| Kew Gardens Hills | |
|---|---|
| — Neighborhoods of New York City — | |
| The Jewish Center of Kew Gardens Hills on Main St. | |
| Country | United States |
| State | New York |
| County | Queens |
| Named for | Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew[1] |
| Area | |
| • Total | 1 sq mi (2.6 km2) |
| Population (2000) | |
| • Total | 38,216 |
| Ethnicity | |
| • White | 61.1% |
| • Black | 8.9% |
| • Hispanic | 15.0% |
| • Asian | 17.0% |
| • Other | 12.9% |
| Economics | |
| • Median income | $55,847 |
| ZIP code | 11367 |
| Area code(s) | 718, 347, 917 |
Kew Gardens Hills, also sometimes incorrectly referred to as Kew Garden Hills, is a one-square mile sub-neighborhood of Flushing in the New York City borough of Queens. The western border is Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, on the north is Jewel Avenue, on the south is Union Turnpike and to the east is Parsons Boulevard (or 164th Street). Kew Gardens Hills roughly encompasses ZIP code 11367. The neighborhood is part of Queens Community Board 8.[2]
Main arteries through the neighborhood are Main Street, Jewel Avenue, and Kissena Boulevard. Main arteries around the perimeter of the neighborhood are Union Turnpike, Horace Harding Expressway, Kissena Boulevard and Parsons Boulevard. Highways to the neighborhood include the Long Island Expressway, Grand Central Parkway, Van Wyck Expressway, and the Jackie Robinson Parkway (Interborough).
Kew Gardens Hills is made easily accessible thanks to the expressways surrounding it and the quick commute on the Q46 bus to the Union Turnpike-Kew Gardens subway station.
Adjacent neighborhoods include Forest Hills to the west, Hillcrest to the east, Briarwood to the south, and te sub-neighborhood of Queensboro Hill to the north.
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Kew Gardens Hills is a relatively young Queens community, when compared to other neighborhoods in the borough, with its earliest homes built in 1917 off of Union Turnpike.
In the 19th century, the area was farmland and in the early 20th century, the neighborhood was known as Queens Valley and consisted of golf courses.[3] One road that runs through present-day Kew Gardens Hills is 73rd Avenue, which had been called Blackstump Road since colonial days. Presently, it has a bike lane. Kissena Boulevard, which runs from downtown Flushing, ends its run in Kew Gardens Hills at Parsons Boulevard. In the 19th century and early 20th century, both thoroughfares were known as Jamaica Road. It was the most direct route from the towns of Flushing and Jamaica at that time.[4]
Growth to Kew Gardens Hills came when Kew Gardens, Queens, to the south, gained a subway line at Queens Boulevard in 1936 and Flushing Meadows Corona Park, directly to the northwest of the neighborhood, hosted the 1939 New York World's Fair. Early residents were mostly German, Irish and Italian. Many were relocating from Brooklyn and Manhattan. The area was hilly and Kew Gardens was known as a prestigious Queens neighborhood and so developers changed its name from Queens Valley to Kew Gardens Hills.[5] The first Queen of Peace mass took place in 1939. Main Street Cinemas opened in 1940. Property along 144th street, now known as Main Street, was seized by the city to complete the building of Main Street from northern Flushing. Main Street was paved and bus routes began to serve the area in 1941. The Jewish Center of Kew Gardens Hills was established in 1941. The Queens County Savings Bank opened its branch in 1949 and local school, P.S. 164, also known as the Queens Valley School, also opened its doors that year.[6]
Parkway Village, between Parsons Boulevard, Union Turnpike and Grand Central Parkway, was built to house United Nations employees in the late 1940s. Some owners are seeking landmark historic status for the co-op.[7] Parkway Village was developed as a rental community with 685 units on 37 acres (150,000 m2) of rolling parkland in 1947. Today the buildings are in need of maintenance and upgrading, and the vegetation needs some management.
Established in 1941, the Jewish Center of Kew Gardens Hills is the only traditional Conservative synagogue located in the heart of Kew Gardens Hills. By the 1950s, the Orthodox Jewish community began to take root and formed the Young Israel Congregation of Kew Gardens Hills in 1951 with 15 families. That congregation now consists of 450 families[8]. At Vleigh Place and Main Street, the City of New York developed and constructed a small park in 1957-58. In March 1960, the City Council named it Freedom Square to commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Theodor Herzl, founder of present-day Zionism.[4]
It is a mixed neighborhood of single-family homes (detached or in rows) as well as three to six-story garden apartment buildings mostly built during the years immediately following World War II) in the 1940s, such as Regency Gardens. These are characterized by their lawns and internal pathways that give the complexes a small-neighborhood feel. There are several homes in Kew Gardens Hills that predate Main Street, whose property was subject to eminent domain in the 1930s to widen 144th Street into the Main Street extension from northern Flushing. A few public housing projects in one part of the neighborhood were also built. Other buildings in that area were built to house employees of certain unions, like the Electchester Co-operative Building built to house electrical employees in 1949 on what used to be the grounds of the Pomonok Country Club. That building no longer houses electrical employees exclusively.[4]
The Opal, a mid-rise luxury building built on the site of long-time vacant lots, opened in Kew Gardens Hills in November 2004.
