Clearview Bridges, Bayside

May 16, 2014, 8:00 am

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The Clearview Expressway runs from the Throgs Neck Bridge south, terminating at Hillside Avenue (unusual for an expressway to terminate at a local-access thoroughfare). It was first proposed in 1955 and constructed between 1960 and 1963, mostly in an open cut featuring interchanges with the Long Island Expressway and Grand Central Parkway. It was built over community opposition, as many of the Robert Moses projects from the 1930s through 1960s were, and it necessitated the displacement of over 400 families. I have taken the Long Island Rail Road past the Clearview for over 20 years, and noticed an unusual feature. The Clearview has a service road and walkway on both sides, and while the roadway is interrupted for the railroad crossing, the walkways aren’t. The walkways on both sides are slung down toward the roadway and under the railroad, in an unusual arrangement. The usual method, I suppose, would have involved pedestrian bridges with… Read More

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Boulevard Gardens in Woodside

May 20, 2014, 8:00 am

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Boulevard Gardens, entered at the NE corner of 54th Street and 31st Avenue, was founded in 1935 as part of the United States’ New Deal initiative. T.H. Engelhardt designed Boulevard Gardens in 1933 in concert with renowned landscape architect C.N. Lowrie for the Cord Meyer Development Corporation, and based on a design Engelhardt developed for Forest Hills Gardens. The complex won an award for architectural merit from the Queens Chamber of Commerce in 1936. Ten six-story buildings comprising 960 apartments occupy approximately two square blocks between 30th and 31st Avenues, Hobart Street and 57th Street, with only about one-quarter of the property taken up by brick and mortar; the remaining property is open space and parkland. It was heralded as a “model village” when it first opened. The Gardens was founded largely by a Federal loan of $3,450,000 from Queens’ Public Works Administration. In a modern era when “affordable housing” is being given… Read More

Playbill’s the Thing in Woodside

May 23, 2014, 8:00 am

≫ Next: Lebanon Terrace, Astoria Village

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Playbill is a venerable institution in the theater community in New York and many other cities; its familiar yellow-and black-bannered magazine is distributed at all Broadway and some Off-Broadway plays, as well as at theater productions in many cities throughout the country. Its current circulation is in excess of four million annually. When distributed on the opening night of a Broadway play, the cover is stamped with a special seal and the date is printed on the title page of the magazine. Theatergoers as well as performers hold onto these keepsakes for years as proof that they were there on opening night of several plays that later went on the be blockbusters with thousands of performances. Playbill, first printed in 1884, features articles on actors and new plays and musicals, surrounded by a wraparound section that contains listings and biographies of the cast, authors, playwrights and composers, lists of songs and… Read More

Lebanon Terrace, Astoria Village

May 27, 2014, 8:00 am

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You won’t find Lebanon Terrace on any street map, and find little evidence of it in Astoria Village, but it’s one of Queens’ most picturesque laneways. Better known by its more prosaic official name, 14th Place, it’s best seen from the crest of a slight rise at 26th Avenue, where a magnificent view of the RFK Triborough Bridge is obtained. A lone conifer is the only street tree. Until most street names in Queens were numbered, this short path was called Lebanon Terrace and it first appears on maps in the mid-1910s. Perhaps some native Lebanese lived here in the early days, or perhaps some cedars of Lebanon were planted here. Lebanon Terrace was once a dead end, but several decades ago it was cut through to Hoyt Avenue, since renamed Astoria Park South. A pair of porched homes, built in the early ‘teens, face each other across the narrow lane. One… Read More

First Presbyterian Church, Jamaica

May 30, 2014, 8:00 am

≫ Next: A Look at Lawrence Cemetery in Astoria

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There are surprises to be found on the side streets of Queens, especially ion the older neighborhoods like Jamaica, first settled in the mid-1600s by Dutchmen. Yet another in Jamaica’s collection of very old church buildings is the First Presbyterian Church at 89-60 164th Street, just north of Jamaica Avenue. Jamaica’s Presbyterian congregation, founded in 1663, may be the oldest continuous one in the United States. The church is housed in three buildings on 164th, two of them very old. The original congregation’s stone church stood from 1699 to 1813 at what is now Jamaica Avenue and Union Hall Street; during the Revolutionary War, the British commandeered it and imprisoned patriots there. In 1813, it was replaced with what is now the church sanctuary in a location at Jamaica Avenue and 163rd Street: it was placed on logs and pulled by mule to its present location in 1920. The First Presbyterian’s manse,… Read More

