Neighborhood History

Marine Park
Brooklyn

Neighborhood in southeastern Brooklyn (1990 pop. 19,992), bounded to the north by Flatlands Avenue, to the east by Flatbush Avenue, to the south by Avenue U, and to the west by Gerritsen and Nostrand Avenues; it lies adjacent to an expanse of the same name occupying 1024 acres in the Gateway National Recreation Area. A parcel of 140 acres (fifty-seven hectares) was bought and donated in 1916 to the city for use as a public park by the philanthropists Alfred T. White and Fredric B. Pratt in response to a wave of speculation along Jamaica Bay, which some hoped to transform into a major port. Although Mayor John F. Hylan initially resisted the gift, development of the park began, and in 1939 the recreation area opened. Residential development increased in the 1930s after the completion of the Belt Parkway, the extension of Flatbush Avenue south of Avenue U, and the opening of the Marine Parkway Bridge to the Rockaways. Streets were laid out at an oblique angle to the grid of surrounding neighborhoods. Public transit was inadequate, and houses were built with driveways and garages so that owners could easily keep automobiles. In 1970 the neighborhood was transformed by the opening of Kings Plaza, the first suburban mall in Brooklyn. The section of the park south of Avenue U remained undeveloped except for a golf course and a nature trail.

Stephen Weinstein, Encyclopedia of New York City , Edited by Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven, Yale University Press. 1995.

Homecrest
Brooklyn
Neighborhood in southwestern Brooklyn, bounded to the north by Avenue U, to the east by East 21st street, to the south by Avenue W, and to the west by Ocean Parkway. The area was originally farmland in the town of Gravesend and was developed from 1900, when it was advertised as “Homecrest by the Sea.” Residents could walk to the shore in ten minutes and reach Manhattan by train in thirty. Large one-family Victorian houses on landscaped double lots had the latest modern conveniences. The quiet streets of Homecrest are lined with trees and modest one- and two- family brick houses, one-story bungalows, townhouses, and low-rise apartment buildings. The main commercial district lies along Avenue U, and there is additional shopping along Coney Island Avenue.

Elizabeth Reich Rawson, Encyclopedia of New York City , Edited by Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven, Yale University Press. 1995.

Ocean Parkway
Brooklyn

Neighborhood in west central Brooklyn, lying along a thoroughfare of the same name running about six miles (ten kilometers) north to south from Prospect Park to the southeastern edge of Coney Island. The Ocean Parkway was suggested in the 1860s in reports to the park commissioners of Brooklyn by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, who together drew up a plan influenced by boulevards in Paris and Berlin. Begun in 1874 and completed by 1880, the parkway resembled Eastern Parkway: it had a width of 210 feet (sixty-four meters), a central broadway, two malls, two side roads, and two sidewalks, and was lined with trees, benches, playing tables, and a bicycle path. It ran through several neighborhoods including Parkville and Windsor Terrace; later, other neighborhoods such as Kensington were built along the parkway. About the turn of the century houses were constructed along the edges, attracting buyers from Bushwick, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and Brooklyn Heights. Many grand houses were built about the time of the First World War, which marked the end of period of suburban influence in the neighborhood. In the 1920’s rows of one-and-two family houses and small apartment buildings were erected, and the upper reaches of the parkway became the site of luxury apartment buildings with elevators; after the Second World War apartment buildings replaced older houses on streets near the parkway. Parallel to Ocean Parkway and several blocks to the east is Coney Island Avenue, an important commercial street.

Ellen Marie Snyder-Grenier, Encyclopedia of New York City , Edited by Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven, Yale University Press. 1995.

Richmond Hill
Queens
Neighborhood in east central Queens, lying adjacent to Jamaica and bounded to the north by Myrtle and Hillside avenues, to the east by the Van Wyck Expressway, to the south by Linden Boulevard, and to the west by 100th Street. The area was mostly farmland until it was developed by Albon P. Man, a wealthy lawyer from the firm of Man and Parsons in New York City who in 1867 engaged the landscape architect Edward Richmond to buy land and lay out a community. Between 1868 and 1874, streets, a school, and a church were built, trees were planted, and a railroad station began service. The settlement was incorporated as an independent village in 1894. Most residents were businessman from Manhattan who erected large houses costing from $2500 to $5000 each on generous plots. By 1900 a high school had opened and a hilly section toward Kew Gardens was covered by luxurious homes costing $8000 each. More houses were built and the Jamaica Avenue elevated line was extended to the area in 1918. By 1920 there was no open land and the only sort of development possible was infilling. Richmond Hill is a well-maintained residential neighborhood that retains many elegant structures from the turn of the century. The center of the neighborhood is the Triangle, formed by the intersection of Lefferts Boulevard, with Myrtle and Jamaica Avenues. Nearby is the Triangle Hofbrau (1864), reputed to be one of the oldest inns in continuous operation on Long Island.

Vincent Seyfried, Encyclopedia of New York City , Edited by Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven, Yale University Press. 1995.

Parkville
Brooklyn

Neighborhood in central Brooklyn, bounded to the north by Ditmas Avenue, to the east by Coney Island Avenue, to the south by Avenue H and Walsh Court, and to the west by McDonald Avenue; it is considered part of Flatbush. Known as Greenfield until 1870, the neighborhood was laid out on land purchased in 1851 and 1852 from the Tredwell and Ditmas families by the Untied Freeman’s Association. With Windsor Terrace it lay on both sides of what is now Ocean Parkway from Brooklyn to Coney Island. After streets were laid out in 1853 the area became a comfortable, middle-class suburb in Brooklyn.

Ellen Marie Snyder-Grenier, Encyclopedia of New York City , Edited by Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven, Yale University Press. 1995.

Breezy Point
Queens
Neighborhood in southwestern Queens, lying at the western tip of the Rockaway Peninsula; it includes Rockaway Point and Roxbury. The area maintained underdeveloped until the early twentieth century, when the Rockaway Point Company rented tent sites for about $20 a summer to visitors, most of whom were Irish. By the 1920s a colony of residents owned bungalows on rented land. In 1961 the firm of Northern Properties bought for $17.5 million all the land west of Jacob Riis Park (except Fort Tilden) to erect a high-rise development for a population of 220,000. Residents formed the Breezy Point Cooperative and paid $11.5 million for the land. Construction began on two fourteen-story apartment buildings but ceased when the city announced plans to acquire the peninsula for parkland in 1963; the unfinished apartments were demolished in 1978. The city’s plan to condemn the entire neighborhood was opposed with particular vehemence by the residents who had taken pains to make their cottages habitable year round, and a compromise permitted all to remain: land owned by the city was incorporated into the Gateway National Recreation Area in 1972, while property of the Breezy Point Cooperative was excluded from it. In the mid 1990s the community had about 2800 houses, with an estimated population of five thousand year round and twelve thousand during the summer.

Jeffrey A. Krossler, Encyclopedia of New York City , Edited by Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven, Yale University Press. 1995.

Forest Park
Queens

Forest Park is a public park, located in Queens, bounded to the north by Myrtle Avenue and Union Turnpike, to the east by Park Lane, to the south by Park Lane South, and to the west by Cypress Hill Cemetery. The park occupies 535 acres of hilly terrain and was once known as the Brooklyn Forest because of its acquisition in 1895 by the City of Brooklyn. In 1896, the firm of landscape architects Olmstead, Olmstead and Eliot designed a plan for the park, which was executed about the turn of the century.

A golf course, originally consisting of nine holes, opened in 1901; the club house (1905), designed in a Dutch Colonial Revival style by the firm Helmle, Huberty and Hudswell, now houses the offices of the park’s administrator. Popular carousels by the highly regarded designer Daniel Muller were added in 1918 (destroyed by fire in 1966) and 1972. The park was ravaged in 1912 by a chestnut blight and for a time was used for lumbering. At about the same time greenhouses were set up to grow plants for parks throughout the city. Jackson Pond was used for fishing and ice skating before being filled in. The Interborough Parkway (now Jackie Robinson Parkway) between Brooklyn and Queens was built through the park in 1935. Within Forest Park are ballfields, tennis courts, a bandshell (on the site of an earlier bandstand and concert grove), a memorial field named Victory Field, a monument to the First World War known as the "Richmond Hill Doughboy" and "My Buddy," and an enclosed area in which model airplanes may be flown.

Jonathan Kuhn, Encyclopedia of New York City , Edited by Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven, Yale University Press. 1995.

Broad Channel
Queens

Broad Channel is a neighborhood in southeastern Queens on the only inhabited island in Jamaica Bay, which occupies one and a half acres that lay west of a waterway also called Broad Channel. It consisted at first of a few fishermen’s shacks, and could be reached only by boat. In 1880, it was made the site of one of four fishing platforms built alongside a railroad trestle five miles long across the bay from southern Queens to the Rockaway Peninsula. A hotel and a saloon were opened in the following year; visitors rented rowboats and bay men continued to fish and dig for clams. Cross Bay Boulevard was opened through the center of Broad Channel in 1924, and within five years a large residential community had taken shape; nine inlets were dredged along the western shore and about fifteen short streets were laid out. The city retained title to the land, giving the householders renewable ten-year leases. Because of the marshy ground, many of the houses were built on stilts. Between 1950 and 1955, the city realigned the railroad route and radically changed the shape of the islands in the bay. A subway station opened on June 28, 1956. In 1982, the city permitted local residents to buy their houses, the average value of which rose rapidly.

Vincent Seyfried, Encyclopedia of New York City , Edited by Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven, Yale University Press. 1995

Electchester
Queens

A 2,400-unit cooperative in Flushing, Queens. It was built with the investment funds of Local 3 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. It is an extraordinary, if little-known, effort at working-class mutuality, self-rule, and urban planning. In contrast to the dense neighborhoods where many of its residents had previously lived, Electchester was designed so that its buildings took up only twenty percent of the land, leaving plenty of room for playgrounds, greenery, and parking lots. The 103-acre complex includes a small shopping center, owned by the industry pension committee, and a six-story office building, owned by another union-management fund, which has union and industry offices, a public library, a union-sponsored savings bank, a coffee shop, a cocktail lounge, a bowling alley, and a large auditorium used for union, industry and community functions. Over the years, Electchester residents have organized an amateur athletics association, a Women’s Association, a scouting program, art shows, lectures, charity drives, field trips, block parties, a police auxiliary unit, and classes on everything from accounting to cooperative living.

