2. The Name “Ozone Park” Was Created to Lure Buyers
Taken out of context, the name Ozone Park may conjure images of extraterrestrial playgrounds on alien planets, or heat radiating off pools of toxic slime. In today’s modern era, we hear ozone and typically associate the word with harsh chemicals or mysterious substances in the air, like the ozone layer of Earth’s atmosphere. But when Ozone Park, Queens was founded, the word had a much different meaning. As defined on Dictionary.com, ozone has previously been known to relate to “clean bracing air, as found at the seaside.” When the existence of ozone gas was originally discovered in 1840, the harmful properties of the gas were largely unknown.
With this understanding of the word established, in 1882 after the Long Island Railroad built a new nearby station, visionaries Benjamin W. Hitchcock and Charles C. Denton bought up land for development, and Ozone Park was born. The neighborhood’s pivotal marketing point: its close proximity to unlimited ozone. Or, what they really meant, fresh sea air.