Alley Pond Environmental Center

The Alley Pond Environmental Center (APEC), a nonprofit environmental education organization, is dedicated to educating children and adults in the New York metropolitan area, protecting and preserving Alley Pond Park, open spaces and waterbodies, and advocating for sustainable environmental policies and practices.

Alley Pond Park is the home of the Douglaston Estate Windmill, a reminder of our agricultural past. The original windmill was built around 1870 on the Douglaston peninsula. It was used to pump water to the farms in the community. Around the turn of century, farmland was replaced by homes; even the windmill was converted into a two-room dwelling for a time. In 1985, the site of the windmill was sold, and a Committee to Save the Windmill was formed by local residents who succeeded in moving it to a site just west of APEC’s building. Sadly, it was burned to the ground in a senseless act of arson.