Joshua B. Freeman, “Red New York”, Monthly Review ; July/August 2002

Forest Hills
Queens

Neighborhood in central Queens, bounded to the north by the Long Island Expressway, to the east by Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, to the south by Union Turnpike, and to the west by Junction Boulevard and disused track of the Long Island Rail Road (the former Rockaway Beach line). It occupies what was once farmland owned by Frederick D. Backus, George Backus, and Horatio N. Squires, of which six hundred acres (243 hectares) in the area then known as Whitepot were bought in 1906 by the Cord Meyer Development Company. The area was named Forest Hills for its proximity to Forest Park, and its streets were assigned names arranged in alphabetical order from Atom (75th Avenue) to Zuni (63rd Drive). The company installed utilities and under the direction of George C. Meyer engaged architects like Robert Tappan and William Patterson to design elegant one-family houses which were built from 108th Street to 112th Street and between Queens Boulevard and 67th Road; some lots were donated for schools and churches. The Long Island Rail Road opened a station in Forest Hills on August 1911, enabling residents to commute to Manhattan in thirty minutes. The trolley along Queens Boulevard inaugurated service on 27 August 1913 from 71st Avenue to 2nd Avenue in Manhattan, and Queens Boulevard was gradually widened during the early 1920s. Development hastened after these improvements were made: in 1922 the Queens Valley Golf Club was laid out on 17.5 acres of land, and by the end of 1924 there were 340 houses. Construction began on apartments along Queens Boulevard, including the Kelvin (1928) and the Livingston, Georgian, and Portsmouth (all 1929) and between 1927 and 1930 the population increased from 9,500 to 18,207. Land along Queens Boulevard was excavated by the city in 1931 for the Independent Subway, which opened to Union Turnpike on 31 December 1936 and transformed the part of Forest Hills northeast of Queens Boulevard. Additional apartment buildings were constructed and many stores opened to accommodate the growing population (32,500 in 1940).

Forest Hills in the early 1970s was the scene of a bitter dispute between middle-class homeowners and advocates of low-income housing. The controversy received national attention and helped to launch the political career of Mario M. Cuomo, a local lawyer who negotiated a compromise that largely defused the tensions. No open land remained in the mid 1990s, and only northern Forest Hills and sections near Queens Boulevard retained one-family houses on individual lots rather than large apartment buildings. The neighborhood is perhaps best known for having been the site of the national tennis championship, the U.S. Open, until 1978.

Vincent Seyfried, Encyclopedia of New York City , Edited by Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven, Yale University Press. 1995.

Glendale
Queens

Glendale is a neighborhood in west central Queens, bounded to the north by railroad tracks (Montauk division, Long Island Rail Road), to the east by Woodhaven Boulevard, to the south by a number of cemeteries, and to the west by Fresh Pond Road. It originally consisted of farms and was developed in 1869 by John C. Schooley, a real estate agent from Jamaica, who reportedly named the neighborhood after his birthplace in Ohio. Schooley laid out streets and sold lots priced at $300 measuring twenty five by one hundred feet (eight by thirty meters). The South Side Railroad was extended to the area in 1867 and a station was opened station at 73rd Place. Development increased on May 23, 1893 after Myrtle Avenue was granted service by steam dummy (a horse car or trolley car powered by a small steam engine). Until the First World War, many farms were sold and laid out in blocks of row houses and one-family houses. Family shops opened along Myrtle Avenue, which from the 1890s until Prohibition was enjoyed for its picnic parks. After 1905, silk ribbons, matches, and airplanes were manufactured, and in the 1920s, there were studios for producing silent films. A large German population was attracted in the 1930s by work available in local textile factories. The largest employer in the 1940s was Atlas Terminal. In the 1980s, the neighborhood attracted a number of immigrants from Romania, Yugoslavia and Poland as well as China and the Dominican Republic.

Vincent Seyfried, Encyclopedia of New York City , Edited by Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven, Yale University Press. 1995.

Howard Beach
Queens

Howard Beach is located in southwestern Queens. It is bounded to the north by the Belt Parkway, to the east by 102nd Street, to the south by Jamaica Bay, and to the west by 78th Street. It was established in the 1890s by William J. Howard, a glove manufacturer in Brooklyn who operated a goat farm on 150 acres of meadow land near Aqueduct as a source of skins for kids’ gloves. In 1897, Howard bought more land and filled it in, and during the following year, he built eighteen cottages and opened a hotel near the water, which he operated until it was destroyed by fire in October 1907. He gradually bought more land and in 1909 formed the Howard Estates Development Company; Howard dredged out Stillwell Basin (later Shellbank Canal) and used the dredgings for fill on the meadows. By 1914, Howard had reclaimed five hundred acres of land, built several streets, laid out mains for water and gas, and built thirty-five houses priced between $2,500 and $5,000. A railroad station (opened in April 1913) and a post office were given the name Ramblersville; a casino, a beach and a fishing pier were added in 1915. The railroad station and the post office took the name Howard Beach on April 6, 1916, and during 1916-17, more bungalows and cottages were built and several streets were paved. In 1922, a group of investors took over the development and sold lots for about $690 each.

The demand for more housing during the 1920s stimulated development and the construction of 150 houses each year, adding up to 510 private houses by the end of 1935. In 1933, all street names were replaced by numbers to conform to the system used in the rest of Queens. After a fire destroyed the trestle across the bay, the Long Island Rail Road terminated service to Howard Beach in October 1955; subway service was inaugurated on June 28, 1956 from a station at 159th Avenue. During the 1950s, a development called Rockwood was built in a large area west of Cross Bay Boulevard; cooperative housing and condominiums were built in the 1980s.

Vincent Seyfried, Encyclopedia of New York City , Edited by Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven, Yale University Press. 1995.

Kew Gardens
Queens

Neighborhood in central Queens, bounded to the north by the Interborough Parkway and Queens Boulevard, to the east by Kew Gardens Road, to the south by Myrtle Avenue, and to the west by Forest Park. Much of the area was acquired in 1868 by Albon P. Man, who developed the neighborhood of Richmond Hill to the south, chiefly along Jamaica Avenue, while leaving undeveloped the hilly land to the north. Maple Grove Cemetery on Kew Gardens Road opened in 1875. A station was built for mourners in October and trains stopped there from mid November. The station was named Hopedale, after Hopedale Hall, a hotel at what is now Queens Boulevard and Union Turnpike. In the 1890s, the executors of Man’s estate laid out the Richmond Hill Golf Course on the hilly terrain south of the railroad. This remained until it was bisected in 1908 by the main line of the Long Island Rail Road, which had been moved 600 feet (180 meters) to the south to eliminate a curve. The golf course was the abandoned and a new station was built in 1909 on Lefferts Boulevard. Man’s heirs Alrick Man and Albon Man Jr. decided to lay out a new community and called it at first Kew and then Kew Gardens after the well-known botanical gardens in England. The architects of the development favored English and neo-Tudor styles, which still predominate in many sections. In 1910 the property was sold piecemeal by the estate and during the next few years streets were extended, land graded, and water and sewer pipes installed. The first apartment building was the Kew Bolmer at 80-45 Kew Gardens Road, erected in 1915; a clubhouse followed in 1916 and a private school in 1918. In 1920 the Kew Gardens Inn at the railroad station opened for resident guests, who paid $40 a week for a room and a bath with meals, and $85 for two rooms and a bath and meals. Elegant one-family homes were built in the 1920s, as were apartment buildings such as Colonial Hall (1921) and Kew Hall (1922) that numbered more than twenty by 1936. In July 1933 the Grand Central Parkway opened from Kew Gardens to the edge of Nassau County; this road was extended in 1935 as the Interborough Parkway to Pennsylvania Avenue in East New York. Because the parkways used part of the roadbed of the Union Turnpike no houses were sacrificed. The greatest change was wrought by the opening of the Independent subway along Queens Boulevard to Union Turnpike on 31 December 1936; four months later the subway was extended to Jamaica. Residents could now reach Manhattan and Brooklyn twenty-four hours a day for five cents. The immediate effect was to stimulate the construction of larger apartment buildings like Kent manor and high-rise buildings along Queens Boulevard, and the last vacant land disappeared. A large community of Jewish refugees from Germany took shape during the Second World War. Kew Gardens remains a densely populated, upper-middle-class residential community. Private, one-family houses line the side streets near Queens Borough Hall, a courthouse on Queens Boulevard.

Vincent Seyfried, Encyclopedia of New York City , Edited by Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven, Yale University Press. 1995.

Lindenwood
Queens

A large housing complex in southwestern Queens, centered at 153rd Avenue and 88th Street in Howard Beach, just west of the junction of the Belt Parkway and Conduit Boulevard. At one time the entire area was marshland along Spring Creek, the waterway forming the boundary between Brooklyn and Queens. The area was reclaimed between 1952-1953, and the complex was then erected. Seventeen six-story buildings in Empire Gardens stand north of 155th Avenue; south of 155th Avenue lies Lindenwood Gardens, which has forty clusters of two-story garden apartments. There are twenty-four more clusters between 84th Street and 79th Street.

Vincent Seyfried, Encyclopedia of New York City , Edited by Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven, Yale University Press. 1995.

Middle Village
Queens

Middle Village is located in west central Queens, bounded to the north by Eliot Avenue, to the east by Woodhaven Boulevard, to the south by Cooper Avenue and the Long Island Railroad, and to the west by the Lutheran Cemetery. It began as a hamlet of families of English descent and was named for its location at the midpoint of the Williamsburgh and Jamaica Turnpike (now Metropolitan Avenue), which opened in 1816 and ran from Bushwick Avenue to Jamaica; the hamlet was established in the same year. In 1852, a Lutheran church in Manhattan bought several farms north and south of Metropolitan Avenue that were turned into a large cemetery. After the Civil War, the population of the hamlet became mostly German. In 1879 the Roman Catholic diocese laid out St. John’s Cemetery east of 80th Street. The growth of Middle Village was limited by the cemeteries and by Juniper Swamp (filled in 1915 to make Juniper Park). For years, Metropolitan Avenue was lined with monument works, flower shops, small hotels and saloons. Working farms in the outskirts along Dry Harbor Road and Caldwell Avenue lasted until the First World War. The need for housing in the 1920s spurred development, and blocks of one-family detached houses were built south of Metropolitan Avenue and on all four sides of Juniper Valley Park. After the Second World War, Christ the King Catholic High School was built just east of the elevated station. Rentar Plaza, a shopping mall, was built on open space west of the Lutheran Cemetery. Housing from the 1920s survives and is well-maintained.

Vincent Seyfried, Encyclopedia of New York City , Edited by Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven, Yale University Press. 1995.

