Broadway-Flushing Historic District National Register Application

NPS Form 10-900a OMB No. 1024-0018(Rev. 8-86)

United States Department of the InteriorNational Park Service

National Register of Historic PlacesContinuation Sheet – BROADWAY FLUSHING HISTORIC DISTRICT, FLUSHING, COUNTY OF QUEENS, NEW

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Section number 8 Page 1 of 15

Statement of Significance

The Broadway-Flushing neighborhood, along with Bowne Park, is a remarkably intact architecturally and historically significant development spanning from 1900 to 1950. The history and development of this neighborhood, and what defined Broadway-Flushing for over a century makes this section of the city locally significant under Criterion A in the area of community planning and development. The residential community is also eligible under Criterion C, as it has an extensive inventory of period revival upper-middle and middle class detached and attached housing.

Earliest Description of the Area

The Native American presence in northeastern Queens included the Matinecock, one of a group on western Long Island linked by culture and language to others in the area surrounding Manhattan, including the Carnarsee, Rockaway and Massapequa. The Matinecocks were displaced by treaty or forced removal from what is now Flushing by the first Europeans, English colonists who emigrated from New England and settled in 1645 under the auspices of the Dutch.

John Bowne, an English Quaker, moved to Flushing in 1655. One of the authors of the 1657 Flushing Remonstrance, the first document guaranteeing religious freedom in North America, Bowne was arrested in 1662 by the Dutch for practicing Quakerism, which was illegal in Dutch New Netherlands. However, he was soon released and he returned to Flushing after 1665. His descendants remained in Flushing for more than 300 years, and owned a large portion of what is now the Broadway-Flushing Historic District. Similarly, Thomas Willet, an English soldier in the Dutch service at New Amsterdam, settled in Flushing in the 1660s, and his descendants owned large tracts of Flushing to the east and south, including Auburndale. The Bowne and Willet families intermarried in the eighteenth century.

The modern history of Flushing began in 1732 with the establishment of the first commercial nursery in the United States, started by William Prince. A number of families, including the Parsons, Bloodgoods and Murrays, became prominent in the horticultural industry, especially during the nineteenth century. In the area east of the village center where Broadway-Flushing now lies, most of the acreage was owned by the Bowne, Willet and Murray families. Kingsland, the country seat of William K. Murray, was constructed in 1775 and was located on the south side of Broadway (Northern Boulevard) near the present 156th Street. This part of Flushing became known as Murray Hill, as did a section of the east side of Manhattan.

After the Revolutionary War, Flushing remained an isolated hamlet until the 1840s, when it began its transition into a resort for wealthy Manhattanites. Scores of substantial “cottages” were built in the center of town, and historic farmhouses and estates were rehabilitated and sold or rented as summer homes to the wealthy elite. After the Civil War, and the introduction of the Long Island Railroad, Flushing began to transform into a year-round suburban community and commercial center.

Oliver Charlick and the Long Island Railroad

The consolidation of the Long Island Railroad from a collection of competitive, independent rail companies to a centralized authority began under the stewardship of Oliver Charlick in the mid-nineteenth century. Charlick, prominent in the 1840s and 1850s as a New York politician and horse car railroad operator, gained control of the Long Island Railroad with Henry Havemeyer (a three-term mayor of New York).




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Charlick (1810-1875), who was born in Manhattan, went into the liquor business started by his father at an early age. In 1843, he was elected as an assistant Alderman, and by 1845 was elected Alderman and chosen President of the Board. As president of the board during the latter part of his term, he frequently acted as Mayor of the city during the absence of Mayor Havemeyer; it was at that time that Charlick began his lifelong friendship with the mayor. After losing his next election, Charlick went into transportation management, including steamships, the Eighth Avenue Railroad and finally the Long Island Railroad. In 1861, he became superintendent of the Hunter’s Point Ferry, which transported riders from the terminal at Hunter’s Point to the east side of Manhattan. He was elected president of the Long Island Railroad in 1862 and maintained that position until 1871.

According to A History of the Long Island Railroad distributed by the Long Island Railroad, May 1982,

While a capable administrator, Charlick had a great capacity for rubbing people the wrong way; his autocratic ways created trouble for the Long Island [Railroad] and he effected the trackage we use today by expressing his dissatisfaction with the attitudes of local communities by routing lines and placing stations to punish them. It was generally conceded that Charlick was a hardheaded business man and some of his policies have been the right ones; his road avoided many of the financial difficulties which plagued his rivals who expanded rapidly, and perhaps recklessly, into areas Charlick had avoided…Nevertheless it was Charlick’s policies which led to the formation of the rival South Side Railroad and its seizure of the south shore villages, to the formation of a strong Flushing based system and, because he refused the initial overtures for Long Island operation of the Central Railroad of Long Island, drove that parallel, competitive, line into the camp of the North Shore group.

And from History of Long Island by Peter Ross, Vol. 1, 1902,

In later life, Mr. Charlick again became prominent in New York City’s politics, and as a member of the Board of Police Commissioners his name was actively bandied about at a time when deals and dickers formed the professional politician’s stock and trade in New York. He had hosts of enemies and troops of friends; by the former he was denounced for having committed practically every crime in the calendar; by the latter he was credited with brains, smartness and inflexible honesty…However, all that may be, it is certain that his career as a politician did not add to his personal reputation, nor has it won for his memory the regard which is paid even to that of a respectable mechanic.

One might compare Charlick to Robert Moses, who battled to build his highway projects amid protests from recalcitrant governments and property owners. Charlick was steadfast in his refusal to compromise with municipalities in order to pursue his specific plans for expansion of the railroad network throughout Long Island. In many coastal towns, Charlick refused to build branch lines to connect them to the network. When those villages tried to build their own branches, Charlick would construct rail lines that went nowhere in order to cut the municipalities off. Huntington Station and Port Jefferson Station in Suffolk County, both several miles from the center of those towns, are excellent examples of Charlick’s punishment of those municipalities for refusing to sign on to his plans.