A Look at Lawrence Cemetery in Astoria

June 3, 2014, 8:00 am

≫ Next: Forest Hills and Kew Gardens LIRR Stations

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The Lawrences were a prominent family in the early days of Queens, and produced some historically significant figures. Flushing’s College Point Boulevard was named Lawrence Street for much of its route until 1969. It was Captain James Lawrence, buried in Trinity Cemetery, who uttered the immortal words “Tell the men to fire faster and not to give up the ship!” while commanding the USS Chesapeake vs. HMS Shannon during the War of 1812. The Chesapeake was defeated, and Captain Lawrence was killed, but his words lived on when his command, shortened to “Don’t give up the ship” became the motto of the U.S. Navy. Abraham Riker Lawrence was a NY State Supreme Court Justice and William Beach Lawrence was the lieutenant governor of Rhode Island; and Cornelius Lawrence  (1791-1861), born in Flushing, was NYC mayor between 1834-1837, the first mayor of NYC elected by direct vote. He won by 174 votes… Read More

Forest Hills and Kew Gardens LIRR Stations

June 6, 2014, 8:00 am

≫ Next: St. George Church, Astoria Village

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The Forest Hills Long Island Rail Road station, newly polished and refurbished, looks like no other station in the railroad’s voluminous list of stations, with its distictive Tudor-style ticket offices with shaped glass and unique luminaires. Its position overlooking Burns Street seems perfect to give a speech, and that’s exactly what former President Teddy Roosevelt did here in 1917. The platform overlooks a country-village type setting at the heart of Forest Hills Gardens; one practically expects to see Patrick McGoohan, in his black “Number Six” suit he wore in the classic British 1967 science-fiction show The Prisoner, running away from “The Village’s” robot weather balloons that served as the village’s guardians. The station’s design goes back to 1911 and, as it was built in tandem with Forest Hills Gardens, it was always meant to be the perfect complement to the neighborhood. It continues to be directly connected to the development via… Read More

St. George Church, Astoria Village

June 10, 2014, 8:00 am

≫ Next: What Happened to Rosemont? — Astoria Village

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Astoria’s pedigree dates to the mid-1600s, when William Hallett received a grant for the area surrounding what is now Hallett’s Cove by Peter Stuyvesant. However, the oldest structures in the region date to the mid-1800s, after fur merchant Stephen Ailing Halsey had incorporated the village in 1839. Astoria was named for a man who apparently never set foot in it. A bitter battle for naming the village was finally named by supporters and friends of John Jacob Astor (1763-1848. Astor, entrepreneur and real estate tycoon, had become the wealthiest man in America by 1840 with a net worth of over $40 million. (As it turns out, Astor did live in “Astoria” — his summer home, built on what is now East 87th Street near York Avenue — from which he could see the new Long Island Village named for him.) Wealthy businessmen built homes on what are now 12th and 14th Street,… Read More

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What Happened to Rosemont? — Astoria Village

June 13, 2014, 8:00 am

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What was once known as Rosemont, a mansion at 25-37 14th Street, has been pretty much buried by now under aluminum siding, but it used to be a beautiful two-level Doric-columned country house. In 1852 the mansion was built in a grand Southern-plantation style by varnish moguls Smith & Stratton, who operated in Astoria Village till 1856; they then decamped further down the east riverside to Hunter’s Point. In the 1990s, it was converted to the wreck you see today at 25-37 14th Street, “raped and ravaged” in the words of the AIA Guide to NYC. Its ancient copper beech tree has long been chopped down, and the exterior has been converted to something considered more appropriate to the times by its current owner, or at least a recent one. (I don’t know the derivation of the current name, “Bilquis Mansion.”) “The Benner Mansion, occupied for many years by the late Robert Benner,… Read More

Give Me Wings, Elmhurst

June 17, 2014, 8:00 am

≫ Next: A Day at the Queens Farm Museum

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The former Jamaica Savings Bank on Queens Boulevard and 56th Avenue exhibits phases, like the moon, depending on where you view it. From 56th Avenue it resembles a verdigri’ed Stealth bomber, while its glassy triangle is unmistakable from other angles across the Boulevard of Death. When I last saw it, it was home to a branch of Capital One. It has always been a bank, designed by St. Louis architect William Cann in 1968. The arrival of the World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows in 1964 was symbolic of the Swingin’ Sixties, space-race go-go attitude the country had at the time; the war in Vietnam had not yet become an albatross and there seemed to be a boundless enthusiasm about the future and the wonders it would produce. Architects seemed to get the message as well and it was then that several extraordinary buildings were produced along Queens Boulevard. George Jetson would… Read More

