Malba, Queens

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Malba is neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. Malba is bounded to the north by the East River, to the east by the Whitestone Expressway, to the south by 15th Avenue, and to the west by 138th Street. Its name is derived from the first letters of the surnames of its five founders.

1 Early history
2 John Powell
3 William Ziegler
4 William S. Champ
5 Railroad
6 External links

[edit] Early history

The first known resident of the area known as present-day Malba, was David Roe, who arrived from England in the 1640s. According to Clarence Almon Torrey, in his book “David Roe Of Flushing And Some Of His Descendants,” Roe probably became a resident of Flushing around 1666. In 1683, he was taxed upon owning 35 acres and thereafter increased his holdings substantially, ultimately acquiring the upland around what was to become Malba. Roe's farm was on the east side of the bay, which was then known as “Roe’s Cove.” Roe was among the well-to-do citizens of Flushing, owning lands, farm stock, carpenter's tools and two slaves.

[edit] John Powell

In 1786, John Powell purchased Roe’s 87-acre parcel for 1,685 pounds, 6 shillings, and 8 pence. It has been reported that Roe lost his lands for his allegiance to the crown during the American War of Independence. Powell thereafter built a home and the cove was renamed “Powell’s Cove”, the name it bears today. During the 1800s, some of Powell’s land passed into the hands of Harry Genet, a member of the Tammany Hall, New York City’s corrupt political machine. Powell’s house was destroyed by fire in the 1890s.

During the second half of the 1800s, the Roe/Powell land passed to a succession of owners. A map dating from 1873 lists the Smiths, Biningers and Nostrands as landowners in the area. The Nostrand and Smith farms represented a large portion of what is Malba today. The area around Hill Court and 14th Avenue was known as “Whitestone Heights.” In 1883 railroad service to Manhattan was extended on the “Whitestone and Westchester” branch of the Long Island Rail Road. The terminus of the Whitestone line was at what was then called “Whitestone Landing” (154th Street) which was a popular summer resort area during the late-1800s and early-1900s.

[edit] William Ziegler

William Ziegler, a self-made industrialist and president of the Royal Baking Powder Company bought all these parcels in or about 1883 and his holdings became known as the "Ziegler Tract." Ziegler died on May 24, 1905, leaving his wife Electa Matilda Ziegler (a philanthropist for the blind, among other things) and son, William, Jr., then fourteen years old.

[edit] William S. Champ

William S. Champ (Ziegler's former secretary) and W.C. Demarest (Mrs. Ziegler's nephew) (both to become among the first families residing in Malba) formed a Realty Trust to purchase the Ziegler tract from his estate for development purposes. Champ was vice president of the Realty Trust, and also one of the executors of Ziegler’s estate. The Ziegler Tract had been appraised for $100,000 shortly after Ziegler’s death. In the spring of 1906, the Realty Trust secured over 100 investors from New Haven, Guilford, Bridgeport, and other Connecticut towns, to the planned purchase of the Ziegler Tract. It is interesting to note that from a review of the early maps of the area, the developers, at one point, planned a very densely populated community; with homes on lots no bigger than 20 feet wide. Obviously, this plan was modified and much larger properties were developed. The trust represented to the investors that the property could be purchased from the Ziegler estate for $640,000. In fact, the 163 acres which ultimately became Malba, had been earlier purchased from the Ziegler estate for $350,000. Thereafter, Connecticut residents, Samuel R. Avis, Noble P. Bishop, George W. Lewis, David R. Alling and George Maycock were elected trustees (altogether these were the five names that combined to form the MALBA name) of the Malba Land Company. The true, lesser, amount paid to Ziegler’s estate was not discovered until 1912. (For a complete discussion of the Realty Trust's acquisition of the land and its subsequent defense of a lawsuit from the Malba Land Company, see Crowe v. Malba Land Co., 135 N.Y.S. 454, 76 Misc. 676 (Sup. Ct. Queens Co. 1912)).

[edit] Railroad

Development slowly began in 1908. A railroad station on the Whitestone line was added where 11th Avenue sits today. The Champs and Demarests were among Malba’s first families to own homes in Malba. There were thirteen houses by the time of the World War I and more than a hundred were built in the 1920s. The railroad station closed in 1932. The triangle by Malba Drive and Boulevard was named the “Jane Champ Park,” sometime in the 1960s and was remodeled by the Malba Field and Marine Club in 2005.