When it comes to variety and value in most measures of what makes for good living, the northeast Queens neighborhoods of Bayside, Auburndale and Fresh Meadows form a “golden triangle.”
From an apex near the foot of the Throgs Neck Bridge, the land between the Cross Island Parkway in the east and Utopia Parkway in the west form the rough outlines of the triangle – south to its base at Union Turnpike.
Within this space are sizeable portions of what are arguably the city’s two best School Districts – 25 and 26; residences from high-rise apartments to sprawling manses in gated enclaves; green spaces including a golf course, and several parks with ball fields, deep woods and great lawns; and enough shopping, dining and entertainment to satisfy almost any taste.
For the serious student, there’s Queensborough Community College with its Performing Arts Center and the Harriet and Kenneth Kupferberg Holocaust Resource Center and Archives, While St. John’s University stands at the southwest corner.
Students young and old can also avail themselves of seven public libraries that dot, or border, the area.
The entire area’s rolling terrain is typical of the glacial deposits on western Long Island’s North Shore and the numerous ponds, springs and meadows made it prized farmland – later home to several private golf courses.
BAYSIDE
Like so many Queens neighborhoods, the development of what became Bayside started out as a farm. In 1824 an Irish immigrant named Abraham Bell bought 245 acres of farmland from fellow Quaker Timothy Matlock.
Bell divided the land into what he called the “upper” and “lower” farms, which were managed by two succeeding generations. The dirt road that connected the two farms became known as Bell Avenue – later Bell Boulevard.
During the late 1800’s, residential development was racing outward along Long Island’s North Shore thanks in large part to the Flushing and North Side Railroad – now the Port Washington Line of the Long Island Rail Road.
Prime land such as the Bells’ lost its agricultural tax break and by 1890, most of the family’s two farms had been sold off to developers.
The train line that made development possible also made problems for Bayside; and by the late 1920s the stretch through the heart of town was dug in below grade. During the early part of the 20th century, improvement of the Flushing-North Hempstead Turnpike – now known as Northern Boulevard – made for more commerce and the town expanded southward, to the then-end of Bell Boulevard, at 48th Avenue.
Just east of Bell, what is now 48th Avenue passes a triangle at 216th Street. Years ago this was Rocky Hill Road, an old route leading to Jamaica.
This is Dermody Square, where stands one of the oldest war memorials in New York City, a rough-hewn stone inscribed “For a Better Union 1861-1865.” It honors abolitionist William Dermody, a Captain in the Union Army who was killed at the battle of Spotsylvania in 1864.
North and South
By the 1960s high-rise construction had made its way to eastern Queens – in the areas surrounding the old low farm, there are now luxury towers and the secluded dell is now The Bay Terrace shopping center on Bell Boulevard and 26th Avenue, which is also a dining and entertainment magnet for the entire area.
The growing demand for housing in eastern Queens, which once made the land too valuable for farming, began to make it too valuable for private recreation. Where there had been the private Oakland Golf Club and surrounding woodlands, Bayside Hills and Oakland Gardens sprang up.
The last remaining traces of the golf course are to be found at Queensborough Community College, where the stonework of the clubhouse can be seen as part of the campus facilities.
America’s love of the automobile also left its mark – the construction of the Cross Island Parkway obliterated the old Bayside Yacht Club, leaving only a trace in the form of today’s Bayside Marina.
The Long Island Expressway and later the Clearview Expressway which left many Bayside homeowners with a choice between selling their homes or actually picking them up and moving them, became major dividing lines for Bayside – and many other communities.
Fresh Meadows
Officially, depending on which office you ask, Fresh Meadows is bordered by Cunningham Park to the east; Union Turnpike to the south; Parsons Boulevard to the west and 48th Avenue-Kissena Park to the north.
However, anything north of the Long Island Expressway is often called “Flushing,” or “Bayside” and the New York City Department of Finance only lists property sales south of the Expressway and from Utopia Parkway east as being in Fresh Meadows.
Even in that smaller area, Fresh Meadows offers a broad range of choices and price-points for the real estate shopper. The actual development known as Fresh Meadows, between the Expressway and 73rd Avenue includes garden apartments and a very limited number of high-rise structures
The broad tree-lined avenues with green malls, front lawns and gardens lovingly tended by proud homeowners, good schools and easy access to shopping make it one of the most desirable neighborhoods in the borough.
The streetscape was deliberately laid out to discourage speeding through-traffic; it’s a place where some roads literally do go in circles – and the residents like it that way.
From the Long Island Expressway to the south, one finds rental and co-operative apartments, both high rise and “garden apartment” units, neatly laid out on tree-lined roadways and around extensively planted courts.
South of 73rd Avenue, single family homes predominate in the two-block band that slopes down to Union Turnpike. The homes were built modestly for the lot size, so they are prized for easy expansion from a regulatory standpoint.
Toward the eastern limits of the neighborhood, two-family homes can be found on the two blocks bordering the parkland along Francis Lewis Boulevard.
There is very-little “pre-war” construction; most of Fresh Meadows was constructed in the decade after World War II, to satisfy the demands of newly-returned veterans of “The big one” and the Korean War, seeking a better life.
Newly arrived Americans from Asia and Latin America are making the same move, and local shopping areas reflect the growing diversity of the neighborhood, and keep the demand for housing in Fresh Meadows brisk.
The name “Fresh Meadows” derives from Dutch settlers who started moving south after Flushing, which was founded in the 1640s, was well established. They found the area of low, rolling of meadows and swamps, dotted by many fresh water springs –hence, the name.
By 1910, the infrastructure of Fresh Meadows was well-developed. Major roads were paved and the Central Railroad of Long Island, built by department store mogul Alexander T. Stewart, ran from Flushing to Garden City.
Other than the New York and Queens County Railway that ran along what is now 164th Street, the area was dominated by farms.
In the middle 1900s, early north-south colonial roads were improved; Fresh Meadow Lane originally ran from Broadway south to Jamaica. Utopia Parkway was also constructed through Fresh Meadows in the mid-20th century.
Many of the area’s homes were built as postwar tract housing, but a number of prewar structures still exist.
On 65th Avenue, just east of 164th Street, for example, you can see Millard Fillmore’s Restaurant, located in a building constructed 1912.
The most famous political face to have visited Fresh Meadows was Bill Clinton, who ate at the now-closed Future Diner at 190th Street and Horace Harding Boulevard, both before and after his 1992 election.
Auburndale
There’s an Auburndale Library, an Auburndale Improvement Association and an Auburndale Station on the Long Island Railroad, but according to the New York City Department of Finance, there isn’t an Auburndale.
In its listing of home sales, everything in this quiet residential neighborhood is either “Flushing” or “Bayside.” Auburndale is often described as running from the Clearview Expressway to Utopia Parkway between 37th Avenue and Northern Boulevard.
Some, however, extend its western border to 164th Street. Others say it runs north on Utopia Parkway to Francis Lewis Boulevard then on to 26th Avenue and east to the Clearview.
Nevertheless, Auburndale has all the cozy, tree-lined streets and much of the housing spectrum of its neighbors, including tidy little garden apartments and cozy homes on oversize lots.
It all combines to make Auburndale one of the hottest little secrets in Queens. The problem, to some long-time residents, is that their neighborhood is officially carved up between its larger neighbors, Bayside and Flushing for the purposes of rezoning – leaving it at the mercy of developers.
Savvy citizens have banded together into one of the largest civic associations in the city – The Auburndale Improvement Association – and other groups, and the long-awaited rezoning of this gem of a neighborhood should be available for public review this spring.