A Day at the Queens Farm Museum

June 20, 2014, 8:00 am

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The Queens County Farm Museum, at Little Neck Parkway south of 73rd Road, occupies 47 acres in the heart of Glen Oaks, Queens, New York as the Agricultural Museum of New York: its croplands and orchards are being used to demonstrate the history of agriculture to students and visitors. The Museum staff and volunteers harvest apples and grow herbs, squash, tomatoes and other standard market vegetables, which are sold from a farm stand on the grounds on selected days during the week. The Farm Museum holds educational tours and student workshops cover horticultural technology, farm life history and food preparation. You will find friendly cows, goats and sheep begging for handouts, which are provided to you, although there are signs telling you what not to feed them (as fruit tends to ferment in the ruminants’ multiple stomachs).  The Museum is the staging area for several annual events, such old-fashioned county fairs,… Read More

Kevin and Mitch Go To the Beach, Part Two

June 24, 2014, 8:00 am

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In 1984, Tony Carey sang about “The First Day of Summer,” and Mitch Waxman and I thought that on the first day of summer thirty years later, it would be appropriate to seek out the spot that many New Yorkers think about when the subject of summer comes up, Jacob Riis Park and the sandbar of which it is a part, the Rockaway Peninsula. Rockaway, depending on what translation is used, means “sandy place” or “place of our people.” A small coterie of Canarsie Indians occupied Rockaway Peninsula until European invasions began in the 16th century; by 1640 it was under Dutch control. Its story as a resort begins in 1833 when a wealthy group calling themselves the Rockaway Association purchased beachfront property from the Cornell family, which owned much of Rockaway from colonial times, and built the Marine Hotel, which was patronized by many of the era’s bright lights including Washington Irving,… Read More

Kevin and Mitch Go to the Beach, Part Four

June 27, 2014, 8:00 am

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The sun, or as Mitch refers to it, the “burning thermonuclear eye of God,” was beating down mercilessly, or as merciless as 80 degrees can get. Unlike Rockaway peninsula residents, I’m not a beach devotee; like Nixon, I keep my shirt and shoes on when walking in the sand, though I skip the jacket and tie, unlike Tricky Dick. We had made our way across the Gil Hodges-Marine Parkway Bridge and along the Riis Park beachfront, and thence along Rockaway Beach Boulevard, as described in Part One, Part Two and Part Three. Before kicking it in the head for the day, we made our way steadily toward the transit hub at Rockaway Park. Saint Francis De Sales Church, at Rockaway Beach Boulevard and Beach 129th Street, has been in existence since the early 20th Century and has seen the effects from the destruction of the World Trade Center, viewed clearly from the Rockaways;… Read More

A Nice Pair in Richmond Hill

July 1, 2014, 8:00 am

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Braving the ungodly 80-degree heat (I’m kidding), nearly fifty Forgotten New York fans converged on Richmond Hill for the eightieth Forgotten New York tour in a series that goes back to June 1999. New York City, at one time or another, has had three settlements named Richmond Hill. The one in Manhattan, in what is now the West Village, and the one in Staten Island, in what is now Richmondtown, have been pretty much absorbed into new neighborhoods. Queens’ Richmond Hill has been more enduring. In 1869, developers Albon Platt Man and Edward Richmond laid out a new community just west of Jamaica with a post office and railroad station, and Richmond named the area for himself (or, perhaps, a London suburb, Richmond-On-Thames, a favorite royal stomping ground). It became a self-contained community of Queen Anne architecture west of Van Wyck Boulevard (now Expressway) that remains fairly intact to the present… Read More

Last Bell for Dear Old Jamaica High

July 8, 2014, 8:00 am

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Last week, 122-year old Jamaica High School, 168th Street and Gothic Drive, graduated its last class, in a phase-out that began in 2011 when the school ended admissions. As recently as 1985 the school was considered the best secondary school in America in 1985 by the U.S. Department of Education. Dear Old Jamaica High, by Harwood Hoadley: There is a certain High School out in old Jamaica Town Of all the schools we’ve ever known she most deserves renown Her boys are strong and manly and her girls are beyond compare And Royal Red and Loyal Blue are the colors that they wear In gym, on track, on diamond her honor we maintain In oratory and debate for her fresh laurels gain Her fame’s upheld by song and play, for loyal each and all We rally to defend her name and gather at her call Then cheer for old Jamaica High, the school without a peer We’ll cherish long the memory of… Read More