In his later years, Charlick bought the Willet Bowne house and estate, which was constructed in 1827 by a descendant of both of those prominent Flushing families. The 137-acre estate was bounded by Bayside Avenue on the north to Queens Avenue (46th Avenue) on the south, and from the Broadway Depot (approximately 163rd Street) to Cemetery Avenue (Auburndale Lane) on the east, with Broadway (Northern Boulevard) bisecting the property. The Willet Bowne house was located at the junction of Broadway and Sanford Avenue (approximately 165th Street) on the north side. Charlick improved the train line and created the Broadway-Flushing station in 1866, partially to create an easy commute to his country estate. After Charlick’s death in 1875, his daughter’s husband demolished the house and erected a mansion on the site, which burned in 1887. In 1908, most of the acreage that had made up Charlick’s estate was sold to the Rickert-Finlay Realty Company.




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Rickert-Finlay Realty Company

The Rickert-Finlay Realty Company, founded in 1904, was critical in shaping the pattern of planned suburban development in northeastern Queens and western Nassau County in particular, and Queens County in general, for close to half a century. Edward J. Rickert (1862-1935) and Charles E. Finlay (1862-1940) formed the partnership, later joined in 1905 by Charles H. Rickert (1856-1939), Edward’s older brother. The real estate firm, with offices at 1 West 34th Street in Manhattan, focused on hilly, picturesque parcels that were adjacent to the Great Neck (later Port Washington) branch of the Long Island Railroad on the north shore of Long Island. The rail line was within easy commuting distance of Manhattan, especially with the completion of the East River rail tunnels. Additionally, with the recent advent of the automobile and completion of the Queensborough Bridge and connection to Jackson Avenue (later Northern Boulevard), a speculative boom had begun throughout the borough of Queens. Ultimately, this would spur a ten-fold increase in population within three decades that Rickert-Finlay would capitalize upon.

In all, the Rickert-Finlay company shepherded six known development projects: Bellcourt (1904), Douglas Manor (1906), Broadway-Flushing (1906), Westmoreland in Little Neck (1907), East River Heights in Astoria (1907) and Kensington in Great Neck (1910) (Figure 1). By 1908, the company was advertising itself as “The Largest Developers of Real Estate in Queens Borough – over 10,000 lots within the limits of New York City.”

As related in the 1997 Douglaston Historic District Designation Report from the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission,

The company’s typical strategy for selecting development sites was described by E. J. Rickert in a 1914 article in Architecture and Building: “It was selected because it was on high ground, with a splendid outlook…and only four blocks from a railway station. It was …noted for the magnificent row of maples and lindens, nearly a mile long, extending through the entire property.” The company described the progression of the firm’s ideas:

The first property developed was Bellcourt in Bayside, which was improved along the same lines as had heretofore prevailed on Long Island – that is, gravel sidewalks were laid, streets were graded and shade trees were set out, no other improvements, and, consequently, when Douglas Manor was developed, cement sidewalks were laid, macadam roads were built and trees and hedges were set out. Broadway-Flushing and Westmoreland, which came next, were developed about the same extent as Douglas Manor, all then being considered the best improved properties on Long Island.

The progression in planning principles, combined with the changing standards for middle and upper-middle class subdivisions through the first third of the 20th century in metropolitan New York, are evident in each development. Before New York City introduced the first municipal zoning code in 1916, deed restrictions and covenants were commonplace to protect properties from undesirable uses, particularly in more upscale developments. Using English common law dating back to William the Conqueror as precedent, boilerplate covenants, such as a prohibition on slaughterhouses, factories, breweries and brothels were routinely placed in deeds before property transferred from one party to another in New York.

Until its later development of Kensington, Rickert-Finlay did not dictate architectural style (Figure 2). Bellcourt, in Bayside, began with simple improvements and restrictions similar to other contemporary developments in Queens. Several hallmarks of the Rickert-Finlay deed restrictions were evident even at that time, including setting a minimum cost for construction to ensure higher quality of buildings; peaked roofs to ensure a more varied and less urban roofline; no fences or walls in the front of the buildings to ensure a continuous streetscape, and; deep minimum setbacks to give the impression of an open rural landscape. Unlike other deed restrictions of the time, there were no restrictions on ethnic or racial background.




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Broadway-Flushing

While Bellcourt was similar to other middle-class developments occurring in Queens, such as Hollis Court in Jamaica, Belle Harbor in the Rockaways and Kissena Park in Flushing, the Rickert-Finlay company created a much more exclusive development in Douglas Manor. The waterfront was held in common by a homeowner’s corporation, and the curving roads were designed to preserve as many tree specimens as possible. Additionally, different blocks had different minimum lot sizes, to create an economically and architecturally diverse neighborhood. The Westmoreland development had similar, if slightly more modest, objectives.

Broadway-Flushing represents a significant departure from other Rickert-Finlay developments due to several major factors. At 260 acres, the property was far larger than Westmoreland (60 acres), Bellcourt (95 acres), East River Heights (160 acres) or Douglas Manor (175 acres). Additionally, the property was so large that Rickert-Finlay divided it into three sections, originally three adjacent farms (Figure 3). Section 1, comprising 115 acres, was north of the Long Island Railroad Tracks. Section 2, comprising 30 acres, was south of the railroad tracks and to the west. Section 3, comprising 115 acres, was to the south of the railroad tracks and went east all the way to Auburndale Lane, which was the boundary with the Auburndale Realty Company. Each section’s covenants were different. However, they all shared the typical Rickert-Finlay planning principles of generous setbacks, no flat roofs and minimum construction costs.

Section 1, north of the Long Island Railroad Tracks, was the most diverse covenant area as, for the first time, the company prescribed a mix of uses (Figures 4 & 5). Rickert-Finlay included a substantial commercial district around the railroad station; for single-family development only (which changed to allow commercial usage in the 1920s), minimum 100’ x 100’ parcels along Northern Boulevard; a substantial area with minimum 60’ x 100’ parcels on the side streets with 80’ x 100’ parcels on the avenue frontage; a smaller section with minimum 40’ x 100’ parcels on the side streets with 60’ x 100’ parcels on the avenue frontage; and, for the first time, a two block wide area to allow small apartment buildings and two-family houses, a village center of sorts, directly north of the commercial district adjacent to the railroad station, to take advantage of existing trolley service. Parcels had minimum construction costs placed upon them, between $3,000 and $5,000, depending on their location. Rickert-Finlay’s intention was to create a mixed-income, restricted community, with near-mansions for the upper class, more modest detached housing for the middle class and apartments and flats for the working class, all in a well-appointed – and moderately controlled - environment.

