Whitestone, Queens

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Whitestone is a neighborhood in north-central section of the borough of Queens in New York City, located between the East River to the north and Bayside Avenue to the south. Ducth settlers derived the name of the town from a large limestone boulder that used to lie on the shore of the river.

The area was, in part, the estate of Francis Lewis, a delegate to the Continental Congress and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. In the late nineteenth century, many wealthy New Yorkers began building mansions in the area, on what had once been farmland. Rapid development of the area ensued in the 1920s, however, as trolley and Long Island Rail Road train service on the Whitestone & Westchester Branch was expanded into the neighborhood. Although this rail service ended during the Great Depression, the right-of-way was later used by Robert Moses to help construct the Belt Parkway, which includes the Cross Island Parkway which runs through Whitestone.

Further development came with the building of the Bronx Whitestone Bridge in 1939. The bridge measures 2,300 feet, and was the fourth longest bridge in the world at the time of its construction. Today, Whitestone is a largely working and middle-class neighborhood of mostly Greeks, Irish, Italians, and Jews. The neighborhood is comprised mostly of single family homes, garden apartment complexes, and small apartment buildings.

Notable Community land marks include St. Lukes Church and the DG athletic league. Grace Episcopal Church, on Clintonville street in Whitestone, was built in 1858 on land donated by Francis Lewis.

Just to the west of Queens side of the Whitestone Bridge approach, situated between Whitestone proper and College Point is the area known to local residents as Malba, a small area on the waterfront home to some of the largest private houses in New York City. Local residents pride themselves on their Malba addresses.

In the early days of the film industry, celebrities such as Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Harry Houdini and Rudolph Valentino had homes in different areas of Whitestone, most notably in the Northeastern section called Beechhurst. Pickford’s Beechhurst home still stands on 160th Street and Powells Cove Boulevard. Poet Walt Whitman, born in Long Island, gave speeches in Whitestone, and is said to have written poetry by the Whitestone seaside. Actress Drea de Matteo, famous for her heartbreaking performance as Adrianna La Cerva on HBO’s acclaimed series The Sopranos, is a Whitestone native. Coincidentally, a scene in an episode of The Sopranos was filmed in a bar in Whitestone formerly known as "Fiddler's Green." A scene from the 2000 movie Boiler Room, starring Giovanni Ribisi and Vin Diesel, was filmed in the same bar. A scene in the 1994 James Cameron film True Lies, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis, was also filmed in Whitestone. Schwarzenegger and Vanessa Williams also filmed a scene for Eraser here.