BAYSIDE Avenue in Queens is nowhere near Bayside, the neighborhood. Instead it runs between Union Street and the intersection of 154th Street and 29th Avenue in Flushing. In what is something of a feature in NYC nomenclature, the road is named for the neighborhood or town toward which it points (cf. Flushing Avenue, which isn’t in Flushing at all but is in Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Bushwick and Maspeth). Bayside Avenue is home to a number of eclectic houses, some of which are on wide plots. Only one has Landmarks Preservation Commission protection, the Fitzgerald-Ginsberg Mansion, at #145-15. I’ll refer to its description in its LPC report:
The Fitzgerald/Ginsberg Mansion is a rare 1920s, picturesque Tudor Revival style mansion in Flushing, Queens designed by architect John Oakman. Constructed in 1924, it features rusticated, irregularly shaped fieldstone walls, a multi-colored slate roof, casement and leaded glass windows, and picturesque massing.
Large, suburban picturesque revival-style houses from the 1920s were at one time prevalent throughout New York City’s affluent residential outer neighborhoods, but have become increasingly rare. The Fitzgerald house is one of the last great mansions from this period still standing in Flushing. The house represents the affluence and optimism of the 1920s. It was built immediately adjacent to an extension of Flushing’s Old Country Club and its golf course – a typical suburban pattern of those years. The Old Country Club, founded in 1887, built its golf course in 1902. It is credited as being one of the oldest private country clubs in the United States. The club house and golf course have since been demolished.
The architect of the house, John Oakman, worked for Carrere & Hastings and then formed a partnership with W. Powell before starting his own practice in 1909, specializing in picturesque single family houses. The house was built for Charles and Florence Fitzgerald, who sold it in 1926 to Ethel and Morris Ginsberg. Ginsberg made his fortune as part of a family-owned business supplying sash, door and wooden trim for builders. The firm was considered to be one of the leaders in this field in the Long Island region. The Ginsberg family lived in the house for over seventy years.
The Eternal Montrose Morris (Suzanne Spellen) has much more on the building, which was the home of The Giving Church of New York in 2026.
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2/5/26