The modified grid that that was created for Broadway-Flushing, with 800’ to 900’ long blocks, served to accentuate the long vistas from Broadway down the side streets (Figure 8). Mitchell (33 rd) Avenue and State (35th) Street were wider boulevards with larger lot sizes, creating a broad green view corridor. The avenues ran across the valley, which created long views from the top of the hills to the east and west. Trees were planted in the apron (between the curb and the sidewalk) and at the inside of the sidewalk in an alternating pattern. Although Rickert-Finlay planted silver and swamp maples because “they cost only 3 cents instead of 5” cents for oaks, the many specimen trees that were already planted or purchased from the local nurseries created a lush landscape and were a signature for all of their development projects along the Port Washington branch of the Long Island Railroad. Some of the species that were planted include Florida and Korean dogwoods; American chestnut and elm trees (since killed by blight); white pines; sweet gum; larch; magnolia; weeping willow; horse chestnut, including a rare pink flowering genus; black walnut; red, Japanese and Norway maples; blue spruce; fir; and American hemlock. Some flowering plant species include sassafras; azalea; rhododendron; andromeda; forsythia; wisteria; and lilac.

In its first years, Broadway-Flushing appreciated in value considerably. The New York Times from December 7, 1919 stated that




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When the three farms comprising Broadway-Flushing were purchased in 1906 by the Broadway-Flushing Development Company, controlled by E. J. Rickert and his associates, the land had a total assessed valuation of $131,000. When the property was put on the market in June of that year its desirability for residential purposes was generally recognized and it had probably the most rapid sale of any suburban property around New York expect Douglas Manor, owned and developed by the same operators, more than a million dollar’s worth of lots being sold at retail within the first sixty days. The value of the property increased rapidly, as shown by the fact that the land alone increased within four years from an assessed valuation of $131,000 to $1,800,000.

Having seen his property appreciate in value so impressively by 1910, Rickert was taken aback with the city’s plans in 1911 to pave Northern Boulevard with Belgian block. After having spent two months in the summer of 1911 driving 4,000 miles throughout Europe, Rickert was adamant that Belgian block not be used, due to the negative effect it had on his automobile. In September of 1911, the New York Times stated Rickert’s assertion that

The talk about stone blocks being required on Broadway because it is a business street is ridiculous. From Murray Lane to Bayside there are only two stores, and it is not, and never will be, a business street in any sense of the word. It is also perfectly absurd to say that the stone block pavement is necessary for heavy traffic, for the Strand, in London, which has to bear the heaviest traffic of any street in the world, has been paved with vitrified wooden blocks for many years, and it has given such good satisfaction that they are now repaving it with the same material. There is more traffic on the Strand in one day than there ever will be on Broadway, Flushing, in three months.

If Broadway is paved with stone blocks it means a heavy depreciation in all property reached by it, for the automobile, as a means of transportation, has come to stay, and nobody is going to buy a home where they will have to ride over stone block pavements for the rest of their days, when they can go in other directions on smooth macadam or asphalt roads.

The assessed valuation on our development, Broadway-Flushing, with nearly two miles frontage on Broadway, has been increased from $156,000 in 1905 to $2,400,000 in 1911, or an increase of 1,540 per cent, within six years. On this property we have expended nearly $400,000 for street improvements alone, and the city has never expended one dollar. Now, the first money it proposes to expend is to be for a positive detriment.

If the authorities want to drive real estate buyers up into Westchester and over to Jersey, where they can get good roads, they cannot do it anymore effectively than by repaving the main thoroughfare to the North Shore of Long Island with stone blocks. If it is done, it will be nothing short of a crime, and it will be a disgrace to the city officials for authorizing it, and a disgrace to the people for permitting it to be done.

Soon after, Rickert sued the City and received an injunction stopping the Belgian blocks from being laid down on Broadway. Rickert won the suit, and the Controller of New York City settled with the contractor. By 1915, a 125 mile system of roads had been completed, including Broadway.

Broadway on the Hill and the Auburndale Realty Company

The area surrounding the Rickert-Finlay tract included several parcels vying for new residents in varying states of development. To the east, Auburndale was developed in 1901 by the New England Development and Improvement Company on ninety acres of farmland that was previously owned by Thomas Willet. L.H. Green, the president of the company, named the area Auburndale after his hometown, a suburban section of the city of Boston. He also renamed his company the Auburndale Realty Company. Soon after Rickert-Finlay’s initial Broadway-Flushing offering, Green bought an additional 120 acres to the north of his parcel and named it Broadway on the Hill (Figure 10). The name reflected its hilly location and proximity to the Rickert-Finlay development. The first houses, constructed in 1908, were of a decidedly urban nature. The semi-attached rowhouse, located presently on 165th Street, had more in common architecturally with neighborhoods in north Brooklyn or Back Bay in Boston than with the village-like area to the west. Green soon changed his approach,




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and began to develop substantial villa sites at the eastern end of his property. Two examples, built in 1911, are extant on 191st Street. While no more than a dozen of these larger houses were built, their location near the Auburndale train station spurred additional construction. From 1919 to 1925, hundreds of detached houses, mostly in the Dutch Colonial, Colonial and Tudor Revival mode, were built throughout the Broadway on the Hill development, which followed the same principles as the Rickert-Finlay covenants. However, any covenants placed on the developed properties expired by 1930 or within 5 years of construction, whichever came first. By 1930, the usage of Broadway on the Hill as a name for the development had disappeared. The area became known as part of Broadway-Flushing or Auburndale.

