Court Square Park

Court Square Park is a half-acre park at Court Square and Jackson Avenue in Long Island City, Queens. The park sits at the historic center of Long Island City, which was an independent city (the largest in Queens County) before the consolidation of Greater New York in 1898.

The park's focal point is a Civil War memorial monument erected in 1903, honoring the residents of Long Island City who served and died in the conflict. The monument's location at the historic courthouse square reflects the era when this intersection was the civic heart of an independent municipality.

Long Island City has undergone one of the most dramatic transformations of any neighborhood in New York City, evolving from a post-industrial landscape of warehouses and factories into a forest of luxury residential towers, many of them among the tallest in Queens. Court Square Park provides a historical anchor amid this overwhelming change.

The park is surrounded by major cultural institutions including MoMA PS1 (the contemporary art institution affiliated with the Museum of Modern Art), the Sculpture Center, and numerous galleries that have made Long Island City one of the most important contemporary art destinations in the metropolitan area.

Court Square Park connects the hyper-modern Long Island City of glass towers and art galleries to the 19th-century city that once stood at this intersection, reminding visitors that the neighborhood's current iteration is only the latest chapter in a history that stretches back well before the skyscrapers arrived.