Rockaway Wastewater Resource Recovery Facility
One of Joseph's least glamorous jobs may also be one of the most essential.
Looking north at the Rockaway Wastewater Treatment Plant, at the Rockaway Freeway and Beach 108th Street in Seaside / Rockaway Park, Queens. Looking from a Rockaway Park–Beach 116th Street-bound…. Photographed in 2018; a current view, not a construction-period photograph.
Current view · 2018 · Photo: Tdorante10 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source
Why this project matters
- Project identity
- Verified
- Kelly connection
- Family source
- Masonry scope
- Probable
Rita’s list
Transcription: Rockaway Sewage Plant — 1951
Recorded by Rita Bartscherer · Bartscherer family record
KM-013
1 of two
“Rockaway Sewage Plant — 1951”
DEP records say the first stage of Rockaway's wastewater plant was built in 1951 and opened in 1952.
Most New Yorkers never see the buildings that make a city livable. Rockaway's first wastewater-treatment stage was built in 1951 and began operating in 1952, eventually handling about 15 million gallons a day. Rita's date catches the facility at its birth. It is a reminder that masonry work was not only visible on towers and schools; it also enclosed the hidden systems that protected beaches, neighborhoods and public health.
What Kelly did here
Family source
Probable
Likely: most likely heavy-duty CMU/concrete-block enclosure and equipment-room walls, interior partitions, shafts and masonry backup; specialized refractory/stone work should not be assumed without specifications.
This scope is recorded as probable, not documented. It is a disciplined reading of the building and the trade practice of the period, not a contract-level record of Kelly’s work.
The construction team
The construction team for this job has not yet been established.
What happened to it
Still standing
Sources
2 citedOpen →
- Tdorante10 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · Taken on 2
Looking north at the Rockaway Wastewater Treatment Plant, at the Rockaway Freeway and Beach 108th Street in Seaside / Rockaway Park, Queens. Looking from a Rockaway Park–Beach 116th Street-bound…. Photographed in 2018; a current view, not a construction-period photograph.
Know something about this project?
Share a correction, memory, photograph, source or connection to this project. Every submission is reviewed before anything is published.
Elsewhere in the archive
BOAC Terminal / later JFK Terminal 7
Family list: “BOAC”
Queens, New York
American Airlines Terminal at Idlewild
Family list: “A.A. Arrivals Building”
Queens / New York City
New York Telephone Convent Avenue Central Office — 380–386 Convent Avenue
Family list: “Convent Ave Telephone”
Hamilton Heights, Manhattan / New York City