By The Greater Astoria Historical Society
It was called the Great Depression, a time that undoubtedly was the worst financial crisis in our country’s history. Nearly a third of the workforce was unemployed. A decade wiped off the map, nearly a generation would pass before the country reached the same level of economic activity as the 1920s.
Yet reading the Long Island Star gives one a surprising impression. The city spent a fortune on acquiring land for public parks, newspapers glowed as hundreds of homes were built and sold in one year, breathtaking civil projects were announced and, in most cases, built.
In March 1931, the Triborough Bridge got its first $1 million appropriation and major funding was discussed for the Grand Central Parkway. The city purchased, as public parks, the Clearview Golf Course (nearly $1 million) and 66 acres of Juniper Valley Park ($400,000).
Plans were discussed to build a third bridge over the East River, this time between Broadway in Astoria and 86th Street in Manhattan. There was agitation to build a civic center to keep the courts and government in Long Island City, and serious talk to build a crosstown subway line between Whitestone and Jamaica.
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The last blocks of undeveloped land were being gobbled up for development. More than $1 million changed hands in a series of land transfers in Flushing.
The old Lott farm of 53 acres in Fresh Meadows was sold for $330,000 and was soon made into 660 homes. A few thousand feet north, the 32-acre Schumacher farm, on Rocky Hill Road, was sold at $15,000 per acre. Also that month, the 63-acre Boose farm, at Hollis Court and Horace Harding boulevards, was sold.
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Homes on the Ridgewood Plateau were being snapped up. Overlooking the New York skyline, just 22 minutes from Times Square, and near schools, churches, a shopping center and theaters, more than 400 one-family homes with garages, sewers, sidewalks, paved streets and shade trees were sold and completed.
They were priced between $7,000 and $11,000. Two-family homes were $13,000.
Over in Jackson Heights on 90th Street, the Island Housing Corp. offered “solid brick and stone studio homes” with separate garages between $8,000 and $9,000. The mortgage was only $66.50 per month. In one month, 77 homes were sold.
M. Krauss Building Corp., at 51st Street near Skillman Avenue in Sunnyside, offered two-family brick homes with heated two-car garages and oil burners for $15,750. Since the rent from the second apartment covered the mortgage, the homeowner was “guaranteed to live rent free forever.”
In what was advertised as the lowest price in the single-fair zone, Baysview Homes, at 20-65 46th St., you could get a nine-room, semi-detached brick home on a 25-by-100-foot lot for only $9,900 — two-families for $12,500 — with only $500 down and a mortgage of $35 per month.
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A girl from Dutch Kills came home to head for fame. Ethel Merman, whose rise to stardom was rapid, was signed by Larry Kent, of Paramount Astoria Studios, March 11, 1931, to make a series of movies.
Merman, remembered as Ethel Zimmerman, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Zimmerman, was entertaining guests at Astoria Republican Club meetings. Her first performance was at Little Russia, a Manhattan supper club.
In 1927, she appeared at the McAlpin Grill and later at the Ambassador Grill, where she attracted the attention of a producer who suggested she go for a screen test.
The woman who dominated stage and screen for most of the 20th century grew up just around the corner from the recently opened High School for Performing Arts.
For further information, call 718-278-0700 or visit astorialic.org.
