace and President Grover Cleveland and Gen. Robert E. Lee in Washington.
After living for 20 years in Europe, Bland returned to the U.S. in 1901. His fortunes declined as minstrel shows were replaced by vaudeville, and he died alone of tuberculosis in Philadelphia in 1911. Though Bland was buried there in an unmarked grave, a memorial was later erected by the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP). He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.
This playground is located adjacent to the James A. Bland public housing complex.
Maureen Walthers Way
Maureen Walthers (1934 – 2020) was the owner and publisher of the Ridgewood Times and Times Newsweekly.
Walthers was a homemaker in the 1970s when she wrote a letter to the editor of the Ridgewood Times about drug use at a playground a block away. The letter impressed the paper’s then-publisher, and she was offered a job as a writer - it began a five-decade association with the weekly newspaper covering the Greater Ridgewood area (Ridgewood, Glendale, Maspeth, and Middle Village). She was on the front lines covering the civic scene in Ridgewood and neighboring Bushwick, Brooklyn, during the 1970s. She would ride along with police officers and firefighters as they responded to emergencies in both communities and chronicled the rampant urban decay in Bushwick an award-winning seven-part series, “The Agony of Bushwick,” published in the Ridgewood Times in the summer and fall of 1977. The series brought further public awareness of the community’s woes, and action from the city to reverse the decline.
Walthers was one of the founding members of the Greater Ridgewood Historical Society and took an active role in helping to preserve and landmark the Onderdonk House, a colonial farmhouse on Flushing Avenue. She was also an active member of Queens Community Board 5 for many years and served for a time as the chair of its Public Safety Committee. She was also involved with the Greater Ridgewood Restoration Corporation, which promotes the preservation of the neighborhood’s housing stock. In 1981, she became the Ridgewood Times’ first female editor, as well as executive vice president and co-owner. She became owner of the paper and expanded it over the next three decades beyond the Greater Ridgewood area. She launched the Times Newsweekly in 1989, a version of the Ridgewood Times distributed in northwestern and southwestern Queens communities, extending out as far north as Astoria and as far south Howard Beach. The Times Newsweekly sponsored Cop of the Month awards at eight precincts covering western Queens and Bushwick.
Marine Parkway - Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge
Gilbert Ray “Gil” Hodges (1924-1972) helped win championships for his teams both as a player and as a manager. He was born in Indiana and excelled at baseball at an early age. He was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1943 but only managed to play one game that year, leaving to serve in the Marines for World War II.
Hodges returned to the team in 1947 and played a number of positions before finding success at first base. During his peak offensive production from 1949 to 1957, Hodges averaged 32 home runs and 108 RBI per season. It was during these seasons that the Dodgers won five National League pennants and the 1955 World Series title. One notable achievement for Hodges occurred on August 31, 1950, when he became just the second modern-era National League player to hit four home runs in one game.
Hodges moved with the team to Los Angeles in 1958 and helped it win its first National League pennant and World Series on the West Coast in 1959. His abilities and playing time diminished after that; he played two more years with the Dodgers and then with the new New York team, the Mets, in 1962 and 1963. He is credited with hitting the first home run for the Mets.
Hodges retired early in the 1963 season with 370 homers (third most for a right-handed hitter at the time), 1,921 hits, 1,274 RBI and three Gold Glove Awards at first base – even though the award was not created until 1957. He was quickly chosen by the last-place Washington Senators to manage the team. He brought the Senators out of recent 100-loss seasons to a more respectable 76-85 record in 1967 with limited resources. This success was noted by the New York Mets, who hired him after the 1967 season to help their expansion team.
It didn’t take long for Hodges to turn a team that hadn’t won more than 66 games in a season to “The Miracle Mets” of 1969 that won 100 games and the World Series title. The Mets had winning seasons in 1970 and 1971 but, tragically, Hodges had a heart attack and died just before his 48th birthday on April 2, 1972.
Hodges’ uniform number 14 was retired on June 9, 1973, at Shea Stadium. He was inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame in 1982. After years of consideration, his number 14 was retired by the Los Angeles Dodgers and he was finally inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Golden Days Eras Committee in 2022.
In 1978, The Marine Parkway Bridge was renamed the Marine Parkway - Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge, marking the first time a bridge was named for a major sports figure. Appropriately, it spans the Rockaway Inlet from Jacob Riis Park in Queens to Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn.
Udalls Cove Park & Preserve
Text courtesy of Walter Mugdan, president of the Udalls Cove Preservation Committee.
The name “Udalls Cove” is a bit of a misnomer. In 1833 Richard Udall bought from the Allen family a grist mill, located about a mile north of the Douglaston peninsula in a much smaller cove on the eastern shore of Little Neck Bay where a stream enters. The stream had been dammed up at its mouth to create a mill pond. When the tide was low, Udall let water flow from the pond to the bay to turn his mill wheel. When the pond was drained empty he would close the dam gate and wait for the tide to rise. When the tide was high he would open the gate and let the sea water from the bay flow into the pond. This would turn his mill wheel again, but in the opposite direction. Gears and belts inside enabled the mill machinery to run in the correct direction regardless of which way the mill wheel was turning.
Udall’s mill, now a museum, still stands on the little cove in front of the mill pond. But his name was eventually assigned to the larger cove a mile south that lies between the Douglaston peninsula and the Village of Great Neck Estates. Strangely, the correct name of the cove is Udalls – without an apostrophe.
