The park is bordered to the east by Douglaston, to the west by Bayside, to the north by Little Neck Bay, and to the south by Union Turnpike.

What is now Alley Pond Park was once home to the Matinecock Native Americans, who harvested shellfish from Little Neck Bay.

The English began to colonize the area by the 1630s, when Charles I granted Thomas Foster 600 acres (240 ha), on which he built a stone cottage near what is now Northern Boulevard.

The valley's usage as a passage, or perhaps its shape, may ultimately account for its name; in any case, an 18th-century commercial and manufacturing center there became known as "the Alley".

[6] Despite the valley's commercial center and light industrial uses that dated back to Hicks' and Hedges' mills, the area remained agricultural and largely unspoiled into the 20th century.

[9] His successor Bernard M. Patten also supported the purchase of the land,[10] and Douglaston civics groups argued in favor of the park.

[12] These sections officially opened in 1935 with a ceremony attended by Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia and Parks Commissioner Robert Moses.

[15] A 1959 proposal to add 91 acres (37 ha) along the bay to Alley Pond Park was controversial among Douglaston landowners, who wanted the land to be used for a commercial amusement center.

[17] The related legislation was rejected almost unanimously by the New York City Council, with only the two representatives of borough president John T. Clancy voting in favor of the expansion.

[18] The Oakland Golf Club disbanded in 1952 but served as a city-operated course until 1961, after which it was developed into the Queensborough Community College, Benjamin N. Cardozo High School, and tract housing.

Two thousand people participated in the first "Walk in the Alley" in 1969, led by Queensborough Community College dean John O.

[30] The Alley Pond Environmental Center (APEC), founded in 1972, moved to its own building on Northern Boulevard four years later.

[15][34] On the other side of the park, Gertrude Waldeyer led an advocacy group to preserve Oakland Lake, leading NYC Parks to spend $1 million restoring the lake in 1987, with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation designating the surrounding area as freshwater wetlands the next year.

[6][35] In 1993, almost $1 million was spent to restore the Picnic Grove, renovate two stone buildings, and reconstruct the playground and soccer field.

[6] The Alley Pond Environmental Center relocated to a temporary location at 224–75 76th Avenue in Oakland Gardens in 2019,[42][43] after a renovation of its Northern Boulevard headquarters had begun that September.

[46] It occupies part of a terminal moraine, a ridge of sand and rock, that was formed by a glacier 15,000 years ago, at the southern terminus of the Laurentide Ice Sheet.

Boulders dropped by the glaciers on the hillsides of the southern end of the park still remain, as do scattered kettle ponds formed by melting ice.

This promotes ecodiversity, with freshwater and saltwater wetlands, tidal flats, meadows, and forests accommodating abundant bird life.

[3] A stream from Oakland Lake, which was buried after the Cross Island Parkway was built, is a left-bank tributary of Alley Creek.

[6][35] The area surrounding Oakland Lake also contains Queens' first "bluebelt" system, created in 2011, in which runoff flows through natural-looking landscapes rather than through storm sewers.

[35][53] The northern end of Alley Pond Park includes 150 acres (61 ha) of freshwater and saltwater wetlands.

[47] The John Riedl Wildflower Meadow, named after the Queensborough Community College dean, is located on both sides of Northern Boulevard.

[26] The Alley Pond Environmental Center (APEC) was founded in 1972 by Joan and Hy Rosner as a grassroots organization that advocated for the park.

[15][54] The APEC building, on the south side of Northern Boulevard, was announced in 1975 as part of a series of improvements across Queens.

[60] The Queens Giant is surrounded by a metal fence on all sides to protect it, and a hill and a sign describing the tree stand in front of it.

[25] The golf center is especially popular among the Korean-American population of the surrounding area, and signs at the complex are posted in both English and Korean.