The Auburndale Improvement Association, formed in 1904 by civic-minded residents and the oldest such organization in New York City, influenced planning decisions, particularly after World War I. The organization agitated for a train station, which they received in 1906, and pushed for a mix of housing in order to create a compact village surrounded by a residential “park.” Consequently, rowhouses and loft apartment buildings were constructed near the train station in the 1920s and 1930s, followed by garden apartments in the 1950s, while the remainder of the area remained single-family detached dwellings.

Murray Heights

Rickert-Finlay’s direct competitor in Queens was McKnight Realty (Figure 11). From 1905 to 1907, the company claimed it had “disposed of over $4,000,000 worth of property in Queens Borough.” Most of their developments were located in northeast Queens. They included Bayside-Flushing, directly on the east side of Auburndale; Bay View and Vista Lawn, both in nearby Bayside; Flushing Terrace, on the west side of Broadway-Flushing south of the Long Island Railroad; a portion of Bowne Park, known also as Murray Hill Park, immediately west of Broadway-Flushing; and Murray Heights, a former farm comprising 30 acres immediately adjacent to Broadway-Flushing on the east, between 27th (167th) and 32nd (172nd) streets and from south of Mitchell (33rd) to Crocheron avenues. McKnight Realty’s success was reflected in their office relocation in 1907, finding their “present quarters at 21 West Thirty-fourth Street inadequate, [McKnight Realty] has taken a twenty-one years’ lease of the entire second floor in Henry Corn’s new building at 341 [sic] Fifth Avenue, near Thirty-fourth Street, and will occupy 6,000 feet of this space immediately.” Not coincidentally, their other offerings were in Astoria and Great Neck, located nearby to Rickert-Finlay’s East River Heights and Kensington.

In May of 1910, McKnight Realty exhibited their wares at the Ideal Homes Exposition at Madison Square Garden, where they displayed a model of their 450-acre development called The Estates of Great Neck. They also promoted their other ongoing developments, including Murray Heights. At that time, four buildings on 30 th (170th) Street had been constructed between 1905 and 1907 as model houses. Additionally, a small schoolhouse was located at the northwest corner of 28th (168th) Street.

Over the next five years, furious real estate transactions ensued. In late 1910, ten lots on 29 th (169th) Street were purchased by John R. Freeman. In 1913, the Drew Realty and Construction Company conveyed to the Flushing Realty Owners, Incorporated, thirty-five lots for $14,000. And in 1915, the Flushing Realty Owners Company purchased another fifty-one lots on the west and east sides of 28th (168th) Street and proceeded to construct a row of detached single-family houses. Although a few scattered houses were constructed in the next few years, the rest of Murray Heights remained undeveloped until the 1920s, when the area was largely developed. The commercial building and four-story apartment building at 169th Street and 35th Avenue, constructed in 1925 and 1928 respectively, are anomalies in an area otherwise constructed with one-family houses. By 1930, any reference to this area as Murray Heights had faded and was categorized as Broadway-Flushing or Auburndale.




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The Bowne Park Neighborhood

The area north of Broadway (Northern Boulevard) east of Murray Lane was referred to as the “Bowne Park” section of Flushing as early as 1890. On May 8, 1891 in The New York Times, Benjamin W. Hitchcock, a real estate broker based in Long Island City, advertised this offering:

Own your home in beautiful Flushing, the banner village of New York’s suburbs: elegant building lots at $200 upward on $10 monthly payments, at Murray Hill Station, on the “Bowne Park” property, well-known for many years as the residence of the Bowne family, and one of the finest of the beautiful homesteads in Flushing. This land, naturally attractive, is being highly improved, and is in the very centre of rapid development. Fronting on Broadway, the macadamized principal street of Flushing, having water, gas, and sewerage, in close proximity to churches and schools, surrounded by beautiful villas, it instantly commands the admiration of the select home seeker.

Although the Bowne Park area would become a highly prized locale, it was not at “the very centre” of any development at that time. Development of the parcel was finally initiated by a former Senator, William H. Reynolds. A decade later, although a realtor named John Dayton would make the claim that transit from the “Browne Park” area, with its “pure air” and “pure water,” was “Quicker than Harlem,” less than a dozen houses, built by Edward J. Clarry, had been constructed in the intervening years.

By 1909, the southern and western portions of the property, alternately known as Murray Hill Park, were beginning to fill out with a variety of houses. The most substantial houses were along State Street (35 th Avenue), 14th Street (154th Street), which has a significant rise north of State Street, and Broadway. In 1910, the McKnight Realty Company, stated intentions to build “twenty-five dwellings, costing from $6,000 to $8,000…on forty-foot plots.” In 1916, the remainder of the property was purchased by George C. Meyer of the Cord Meyer Company, who also developed substantial high-end housing developments in Forest Hills and, in the 1920s, the Bayside Gables. By June of 1916, Meyer had incorporated a new company known as the Bowne Park Realty Company, Inc.

The northern portion, generally north of Mitchell Avenue (33rd Avenue), remained mostly undeveloped, and was owned, at least on paper, by the Broadway-Flushing Company. This was partially due to difficulties in the conveyance of streets to the city. More importantly, the William (or Robert) Bowne house, which dated back to 1680, was being lived in by the Beadle (Bedell) family. The Beadles, of French ancestry, had been farming in Flushing for half a century, most recently on adjacent property just north of Bayside Avenue. Anthony Beadle leased the Bowne property, starting in the 1890s, until 1923. When the property was sold in the spring of 1923, the Beadles gave up farming and moved into a small house recently constructed across the street. The next day, the Bowne house had been burned to the ground, with much of the family’s belongings still inside.

The farm was subdivided by O. Brammer Jr. & Company, and in an advertisement in the July 8 th, 1923 edition of the New York Times, the property, marketed as Forest Manor,

one of the most select residential sections on the north shore of Queens…are located between the Murray Hill and Broadway-Flushing stations on the Long Island Railroad, making them an ideal location within thirty minutes of Manhattan. The property for sale is in Sixteenth Street to Nineteenth Street and from Mitchell Avenue to Bayside Avenue. There are 440 lots in the section. The section is restricted to single family dwellings and more than a score of these have already been erected.The section is improved with electricity, water, gas, streets graded and curbed and sidewalks laid. The majority of the buyers are individual home owners. Schools, stores and churches of all denominations are within a short walking distance of the property. The property is also within easy reach of the proposed Flushing extension of the Interborough




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Rapid Transit. Shade trees have been placed along the curb lines, beautifying the property to a great extent. Bowne Park, recently purchased by the city, is being renovated as a pleasure spot.

