Crocheron Park is a public park situated at 214th Street and 35th Avenue in Bayside, Queens, New York City. Hotel usage Before becoming a park, the area facing Little Neck Bay was the summer hotel called the Crocheron House, which stood for nearly half a century. The building resembled an Italian villa and included a square tower at one corner, large windows, and a broad piazza facing the water. This hotel, prior to its destruction, drew attention around 1868: this was when Joseph Crocheron purchased Brown's Bayside House, enlarged it and turned it into a watering hole for politicians, theatrical people, and financiers. Furthermore, this hotel included festivals and seafood dinners. This place also became a magnet for a criminal named William Marcy "Boss" Tweed, the notorious Tammany Hall leader, who hid there following his escape in 1875. Boss Tweed had escaped to this place from the Ludlow St. debtor's jail in December 1875 and it was said that Tweed, while heading for Spain, embarked to Cuba aboard a schooner brought to anchor in the bay by his friends The hotel's owner, Joseph Crocheron, was a well-known and experienced racer of horses along with Cornelius Vanderbilt, August Belmont, and more. There is also a distinct number of Crocheron family members such as John Crocheron, who was a planter, whose will was dated December 13, 1695 and died a year after that date; another was Henry Crocheron (1829-1931), a member of Congress. However, around 1907–08, the hotel was leveled in a fire and was since never rebuilt. After it was burned down in 1908, the community took it upon themselves and raised funds to purchase 42 acres and gave them to the city to become Crocheron Park. Park The original parcel of land was acquired during 1924. Prior to its opening, Crocheron Park cost New York City $17,769 for each of its 51 acres; it also cost property owners in the local area of assessment in Bayside exactly $181,252.09. The park was to comprise the entire area bounded by Crocheron avenue from 214th place, Maxwell avenue, 215th place, Vista avenue, and other blocks in the surrounding area. During the 1960s, the Parks Department intended to rebuild Crocheron Park; this included the repair or construction of new tennis courts. The day before this answer was made, the Crocheron Park Tennis Committee issued a complaint that the courts were in a "deplorable state".