In 1931 we were in the heart of the Great Depression, undoubtedly the worst financial crisis in our country’s history. Nearly a third of the workforce was unemployed. A decade of progress was wiped off the map and it took nearly a generation before the country reached the same level of economic activity achieved in the 1920s.
Yet reading the Long Island Star gives readers a surprising impression. That year the city spent a fortune on acquiring land for public parks, newspapers groaned from advertising as hundreds of homes were built – and sold – in just one year, and breathtaking civil projects were announced, and, in most cases, actually built.
In March 1931, the Triborough Bridge got its first $1 million appropriation and major funding was discussed for Grand Central Parkway. The city purchased as public parks both the Clearview Golf Course (nearly $1 million) and 66-acre Juniper Valley Park ($400 thousand).
Plans were discussed to build a third bridge over the upper 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 on building a cross-town subway line between Whitestone and Jamaica.
The last blocks of undeveloped land were being gobbled up for development as 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 to be transformed 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 was sold at Hollis Court Boulevard and Horace Harding Boulevard.
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 recently completed and sold. 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 Corporation 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 sold.
M. Krauss Building Corporation, at 51st Street near Skillman Avenue, Sunnyside offered two-family brick homes with heated two-car garages and oil burner for $15,750. Since the rent from the second apartment covered the mortgage, the homeowner was ‘guaranteed to live rent free forever.’
And finally, in what was advertised as the lowest price in a single fare zone, Baysview Homes at 20-65 46th St., a development of nine-room semi-detached brick homes on a 25 x 100 lot, were offered for only $9,900 (two families for $12,500.) They went for only $500 down and carried a mortgage of just $35 per month.
For further information, call the Greater Astoria Historical Society at 718-278-0700 or visit our website at www.astor
