The Rise of Aurora Pond

In past columns, I’ve described the founding of the Udalls Cove Preservation Committee in 1969 by Aurora Gareiss and her success in accomplishing the primary mission of the organization - the preservation of the remaining undeveloped wetlands and woodlands in the cove’s watershed. 

In the middle of the newly established Udalls Cove Park and alongside Sandhill Road was a small freshwater pond. In the spring and summer, it was home to hundreds of toads that would “sing” at night and to a variety of water fowl and other wildlife.

Several generations of children grew up skating on the pond in the wintertime. It afforded charming views from the roadway became the focal point of the annual cleanups that Aurora had originally instituted on April 22, 1970, our nation’s first Earth Day. 

In an unusual move on July 24, 1985, the New York City Council officially named the pond for Aurora.

Ordinarily, the city does not name places after people who are living, but two geographic features in Udalls Cove Park are exceptions to the rule. Aurora Pond is one and Virginia Point, named for Aurora’s longtime collaborator Virginia Dent, is the other. Both women, though now deceased, were very much alive when these names were officially bestowed.

Aurora Pond is not “natural.”  Prior to the 1930’s, there was no pond there. Rather, it was a wet, marshy area with numerous springs out of which trickled groundwater flowing down from the surrounding hills. Rainwater also ran down into this marsh from the nearby steep streets. The storm water and the water from the springs flowed into Gabler’s Creek, which is the natural stream that drains much of western Little Neck and eastern Douglaston. 

In the 1930’s, two events occurred that created the pond. First, Sandhill Road - previously a dirt road - was paved. Soil was added and compacted to raise and strengthen the roadbed and asphalt was added on top. The road now began to function as a sort of dam, blocking the free flow of water from the springs. Second, the Civilian Conservation Corps channelized Gabler’s Creek. 

The corps constructed a culvert through which Gabler’s Creek has flowed ever since.  The culvert starts on the south of the Long Island Rail Road and continues on its north side. It passes under Sandhill Road and continues downstream for several hundred feet. 

When the corps excavated the channel for the creek, the soil that was dug up was thrown to the side between the creek and the springs. The berm thus created acted like another dam, also blocking the spring water and storm water runoff. 

The water collecting behind these two man-made dams turned into a shallow pond.  Actually, there were - and still are - two ponds. The first lies right at the base of the LIRR embankment. The second, larger pond - separated from the first by just a few feet of higher land- reaches nearly to the edge of Sandhill Road. This is the one we know as Aurora Pond. 

Until the early 1990s, it often overflowed directly across the road. In the wintertime, the overflow would freeze into sheets of ice several inches thick, making driving something of an “Ice Roads” adventure. 

That’s the story of the rise of Aurora Pond. Check back next week for more on its fall and subsequent rise.