Oakland Gardens
Queens

Neighborhood in northeastern Queens bounded to the north by 48th Avenue, to the east by Alley Pond Park, to the south by Union Turnpike, and to the west by Cunningham Park. A housing development of the same name lies within the neighborhood and is bounded by the Long Island Expressway, Cloverdale Boulevard, 69th Avenue, and Springfield Boulevard. The area was settled in 1645 by John Hicks, one of the original patentees of Flushing. In the early nineteenth century his property passed into the Lawrence family, and about 1847 Frederick Newbold Lawrence built a mansion named The Oaks. A restaurateur from Manhattan, John Taylor, bought the estate in 1859 and with John Henderson transformed it into a horticultural establishment of more than thirty greenhouses specializing in roses and orchids. The property was inherited in 1886 by Taylor’s son John H. Taylor, who organized the Oakland Golf Club in 1896 and became its first president. Among the first members were Alfred P. Smith, Robert E. Wagner, and Bernard Baruch. After 1911 the club bought the golf course; the Draper Realty Company of Manhattan bought the rest of the land and divided it into building lots. In 1952 the club was bought by Morton Pickman of Forest Hills. His plan was to erect high-rise apartment buildings was blocked, and he sold the property to Marvin Krattner in 1958. The City of New York bought the golf club in the early 1960s and on its land built Queensborough Community College, Benjamin Cardozo High School, and PS203; several houses were moved to the area from the path of the Clearview Expressway by the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority. In 1963 the firm of Alexander Muss and Sons bought the remaining sixty-five acres of the golf course and built about seven hundred one-family houses (initially selling for $33,745) and two-family houses (selling for $36,240 to $45,240). Overdevelopment threatened during the 1980s, but zoning changes limited new construction and residents were able to preserve the environment around Oakland Lake.

Jeffrey A. Kroessler, Encyclopedia of New York City , Edited by Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven, Yale University Press. 1995.

Pomonok
Queens

Neighborhood in central Queens; it is part of Flushing and is served by Jewel Avenue, Parsons Boulevard, Kissena Boulevard, and Main Street. The name derives from an Indian word applied to an area of eastern Long Island and probably means "land of tribute" or "land where there is traveling by water." In early deeds it is spelled Pommanocc (1639), Paumanackle (1659) , and Pammanock (1665). By 1919 there was a country club with a golf course named Pomonock by the members, who in 1949 voted to sell the land. The two major buyers where the Electrical Workers Union, which built on it a cooperative apartment development, and the City of New York, which built a low- and multiple- income housing project. The neighborhood is the site of several educational facilities, including Queens College of the City University of New York.

Patricia A. Doyal, Encyclopedia of New York City , Edited by Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven, Yale University Press. 1995.

Roxbury
Queens

Neighborhood in southwestern Queens, lying near the western end of Rockaway Peninsula and bounded to the north by Rockaway Inlet, to the east by a station of the US Coast Guard, to the south by State Road, and to the west by a section of the Gateway National Recreation Area. It was developed in the early 1960s as part of the Breezy Point Cooperative. Most of the housing consists of small bungalows.

James Bradley, Encyclopedia of New York City , Edited by Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven, Yale University Press. 1995.

Woodhaven
Queens

Woodhaven is a neighborhood in southwestern Queens bordering Cypress Hills. It is bounded to the north by Park Lane South, to the east by 106th and 107th streets, to the south by Atlantic Avenue, and to the west by the Brooklyn line. The area was settled in the eighteenth century and the early nineteenth by members of the Ditmars, Lott, Wyckoff, Suydam and Snediker families. A racetrack called Union Course was built in 1821 between 78th and 82nd streets south of Jamaica Avenue; races were held there as late as 1868, often between the horses of plantation owners from the South and those of wealthy northerners. Another track, the Ceterville, opened in 1825 east of Woodhaven Boulevard and south of Rockaway Boulevard and was the subject of lithographs produced in the 1850s by Currier and Ives. The area was developed as a workers’ village by John R. Pitkin, who moved to Long Island from Connecticut in 1835 to build a manufacturing center in East New York. He abandoned his plan during a depression in 1837 and turned to promoting his village, Woodville, in the 1850s after persuading the railroad in 1850 to build a station. In 1853, he launched a newspaper and the few inhabitants voted to change the name of the village to Woodhaven.

Development increased after a tinware factory was built in 1863 by Charles Lalance and Florian Grosjean, Frenchmen who improved the process of tin stamping. The factory became immensely successful, eventually covering eleven acres. Grosjean, who managed the factory, invited French workers and built company housing. During the 1880s and 1890s, the stamping works dominated the village, employing 2,100 workers; it also had a feder steel mill in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and branches in Chicago and Boston. The factory also supplied mess kits for the Spanish-American War. Several residential developments were built at the end of the century: Ozone Park (1882- 1890), Brooklyn Hills (1889), and Forest Parkway (1900). After elevated subway lines were extended along Liberty Avenue (1915) and Jamaica Avenue (1917), blocks of houses were erected and thousands of Italian and Irish people moved to the neighborhood. The redbrick building of the stamping works remained until 1955; in 1984-85 its former clock tower became a bank, and the site of the factory was used for a shopping mall.

Vincent Seyfried, Encyclopedia of New York City , Edited by Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven, Yale University Press. 1995.

Brighton Beach
Brooklyn

Brighton Beach is a neighborhood in southwestern Brooklyn lying between Manhattan Beach and Coney Island and bounded to the north by Neptune Avenue, to the east by Corbin Place, to the south by the Atlantic Ocean, and to the west by Ocean Parkway. Initially developed by William A. Engeman in 1868, the area was named for the resort in England 1878 by Henry C. Murphy and a group of businessmen who bought a large parcel to build the elegant Hotel Brighton. North of Brighton Beach Avenue, Engeman built the Brighton Beach Racetrack, which made the area an important center of thoroughbred horse racing. In 1907 the Brighton Beach Baths opened on the site of a former amusement park to provide swimming, tennis and entertainment. To meet the increased demand for housing in the 1920s, developers built more than thirty six-story apartment buildings with elevators south of Brighton Beach Avenue between Coney Island Avenue and Ocean Parkway. The population consisted mostly of Jews from Brownsville, East New York, and the Lower East Side. Convenient transportation to Manhattan was provided by an express subway route with four tracks. On the former site of the racetrack wood-frame houses and bungalows predominated but by 1970 had deteriorated severely. After the Soviet Union relaxed emigration policies during the 1970s about thirty thousand people settled in the neighborhood and its environs. Of the immigrants who settled in Brighton Beach during the 1980s the great majority were from the Soviet Union, Pakistan and Vietnam. In the mid-1990s, housing consisted mostly of dense rows of apartment buildings.

Stephen Weinstein, Encyclopedia of New York City , Edited by Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven, Yale University Press. 1995.

Bayside Hills
Queens

Founded over 70 years ago, this neighborhood is host to over 1,000 Tudor and Colonial-style homes. Modeled after neighboring Oakland Hills, Bayside Hills quickly rose in the 1930’s. The first houses were erected on land that had once been part of a country club; today, the community’s undulating streets and traditional architecture evoke quaintness typical of a bygone era.

Norimitsu Onishi, “In Unity, There is Strength”, New York Times ; February 1995

Elmhurst
Queens

Neighborhood in northwestern Queens bounded to the north by Roosevelt Avenue, to the east by Junction Boulevard, to the south by the Long Island Expressway, and to the west by railroad tracks (Conrail). Established in 1652 as Newtown, it was the administrative seat of the town of Newtown from 1683 to 1898, and was renamed in 1896 to avoid any association with the foul smells of Newton Creek. The neighborhood became known for a fashionable housing development built between 1896 and 1910 by the Cord Meyer Development Company north of the railroad station. Developments were added between 1905 and 1930 in adjoining areas, including Elmhurst Square, Elmhurst South, Elmhurst Heights, and New Elmhurst. After the Second World War, Elmhurst evolved from an almost exclusively white, middle-class suburban community with a large Jewish and Italian population to the most ethnically diverse neighborhood in the city. In the 1980s immigrants from 112 countries settled there. Chinese immigrants accounted for one fifth of the total, and there were large numbers as well from Colombia, Korea, India, the Philippines, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Pakistan, Peru, and Guyana. There were also many construction projects, including the first enclosed shopping mall in Queens (1973) and several residential developments. The local subway station is Grand Avenue-Newton.

Vincent Seyfried, Encyclopedia of New York City , Edited by Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven, Yale University Press. 1995.

Maspeth
Queens

Large neighborhood in west central Queens bounded to the north by Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, to the east by 69th Street, to the south by Metropolitan Avenue, and to the west by Newtown Creek and Brooklyn. It is named for the Mespat Indians, who inhabited the headwaters of Newtown Creek. The first European settlement in Queens County (1642), it was attacked by Indians in 1643 and abandoned in 1644. Several roads were laid out during the eighteenth century. DeWitt Clinton, a governor of New York State, had a summer home at 56th Terrace and 56th Avenue, where he planned the Erie Canal. In 1852, Mt. Olivet Cemetery was opened and development escalated: the population grew from 1,449 in 1875 to 4,300 in 1898. Fertilizer works and lumber yards were built along the creek; inland were a linoleum plant and rope walk (long, narrow buildings where hemp was spun into rope). The eastern edge of Maspeth abutting Newtown Creek remained industrial and commercial, especially along Grand and Maspeth Avenues. The Long Island Expressway and the belt of cemeteries nearby isolated the northern section of Maspeth from northern and central Queens and kept it suburban; the side streets were lined with one-family detached houses. There is a large amount of industry in the area. Grand Avenue, the main shopping street, provides a route to Brooklyn and Elmhurst.

Vincent Seyfried, Encyclopedia of New York City , Edited by Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven, Yale University Press. 1995.

Belle Harbor
Queens

Neighborhood in southwestern Queens, lying within Rockaway Beach and bounded to the north by Jamaica Bay, and to the east by 129th Street, to the south by the Atlantic Ocean, and to the west by Beach 140th Street. The first sections were developed in 1907 by Frederick J. Lancaster, president of the West Rockaway Land Company; the waterfront between Beach 125th and Beach 128th streets was later added for the Belle Harbor Yacht Club. The company installed sewers, wide streets, sidewalks, and utilities and sold lots measuring twenty by one hundred feet (six by thirty meters) for year round homes. In 1915 the area was remapped to provide for 234 beach and bay front lots; trolley service began in 1917. In the mid 1990s Belle Harbor was a well-kept, upper-middle-class suburban neighborhood.

Vincent Seyfried, Encyclopedia of New York City , Edited by Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven, Yale University Press. 1995.

Fresh Meadows
Queens

Neighborhood in central Queens. In 1923 the area became the site of a golf course at the intersection of Fresh Meadow Lane and Nassau Boulevard, planned by Benjamin C. Ribman of Brooklyn, that eventually became the site of major tournaments. On 1 April 1946, land near the intersection of Horace Harding Boulevard and 188th Street was bought by the New York Life Insurance Company for a residential development; Voorhees, Walker, Foley and Smith was the architectural firm and the George A. Fuller Company the general contractor. Construction began on 3 July 1946 and was completed in 1949. Called by many a “model urban community,” the development was praised by the critic Lewis Mumford as “perhaps the most positive and exhilarating example of community planning in the country.” New York Life sold it in 1972 to Harry B. Helmsley for $53 million, and soon afterward a tenants’ association maintained that Helmsley had reduced services and was planning to develop the remaining open spaces. Tenants and owners reached a settlement in 1982 and relations became largely amicable. Fresh Meadows has 6100 privately owned houses and 7750 rental units, and remains a small town within the city.