Substantial housing, much of it built by Frederick Ogden Farrall, was developed on the south and east sides of the new park. Although the housing did not contain the Rickert-Finlay covenants, Farrall continued the front yard setbacks, prohibition on fencing, angled roofs and other planning principles adhered to in Broadway-Flushing. The area today is known as either Broadway-Flushing or Bowne Park. Queensborough, the publication from the Queens Chamber of Commerce, described it this way in 1927:

On the north side of Flushing the activity has extended from 35th Avenue (State Street) north beyond Bayside Avenue and from Parsons Boulevard on the east. The houses range from six to eight rooms and with prices ranging from $12,000 to $25,000…North of Bayside Avenue is Flushing Manor, extending from 156th to 164th Street. Lying just north of Bowne Park acquired only a few months ago by the city as a public park. Wide streets are being laid out and brick homes of modern type are in course of construction, in addition to a block front of brick stores and apartments on Bayside Avenue. One who has not visited this section during the past year or two would be surprised at the wonderful change which has taken place.

Bowne Park

The 11.7 acre park, which is at the northwestern quarter of the Bowne farm, retains much of its original forest, though substantially thinned out (Figure 14, Photos 1, 14 & 15). In comparisons with period photographs, the oak tree coverage to the east of Bowne Pond is easily identifiable. Many of the oak trees to the south of the park to 33rd Avenue were saved and incorporated into the real estate development there.

Although Bowne Park was described in real estate advertisements as being purchased by the city in 1923, it was only mapped at that time and was not actually bought until 1927. This is significant, because other nearby parcels in Flushing were mapped as parkland by New York City but were ultimately never purchased. Subsequently, those lots were developed with housing or commercial buildings.

During the Depression, the pond was surrounded by a concrete wall and paved walkway as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project, and a small stream that entered the park at 158 th Street and 32nd Avenue was covered over by the end of World War II. In 1934, Bowne Park was one of the centers of the Actor’s Project of the Welfare Department’s Work Division. Every week for the summer and fall of 1934, free plays, such as “Greed for Money,” “Unconquered” and vaudeville shows were seen thousands of local residents. In the summer of 1937, model boat races were held, but not just for recreational purposes. According to the New York Times, dated September 13th, 1937,

Park Commissioner Robert Moses and official observers of the United States Government and radio engineers were among the 1,500 spectators on hand yesterday afternoon for the annual Water Elliot Memorial model boat races on the lake in Bowne Park…The interest of the Government and National Broadcasting Company was due to the search of both for a lightweight compact motor. The Government wants such a motor for radio-guided torpedoes and the radio company is seeking to develop a portable radio transmitter with its own generating plant.

At the time, it was also an official skating pond for the residents of New York City. Today, Bowne Park is used for passive and light recreation, as it has no athletic fields.




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The Rickert-Brown Realty Company

In April of 1919, E. J. Rickert formed a new company with Eugene Brown known as the Rickert-Brown Realty Corporation. Rickert-Brown took over all operations of the Rickert-Finlay company, including sales of remaining acreage in Broadway-Flushing. As a company, Rickert-Brown worked with renewed vigor to create new, attractive development. Rickert changed the name of their East River Heights development to Arleigh in 1921 (A name used for streets in both the Douglas Manor and Kensington developments) and began to develop Norwood Gardens, also in Astoria, in 1921. Both developments were decidedly urban, and were made up primarily of attached and semi-attached rowhouses. However, many of the covenants remained, including single-family usage and 20’ setbacks from the street.

In an advertisement from July 20th, 1919 in the New York Times, Rickert stated that

We received so many inquiries as the result of our recent advertising of houses in The New York Times that we decided to build more than one hundred houses on our Astoria and Flushing properties, and I enclose an advertisement announcing that fact…We came to that decision as the direct result of satisfying ourselves, through our advertising in The Times, of the large demand that exists.

In December of that year, Rickert-Brown agreed to sell 675 lots in Broadway-Flushing for the construction of 225 houses at an average cost of $12,000 each to Metropolitan Home Builders. With an investment of approximately $3,375,000, it was considered the largest single development undertaking in the history of the Borough of Queens. However, by July of 1920, Rickert-Brown had sued Metropolitan for $250,000 claiming breach of contract. The New York Times reported that

The plaintiff alleges the defendant was to build twenty-five houses to cost not less than $10,000 each on plots of seventy-five lots each. This building operation was to be continued until 1,400 lots had been disposed of. The plaintiff charges failure to carry out the contract caused it to lose $250,000. The action came before Supreme Court Justice Fawcett on a demurrer to the complaint, the defendant asserting the contract was inequitable and could not be carried out. The plaintiff asked for judgement. Justice Fawcett reserved decision.

Rickert-Brown continued to be wildly successful in selling properties in all of their subdivisions, and by 1925 had sold the vast majority of their acreage in the Broadway-Flushing development.

Broadway-Flushing in the Roaring 20s

Broadway-Flushing saw most of its development between World War I and the early 1930s. At the time, downtown Flushing was beginning to urbanize, with some apartment complexes replacing individual houses. Large estates, farms and nurseries were still evident, especially east and south of the town center. However, it was in the Murray Hill, Broadway and Auburndale sections that the greatest home development occurred.While the area could still be classified as semi-rural in 1920, by 1926 large sections of Broadway-Flushing and Auburndale were developed with single-family detached houses. In 1921 alone, 152 houses had been built in the Broadway-Flushing development.

