BusTalk

[Mr. Linsky]

'GREEN LINE'S CORNELL PARK GARAGE'


Again, I have to thank Hart Bus for steering me toward another great piece of Green Line (NY) memorabilia in the form of an advertisement for the Lehigh Portland Cement Company in the October 1939 issue of Time Magazine using the then new Cornell Park garage as a testament to their product’s applications.

The facility, which was actually built in two parts with the first comprising the main shops, storage and offices and an expansion of floor space a year later, was the company’s first real ‘all under one roof’ home.

Previously, offices and repair stations were spread around Long Island City as a last remnant of Green Line’s ill fated Manhattan operation, but as their southern Queens business expanded they felt it important and more economical to move to south Jamaica.

The building still stands and is located on 150th. Street, about two blocks south of the Belt Parkway in an area known as Cornell Park which is now owned by the Port Authority and is part of JFK International Airport.

The tract of land, which was part of an estate owned by a fellow by the name of Cornell, sat in a desolate stretch of marshes adjacent to Jamaica Bay and was probably purchased very reasonably considering that it was in the middle of nowhere!

No thought that the property would ever become part of the world’s largest airport ever entered any ones mind in the late thirties what with La Guardia more than adequately handling New York area traffic.

However, it did and in 1950 the PA usurped its right under eminent domain to take over the property and the company then proceeded to build what is now the JFK Depot on Rockaway Boulevard.

My memories of Cornell Park as a child are some of my fondest because it was there that my infatuation with buses began.

While it may be difficult to discern, the disc embedded in the brick work over the office entry contains the original 'GBL' logo.

Photo owned and operated by the writer.

Mr. Linsky – Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, NY