Whitestone, Queens
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Whitestone is a neighborhood in the northernmost part of the New York City borough of Queens, located between the East River to the north and 25th Avenue to the south. Dutch settlers derived the name of the town from a large limestone boulder that used to lie on the shore of the river. The neighborhood is part of Queens Community Board 7. It is traditionally bounded by the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge (opened 1937) on the west and the Throgs Neck Bridge (opened 1960) on the east.[1]
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[edit] History
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 Branch was expanded into the neighborhood. Although this rail service ended during the Great Depression, a small part of the right-of-way was later used by Robert Moses to help construct the Belt Parkway, which includes the Whitestone Expressway which runs along the southeast edge of the former Flushing Airport and through Whitestone.
Francis Lewis Boulevard (which locals tend to refer to as "Franny Lew")[2] and Francis Lewis Park (often referred to as "Whitestone Park" by the locals) have been named after Francis Lewis himself. "Whitestone Park" offers locals a beautiful view and a quiet place for recreation.
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 to middle class neighborhood consisting of mostly Italians, Cypriots, Greeks, Irish, and Jews. The neighborhood is comprised mostly of well-kept single family homes, garden apartment complexes, and small apartment buildings. Local residents pride themselves with Whitestone's quiet tree lines streets, updated homes, green gardens, low crime, and top rated public schools. Whitestone has a distinct upscale suburban feel resembling wealthy towns in nearby Nassau County, yet is located only minutes from Manhattan.
Notable community landmarks include St. Lukes Roman Catholic Church, Holy Trinity [(Roman Catholic)] Church and the DG athletic league. Grace Episcopal Church, on Clintonville street in Whitestone, was built in 1858 on land donated by Francis Lewis. The Whitestone Hebrew Centre consists of two buildings on Clintonville Street and was founded in 1929. The Russian Orthodox Church of St Nicholas, with its distinctive great blue onion dome, was built in 1968. The Greek Orthodox Church, Holy Cross, or "Timios Stavros," is located on 150th street.
Just to the west of Queens side of the Whitestone Bridge approach, situated between Whitestone proper and College Point is the exclusive area known to local residents as Malba, a small area on the waterfront home to some of the largest and most expensive private houses in New York City. On the north eastern side of Whitestone is another exclusive area known to the local residents as Beechhurst, a subsection known for multi-million dollar homes, high rise condominiums and views of the Whitestone and Throgs Neck Bridges. Local residents pride themselves on their Malba and Beechhurst addresses.
[edit] Prominent residents
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. Valentino's summer home still stands at 201-10 Cross Island Parkway, just blocks from the present day Whitestone - Bayside border. Today, the home is under the New York City Department of Parks considered a landmark, and has been converted into an Italian restaurant, Cafe On The Green. Pickford’s Beechhurst home still stands on 160th Street and Powells Cove Boulevard. Poet Walt Whitman, born in Long Island, briefly taught in a one-room school-house in Whitestone while a young man, and is said to have written poetry by the Whitestone seaside. There is no record of the school, which was setup by local farmers of modest means, but Whitman made several references to it years latter in letters to friends from that period in his life. According to H. W. Brands' biography of Theodore Roosevelt, TR: The Last Romantic (1997), the future president visited Whitestone by boat while a college student: "One August day Roosevelt set out (by boat) with cousin Johniee Elliot for Whitestone, more than twenty miles away (from Oyster Bay, where he was staying with his parents). Returning the next day, the pair ran into a squall and several times their boat nearly capsized. They didn't reach the safety of home until after midnight. Roosevelt loved every minute." Actress Drea de Matteo, famous for her performance as Adrianna La Cerva on HBO’s acclaimed series The Sopranos, is a Whitestone native.
[edit] Popular culture
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 which a house exploded in the 1994 James Cameron film True Lies, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis, was also filmed in Whitestone. Schwarzenegger and Vanessa L. Williams also filmed a scene for Eraser here. 1998 by Rancid mentions Whitestone Queens.
[edit] References
- ^ Queens Community Boards, New York City. Accessed September 3, 2007.
- ^ Kilgannon, Corey. " Accident Fuels Anger on Strip Infamous for Drag Racing", The New York Times, April 10, 2004. Accessed September 29, 2007. "In springtime, the boulevard becomes what locals call the Franny Lew Speedway, with drivers running quarter-mile sprints for money or stoplight-to-stoplight races for high-velocity kicks and bragging rights."