According to the Suburban Long Island, The Sunrise Homeland published in 1922 by the Long Island Railroad Company,

One-half mile beyond Murray Hill is Broadway station. The station is a model of modern efforts as produced by a railroad company for the convenience of its patrons. In the main, the territory covered by this station until a few years ago was typical farming country with large patches of woodland. Today one finds it a highly restricted locality dotted with cozy homes and spacious dwellings. This section receives its name from the fine boulevard which runs along the north shore




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of Long Island. This artery of motor delight is a picturesque highway of asphalt, teeming with life, and beautifully bordered with residences and fine foliage. A man desiring a home in the suburbs will find every convenience and comfort at Broadway – electricity, gas, water, fire and police protection. All the side streets hereabouts are kept in excellent condition.

From the Broadway station and to the east was where the greatest development occurred. Much of the construction was to the south of Broadway, but significant areas to the north were being developed as well. In 1925, a local developer named James Callan constructed twenty houses on 20th (160th) and 21st (161st) streets north of Broadway. Callan continued to build housing in the Broadway-Flushing area through the 1930s, particularly single-family houses. Four-story apartment buildings were also being constructed on Crocheron Avenue. One building at 29th (169th) Street, built by Kaye & Bernstein, had 50 three and four-room apartments and were renting for $25 a room. Another grouping of four-story buildings, known as the Lucerne Apartments, were constructed at 24th (164th) Street.

By 1927, Broadway-Flushing was booming. The business area had begun to expand to Northern Boulevard from the area around the station. Queensborough from September, 1927 stated that

In the Broadway-Flushing section, in addition to several apartment houses and scores of private residences, a large number of business buildings have been erected, including a building which houses the Broadway-Flushing branch postoffice and several business offices. The business section has had to grow rapidly to keep pace with the increase in population and for two blocks beyond the station in every direction, almost every lot has been improved with substantial brick buildings. The business section extends from 21st to 24th Street on Northern Boulevard and through 22nd Street from Crocheron Avenue to and beyond Sanford Avenue…So fast has this section grown that the new school buildings at State and 30th Streets and Franconia Avenue and 28th Street are almost filled to capacity. Broadway-Flushing has two branch banks – the Flushing National Bank and the bank of the Manhattan Company, which also has a thriving branch in the live business section of Murray Hill. One of the finest theaters in Queens Borough, the Roosevelt, is in Broadway-Flushing, which has a seating capacity of approximately 2,000…

Auburndale, with the rapidly growing communities of Broadway-Flushing and Bayside to the west and east, lay practically dormant for years. By 1925, building had been active and scores of single-family houses, with a number of small apartment houses had been built. The anticipation of the subway station opening in downtown Flushing in 1928 was not as great in Broadway-Flushing or Auburndale as in the downtown area. Many residents who had moved there traveled by the Long Island Railroad or drove on the new and improved Broadway. Unlike the mass exodus of many of Flushing’s “old families” who left their estates in the downtown area for places like Manhasset, Lake Success or North Hills, the newly-arrived residents to Broadway-Flushing and Auburndale stayed put.

Hildreth Farmhouse

While Rickert-Finlay, Cord Meyer and the Auburndale Realty Company were laying out their streets, one small holdout defied their entreaties for purchase. The Hildreth farm, located on Broadway between 20 th (160th) and 21st (161st) streets, was a five-acre parcel in the heart of the Broadway-Flushing development. The farmhouse, constructed around 1767, and remaining land had remained in the same family for 150 years. By 1922, the family finally sold their parcel but kept the farmhouse and frontage on Northern Boulevard (Photo 20). From 1923 to 1925, 25 houses on 50’ x 100’ were constructed, all with similar setbacks to the adjoining Rickert-Finlay development. The parcels on Broadway were sold over several years. The northeast corner of 21st Street was sold for a six story apartment building with stores in 1925, while the remaining frontage on Broadway was redeveloped with a one-story block of stores ca. 1940. The farmhouse remains on its original site, and is perhaps the only other example of a Colonial-era farmhouse left in Flushing besides Kingsland, once located at




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Broadway (Northern Boulevard) and 16th (156th) Street. The house was moved in 1968 to Weeping Beech Park on 38th Avenue and Parsons Boulevard, and is now the home of the Queens Historical Society.

Camp Upton

The area of central Suffolk County presently occupied by Brookhaven National Laboratory once served the nation as the U.S. Army's Camp Upton, which was active from 1917 until 1920, and again from 1940 until 1946. When the United States entered World War I, America had no standing army. Sixteen cantonments would be erected across the country to train the New York area inductees, as large forces were needed to fight in the European theater. The proposed army base was to be named Camp Upton, after Major General Emery Upton, a decorated soldier who served in the Civil War and wrote numerous books on U.S. military policies.

In the summer of 1917, construction began on a U-shaped encampment large enough to house 40,000 troops. The land had to be totally cleared of the shrub pines, oak, and tangled undergrowth which dominated the landscape before any construction could begin. A rail spur was built, connecting Upton to the Long Island Railroad, on which most of the supplies for construction arrived. Labor problems plagued construction. Local communities could not supply all the men needed, so workers were brought in from New York City. Intense heat, frequent downpours and swarms of mosquitoes harassed the workers. Despite these problems, the camp started to take shape by late summer. Fifty-five railroad cars of supplies were unloaded daily.

Thousands of tons of lumber, nails, and stone arrived at the construction site. The original order called for 680 buildings, but ultimately 1400 buildings were constructed, with little delay in the overall construction calendar. When the first 2,000 drafted men arrived on September 10th, two-thirds of the camp had yet to be completed. The new soldiers were put side by side with the laborers to help complete the camp and by December 20th, the camp was officially declared complete.

Recruits came from the entire metropolitan area; the camp’s population of 40,000 doubled the population of Suffolk County. The most famous recruit was Irving Berlin, who wrote "Yip, Yip Yaphank," a military musical based on his life at the camp. From this show came one of Berlin's most famous songs, "Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning.” With the war's end in November of 1918, Upton's use was limited. The camp served as a demobilization site for returning veterans. The Army decided that Camp Upton was of no further use, and it was deactivated. A public auction in August of 1921 saw everything from stoves to complete structures bought up and removed from the Yaphank base. Two of the camp bungalows were bought and moved to 155th Street, across the street from Bowne Pond and what is now Bowne Park, before any highways were constructed in Queens (Photo 18). The house at 29-12 155th Street is memorialized by a badge on the chimney stack entitled “Camp Upton.”

