The park contains the city's only remaining velodrome, a lake of the same name, two war memorials, and various playgrounds and sports fields.

Various improvement projects have been conducted during Kissena Park's history, including the addition of the velodrome in 1962 and restorations of the lake in 1942 and 1983.

Subsequently, the Kissena Velodrome was restored and rededicated in 2004, and a Korean War memorial was dedicated in 2007.

[1] A Korean War memorial is located at a northern entrance to Kissena Park, at Parsons Boulevard and Rose Avenue.

[2][7] Another memorial, a boulder with an inscription dedicated to World War I soldiers from Queens, is located on the southern shore of Kissena Lake.

However, the New York area was inhabited by the Canarsee and Rockaway Lenape groups, who are Algonquian peoples along with the Chippewa.

[14][20][21] Kissena Park's natural features were formed during the Wisconsin glaciation, about 20,000 years ago.

The topography of Flushing and Northeast Queens was formed during this time, including the creation of Kissena Lake.

[19]: 109 [22]: 97−101  The creek began at a swamp in the modern Kew Gardens Hills and Pomonok areas south of Kissena Park.

[19]: 109 [24] Past the swamp, the creek traveled east parallel to 72nd Avenue,[19]: 109 [25] then turning north in modern Fresh Meadows, traveling parallel to today's Utopia Parkway to the modern Kissena Park Golf Course just south of Flushing Cemetery.

[19]: 110–111 [22]: 96−101 [26] The creek then turned west through the modern Kissena Park, Kissena Corridor Park, and Queens Botanical Garden sites before meeting Flushing Creek at what is now the Fountain of Planets / Pool of Industry in Flushing Meadows.

[28][29] During the late 1880s, Parsons Nurseries was importing 10,000 Japanese maples into the United States each year with help from Swiss immigrant John R.

[14] The nursery was located at the north end of the modern park at Parsons Boulevard and Rose Avenue.

[21][38] Real estate developers John W. Paris and Edward McDougal (or MacDougall) bought most of the Parsons land.

[3]: 3 In 1907, Paris and McDougal were accused of graft and fraud after they attempted to sell 87 acres (35 ha) of land back to the city at inflated prices,[42] earning $140,000 as a result.

[44] Joseph Bermel, the Queens borough president at the time, was later found to be involved in the deal, having allegedly received $12,000 from the transaction.

[47] He resigned his post as borough president in April 1908[48] and was subsequently scheduled to give testimony at a grand jury trial, but fled the United States the day before he was to testify.

A raised nature trail running through Kissena Park was originally the main line of the Central Railroad of Long Island of A.T. Stewart (later the White Line or Creedmore branch of the Long Island Rail Road.

[2] In August 1940, the New York City Board of Estimate approved Queens Borough President George U. Harvey's request to acquire the former Stewart Railroad right-of-way from Flushing Meadows at Lawrence Street (College Point Boulevard) east to Fresh Meadow Road (now Utopia Parkway).

The eastern segment also extended one mile past Kissena Park, with an average width of 85 feet (26 m).

[58] Groundbreaking ceremonies for the sewer project were held on April 1, 1947, at the intersection of Lawrence Street and Fowler and Blossom Avenues, near the modern-day Queens Botanical Garden west of Kissena Park.

[59][60][61] On February 19, 1948, the final contract for the project, including the trunk line from 188th Street to Francis Lewis Boulevard, was authorized from the Board of Estimate.

[74] A second Kissena Park landfill on North Hempstead Turnpike (Booth Memorial Avenue) was opened on November 14, 1943 and closed in July 1945.

[4]: 2 [2] Prior to the renovation, Kissena Lake was part of a wetland, which was believed to be a worthless type of land during the 20th century.

[3]: 6  A later renovation entailed categorization and major cleanup of the tree groves by Parks Department interns.

[79] The western stretch of the Kissena Corridor was eventually landfilled in the 1950s from dirt excavated for the construction of the Long Island Expressway.