Forest Hills

What’s the most unusual street in Queens? For me, it’s a one-block street near the southern limit of Forest Hills, running between 70th Drive and 71st Avenue just north of…

Many of New York City’s busiest roads have humble beginnings indeed. Queens Boulevard arose in the pre-colonial period and eventually became a two-lane dirt road called Thomson Avenue, Jamiaca Turnpike,…

Happy Flag Day. I was idly shambling around Forest Hills a few years ago when I spotted this 48-star flag on a garage. The 48 stars were current between 1912…

The Who, the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Elvis Costello, Don Budge, Rod Laver, Billie Jean King and Jimmy Connors have all held court at Forest Hills Tennis Stadium at 69th Avenue and…

Actually this quick walk came in July 2007, but I’ve been caught short of new material of late. That’s OK — I always have a big backlog of material, although it’s…

Your webmaster is a diurnal animal. This wasn’t always the case — throughout the 1980s I worked the late shift and braved the darkest recesses of the graffiti scarred IRT on…

I was in Forest Hills/Rego Park the other day (January 2009), 108th Street and 69th Road to be precise, when I vaguely remembered I had found a classic flute-bottomed, olive-colored stoplight…

Your webmaster will admit straight out that autumn is my favorite time of year; I somehow make it through every summer while waiting for the time when I can wear a…

Cord Meyer Jr. (1854-1910) was the original developer of Elmhurst and Forest Hills. In 1893 Meyer, a successful banker and lawyer, purchased acreage in what was then called Newtown from…

CONTINUED FROM PART 1 WHEN IT reaches Union Turnpike, the Jackie Robinson Parkway and the Van Wyck Expressway in Kew Gardens, Queens Blvd. begins its slow process of winding down. Quiet…

WHETHER it wants to admit it or not, the Department of Transportation’s main function is the movement of motor vehicles; to enable them to move as quickly as possible. That means…

ATTENTION has been paid, and rightly so, to the NYC subway system on its 100th anniversary in 2004, but there’s an even older transit system in New York existing alongside the…