P. S. 32

The predecessor to P. S. 32 was built at the turn of the twentieth century at the northwest corner of 168 th Street and 35th Avenue, on the site of the present Church on the Hill. The small, wood-frame schoolhouse was constructed at the northern edge of the Murray Heights development. Although there were several public schools in Flushing, most were located much closer to downtown. These buildings were constructed before New York City consolidation, and had names like the Washington, Lincoln, Madison and Jefferson schools. It is unknown whether this school had a name, as it seemed to have been a building used for more of a temporary nature. When the population of Broadway-Flushing and Auburndale dramatically increased in the 1920s, the school became obsolete. P. S. 32 was constructed in 1926-27, and the old school was sold to the newly formed congregation of Church on the Hill (Reformed) which replaced the building with a sanctuary in 1928.




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In the 1920s, the rapid development of the Broadway-Flushing and Auburndale sections of Flushing caused a tremendous spike in the number of school age children. In 1925, three schools in those sections were being planned for 1,200 to 1,600 students each, including P. S. 32. Unlike the previous generation of Gothic Revival-style school buildings and campuses constructed under the watchful eye of Schools Superintendent C. B. J. Snyder, the schools in the 1920s and 1930s were constructed in a much simpler and streamlined modern Colonial Revival-style. Additionally, where Snyder’s schools were not only sensitive to the sites that they were built upon and each school had a unique façade and massing, most schools built in the 1920s and 1930s within New York City were variations on a singular design (Photo 12).

Church on the Hill

Church on the Hill (Reformed) was organized in 1926 and incorporated in November 1927. The group, an offshoot from the Reformed Church of Flushing, now the Bowne Street Community Church located at Bowne Street and Roosevelt Avenue, originally met at a storefront on 169th Street and 35th Avenue. When incorporated, Church on the Hill had about 60 charter members. Reverend Bradley Folensbee, who presided from 1927 to 1940, and the Building Committee Chair Klappert were instrumental in securing surplus school property on the blockfront on 35th Avenue between 167th and 168th streets. In April 1928, a motion was passed to authorize A. G. Lamont, architect, to receive 6% of the total cost for architectural services. On September 20 th, 1928, the bid to build the new church (Photo 13) building for a total cost of $41,000 was awarded to the Warren E. Green Company. During World War II, Reverend Folensbee joined the armed forces and was replaced by Reverend John deMaagd, a missionary in Japan who left after facing increased hostility towards Americans during the war. In 1947, deMaagd went back to Japan and was replaced by Reverend Frederick R. Bosch. During his tenure, which lasted until 1970, the membership and church expanded dramatically. In the 1950s and 1960s, membership peaked at about 800; it was at that time that the Educational Building to the west of the main sanctuary was constructed (1956) and enlarged (1964). By 1970, when Reverend Robert Perless took direction, there were about 300 members, with membership stabilizing at about 150 members presently.

The Richell Building

Richard Hellman, whose family estate was located at the northwest corner of Central Avenue (149 th Street) and Bayside Avenue, went into the real estate business in the 1920s. Hellman, the heir to the Hellman’s Mayonnaise fortune, developed several areas in Flushing, most notably Van Riper Avenue (148th Street), directly south of his estate, with substantial single-family houses; his own estate, with planned garden apartments; and the Richell Building on the north side of Broadway (Northern Boulevard) between 159th and 160th streets (Figure 15, Photo 16).

Hellman developed the Richell Building in the heart of the Depression. According to the November, 1933 edition of Queensborough, published by the Queens Chamber of Commerce,

Although residential construction has been almost at a standstill for several years, several commercial buildings have been erected. One of the largest of these is the two-story building containing stores and offices, erected by the Richell Realty Corporation, and occupying the entire block front on Northern boulevard, from 159th to 160th street. As indicative of the growing importance of this Broadway-Flushing section, practically all of the stores are rented.




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1930s and 1940s in Broadway-Flushing

The Depression, while felt in Broadway-Flushing, was not as severe as in other parts of New York City. However, numerous houses went on the market at bargain prices. In September of 1933, a Tudor-style house with two baths and a two-car garage located at 168-19 29th Avenue was reduced from $14,500 to $9,850; in April of 1934, the building remained unsold. The singular six-story apartment building on Northern Boulevard at the northeast corner of 161st Street (outside of the Rickert-Finlay covenant area), constructed by B. Cohen Contractors in 1927 with 78 units, was in financial difficulties. In April of 1934, the building was renting two rooms for $32.50 per month, three rooms for $42.50 per month and four rooms for $62.50 per month. At the same time, other houses in Broadway-Flushing remained unaffected. By 1936, development picked up, and new houses were starting at between $7,500 and $9,000.

By the start of the World’s Fair, Broadway-Flushing was mostly developed. The area also had a bustling commercial district on Northern Boulevard. Houses constructed less than two decades earlier on Northern Bouelvard were demolished to build strips of storefronts, and St. Andrew Avellino constructed their new sanctuary. The World’s Fair spurred on the economy, particularly in Flushing, and apartments in the area, such as in the Heathcote at 164th Street and 32nd Avenue and the Edgewood at 164th Street and 33rd Avenue, were rented by the week or month. In 1945, the tercentennial anniversary of Flushing’s founding, events were held throughout the town. Two buildings in Broadway-Flushing were part of the event: including the Kingsland house on Northern Boulevard and 3-06 157th Street (Figure 19).

St. Andrew Avellino

When St. Andrew Avellino was founded in 1914, the only Catholic Church in Flushing was St. Michael’s, which was the oldest congregation in Long Island. In 1908, parishioners at St. Michael’s were concerned that there was no parish in Upper Flushing, as Broadway-Flushing and Auburndale were alternately known. The pastor at St. Michael’s was not supportive, so a committee was formed to petition directly to the Bishop of the Diocese of Brooklyn. On May 18th, 1914, the Diocese announced the establishment of a parish in Upper Flushing, making St. Andrew Avellino one of the few churches founded by the community and not the Chancery of the Diocese. It is named after the patron saint of sudden death, and the only known parish in the United States with that title.

