Kohlreiter Square

Kohlreiter Square in Arverne, Queens, New York.

Kohlreiter Square is an 8.6-acre public green space located in the Arverne neighborhood on Rockaway Peninsula in Queens, New York. It located along the north side of Rockaway Freeway between Beach 67th and Beach 69th Streets. The park honors two generations of civic activists, Nathan A. Kohlreiter (1880-1961) and his son Fred Kohlreiter (1913-1990) who contributed to the political and social fabric of the neighborhood.

Kohlreiter Square dates to the early twentieth century, when it served as a plaza to the Arverne - Gaston Avenue Long Island Railroad (LIRR) station. The station opened in 1887, shortly before the completion of Arverne-By-The-Sea, a community of upscale summer homes and hotels along the beach. The neighborhood’s name is an abbreviation of its developer’s name, Remington R. Vernam. The tracks were elevated in 1942, with the Rockaway Freeway running beneath them. As part of a grade elimination project, undeveloped and condemned properties along the Freeway were acquired by the city as parkland. The station plaza was acquired from the LIRR in 1946.

In 2001 construction commenced on a new residential community that revived the name Arverne-by-the-Sea. Comprising single and multi-family homes to the south of Rockaway Freeway, it includes a retail plaza on the southern side of the subway station, adjoining Kohlreiter Square. To improve pedestrian accessibility, a section of Rockaway Freeway beneath the station was closed to through traffic and the Beach 67th Street – Gaston Avenue station was renamed Beach 67th Street – Arverne by the Sea as a symbolic recognition of the neighborhood’s rebirth as a residential area and a summer waterfront destination.