During Sunnyside Gardens’ ongoing celebration of the 100th anniversary of our construction (1924-1928), there are many important founders to be grateful for. In 2026, none is more important than Alexander M. Bing.
In 1926, builders completed Lincoln and Washington Courts, and the south court in what became Jefferson Court. The lot set aside to become a religious institution for the community was purchased by the Sunnyside Reformed Church. Yet, as always the case in Sunnyside Gardens, the most remarkable achievement was not so much what was built as what was planned as permanent parkland, and on May 18, 1926, Sunnyside Park opened, “fully equipped with tennis courts, ball fields and children’s apparatus [and] dedicated … to the residents of Sunnyside.”
Above: May 18, 2026 is the 100th anniversary of Sunnyside Park, which was inaugurated with a gala ceremony attended by the Mayor of New York and featuring “a pageant of Sunnyside [with] children’s games and tennis.” This is an original invitation, courtesy of Avery Library Drawings and Archives, Columbia University.
Ultimately to provide nearly three acres for the recreation of the new neighborhood, instead of developing this land as housing to be sold at a profit, was extraordinary. No less extraordinary today, Sunnyside Park remains the largest private park in New York City.
The person most responsible for the existence of the Park is Alexander Bing, president of the City Housing Corporation. Bing’s real estate acumen attracted the investors who financed the construction to begin with, and above all it was Bing’s decision to set aside real estate to create Sunnyside Park. Addressing an estimated 1000 to 1500 at the opening ceremony, Bing stressed the need for affordable housing to include green spaces, trees, parks and recreation; the event inspired Mayor Jimmy Walker to announce he would appoint an expert committee on city planning. Read contemporary press accounts here.
Below left, the original plan for the Park, from a 1926 City Housing brochure. In two years, houses were built along 39th Avenue (below the bottom of this image), and the Park was enlarged south and southwest, with a new entrance from 39th Avenue. Before then, you entered off 48th (Gosman) or 50th Street (Fitting). Below right, City Housing’s map of Sunnyside Gardens highlights the lot at Skillman and 48th Street (Gosman Ave.) reserved for a religious institution that became the Sunnyside Reformed Church. Illustration, adapted from City Housing’s Fourth Annual Report (1928), in Clarence Stein, Toward New Towns for America (1957).
On the centennial of the Park and the purchase by the Reformed Church, we will meet at the Church to honor Bing and to unveil an official street sign naming “Alexander M. Bing Place.”
Below left: With Sunnyside Gardens completed and Radburn under way, Bing’s City Housing colleagues printed an affectionate booklet of cartoons (an early graphic novella) called “Radburn Rackets.” Probably drawn by someone in Clarence Stein’s architectural office, the cartoon characters, a boy and girl named Sonny Side and Reddy Radburn, celebrated Bing’s birthday, June 22, on the last page. Courtesy of Avery Library Drawings and Archives, Columbia University. Right: Bing in a formal portrait, taken within a year of the Park’s opening.