The first meeting place for the parishioners was the Murray Hill Theatre, formerly located on Broadway (Northern Boulevard) and Murray Lane. Although the parishioners originally wanted to locate on Sanford Avenue, which was a stylish avenue at that time, Friar Edward McGoldrick, the first pastor, felt that Broadway was the most prominent avenue in the parish. The original edifice was a “Spanish-style stucco church” on the corner of 158th Street and Broadway. The original cost estimate was $25,000, but ended up costing $60,000. The original building was dedicated in 1916, and the original rectory, located at the corner of 157 th Street and Broadway, was built in 1919.

The St. Andrew Avellino school building was completed in 1925, with eight classrooms and 250 students, and a convent to house the Sisters of St. Dominic of St. Mary of the Spring (Ohio) was completed soon after. By 1930, although the parish had grown considerably, the finances of the church were in arrears. However, by 1937, the parishioners had raised $54,000 toward building a new church. In 1938, Bishop Molloy pledged a loan of $200,000 toward the new church if the parishioners could match that amount.

The new church building was completed in January of 1940 on the site of the old rectory. The new church could accommodate 1,000 people and was celebrated among the Diocese as the “Little Cathedral on the Boulevard.” Soon after, a new rectory was constructed on the old church site and was completed in 1943. The school




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expanded in 1962 to accommodate the growing need for parochial instruction in Flushing. In 2004, the parish celebrated its 90th year.

Broadway-Flushing after World War II

Post-war Flushing saw an explosion in growth that saw the remaining semi-rural areas quickly developed. Although Broadway-Flushing was substantially built out, the greater Flushing area was seen as a prime development area. Within a few years, the population doubled; historic houses, farms and nurseries were demolished for apartment buildings and tract housing; and traffic increased exponentially. In 1946, the Broadway-Flushing Civic Association was created – or reorganized, as there are references to an association existing as early as 1931 – and held an initial meeting in September of 1946 at the Teddy Roosevelt Theater (originally the Fox and later the Quartet, which closed in 2000) on Northern Boulevard and 161st Street. The organization held the meeting to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the opening of the theater, and had a star-studded program to attract potential members, including Roddy McDowall; Madeline Holmes and her father Taylor Holmes, a Broadway actor; and Eileen Henry, who was a runner-up in the Miss America pageant and crowned “Miss New York City 1946.” (Figure 20)

The Broadway-Flushing Civic Association, organized in order to have political representation in an increasingly crowded and urban Flushing. Drawing on a pool of residents who had come together to raise $5,000,000 in war bonds, the non-political organization concentrated on quality-of-life issues and lobbying for improvements for the area. The boundaries for membership – Bayside and 45th avenues and 160th to 172nd streets – covered an area that included almost all of the three sections of Rickert-Finlay development.

The association grew quickly after several publicized meetings (Figure 21) and began to demand improvements in services. Under the leadership of association President Fred Maguth, within their first year they had fought against infringement on their protective zoning; airplane noise; burning of leaves on public thoroughfares; and for the creation of parkway signs and the formation of a Parent-Teacher Association at Bayside High School. One of the most contentious issues that were raised was over the killing of a young child at the Long Island Railroad tracks a few blocks east of the Broadway-Flushing station, and the lack of action from the Railroad to block of access to the tracks so that no further accidents would occur. Ultimately, after numerous negative articles generated by the association, the Long Island Railroad secured the fencing along their property.

The Broadway-Flushing Homeowners Association

By the mid-1950s, the Broadway-Flushing Civic Association had declined in activity. The neighborhood remained a quiet, suburban area, with numerous judges, lawyers, doctors, CEOs, entertainers and celebrities. Jimmy Durante, the actor; Elizabeth Carron, a stage singer and star and her husband Marte Previti, a well-known photographer; Ralph Allen, the creator of “Sugar Babies”; Max Klimavicius, the manager of Sardi’s; the Balducci family; and Hounigringer, one of the designers hired by Jacqueline Kennedy to redecorate the White House during the Kennedy administration, were all residents of Broadway-Flushing.

In 1963, after meeting with several officers from the defunct Broadway-Flushing Civic Association, several residents organized to create a new civic group to defend the Broadway-Flushing neighborhood’s quality-of-life; threats to the neighborhood included the newly adopted (1961) Zoning Resolution and the 1964 World’s Fair, which brought millions of people, and some new undesirable development, to Flushing. The new organization, the Broadway-Flushing Homeowner’s Association, focused on a smaller area than the original civic association. The new organization’s boundaries were 29th and 32nd avenues on the north to Northern Boulevard and




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Crocheron Avenue on the south, with 155th Street on the west and 170th Street on the east. The new organization began with approximately 50 members in 1964. At their 40th anniversary in 2004, the organization had about 500 members representing an area with approximately 1300 households.

One of the main objectives of the Broadway-Flushing Homeowner’s Association was to defend the newly-rediscovered Rickert-Finlay covenants, which are stricter than municipal zoning but have to be defended with court actions. In the past decades, these deed restrictions have been upheld through numerous challenges, and have been a major source of continued stability throughout the community. Other quality-of-life issues that the association has been active in include the upkeep of Bowne Park and street trees; keeping the “Flushing Exclusion” intact, along with other local civic groups, which does not allow planes from LaGuardia or Kennedy airports to fly over the north portion of Flushing; and the pursuit of zoning reforms which will more closely adhere to the Rickert-Finlay covenants.

In the 1990s, it was discovered by the association that a strip of land just north of Northern Boulevard with single-family housing was zoned for commercial use that would allow multi-family development. The organization was instrumental in removing the commercial zoning to protect the extant single-family houses that would have been affected. Additionally, as of April 11th, 2005, the Broadway-Flushing neighborhood will have officially begun the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) public hearing process to have twelve blocks rezoned to larger lot sizes, which will match existing development on those streets.

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Documents

Broadway-Flushing Historic District National Register Application