Vincent Seyfried, Encyclopedia of New York City , Edited by Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven, Yale University Press. 1995.

Hillcrest
Queens

Neighborhood in Central Queens lying partly in Jamaica and partly in Flushing and bounded to the north by the Long Island Expressway, to the east by Fresh Meadows, to the south by the Grand Central Parkway, and to the west by 164th Street. It was developed on two hundred acres of land in the spring of 1909 by William F. Wyckoff, who formed the Hillcrest of Jamaica Company. After the first two sections were prepared along Union Turnpike, development was hastened by the incorporation on 9 March 1910 of the Jamaica-Hillcrest Company under the direction of Bryan L. Kennelly; in succeeding months the company paved streets north of Hillside Avenue, installed gas, water, and electricity, and built houses ranging in price from $6500 to $12,000. Lots were sold at auction from 1910 to 1915, and by 1913 there were sixty houses. Further development was aided by the growth of Jamaica Estates, and they opening of the elevated line along Jamaica Avenue in 1918 brought Hillcrest within the five-cent fare zone, The sale of houses in the northern section increased after Grand Central Parkway opened in 1933. By the Second World War Hillcrest had become densely built up with comfortable one-family houses.

Vincent Seyfried, Encyclopedia of New York City , Edited by Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven, Yale University Press. 1995.

Jamaica Hills
Queens

Neighborhood in east central Queens (1990 pop. 10,700), bounded to the north by the Grand Central Parkway, to the east by Jamaica Estates, to the south by Hillside Avenue, and to the west by Briarwood; it lies along a terminal moraine extending the length of Long Island. Named for its hilly terrain, the area was developed in the 1920s and 1930s after subway lines were extended to Jamaica. After 1965 the population became ethnically more diverse. The housing in the neighborhood consists mostly of old one-family frame houses and newer two- and three- family attached brick houses. A few apartment buildings stand near Hillside Avenue.. To the north of Jamaica Hills are Queens Hospital Center and St. John’s University, to the south the main commercial section of Jamaica.

Andrew Sparberg, Encyclopedia of New York City , Edited by Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven, Yale University Press. 1995.

Rockaway Point
Queens

Neighborhood in southwestern Queens, lying at the western tip of the Rockaway Peninsula; it includes Rockaway Point and Roxbury. The area maintained underdeveloped until the early twentieth century, when the Rockaway Point Company rented tent sites for about $20 a summer to visitors, most of whom were Irish. By the 1920s a colony of residents owned bungalows on rented land. In 1961 the firm of Northern Properties bought for 17.5 million all the land west of Jacob Riis Park (except Fort Tilden) to erect a high-rise development for a population of 220,000. Residents formed the Breezy Point Cooperative and paid $11.5 million for the land. Construction began on two fourteen-story apartment buildings but ceased when the city announced plans to acquire the peninsula for parkland in 1963; the unfinished apartments were demolished in 1978. The city’s plan to condemn the entire neighborhood was opposed with particular vehemence by the residents who had taken pains to make their cottages habitable year round, and a compromise permitted all to remain: land owned by the city was incorporated into the Gateway National Recreation Area in 1972, while property of the Breezy Point Cooperative was excluded from it. In the mid 1990s the community had about 2800 houses, with an estimated population of five thousand year round and twelve thousand during the summer.

Vincent Seyfried, Encyclopedia of New York City , Edited by Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven, Yale University Press. 1995.

Neponsit
Queens

Neighborhood in southwestern Queens on the Rockaway Peninsula, bounded to the east by Adirondack Boulevard (Beach 142nd Street) and to the west by Beach 149th Street; Belle Harbor lies to the east and Jacob Riis Park to the west. The neighborhood began as a track laid out in January 1910 by the Neponsit Reality Company, which first sold lots and houses in July 1911; houses costing less than $3,000 were prohibited, as were hotels and stores. Unlike other areas in Rockaway the development was designed for year-round suburban living, the houses built of vitrified black and cement stucco for protection against fire and salt air. During the 1920s and 1930s the area became fully built up; in the mid 1990s it remained a wealthy neighborhood.

Vincent Seyfried, Encyclopedia of New York City , Edited by Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven, Yale University Press. 1995.

Ozone Park
Queens

Neighborhood in southwestern Queens, bounded to the north by Atlantic Avenue, to the east by 104th Street, to the south by Liberty Avenue, and to the west by 96th Street. It was developed by the music publisher Benjamin W. Hitchcock and Charles C. Dunton after railroad service was extended to the area in 1880 by the New York, Woodhaven and Rockaway Beach Railroad. Hitchcock and Dunton filed a survey map in July 1882, and their land was divided in 316 lots, each measuring twenty-five by one hundred feet. In 1883-84 they bought more land, enlarging Ozone Park to 630 lots that were sold at auction; streets and sidewalks were laid out and shade trees planted. A post office opened in 1889 when the number of residents reached the required level of six hundred. The population reached eleven hundred by 1900 and three thousand by 1910, and consisted mostly of young families from Brooklyn. Development was spurred by the need to house workers at the tinware plants of Lalance and Grosjean in Woodhaven.

The success of Ozone Park led to the development in 1896 of Ozone Park Heights, which extended as far south as Rockaway Boulevard, and the formation of the Ozone Park Home Company. The popularity of the area for housing increased after the Brooklyn Rapid Transit extended the Fulton Street elevated line along Liberty Avenue to Lefferts Boulevard (119th Street) in September 1915, enabling residents to commute to work into Manhattan for only five cents. The area became entirely built up as the demand for housing continued to rise in the 1920s; the last open spaces were used for blocks of row houses and attached houses. In April 1956 the Independent Subway was connected at Grant Avenue to the Fulton Street elevated line, which became obsolete. There were 132,353 residents in Ozone Park, South Ozone Park, and Richmond Hill South in 1957. Aqueduct Racetrack at Rockaway Boulevard and Southern Parkway, the last remaining venue for horse racing in New York City, opened in 1894 and was extensively renovated in 1959. In the mid-1990s Ozone Park was a modest, middle-class community of one- and two-family frame houses. Most inhabitants were of German, Irish, Italian, and eastern European ancestry, and there was also a growing number of blacks and immigrants from the Caribbean and Latin America.

Vincent Seyfried, Encyclopedia of New York City , Edited by Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven, Yale University Press. 1995.

Rego Park
Queens

Neighborhood in east central Queens, bounded to the north by Queens Boulevard, to the east by Yellowstone Boulevard, to the south by the intersection of Yellowstone and Woodhaven Boulevards, and to the west by Woodhaven Boulevard. The name is derived from that of the Real Good Construction Company, which developed the neighborhood in the 1920s. Until 1920 the area was covered by farms and had one road, Remsen’s Lane (now 63rd Drive, Fleet Court, and 64th Road), which abutted the Zelier farm; for several years, Chinese farmers who kept strictly to themselves grew vegetables there for sale in Chinatown. The Rego Construction Company bought out the farms during the 1920s and built one-family row houses, multi-family houses, and apartment buildings, and in 1923 the area was named by the developers, Henry Schloh and Charles I. Hausmann. The core of the development was 525 eight-room houses costing $8000 each; the first stores were built in 1926 on Queens Boulevard and 63rd Drive. Apartment buildings were erected in 1927-28, among them Jupiter Court, Remo Hall and Marion Court. A railroad station opened in 1928, the expressway was extended to Queens in 1935, and a subway line to Union Turnpike began service on 31 December 1936. In 1939-40 the World’s Fair spurred development: apartments filled the last open land on 99th Street and on Queens Boulevard. Rego Park has a diverse mix of apartment buildings and private housing, including Lefrak City (1962-67), a huge housing complex astride the Long Island Expressway.

Vincent Seyfried, Encyclopedia of New York City , Edited by Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven, Yale University Press. 1995.

Rockaway Park
Queens

Neighborhood in southern Queens, lying on the Rockaway Peninsula and bounded to the north by Rockaway Inlet, to the east by Beach 110th Street, to the south by the Atlantic Ocean, and to the west by Beach 126th Street. There was rapid development after the New York, Woodhaven, and Rockaway Railroad was extended to the area in 1880. On 25 July 1889 Austin Corbin, president of the Long Island Rail Road, set aside three hundred acres with half a mile of beachfront for an exclusive residential community. The failure of the Hotel Imperial, built for $1 million, slowed development. In 1900 the owners of the beach resumed promotional efforts and invested $500,000 to fill in twenty-three acres of the bay and build a boulevard along the ocean and a boardwalk twelve blocks long; fourteen streets were laid out, utilities were installed, and Rockaway Beach Amusement Park nearby opened in 1901. Soon there were large crowds of summer visitors, and hundreds of houses by the time of the First World War. A smaller amusement park called Rockaway Playland, also in Rockaway Beach, lasted until 1987. Rockaway Park, an attractive residential neighborhood, now draws fewer vacationers and has a larger permanent population.

Vincent Seyfried, Encyclopedia of New York City , Edited by Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven, Yale University Press. 1995.

Gerritsen Beach
Brooklyn

Neighborhood in southeastern Brooklyn, lying near Marine Park on a peninsula and bounded to the north by Avenue U, to the east by Gerritsen Avenue, to the south by Plum Beach Channel, and to the west by Shell Bank Creek and Knapp Street; it is bisected from west to east by the Gotham Avenue Canal. The neighborhood was named for Wolfert Gerritsen, who in the early seventeenth century built a house and mill on Gerritsen Creek (now part of Marine Park); the mill was destroyed by fire in 1931. Until the early twentieth century the area remained undeveloped save for a few squatters’ bungalows at the foot of Gerritsen Avenue. The firm of Realty Associates began building a middle-class summer resort there in 1920, and the southwest corner of Gerritsen’s Meadow was soon covered by one-story bungalows with peaked roofs and no backyards. The popularity of this first venture spurred further growth. Some bungalows were made suitable for year-round habitation, two-story houses with backyards were built, and within a decade there were fifteen hundred houses. Gerritsen Avenue is the main thoroughfare and the population is mostly of Irish, German and Italian descent. The area north of the canal, called New Gerritsen by local residents, is lined with stores and brick houses. The area south of the canal retains the character of a small fishing village and is a popular station for party boats. The volunteer fire department, which began operation in 1921 when the population began to grow, is headquarted at 32 Seba Avenue and may be the only remaining organization of its kind in Brooklyn.

Elizabeth Reich Rawson, Encyclopedia of New York City , Edited by Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven, Yale University Press. 1995.