The neighborhood contains an established and continually growing Orthodox and Haredi Jewish population and some Israelis, as well as smaller groups of Latinos, Koreans, Chinese, Indians, Afghanis and African Americans.
The commercial areas of the neighborhood include Main Street, Union Turnpike, Parsons Boulevard and Kissena Boulevard. Fran Drescher reportedly worked at the Main Street Cinemas in Kew Gardens Hills in the early 1970s. Main Street, in particular, is home to many Jewish-themed stores and Kosher restaurants. Many of the businesses along Main Street in Kew Gardens Hills close for Shabbat Friday Evenings and Saturdays until sundown.[5] Many businesses along Kissena Blvd. on the other hand have closed permanently.[9]
On September 16, 2010 a tornado touched down in Queens, causing widespread damage to cars and homes in the Kew Gardens Hills area. See 2010 Brooklyn/Queens tornadoes for more information. John Bowne High School located along Main Street at the edge of the CUNY Queens College campus, directly across from Mt. Hebron Cemetery, was the only New York City Public School building to sustain physical damage related to the storm and was subsequently closed the day following the storm.
Following a storm the evening of July 13, 2011, a double rainbow could be seen from Kew Gardens Hills.
Scenes from the 2000 movie Boiler Room were shot in Kew Gardens Hills.
Kew Gardens Hills is home to Max and Mina's Ice Cream, named number 1 of the top 10 unique Ice Cream Parlors in America in Everybody Loves Ice Cream, the Whole Scoop on America's favorite treat by Shannos Jackson Arnold, Emmis Books, July 2004. Some Manhattan restaurants offer Max & Mina's Ice Cream on their dessert menus.[10]
Kew Gardens Hills is home to the Queens County Savings Bank building, constructed in 1954, and modeled after Philadelphia's Independence Hall. The building also houses a full-size replica of the Liberty Bell.
There are two cemeteries in Kew Gardens Hills, Mount Hebron Cemetery and Cedar Grove, whose main entrances are located on the Horace Harding Expressway.
There are several dozen houses of worship in Kew Gardens Hills, many of them Jewish. The Roman Catholic Church Queen of Peace is located on Main Street at 77th Road.
This neighborhood has a large Orthodox Jewish population, including immigrants from Israel, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, France, Africa, and the Middle East. Many residents have also moved from neighborhoods such as Crown Heights in Brooklyn. The Jewish population in Kew Gardens Hills have contributed to naming of four streets in the neighborhood.
These include Haym Salomon Square (geometrically a triangle), across from the Kew Gardens Hills branch of the Queens Borough Public Library, named for the Revolutionary; Rabbi Kirshblum Triangle named for the first Rabbi of the Kew Gardens Hills Jewish Center; Freedom Square named in honor of Theodor Herzl's quest for a Jewish homeland; Rabbi Avraham Schechter Way named for a prominent resident of the community is located between 147 Street and 150 Street along 72nd Drive; and Abe Wolfson Triangle named for an environmental activist and one of the founders of the Queens Historical Society is located along Kissena Boulevard near 75th Avenue.
A sizable Muslim and Sikh population exists in areas of Kew Gardens Hills as well, most notably on the northern side with several stores catering to that population.
Two university campuses are located in Kew Gardens Hills. Located in the northern portion of Kew Gardens Hills is Queens College, a liberal arts college that is part of the City University of New York (CUNY) system. The CUNY Law School is also in Kew Gardens Hills, on Main Street. Queens College also serves as an important cultural institution for neighborhood residents with Colden Center for the Performing Arts and the Godwin-Ternbach Museum.[3]
Notable graduates of Queens College include native son Jerry Seinfeld, who was awarded an honorary doctorate in 1994, Ron Jeremy,[11] and Paul Simon.
Lander College, the men's college of Touro College, has a large campus on 150th Street at 75th Road.
Public schools located in Kew Gardens Hills include P.S. 164, P.S 219 The Paul Klapper School, P.S. 165, Robert F. Kennedy Community High School, John Bowne High School and Townsend Harris High School at Queens College. Townsend Harris High School serves academically gifted students. North Queens Community High School, which serves troubled New York City youths who wish to obtain their high school diploma has been in the area since 2007.
Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim (76th Road & 147th Street) and Yeshiva Ohr Hachaim (71st Avenue & Main Street, a division of Touro College) are large yeshivas located in Kew Gardens Hills.
Other religious schools located in Kew Gardens Hills include St. Nicholas of Tolentine, Shevach High School (Main Street at 75th Road), Mesivta Yesodei Yeshurun, Yeshiva of Central Queens (70th Road at 150th Street), Yeshiva Ketana (Parsons Boulevard & 78th Road) and Solomon Schechter School of Queens (76-26 Parsons Blvd.)
Queens Library operates the Kew Gardens Hills Branch at 72-33 Vleigh Place.[12]
Notable residents of Kew Gardens Hills include: