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The borough of Queens, New York, has seen many historical and geographical changes. Marshlands, woods, and farms gave way to factories, thriving communities, and the nation's premier arterial highway system. "Queens: Then & Now" offers a rare look at New York City's largest borough, featuring many never-before-seen images.
In the 1890s, electric lighting and improved roads were just the beginning of the changes about to take place in Flushing, New York. Once a rural village of wide-open farms and magnificent estates, Flushing transformed into a community of more than 200,000 people and quickly became one of the busiest neighborhoods in Queens. Flushing explores these dramatic changes with many never-before-seen images. Jason D. Antos is the author of three other local history books: Whitestone, Shea Stadium, and Queens.
Whitestone was named after a large limestone boulder found in 1645 by the Dutch on the virtually flat seashore. The Dutch recognized the great potential to establish the town as a major trading port due to its location by the East River. They purchased the town from the Matinecock tribe, who had been living on the fertile land, for the price of one ax for every 50 acres. The town prospered, and the population grew. In 1898, Whitestone became a part of New York City, and the area experienced a real estate boom. Beautiful estates and private homes sprung up overnight. Celebrities from the golden age of cinema, such as Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, and Rudolph Valentino, established homes in the area. After becoming a major hub for the Long Island Railroad, Whitestone became the home of the famous Whitestone Bridge, which is regarded as the greatest suspension bridge ever built. Through historic photographs, Whitestone chronicles this town's transformation from a quiet Dutch settlement to a massive urban center.
A fascinating part of the melting pot city, current day Jackson Heights in Queens, New York, the neighborhood formerly known as "Trains Meadow", is shared in images and history of the area from rural farmland to a cultural and economic center in New York. At the turn of the 20th century, the neighborhood known as Jackson Heights was originally called Trains Meadow, a sprawling area covered by acres of farmland and rolling hills. Its only inhabitants were homesteaders who lived in their ancient wood-framed dwellings with spreads occupied by barns, horse stables, cabbage patches, and beehives. Overgrowing populations in Manhattan and Brooklyn led developers to Queens County to transform that l...
The neighborhoods of Douglaston and Little Neck are located on the northeastern frontier of Queens County. The gateway to the north shore of Long Island, both towns are linked not only geographically but through an illustrious history that dates back to the time of the Algonquin, who called the area Matinecock or "Place of the Hill Country." In 1906, the Rickert-Finlay Realty Company helped develop Douglaston and Little Neck, featuring an architectural tapestry of Colonial and Tudor Revivals, English cottages, and Arts and Crafts-style homes. Douglaston quickly became a destination for artists and yachting enthusiasts while Little Neck quickly saw its conversion from farmland and quaint yet rustic country stores to a newly developed area of communities and hamlets that exemplified the American dream. Today an historic district, Douglaston includes homes designed by Josephine Wright Chapman, one of the nation's earliest women architects, as well as the childhood home of pro tennis legend John McEnroe.
Rising among the factories and body shops off Roosevelt Avenue in Queens, Shea Stadium has been the setting for many of the game's greatest moments. From its opening in 1964 for the World's Fair to the unforgettable Beatles' concert to the 1969 Miracle Mets, this book covers the history of Shea Stadium through its inception and up to the creation of the new modern-day Citi Field, which the Mets will call home in 2009.
Located in northeast Queens, Fresh Meadows grew up around a housing development of the same name, built for World War II veterans. The site plan for the development not only provided an array of green open space, but it also enabled residents to enjoy a variety of services within walking distance. The development became the centerpiece of a brand-new neighborhood, which had been the site of a country club and farmland. In 1949, renowned urban and architecture critic Lewis Mumford hailed the Fresh Meadows housing development as "perhaps the most positive and exhilarating example of large-scale community planning in this country." Fresh Meadows captures the optimism of the postwar era by illustrating how middle-class families thrived in an environment that combined the best aspects of urban and suburban living.
During an era when millions of Jews fled the pogroms of Eastern Europe, the Titanic sailed on her maiden voyage. At the time, she was the largest and most luxurious ship ever built and many of her 2,200 passengers were Jewish. At 23:40, April 14, (28th of Nissan 5672) the Titanic swiped an iceberg and sank within two and a half hours. Most of her passengers lost their lives. The sinking of the Titanic was one of the worst and well known maritime disasters of the 20th century. The entire world mourned the Titanic. The grief was universal and shared by people of many nations and religions. This book focuses on the lives and deaths of the Jewish passengers who sailed on the Titanic. It covers various Jewish aspects of the voyage and of the sinking. Aspects, such as keeping kosher, the Agunot dilemma and Jewish burial. The book outlines the life story of the passengers and the effect the disaster made on world Jewry. This book is the result of a long research on the subject, including an attempt to compose a unique and complete list of all the Jews who sailed on the Titanic, and identifying many of them who were previously unknown.
“The Mosque case of 1972 is the most famous case amongst the rank and file of the NYPD and Circle of Six holds no punches.” —Joe “Donnie Brasco” Pistone, former FBI special agent Circle of Six is the true story of what is perhaps the most notorious case in the history of the New York Police Department. It details Randy Jurgensen’s determined effort to bring to justice the murderer of Patrolman Phillip Cardillo, who was shot and killed inside Harlem’s Mosque #7 in 1972, in the midst of an all-out assault on the NYPD from the Black Liberation Army. The New York of this era was a place not unlike the Wild West, in which cops and criminals shot it out on a daily basis. Despite the ...
In the early years of the 20th century, Queens County underwent an enormous transformation. The Queensboro Bridge of 1909 forever changed the landscape of this primarily rural area into the urban metropolis it is today. Forgotten Queens shows New York's largest borough between the years 1920 and 1950, when it was adorned with some of the finest model housing and planned communities anywhere in the country. Victorian mansions, cookie-cutter row houses, fishing shacks, and beachside bungalows all coexisted next to workplaces and commercial areas. Beckoning with the torch of the new century and a bright promise for those who dared to pioneer its urban wilderness, Queens flourished as a community. Through vintage photographs being seen by the public for the first time, the five wards of Queens are highlighted for their unique character and history.