King\'s Highway
Brooklyn
Kings Highway is a neighborhood in southwestern Brooklyn bounded to the north by Avenue M, to the east by Nostrand Avenue, to the south by Avenue T, and to the west by Ocean Parkway; it lies mostly within the original boundaries of Gravesend. The neighborhood is named for a road bisecting it that was once an Indian trail running east from the Narrows; this linked the small villages of New Utrecht, Flatbush, Flatlands and Bushwick, and was used by British troops as an approach during the Battle of Long Island. A farm of a hundred acres owned by the Wyckoff family was brought in 1835 by Cornelius W. Bennett, who moved there from Gowanus. Potato farms predominated until 1903, when a large portion of Bennett’s land was sold by his descendant Edward Bennett to the development firm of Wood and Harmon. During the 1920s, the studios Vitagraph, Warner Brothers and Ace Films stood near Avenue M, and silent-firm stars such as Lillian Walker, Maurice Costello and Clara Williams built grand houses in the neighborhood.

Elizabeth Reich Rawson, Encyclopedia of New York City , Edited by Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven, Yale University Press. 1995.

Seaside
Queens

Neighborhood in Southern Queens, lying on the Rockaway Peninsula and centered on Beach 103rd Street, it is a part of Rockaway Beach. The area became a resort after the New York, Woodhaven and Rockaway Railroad opened a station in 1880 at Beach 102nd and Beach 103rd Streets. Until 1930 thousands of visitors frequented bathhouses and amusements, including the Wainwright and Smith bathhouses and the Ferris wheel at 103rd Street; a large amusement complex called Steeplechase and bathhouses between 98th and 100th streets; the iron pier and bathhouses at 105th street; and the scenic railway, carousel, and hotel between 103rd and 104th streets. The resort disappeared after the Second World War, but an amusement park called Playland continued to attract crowds until it closed in 1985. The Seaside-Rockaway Houses now line the beach between 102nd and 108th streets.

Vincent Seyfried, Encyclopedia of New York City , Edited by Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven, Yale University Press. 1995.

Ridgewood
Queens

Neighborhood in Queens bounded to the north by Metropolitan Avenue, to the east by the tracks of the Long Island Rail Road and Conrail, to the south by Central Avenue, and to the west by Flushing Avenue. The area was inhabited by Mespatches Indians and during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was tilled by Dutch farmers. The only surviving Dutch farmhouse is the Adrien Onderdonck House (1731). Arbitration Rock was set at Onderdonck and Monstrose Avenues to end a dispute that lasted from 1660 to 1769 over the boundary between Brooklyn and Queens. English settlers in early eighteenth century named the area for its high wooded terrain. It began to grow after transportation to Brooklyn improved: the horsecar line along Myrtle Avenue was extended to Broadway in 1855, as were elevated rapid transit lines in 1879; the Brooklyn City and Bushwick trolley lines built large depots at Myrtle and Wyckoff avenues in 1881; and the Myrtle Avenue elevated line was extended to Wyckoff Avenue in 1888. From the late 1880s until the end of the First World War the area was sometimes known as Evergreen, in deference to a community on Long Island that claimed priority in using the name Ridgewood. The population was largely middle class and German and supported many local businesses, including several breweries and knitting mills. At first small frame houses were erected, and from 1906 Gustav Mathews acquired the remaining farmlands and built the Mathews Flats, a complex of more than eight hundred six-family row houses of three stories each. The houses sold for more than $11,000 or rented for $15 a month. Paul Stier built a similar development from 1908 to 1914 between 67th and 70th avenues, using tan brick and lumber of the highest quality (much of the housing in the neighborhood consists of his row houses, about half of which are occupied by their owners). In September 1983 an area comprising 2980 buildings was designated the largest Historic District in the nation.

Vincent Seyfried and Stephen Weinstein, Encyclopedia of New York City , Edited by Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven, Yale University Press. 1995.

Sheepshead Bay
Brooklyn

Sheepshead Bay is a neighborhood in southeastern Brooklyn, overlooking an ocean inlet of the same name to its south and bordered to the north by Marine Park, to the east by Shell Bank Creek, to the south by Manhattan Beach, and to the west by Gravesend. The area was the site of a large Canarsee Indian village and remained underdeveloped for more than a century and a half after the English settled Gravesend in 1645, which was a short distance to the northwest. The Wycoff-Bennett residence (1766) is one of the most striking of the extant Dutch farmhouses in Brooklyn. In the early nineteenth century, a cluster of wooden shacks took shape around the inlet, providing a sheltered anchorage for small boats. Shortly after the Civil War the village began to attract summer visitors from the city, drawn by the cool sea breezes and the seafood that had become a local specialty. Although two hotels were built, there was no permanent growth until 1877, when a fifty-acre farm by the bay was subdivided and developed. The same fate soon befell other farms, and by the end of the century the village had some four hundred houses served by stores, churches, and a post office. During the 1870s, John Y. McKane arranged for the extension of several railroads and boulevards to Coney Island, making the whole southern shore more accessible than it had been before. He also opened the Coney Island Jockey Club Race Track on a site of 2,200 acres. This was replaced in 1915 by the Sheepshead Speedway, which was demolished in 1923; the site was then subdivided into small building lots and developed.

In 1931 the city took title to the area around the basin as the first step toward revitalizing it. Aging structures on stilts above the water were restored, and Emmons Avenue was widened. When work was completed in the summer of 1937, the Brooklyn Eagle characterized and renovated neighborhood as "clean, tidy and practically odorless." The character of the neighborhood changed again after 1954 as wooden houses were replaced by six- and seven-story red-brick apartment buildings for middle-income residents. By 1960, Sheepshead Bay was the fastest-growing community in Brooklyn. It became widely known as the center of recreational fishing in New York City, and a number of private boats moored at its ten piers and used it as a port from which to launch cruises for bluefish, snappers and striped bass. In the 1980s and 1990s, the city developed plans for Sheepshead Bay that provided for the improvement of the piers, private residential and retail construction, and an esplanade along Emmons Avenue.

Ellen Fletcher, Encyclopedia of New York City , Edited by Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven, Yale University Press. 1995.

Kew Garden Hills
Queens

Bounded to the north by Corona Park and Queens College, to the east by Kissena Boulevard, and to the south and west by Grand Central Parkway, Kew Gardens Hills was mostly rural until the 1930s when the Independent Subway line came to the town. A flurry of the residential development ensued, led by the Wolosoff brothers firm. Families flocked to Kew Gardens Hills, which the Woolosoffs named in part after their other successful housing ventures.

Claudia Gryvatz Copquin, The Neighborhoods of Queens . New Haven, Yale University Press. 2007.

Bergen Beach
Brooklyn

Neighborhood in southeastern Brooklyn, bounded to the north by Paerdegat Basin and Canarsie, to the east by Jamaica Bay, to the south by Mill Basin, and to the west by Flatlands. A family descended from Hans Hansen Bergen, a Dutch settler of the seventeenth century, owned the land and eventually sold it to Percy Williams, an entrepreneur who developed it as a summer resort. His enterprise thrived in the 1890s and the early twentieth century but became unable to compete with Coney Island and Rockaway Beach, and by 1926 the last section had been sold for a development of one-family houses.

Ellen Marie Snyder-Grenier, Encyclopedia of New York City , Edited by Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven, Yale University Press. 1995.

Mill Basin/Mill Island
Brooklyn
Mill Basin/ Mill Island is a neighborhood in southeastern Brooklyn lying along Jamaica Bay and bounded to the north by Avenue U, and to the east, south and west by the Mill Basin/ Mill Island Inlet. The area was called Equandito (Broken Lands) by the local Canarsee Indians who sold it in 1664 to John Tilton Jr. and Samuel Spicer. During the seventeenth century it became part of Flatlands and tidal mills were built on it; the land was owned from 1675 by Jan Martense Schenck and between 1818 and 1870 by the wife of General Phillip S. Brooke. The Crooke-Schenck House, which stood at East 63rd Street, was dismantled in the early 1960s and reassembled at the Brooklyn Museum. The area retained its rural character until Robert L. Crooke built a lead-smelting plant in 1890. The Crooke Smelting Company was bought out by the National Lead Company, and Crooke sold the remainder of the land to the firm of McNulty and Fitzgerald, which erected bulkheads and filled in the marshes.

Until the early twentieth century, the chief resources were the abundant crabs, oysters and clams found in Jamaica Bay. In 1906 the Flatbush Improvement Company brought marshland and engaged the firm of Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific to dredge creeks and fill in meadows. Eventually, the parcel had an area of 332 acres and was fit for industrial development, and within a decade, National Lead, Gulf Refining and other leading firms engaged in heavy industry opened plants there. Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific bought the land in 1909 and built three large dry docks, employing one thousand workers; it also began promoting Jamaica Bay as a major harbor but failed to attract a large volume of shipping. A project begun in 1913 and completed in 1923 to extend Flatbush Avenue to Rockaway Inlet provided an additional 2,700-foot dock facility and a strip of land for a road across the marshes. In 1915 a channel was dredged to the main channel of Jamaica Bay, and a bulkhead and wharfage platform were build on the mainland side of Mill Creek. By 1919, Mill Island was the site of at least six manufacturing and commercial concerns. During the late 1920s and 1930s the docks were rented to a number of small industrial firms. The neighborhood remained a industrial area for thirty years, but its further development was hindered when plans for rail service to the rest of Brooklyn went unrealized. Residential development began after the Second World War when Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific sold to the firm of Flatbush Park Homes the land bounded to the north by Avenue U, to the east by East 68th Street and East Mill Basin/ Mill Island, to the south by Basset Avenue, and to the west by Strickland Avenue and Mill Avenue. Brick bungalows were built in the late 1940s and early 1950s, many of which were later replaced by large, custom-built, detached one-family houses on lots measuring fifty by one hundred feet.

Elizabeth Reich Rawson, Stephen Weinstein, Encyclopedia of New York City , Edited by Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven, Yale University Press. 1995.

Manhattan Beach
Brooklyn

Neighborhood in southwestern Brooklyn, lying on a peninsula at the eastern end of Coney Island and bounded to the north by Sheepshead Bay, to the east and south by the Atlantic Ocean, and to the west by Corbin Place. It was developed in 1877 as a self-contained summer resort on five hundred acres of slat marsh by Austin Corbin’s firm, the Manhattan Beach Improvement Company. During its heyday, the Manhattan Beach Hotel and the Oriental Hotel offered entertainment by Patrick S. Gilmore and John Philip Sousa (who commemorated the resort in his Manhattan Beach March). Several factors contributed to the decline of the resort during the early years of the twentieth century: amusement parks opened in West Brighton, many parts of Brooklyn became suburban, and the three racetracks on Coney Island closed in 1910. Residential development began after 1907, when Manhattan Beach Improvement divided its land north of the hotels into building lots. During the Second World War the federal government operated an important training station for the U.S. Coast Guard at the eastern end on land later occupied by Kingsborough Community College. Most of the population of Manhattan Beach lives in one-family houses on twenty tree-lined streets arranged in alphabetical order and named after places in England.

Dennis C. Dickerson, Encyclopedia of New York City , Edited by Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven, Yale University Press. 1995.

Briarwood
Queens

Briarwood is a neighborhood in east central Queens bounded to the north by Union Turnpike, to the east by Parsons Boulevard, to the south by Hillside Avenue, and the west by the Van Wyck Expressway. The area was first developed by Herbert A. O’Brien, and the name was suggested by his wife, Adeline, for the thick woods and briars covering the land. The Briarwood Land Company later declared bankruptcy and the area remained largely undeveloped until the mid-1920s, when it was divided into lots that were sold at auction. With the New York Life Insurance Company, the United Nations Built Parkway Village in 1947 to provide housing for its staff members. The development became a cooperative in 1983 and housed residents of many nationalities, although by this time few worked for the United Nations. Several apartment buildings rise above the surrounding one- and two-family houses, and many of the streets in Briarwood are winding. Well-known residents have included diplomat Ralph Bunche, the feminist and social activist Betty Friedan, and the civil rights leader Roy Wilkins.

Patricia A. Doyal, Encyclopedia of New York City , Edited by Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven, Yale University Press. 1995.

Historical Places

Ryan Visitors Center
Flatbush Ave & Aviation Rd
Brooklyn, NY 11234

West Side Tennis Club
1 Tennis Place
Forest Hills, NY 11375

Fort Tilden
Fort Tilden
Queens, NY 11695

Jacob Riis Park Bathhouse
Riis Park
Rockaway, NY 11518

Floyd Bennett Field
Floyd Bennett Field
Brooklyn, NY 11234

Queens Borough Hall
120-55 Queens Boulevard
Kew Gardens, NY 11424

Queens County Supreme Court
125-01 Queens Boulevard
Kew Gardens, NY 11415

Saint John Cemetery
8001 Metropolitan Avenue
Middle Village, NY 11379

Wyckoff- Bennett Farmhouse
1669 East 22nd Street
Brooklyn, NY 11229

Former Site of Lundy\'s Restaurant
1901 Emmons Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11235

Rockaway Point Firehouse
204-26 Rockaway Point Boulevard
Breezy Point, NY 11697

Station Square
Station Square
Forest Hills, NY 11375

Lutheran Cemetery
67-29 Metropolitan Avenue
Middle Village, NY 11379

Mount Olivet Cemetery
65-40 Grand Avenue
Maspeth, NY 11378

Mokom Shalom/Bayside/Acacia Cemetery
Liberty Avenue and 84th Street
Ozone Park, NY 11417

Washington Cemetery
Avenue J & E 5th St
Brooklyn, NY 11230

The Archie and Edith Bunker Home from the TV Show “All in the Family”
89-70 Cooper Avenue
Glendale, NY 11374

Holocaust Memorial Park
Shore Boulevard and Emmons Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11235

Police Precincts

60th Precinct
2951 W 8th St
Brooklyn, NY 11224

61st Precinct
2575 Coney Island
Brooklyn, NY 11223

100th Precinct
92-24 Rockaway Beach Blvd
Queens, NY 11693

112th Precinct
Austin St & Yellowstone Blvd
Forest Hills, NY 11375

104th Precinct
64-2 Catalpa Ave
Queens, NY, 11385

70th Precinct
154 Lawrence Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11230

106th Precinct
103-53 101st St
Ozone Park, NY 11417

107th Precinct
71-01 Parsons Blvd.
Flushing, NY 11365

102nd Precinct
Jamaica Ave & 118th St
Richmond Hill, NY 11418

66th Precinct
5822 16th Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11204

63rd Precinct
1844 Brooklyn Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11210

69th Precinct
9720 Foster Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11236

75th Precinct
1000 Sutter Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11208

111th Precinct
45-06 215th Street
Bayside, NY 11361

Fire Stations

Engine 279
252 Lorraine Street
Brooklyn, NY 11231

Battalion 33
1635 E. 14th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11229

Division 13 Engine 286
66-44 Myrtle Avenue
Queens, NY 11694

Battalion 28
392 Himrod Street
Brooklyn, NY 11212

Ladder 106
205 Greenpoint Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11222

Engine 332
165 Bradford Street
Brooklyn, NY 11207

Battalion 31
39 Auburn Place
Brooklyn, NY 11236

Ladder 111
495 Hancock Street
Brooklyn, NY 11233

Ladder 107
799 Lincoln Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11207

Division 14 Engine 292
6418 Queens Boulevard
Queens, NY 11377

Ladder 109
6630 Third Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11220

Ladder 114
5209 Fifth Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11220

Ladder 119
26 Hooper Street
Brooklyn, NY 11211

Ladder 132
489 St. John's Place
Brooklyn, NY 11238

Ladder 120
107 Watkins Street
Brooklyn, NY 11212

Ladder 123
1352 St. John's Place
Brooklyn, NY 11213

Battalion 39
799 Lincoln Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11207

Ladder 124
394 Himrod Street
Brooklyn, NY 11237

Ladder 131
252 Lorraine Street
Brooklyn, NY 11231

Ladder 146
75 Richardson Street
Brooklyn, NY 11211

Engine 284
1157 79th Street Brooklyn,
Brooklyn, NY 11228

Ladder 147
1210 Cortelyou Road
Brooklyn, NY 11218

Ladder 148
4210 Twelfth Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11219

Ladder 153
901 Avenue U
Brooklyn, NY 11223

Ladder 104
161 South 2nd Street
Brooklyn, NY 11211

Ladder 110
172 Tillary Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201

Ladder 113
491 Rogers Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11225

Battalion 38
1352 St. John's Place
Brooklyn, NY 11213

Ladder 118
74 Middagh Street
Brooklyn, NY 11202

Ladder 156
1635 East 14th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11229

Ladder 122
530 11th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11215

Battalion 41
2900 Snyder Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11226

Ladder 159
1851 East 48th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11234

Ladder 166
2510 Neptune Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11224

Ladder 168
8653 18th Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11214

Ladder 170
1361 Rockaway Parkway
Brooklyn, NY 11238

Ladder 176
25 Rockaway Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11233

Ladder 172
2312 65th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11204

Ladder 174
5101 Snyder Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11203

Ladder 102
850 Bedford Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11205

Division 13 Engine 268
257 Beach 116 Street
Queens, NY 11694

Battalion 57
208 Monroe Street,
Brooklyn, NY 11216

Engine 202
31 Richards Street
Brooklyn, NY 11231

Engine 210
160 Carlton Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11205

Engine 318
2510 Neptune Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11224

Engine 218
650 Hart Street
Brooklyn, NY 11221

Engine 310
5015 Snyder Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11203

Engine 283
885 Howard Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11212

Engine 217
940 Dekalb Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11221

Engine 282
4210 12th Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11219

Engine 281
1210 Cortelyou Road
Brooklyn, NY 11218

Engine 280
489 St. John's Place
Brooklyn, NY 11238

Engine 276
1635 East 14th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11229

Engine 222
32 Ralph Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11221

Engine 226
409 State Street
Brooklyn, NY 11217

Engine 229
75 Richardson Street
Brooklyn, NY 11211

Engine 230
701 Park Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11205

Engine 250
126 Foster Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11230

Battalion 32
31 Richards Street
Brooklyn, NY 11231

Engine 249
491 Rogers Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11225

Engine 246
2732 East 11th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11229

Engine 242
9219 Fifth Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11209

Engine 240
1307 Prospect Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11218

Engine 239
395 Fourth Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11215

Engine 238
205 Greenpoint Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11222

Engine 236
998 Liberty Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11208

Engine 235
206 Monroe Street
Brooklyn, NY 11216

Engine 234
1352 St. John's Place
Brooklyn, NY 11213

Engine 233
25 Rockaway Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11233

Division 13 Engine 285
10317 98th Street
Queens, NY 11417

Division 14 Engine 291
56-07 Metropolitan Avenue
Queens, NY 11237

Division 14 Engine 319
7811 67th Road
Queens, NY 11379

Division 14 Engine 3234
10801 Horace Harding Expressway
Queens, NY 11368

Division 14 Ladder 138
9728 43rd Avenue
Queens, NY 11368

Division 4 Battalion 45
58-65 52 Road
Queens, NY 11278

Division 4 Battalion 46
Elmhurst Hospital
Queens, NY 11373

Division 4 Battalion 47
415 Beach 72nd Street
Queens, NY 11692

Engine 257
1361 Rockaway Parkway
Brooklyn, NY 11236

Engine 254 Ladder 153
901 Avenue U
Brooklyn, NY 11223

Engine 243
8653 Eighteenth Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11214

Division 13 Ladder 135
66-44 Myrtle
Queens, NY 11227

FDNY Haz Mat 1
56-29 68 Street
Queens, NY 11378

Division 4 Battalion 50
Queens General Hospital
Queens, NY 11432

Battalion 50 FDNY
15311 Hillside Avenue
Queens, NY 11432

Battalion 46 Division 14
8653 Grand Avenue
Queens, NY 11373

Queens Command FDNY
135-16 38 Street
Queens, NY 11354

Division 14 Engine 289
97-28 43 Avenue
Queens, NY 11368

Division 13 JFK Hose Wagon
10712 Lefferts Boulevard
Queens, NY 11419

14 Division Ladder 152
61-20 Utopia Parkway
Queens, NY 11365

13 Division Ladder 155
143-15 Rockaway Boulevard
Queens, NY 11436

Division 14 Ladder 162
218-44 97 Avenue
Queens, NY 11429

Engine 331 Ladder 173
158-57 Cross Bay Boulevard
Queens, NY 11693

Division 13 Ladder 315
15906 Union Turnpike
Queens, NY 11366

Engine 277
32 Ralph Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11221

Engine 320, Ladder 167
3618 Francis Lewis Boulevard
Flushing, NY 11358

Engine 221
161 South 2nd
Brooklyn, NY 11211

Engine 271
392 Himrod Street
Brooklyn, NY 11237

Ladder 105
494 Dean Street
Brooklyn, NY 11217

Ladder 108
187 Union Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11200

Ladder 112
32 Ralph Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11221

Battalion 43
2929 W. 8th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11224

Engine 206
1201 Grand Street
Brooklyn, NY 11211

Engine 253
2429 86th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11204

Engine 321
2165 Gerritsen Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11229

Engine 214
495 Hancock Street
Brooklyn, NY 11233

Engine 227
423 Ralph Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11233

Engine 228
438 39th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11232

Battalion 58
1361 Rockaway Pkwy.
Brooklyn, NY 11238

Battalion 35
187 Union Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11206

Engine 241
8630 Third Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11220

Engine 237
43 Morgan Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11237

Division 13 Engine 294
101-02 Jamaica Avenue
Queens, NY 11418

Division 13 Thawing Apparatus 65
89-40 87 Street
Queens, NY 11421

Battalion 52 FDNY
4120 Murray Street
Queens, NY 11355

13 Division Ladder 158
145-50 Springfield Boulevard
Queens, NY 11413

13 Division Ladder 165
36-18 Francis Lewis Boulevard
Queens, NY 11412

Engine 290
480 Sheffield Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11207

Battalion 40
1336 60th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11219

Battalion 37
32 Ralph Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11221

Ladder 149
1157 79th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11228

Battalion 48
1307 Prospect Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11218

Ladder 169
2732 East 11th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11229

Ladder 175
165 Bradford Street Brooklyn, NY 11207
Brooklyn, NY 11207

Engine 205
74 Middagh Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201

Ladder 101
31 Richards Street
Brooklyn, NY 11231

Engine 207
172 Tillary
Brooklyn, NY 11201

Engine 323
6405 Avenue N
Brooklyn, NY 11234

Engine 220
530 11th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11205

Engine 247
1336 60th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11219

Ladder 103
480 Sheffield Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11207

Division 13 Engine 286
66-44 Myrtle Avenue
Queens, NY 11327

Division 13 Engine 329
402 Beach 169th Street
Queens, NY 11697

Division 13 Ladder 121
58-03 Rockaway Beach Boulevard
Queens, NY 11642

Battalion 47 FDNY
9220 Rockaway Beach Boulevard
Queens, NY 11693

Division 12 Ladder 15
91-04 197 Street
Queens, NY 11423

14 Division Ladder 163
41-24 57 Street
Queens, NY 11412

Engine 330
2312 65th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11204

Ladder 161
2928 West 8th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11224

Battalion 44
107 Watkins Street
Brooklyn, NY 11212

Engine 201
5113 Fourth Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11220

Engine 216
187 Union Avenue, Brooklyn
Brooklyn, NY 11206

Engine 309
1851 East 48th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11234

Engine 219
494 Dean Street
Brooklyn, NY 11217

Engine 248
2900 Snyder Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11226

Division 13 Ladder 142
103-17 98 Avenue
Queens, NY 11417

Engine 294 Ladder 143
101-02 Jamaica Avenue
Queens, NY 11418

Division 13 Ladder 311
14550 Springfield Boulevard
Queens, NY 11413

Ladder 157
1367 Rogers Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11210

Engine 224
274 Hicks Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201

Engine 255
1367 Rogers Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11210

Engine 225
799 Lincoln Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11207

Battalion 42
8653 18th Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11214

Engine 245
2929 West 8th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11224

Engine 231
107 Watkins Street
Brooklyn, NY 11212

Division 13 Ladder 155
5803 Rockaway Beach Boulevard
Queens, NY 11692

Engine 293
8940 87th Street
Queens, NY 11421

Division 14 Engine 319
7811 67th Road
Queens, NY 11379

Division 14 Engine 319
7811 67th Road
Queens, NY 11379

Division 14 Engine 319
7811 67th Road
Queens, NY 11379

Division 14 Engine 319
7811 67th Road Queens, NY 11379
Queens, NY 11379

Engine 251 Division 14
254-20 Union Turnpike
Queens, NY 11412

Engine 305 Ladder 151
111-02 Queens Boulevard
Queens, NY 11375

Division 13 FDNY
91-45 121 Street
Queens, NY 11418

Division 14 Ladder 299
6120 Utopia Parkway
Queens, NY 11365

Public Schools

Francis Lewis HS
58-20 Utopia Parkway
Queens, NY 11365
Principal: Jeffrey Scherr
718-281-8200

PS 071
62-85 Forest Avenue
Queens, NY 11385
Principal: Walkydia Olivella
718-821-7772

PS 209 Margaret Mead
2609 East 7th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11235
Frances Locurcio, Principal
Phone: 718-743-1954

PS 102
55-24 Van Horn Street
Queens, NY 11373
Principal: Anthony Pisacano
718-446-3308

JHS 014 Shell Bank
2424 Batchelder St
Brooklyn, NY 11235
Principal: Anne Tully
718-743-0220

PS 117
85-15 143 Street
Queens, NY 11435
Principal: Harvey Katz
718-526-4780

IS 240 Andries Hudde School
2500 Nostrand Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11210
Principal: Elena O’Sullivan
718-253-3700

IS 98 Bay Academy School for Arts and Sciences
1401 Emmons Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11235
Principal: Marian Nagler
718-891-9005

Cunningham IS 234
1875 East 17th St
Brooklyn, NY 11229
Principal: Susan Schaeffer
718-645-1334

PS 197 The Ocean School
825 Hicksville Road
Queens, NY 11691
Principal: Michael Koss
718-327-1083

IS 278 Marine Park School
1925 Stuart Street
Brooklyn, NY 11229
Principal: Debra Garofalo
718-375-3523

PS 153 Homecrest
1970 Homecrest Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11229
Principal: Carl Santa Maria
718-375-4484

PS 220
62-10 108 Street
Queens, NY 11375
Principal: Josette Pizarro
718-592-3030

Edward Murrow HS
1600 Avenue L
Brooklyn, NY 11230
Principal: Anthony Lodico
718-258-9283

Mark Twain IS 239 for the Gifted & Talented
2401 Neptune Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11224
Principal: Carol Moore
718-266-0814

PS 195 Manhattan Beach School
131 Irwin Street
Brooklyn, NY, 11235
Principal: Arthur Forman
718-618-9102

PS 206 Joseph F. Lamb School
2200 Gravesend Neck Rd
Brooklyn, NY, 11229
Principal: Gemma Carletto
718-743-5598

PS 207 Elizabeth G. Leary School
4011 Fillmore Avenue
Brooklyn, NY, 11234
Principal: Mary Bosco
718-645-8667

PS 215 Morris H. Weiss School
415 Avenue S
Brooklyn, NY, 11223
Principal: Gail Feuer
718-339-2464

James Madison HS
3787 Bedford Ave
Brooklyn, NY, 11229
Principal: Joseph Gogliormella
718-758-7359

Leon M.Goldstein HS For the Sciences
1830 Shore Blvd
Brooklyn, NY, 11235
Principal: Joseph Zaza
718-368-8542

PS 052K
2675 E. 29th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11235
Principal: Ilene Altschul
718-648-0882

PS 222 (Kathryn R. Snyder School)
3301 Quentin Road
Brooklyn, NY 11234
Principal: Louise Blake
718-998-4298

PS 225 (Eileen E. Zaglin School)
1075 Oceanview Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11235
Principal: Joseph Montebello
718-743-9793

PS 236
6302 Avenue U
Brooklyn. NY, 11234
Principal: Mary Barton
Business Phone: 718-444-6969
Fax: 718-241-6630

PS 238 (Anne Sullivan School)
1633 East 8th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11223
Principal: Harla Musoff-Weiss
718-339-4355

PS 254
1801 Avenue Y
Richmond Hill, NY 11418
718-846-1840

PS 277 Gerritsen Beach
2529 Gerritsen Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11229
Principal: Jeanne M. Fish
718-743-6689

PS 255
1866 East 17th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11218
Principal: Linda Singer
718-376-8494

PS 255 Barbara Reing School
1866 E 17th St
Brooklyn, NY 11229
718-376-8494

PS 286
2525 Haring St
Brooklyn, NY 11235
718-648-7816

Sheepshead Bay HS
3000 Avenue X
Brooklyn, NY 11235
Principal: Reesa Levy
718-332-2003

Beach Channel HS
100-00 Beach Channel Drive
Rockaway Park, NY 11694
Principal: David Morris
718-945-6900

Forest Hills HS
67-01 110th St
Forest Hills, NY 11375
Principal: Stephen Frey
718-268-3137

IS 119
74-01 78th Ave
Ridgewood, NY 11385
Principal: Mary Aloisio
718-326-8261

Jamaica Day School
84-35 152nd St
Jamaica, NY 11432
Principal: Roberta Cummings
718-526-2022

Jamaica HS
167-01 Gothic Drive
Jamaica, NY 11432
Principal: Jay Dickler
718-739-5942

JHS 157 (Halsey)
63-55 102nd St
Rego Park, NY 11374
Principal: Vincent Suraci
718-830-4982

JHS 168 (Parsons)
158-40 76th Rd
Flushing, NY 11366
Principal: Judy Gewuerz
718-591-9000

JHS 190
68-17 Austin St
Forest Hills, NY 11375
Principal: Marilyn Grant
718-830-4970

JHS 216 (George Ryan)
64-20 175th St
Fresh Meadows, NY 11365
Principal: Reginald Landeau Jr
718-358-2005

John Adams HS
101-01 Rockaway Blvd
Ozone Park, NY 11417
Principal: Grace Zwillenberg
718-332-0500

John Browne HS
63-25 Main St
Flushing, NY 11367
Principal: Howard Kwait
718-263-1919

MS 074 (Nathaniel Hawthorne Middle School)
61-15 Oceania Street
Bayside, NY 11364
Principal: Andrea Dapolito
718-631-6800

MS 202 (Robert H. Goddard)
138 -30 Lafayette St
Ozone Park, NY 11417
Principal: William Moore
718-848-0001

MS 207
159-15 88th St
Howard Beach, NY, 11414
Principal: Linda Spadaro
Business Phone: 718-848-2700
Fax: 718-848-4226

MS 210
93-11 101st Ave
Ozone Park, NY 11416
Principal: Rosalyn Allman-Manning
718-845-5942

MS 216
64-20 175th St
Fresh Meadows NY 11365
Principal: Reginald Landeau Jr.
718-358-2005

MS 323 (Reg. 5 Scholars Academy)
6420 175th St
Fresh Meadows, NY 11694
Principal: Brian O’Connell
718-474-6918

PS 004
196-25 Peck Ave
Fresh Meadows, NY 11365
718-264-0916

PS 026
195-02 69th Avenue
Fresh Meadows, NY 11365
Principal: Dr. Dina Koski
718-464-4505

PS 047
9 Power Road
Broad Channel, NY 11693
Principal: Patricia Tubridy
718-634-7167

PS 049
79-15 Penelope Avenue
Middle Village, NY 11397
Principal: Anthony Lombardi
718-326-2111

PS 063
90-15 Sutter Avenue
Ozone Park, NY 11417
Principal: Deidra Graulieh
718-845-7560

PS 065
103-22 99th St
Ozone Park, NY 11417
Principal: Ms. Beth Longo
718-323-1685

PS 066
85-11 102 Street
Richmond Hill, NY 11418
Principal: Mrs. Phyllis Leinwand
718-849-0184

PS 086
87-41 Parsons Blvd
Jamaica, NY 11432
Principal: K. Zuvic
718-291-626

PS 087
67-54 80th Street
Middle Village, NY 11379
Principal: Caryo Michael
718-326-8243

PS 088
60-85 Catalpa Avenue
Ridgewood, NY 11365
Principal: Mrs. Linda China
718-821-8121

PS 091 (Richard Arkwright School)
68-10 Central Avenue
Glendale, NY 11385
Principal: Kenneth Lombard
718-821-6880

PS 101
2 Russell Place
Forest Hills, NY 11375
Principal: Mrs. Ronnie Feder
718-268-7230

PS 128 (Juniper Valley)
69-26 65th Drive
Middle Village, NY 11379
Principal: John Lavelle
718-894-8385

PS 139 (The Rego Park School)
93-06 63rd Drive
Rego Park, NY 11374
Principal: Mrs. Fern Chosed
718-459-1044

