to create Kissena Park. A tract of Parsons' exotic specimens was preserved in the modern-day park and is now the Historic Grove. Fresh Meadow Country Club In 1921, Park Slope resident Benjamin C. Ribman and others from the Unity Club of Brooklyn were looking to build a golf course. The group chose the intersection of Fresh Meadow Lane and Nassau Boulevard as the site, because the land was suitable for golf and roads provided accessibility to other parts of the city. The 106 acres of land were purchased in late 1921, and another 26 acres were purchased the next year. A. W. Tillinghast designed the golf course. Originally, the name was to be the Woodland. After the Brooklyn Daily Eagle pointed out that there was already a golf course name Woodland in Boston, the founders decided to name the course Fresh Meadow Country Club. The name came from an area northeast of Flushing even though the golf course was actually located southeast of Flushing, just south of what is presently the Long Island Expressway near 183rd Street. Fresh Meadow Country Club opened on May 30, 1922. At the golf course's dedication, the first round of golf was played by former NCAA golf champion Jesse Sweetser and club professional Willie Anderson. Sweetser won by two strokes. People in attendance included New York State Supreme Court Justices Mitchell May, Edward Lazansky, and Harry Lewis, and Borough President Maurice E. Connolly. The clubhouse opened on September 8, 1923. Nine days later, the clubhouse burned to the ground from an explosion of a boiler. Firefighters from Flushing, Bayside, and Black Stump arrived but they were unable to save the clubhouse, in part because the nearest fire hydrant was a half-mile away, but they were able to stop the fire before it consumed an adjoining locker building and a two-story dormitory building. The PGA Championship was held at Fresh Meadow Country Club in 1930, and the U.S. Open was held at the course in 1932. In 1937, the golf course hosted a charity game between John Montague, Babe Ruth, Babe Didrikson, and Sylvania Annenberg, a game that was watched by 10,000 fans, some of whom rushed the golf course and left Babe Ruth's shirt in tatters. Fresh Meadows housing and retail development In February 1946, the golf course's land was sold to New York Life Insurance Company for $1,075,000, , in order to build a