Paul Russo Way
Paul Russo (1986 – 2018) was a lifelong resident of Ozone Park and is remembered as a young man of deep faith who dedicated much of his life to helping others. He attended local schools and was involved with local sports and Little League associations. He was also a member of the Frassati Fellowship of NYC, a Catholic group of young people dedicated to prayer and charity work. He worked as a real estate agent, and participated in volunteer-led efforts to build homes for the homeless in the United States as well as Central and South America,. Paul’s zeal for helping the poor was an inspiration to many others in the community.
Paul passed away in 2018 at 33 after a long and courageous battle with cancer, and was survived by his mother, Antha, and father George Russo, owner of the Villa Russo in Richmond Hill, and president of the Boys and Girls Club of Metro Queens. He also left behind four siblings and many, many friends.
Pulaski Bridge
Casimir Pulaski (1745-1779) was a Polish nobleman, soldier, and military commander. Pulaski fought for the Continental Army during the American Revolution against the British and was nicknamed “The Father of the American Cavalry”. He was born in Warsaw, Poland and died in Thunderbolt Georgia at the age of 34 years old. Pulaski was exiled from Russia after supporting the cause of Polish-Lithuanian freedom.
Through a recommendation from Benjamin Franklin, Pulaski came to America to support the fight for freedom against the British. He fought for freedom his entire life until he was fatally wounded at the Siege of Savannah during the Revolution. Pulaski was a trusted ally of George Washington, as seen by the multiple letters that were found written between them, and even saved his life when he led a skillful attack against the British which allowed Washington and his men to retreat as it looked like they were about to be defeated.
Stanislaw Kozikowski Way
Stanislaw Kozikowski (1895-1967) fought in the United States Army during WWII and was awarded the Army’s Distinguished Service Cross. The citation read: “The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to Stanislaw Kozikowski, Private, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism in action near Binarville, France, October 2–7, 1918. During the time when his company was isolated in the Argonne Forest and cut off from communication with friendly troops, Private Kozikowski, together with another soldier, volunteered to carry a message through the German lines, although he was aware that several unsuccessful attempts had been previously made by patrols and members of which were either killed, wounded or driven back. By his courage and determination, he succeeded in delivering the message and brought relief to his battalion.”
After his discharge from the Army, he continued to serve his country working a job at the Brooklyn Navy Yard for over 30 years, mostly in Shop 31, which is today the home of New Lab.
J.H.S. 074 Nathaniel Hawthorne Middle School
More info coming soon. If you have information about a named place currently missing from our map, please click on "Add/Edit" and fill out the form. This will help us fill in the blanks and complete the map!
Jamaica Walking Tour
This walking tour explores individuals whose names grace several public spaces in Jamaica, Queens.
Robert E. Peary School
Robert Edwin Peary (1856-1920) was born in Cresson, Pennsylvania on May 6, 1856. His parents, Charles and Mary, originated from Maine. Charles died when Robert was three and Mary decided to move her only child back home to Cape Elizabeth, Maine. Peary attended Bowdoin College, joining the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity and the Phi Beta Kappa honor society, before graduating with a degree in Civil Engineering in 1877.
After college, Peary worked as a county surveyor and a cartographic draftsman. In 1881, he was selected to become one of the Navy’s first civil engineers with the rank equivalent of lieutenant (USN). His first assignment was to inspect a new iron pier being built in Key West. His following assignment, assisting the chief engineer of a canal project in Nicaragua, sparked his thirst for Arctic exploration.
Perhaps his dissatisfaction with being a “workhorse” in the jungles of Central America and the inspiration of an 1886 paper “on the inland ice of Greenland,” prompted Peary to set off to explore the Arctic by way of Greenland. In May of 1886, he embarked on his journey, “making a deeper penetration of the Greenland interior than anyone before him, and discovering, once the crevasses and meltwater lakes had been passed, a truly ‘imperial highway’ for the explorer.”
This would be the first of several expeditions to Greenland and the Arctic with his crowning achievement as being the first to reach the North Pole on April 6, 1909.
Peary’s polar claim was disputed due to a “combination of navigational mistakes and record-keeping errors.” Still, it is universally accepted that Peary and his close friend Matthew Henson, were the first to reach the North Pole. Peary retired from the Navy with the rank of rear admiral in 1911. His publications included Northward over the “Great Ice” (1898), The North Pole (1910), and Secrets of Polar Travel (1917).
Rear Admiral Robert E. Peary is credited in the Navy as being “the most famous Civil Engineer Corps officer to date.” The most prestigious exploration and research awards Peary won in his lifetime were the Cullum Geographical Medal (1896), the Charles P. Daly Medal (1902), and the Hubbard Medal (1906). In addition to his career as a naval officer and Arctic explorer, Peary was also very interested in aircraft and their “possible use for exploration and military purposes.”
Peary remains an important figure not only for his Naval career or Arctic exploration but also for documenting tidal observations of the Arctic Ocean and the livelihoods of the Inuit people. However, Peary’s treatment of the Inuit and disregard for their culture remain controversial today.
Upon his death in 1920, Peary was buried at Arlington National Cemetery with a “monument featuring a large, white granite globe and a bronze star pointing north marking the North Pole.” "In 1986, the U.S. Postal Service issued a set of stamps about Arctic Explorers identifying Peary as ‘one of two Civil Engineer Corps officers to be associated with a postage stamp.’”