PS 144
93-02 69th Avenue
Forest Hills, NY 11375
Principal: Reva Gluck-Schneider
718-268-2775

PS 153 Maspeth Elementary
60-02 60th Lane
Maspeth , NY 11378
Principal: Susan Bauer
718-821-7850

PS 162
201-02 53rd Ave
Bayside, NY 11364
Principal: Dena Poulos
718-423-8621

PS 164
138-01 77th Ave
Flushing, NY 11367
Principal: Anne Alfonso
718-544-1083

PS 165 (Edith K. Bergtraum)
70-35 150th St
Flushing, NY 11367
Principal: Sonya Lupion
718-263-4004

PS 173
174-10 67th Ave
Fresh Meadows, NY 11365
Principal: Molly Wang
718-358-224

PS 174 (William Sidney Mount)
65-10 Dieterle Crescent
Rego Park, NY 11374
Principal: Mrs. Karin Kelly
718-897-7006

PS 175
64-35 102nd Street
Rego Park, NY 11374
Principal: Mrs. Linda Green
718-897-8600

PS 196
71-25 113th Street
Forest Hills, NY 11375
Principal: Mary Hughes
718-263-9770

PS 200 (Pomonok)
70-10 164th St
Fresh Meadows, NY 11365
Principal: Denize Brewer
718-969-7780

PS 206
61-21 97th Place
Rego Park, NY 11374
Principal: Anit Prashad
718-592-0300

PS 219
144-39 Gravett Road
Flushing, NY 11367
718-793-2130

PS 232 (Lindenwood)
153-23 83rd St
Howard Beach, NY 11414
Principal: Lisa Josephson
718-848-9247

PS 254 (Rosa Parks School)
84-40 101st St.
Business Phone: 718-846-1840

PS 060
91-02 88th Avenue
Woodhaven, NY 11421
Principal: Frank DeSario
718-441-5046

PS 064
82-01 101st Avenue
Ozone Park, NY 11417
Principal: Laura Kaiser
718-845-8290

PS 097 (Forest Park Elementary)
85-52 85th Street
Woodhaven, NY 11421
Principal: Maureen Ingram
718-849-4870

PS 113 (Issac Chauncey)
87-21 79th Ave
Glendale, NY 11385
Principal: Mr. Anthony Pranzo
718-847-0724

PS 114
400 Beach 135th St
Rockaway Park, NY 11694
Principal: Stephen Grill
718-634-3382

Queens Gateway to Health Sci.
150-91 87th Rd
Jamaica, NY 11432
Principal: Cynthia Edwards
718-739-8080

Robert F. Kennedy Community HS
75-40 Parsons Blvd
Flushing, NY 11366
Principal: Ira Pernick
718-969-5510

Thomas Edison HS
165-65 84th Ave
Jamaica, NY 11432
Principal: Ilona Posner
718-297-6580

Townsend Harris HS
149-11 Melbourne Ave
Flushing, NY 11367
Principal: Thomas Cunningham
718-575-5580

PS K134
4001 18th Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11218
Principal: Debra Ramsaran
718-436-7200

Hillcrest HS
160-05 Highland Avenue
Queens, NY 11432
Principal: Stephen Duch
718-658-5407

Kingsborough Community College
2001 Oriental Boulevard
Brooklyn, NY 11235

The Queens College School for Math, Science and Technology
148-20 Reeves Avenue
Queens, NY 11367
Principal: Anastasia Schneider
718-461-7462

HS 216
64-20 175 Street
Queens, NY 11365
Principal: Reginald Landeau
718-358-2005

JHS 217
85-05 144 Street
Queens, NY 11435
Principal: Patrick Michael Burns
718-657-1120

PS 013
55-01 94 Street
Queens, NY 11373
Principal: Dr. Yvonne Angelastro
718-271-1021

PS 014
107-01 Otis Avenue
Queens, NY 11368
Principal: Rosemary Sklar
718-699-6071

PS 031
211-45 46 Road
Queens, NY 11361
Principal: Terri Graybow
718-423-8288

PS 046
64-45 218 Street
Queens, NY 11364
Principal: Marsha Goldberg
718-423-8395

PS 054
86-02 127 Street
Queens, NY 11418
Principal: Diane Jones
718-849-0962

PS 068
59-09 Saint Felix Avenue
Queens, NY 11385
Principal: Anne Marie Snadecky
718-821-7246

Franklin K. Lane HS
999 Jamaica Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11208
Principal: Evan Ahern
718-647-2100

Grady HS
25 Brighton 4 Road
Brooklyn, NY 11235
Principal: Carlston Gray
718-332-5000

PS 099
82-37 Kew Gardens Rd
Kew Gardens, NY 11415
Principal: Gregory Pirraglia
718-338-9201

PS 177
346 Avenue P
Brooklyn, NY 11204
Principal: Shoshana Singer
718-375-9506

PS 193
2515 Avenue L
Brooklyn, NY 11210
Principal: Frank A. Cimino
718-338-9011

PS 194
3117 Avenue W
Brooklyn, NY 11229
Principal: Mary Zissler-Lynch
718-648-8804

PS 199
1100 Elm Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11230
Principal: Rosalia Bacarella
718-339-1422

PS 217
1100 Newkirk Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11230
Principal: Franca Conti
718-434-6960

PS 226
6006 23 Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11204
Principal: Stephen P. Porter
718-256-1118

PS 312
7103 Avenue T
Brooklyn, NY 11234
Principal: Linda Beal-Benigno
718-763-4015

IS 093
66-56 Forest Avenue
Queens, NY 11385
Principal: Edward Santos
718-821-4882

PS 152 School Of Science & Technology
725 East 23 Street
Brooklyn, NY 11210
Principal: Dr. Rhonda D. Farkas
718-434-5222

PS 197 (Brooklyn)
1599 E 22nd St
Brooklyn, NY 11210
Principal: Rosemarie Barbiere Nicoletti
(718) 377-7890

PS 203 Floyd Bennett
5101 Avenue M
Brooklyn, NY 11234
Principal: Lisa Esposito
(718) 241-8488

PS 315
2310 Glenwood Road
Brooklyn, NY 11210
Principal: Beverly Folkes-Bryant
718-421-9560

JHS 078 Roy H. Mann
1420 East 68 Street
Brooklyn, NY 11234
Principal: Phyllis Marino
718-763-4701

IS 096 Seth Low
99 Avenue P
Brooklyn, NY 11204
Principal: Barry M. Fein
718-236-1344

HS 495 Sheepshead Bay High School
3000 Avenue X
Brooklyn, NY 11235
Principal: Reesa Levy
718-332-2003

Midwood High School
2839 Bedford Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11210
Principal: David Cohen
718-724-8500

Queens College
65-30 Kissena Blvd
Flushing, NY 11367

Grover Cleveland HS
21-27 Himrod Street
Queens, NY 11385
Principal: Dominick Scarola
718-381-9600

Hospitals

Elmhurst Hospital Center
79-01 Broadway
Elmhurst, NY 11373

Forest Hills Hospital
102-01 66th Road
Forest Hills, NY 11375

Queens Hospital Center
82-70 164th Street
Jamaica, NY 11432

Holliswood Hospital
87-37 Palermo Street
Hollis, NY 11423

Jamaica Hospital Medical Center
89-00 Van Wyck Expressway
Jamaica, NY 11418

Mary Immaculate Hospital
15211 89th Ave, #1
Jamaica, NY 11423

Parkway Hospital
7035 113th Street
Forest Hills, NY 11375

New York Community Hospital
2525 Kings Highway
Brooklyn, NY 11229

St. John’s Episcopal Hospital
Brookhaven Ave & Beach 20th St
Rockaway, NY 11691

Maimonides Medical Center
4802 10th Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11219

Beth Israel Medical Center
3201 Kings Hwy
Brooklyn, NY 11234

Coney Island Hospital
2601 Ocean Parkway
Brooklyn, NY 11235

Peninsula Hospital
Rockaway Beach Blvd & Beach 50th St
Far Rockaway, NY 11691

New York Hospital Medical Center of Queens
56-45 Main Street
Flushing, NY 11355

Libraries

Lefferts Library
103-34 Lefferts Boulevard
Richmond Hill, NY 11419
718-843-5950

Maspeth Library
69-70 Grand Avenue
Maspeth, NY 11378
718-639-5228

Gerritsen Beach Library
2808 Gerritsen Ave. ( Bartlett Place)
Brooklyn, NY 11229
718-368-1435

Homecrest Library
2525 Coney Island Ave. at Ave. V
Brooklyn, NY 11223
718-382-5924

King\'s Bay Library
3650 Nostrand Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11229
718-368-1709

King\'s Highway Library
2115 Ocean Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11229
718-375-3037

Sheepshead Bay Library
2636 E.14th St
Brooklyn, NY 11235
718-368-1815

Broad Channel Library
16-26 Cross Bay Boulevard
Broad Channel, NY 11693
718-318-4943

Fresh Meadows Library
193-20 Horace Harding Expressway
Fresh Meadows, NY 11365
718-454-7272

Glendale Library
78-60 73rd Place
Glendale, NY 11385
718-821-4980

Hillcrest Library
187-05 Union Turnpike
Flushing, NY 11366
718-454-2786

Howard Beach Library
92-06 156th Avenue
Howard Beach, NY 11414
718-641-7086

Rego Park Library
91-41 63 Drive
Rego Park, NY 11374
718-459-5140

Cortelyou Library
1305 Cortelyou Rd
Brooklyn, NY 11226
718-693-7763

Mill Basin Library
2385 Ralph Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11234
718-241-3973

Richmond Hill Library
118-14 Hillside Avenue
Richmond Hill, NY 11418
718-849-7150

Briarwood Library
85-12 Main Street
Briarwood, NY 11435
718-658-1680

Kew Garden Hills Library
72-33 Vleigh Place
Flushing, NY 11367
718-261-6654

Ridgewood Library
20-12 Madison Street
Ridgewood, NY 11385
718-821-4770

Middle Village Library
72-31 Metropolitan Avenue
Middle Village, NY 11379
718-326-1390

Peninsula Library
92-25 Rockaway Beach Boulevard
Rockaway Beach, NY 11693
718-634-1110

Woodhaven Library
85-41 Forest Parkway
Woodhaven, NY 11421
718-849-1010

Flatland Library
2065 Flatbush Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11234
718-253-4409

Paerdegat Library
850 E. 59th St
Brooklyn, NY 11234
718-241-3994

Ozone Park Library
92-24 Rockaway Boulevard
Ozone Park, NY 11417
718-845-3127

Pomonok Library
158-21 Jewel Avenue
Flushing, NY 11365
718-591-4343

Forest Hills Library
108-19 71st Ave
Forest Hills, NY 11375
718-268-7934

Seaside Library
116-15 Rockaway Beach Boulevard
Rockaway Park, NY 11694
718-634-1876

Midwood Libarary
975 East 16th St
Brooklyn, NY 11230
718-252-0967