Conrad Poppenhusen

Monument on College Point Boulevard

Conrad Poppenhusen (1818-1883) was a German American philanthropist, entrepreneur, founder of College Point, Queens, and founder of the first free kindergarten in the United States.

Poppenhusen was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1818 and worked for a whalebone purchaser before immigrating to the United States in 1843 to start a whalebone processing plant in Brooklyn. In 1852 Poppenhusen received a license from Charles Goodyear to produce rubber products, and then moved the company to a small rural village in Queens.

College Point was founded in 1870 when Poppenhusen incorporated the neighborhoods of Flammersburg and Strattonport together. For his workers in the area, Poppenhusen built housing, the First Reformed Church, and numerous streets.

In 1868 Poppenhusen founded the Flushing and North Side Railroad, which connected College Point and Flushing with ferries to Manhattan. (Today the tracks connect to Manhattan directly via tunnels, but no longer to College Point). In that same year he also founded the Poppenhusen Institute, containing a vocational high school and the free kindergarten. After Poppenhusen retired in 1871, his three sons lost much of his fortune, and he declared bankruptcy.^[1] Conrad Poppenhusen died in College Point in 1883 and was memorialized by the community with a statue in Poppenhusen Park in 1884.^[2]

See also

• Poppenhusen Institute

References

1. ^ http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9B03EED8143EE73BBC4C53DFBE668383669FDE
2. ^ http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park/historical_signs/hs_historical_sign.php?id=19150

External links

• Popperhusen Statue
• Poppenhusen Institute

Persondata
Name	PoppenHusen, Conrad
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1818
Place of birth
Date of death	1883
Place of death