Historic Rego Park recreation center reopens with fully accessible facilities, upgraded fitness spaces, new safety systems and modernized entrances and restrooms
Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani and Parks Commissioner Tricia Shimamura today announced the reopening of Lost Battalion Hall Recreation Center in Rego Park, Queens, following a $25.9 million, top-to-bottom reconstruction that brings this historic neighborhood center into the 21st century.
The project delivers a more accessible and modern recreation center for Queens families, with a redesigned entrance and lobby, refurbished fitness spaces, updated restrooms, a newly painted basketball court, new equipment and upgraded safety and building systems.
“Every New Yorker should feel proud of their public spaces. Today, we’re reopening Lost Battalion Hall just in time for the weather to cool down and New Yorkers to head indoors to continue playing their favorite sports all winter long,” said Mayor Mamdani. “With new equipment, accessibility improvements and safety upgrades, Lost Battalion Hall will be even more welcoming to New Yorkers. Whether you’re here to shoot hoops, work out or hang out, this is your recreation center.”
“For years, Lost Battalion Hall has been the place where Queens families come to work out, shoot hoops and spend time with their neighbors, and we couldn’t be happier to welcome everyone back,” said Parks Commissioner Shimamura. “This project improved just about every corner of the building. It’s safer, easier to get around and more comfortable no matter the season. We’re grateful to the Mayor’s Office, the Borough President and the City Council for investing in this center, and to the community for their patience while the work got done.”
A Queens institution, renewed
Lost Battalion Hall is deeply woven into the history of Queens history and culture. In the 1960s, the New York Knicks used the recreation center as an auxiliary practice facility. Over the decades, it has nurtured generations of local basketball talent, including Queens native and former NBA player Kenny “The Jet” Smith.
The building is also home to one of the last surviving Works Progress Administration murals on Parks property. The mural celebrates the building’s origins as a Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) hall and remains a reminder of the center’s long history of serving the community.
The reconstruction refurbished the center’s weightlifting area, spin room and fitness room and equipped each space with new equipment. Lockers and storage areas were also upgraded to make the facility easier to navigate and better suited to a wide range of activities.
Accessibility was a central part of the project. The building now has accessible restrooms on every floor, as well as wider and safer routes throughout the facility. The project added doors at the front entrance, relocated and enclosed the stairways near the entrance, rebuilt existing staircases and added a new staircase on the east side of the building.
Restrooms on the first and second floors were redesigned to be fully accessible, with new stalls and fixtures. A former storage room was converted into accessible restrooms, while bathrooms that were too small to accommodate wheelchair users were converted into changing rooms.
The project also delivered major upgrades to the building’s safety and infrastructure. Lost Battalion Hall now has a new fire alarm and sprinkler system, a new rooftop generator and a new water line. New water heaters will improve energy efficiency while a new heating and cooling system will keep the lobby comfortable year-round.
A history public service
Lost Battalion Hall was constructed in 1939 after the Works Progress Administration appropriated $100,000 for a two-story, 36,000-square-foot facility with a firing range and drill hall for the Queens VFW and American Legion.
The City placed the property under Parks jurisdiction on Dec. 6, 1960, and Parks subsequently transformed the building into a recreation center, including a gymnasium with basketball courts.
The center takes its name from the famous “Lost Battalion” of World War I: more than 500 soldiers from the U.S. Army’s 77th Division, many of them New Yorkers, who were cut off and surrounded by German forces in France’s Argonne Forest in October 1918. The soldiers held their position for nearly a week until reinforcements arrived, and their courage became one of the most enduring stories of the war.
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