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The Nemo Medicanical Building, Ozone Park

July 11, 2014, 8:00 am

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On 101st south of Rockaway Boulevard, the silent Martian tripod war machine surveyed the small town just before blasting it with a Heat-Ray. (It’s actually a water tower associated with the building shown just below, now festooned with cell phone relayers.) This was once the Nemo “Medicanical Science” Building, on Rockaway Boulevard between 100th and 101st Streets. The only clue about the building’s origins are a caduceus, the sword entwined with two snakes, emblematic of the medical profession. A close look reveals the name of the firm, “Nemo Medicanical Science.” A look around the internet revealed that Nemo produced corsets, as this newspaper clipping from the Batavia Daily News in 1921 indicates; it also says the firm had been around for 20 years by the publication date. … Read More

Nancy Reagan’s House, Flushing

July 15, 2014, 8:00 am

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Though this modest two-story frame house with yellow siding at 149-14 Roosevelt Avenue, between 149th Street and Place, remains unmarked by a plaque or medallion of any kind, this is the home where former First Lady Nancy Reagan spent the first two years of her life. Ann Frances Robbins was born on July 6th, 1921 at Sloane Hospital for Women in NYC to Kenneth Seymour Robbins and actress Edith Luckett. The two divorced in 1928 and when Edith married neurosurgeon Dr. Loyal Davis, 7-year old Ann “Nancy” took on his last name. The family moved to Chicago and Nancy Davis later attended Smith College in Massachusetts. She was bitten by the acting bug and made it to Broadway before embarking on a succession of B-films in the 1940s and 1950s, including “Hellcats of the Navy” with husband Ronald Reagan. Nancy Davis met Ronald Reagan because of the Hollywood blacklist of suspected Communist sympathizers. In 1949, an… Read More

Old Jamaica High, Briarwood

July 18, 2014, 8:00 am

≫ Next: A Street in Your Town: 37th

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As of the summer of 2014, Queens is in the unusual position of boasting two classic architectural treasures that were once home to the same now-shuttered high school. One, of course, was the classic Jamaica High School, a Georgian Revival masterpiece built in 1927 at Gothic Drive and 168th Street, noted on this recent Brownstoner Queens piece. The other is this forbidding Gothic Revival brick number on Haillside Avenue and 162nd Street. When Jamaica High School was founded in 1892, students went to class in the now-demolished Jamaica Public High School, 161st Street just off Jamaica Avenue, which was still Fulton Street; 161st was then Herriman Avenue. That venue quickly became too crowded, and a new school in the Gothic Revival style was commissioned with prominent Brooklyn architect William Tubby (whose most prominent buildings still stand in Clinton Hill, including the Pratt University library building) at the helm of the project.… Read More

A Street in Your Town: 37th

July 22, 2014, 8:00 am

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In Queens, there are worlds within worlds. Over the last three years I have been at loose ends, occasionally working freelance jobs when I can get them, still hoping for a fulltime job with benefits, a Holy Grail of sorts for someone in their 50s who has never been in management. I spend some of the time at the Greater Astoria Historical Society, which is located on the 4th floor of the Quinn Funeral Home at 35-20 Broadway, scanning photographs and researching material for a new book; the Society and I collaborated on the Forgotten Queens Arcadia Publishing entry, released in December 2013. Desiring relief from boredom and some needed exercise, I took a different route to the subway after leaving GAHS one day and turned right on Broadway onto 37th Street. I knew about 37th Street from its role in world industrial history (see below for that) but I wasn’t… Read More

Fall Out in Astoria

July 25, 2014, 8:00 am

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I was stalking up 33rd Street in Astoria, on my way from a nutritious Whopper at Burger King to my biweekly penitence at the Greater Astoria Historical Society when I spotted this marvelously bricked building at 28-25. They didn’t settle for the usual Flemish bond here. Probably everything you see here has an architectural term attached to it, but I’ll just say I liked the ached brick over the doorway, the seemingly random bricking at the entrance, and the occasional brick that juts out of the side walls. I’ve been partial to brick facing for some time. There’s also this fallout shelter sign, from the 1950s when we thought we would be safe from atomic attack. When the blast finally hits, we’ll mercifully be vaporized in a split second; what a way to go… This specimen, one of hundred remaining ones around town, is very well preserved. You can see that they included… Read More