Queens Public Library Connection

Betty Pegen (1912–2008), a resident and volunteer in College Point for more than 75 years, dedicated herself to the cultivation of the gardens at Poppenhusen Monument Park. Pegen also devoted many hours to other gardens in College Point, including Municipal Park and the Poppenhusen Library. Known as the “Gardening Angel” of College Point, the German immigrant took it upon herself for over 50 years to plant, weed, trim, cut, and cultivate the small garden around the monument to Conrad Poppenhusen—the German-born benefactor of College Point who founded the Poppenhusen Institute in 1868, which housed the first free kindergarten in America.