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Northeast Queens

Less than a half-hour from Manhattan by car or train is the suburban life. It's the good life. It's the quiet life. It's the Northeast Queens life. OK, that sounds like an ad-agency pitch. But this largely residential region typically lives up to the hype with its affordable housing options, convenient shopping, solid schools, quality eateries, and beautiful, active parks.

Northeast Queens' neighborhoods include:

Bayside
Bellerose
College Point
Douglaston
Floral Park
Fresh Meadows
Glen Oaks
Jamaica Estates
Kew Gardens Hills
Little Neck
Oakland Gardens
Queens Village
Whitestone

Bayside

Mention "Bayside" and hear an "oooh." Mention "School District 26" and hear an "ahhh." This neighborhood and its school district are natural lightning rods for praise. Quality of life soars in one; academic excellence soars in the other-and thus soar the housing prices.

Situated on Little Neck Bay, Bayside remained farmland until the railroads' advent. After developers touted the parklike scenery, homebuilding boomed in the neighborhood. Among its residents in the 1920s and '30s were some of the era's top film stars-Gloria Swanson, Charlie Chaplin, Norma Talmadge, W.C. Fields, Rudolph Valentino, John Barrymore. Their mansions remain today, enhancing Bayside's already high appeal.

Single-family detached homes figure prominently in the residential mix, which also offers condos, co-ops, and two-family houses. High-rise luxury apartment complexes treat their residents to such exclusive amenities as movie lounges; libraries; doormen; concierges; shops; full-service health clubs; tennis, racquetball, and basketball courts; and indoor and outdoor swimming pools. The hot real-estate market even has developers clamoring to transform historic Fort Totten-a major military post during the Civil War-into more waterfront condos.

Bayside's suburban goodies include 655-acre Alley Pond Park, which offers educational centers, wildlife, and running trails; 45-acre Crocheron Park, with its baseball diamonds and tennis courts; and the 18-hole public golf course at Clearview Park. Shops, services, and eateries are concentrated on Bell and Northern Boulevards.

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Bellerose

This residential neighborhood's developer, Helen M. Marsh, stood out for two reasons: First, women in the early 1900s weren't expected to have business savvy. She flew in the face of convention by purchasing 77 acres of gladiola-covered fields, conceiving a model community of modestly priced homes, and laying out its lanes and homes around colorful flowerbeds.

Second, Marsh tended to her fan-shaped community with painstaking care, living in each of the first 22 houses to be sure of their quality. She kept the development's flowers alive during drought and built a train station to lure the Long Island Rail Road's service here.

Her hands-on dedication paid off. Folks flocked to the charming, tree-lined neighborhood. And it remains densely populated today, offering tidy single-family and two-family homes, as well as a thriving retail area on Hillside Avenue.

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College Point

Although the short-lived St. Paul's College was open for only for a decade in the early 19th century, it was there long enough for the community to change the name of this neighborhood from its original Tew's Neck to College Point. The school's tenure was brief but College Point has endured, although not without its share of hard knocks.

German immigrant Conrad Poppenhusen built the neighborhood in 1854 for workers at his hard-rubber factory. He oversaw development of the houses, schools, businesses, and infrastructure. But the invention of plastic pushed Poppenhusen into bankruptcy in 1877, and College Point faded as the rubber capital of the Northeast.

Prohibition strangled the neighborhood's second lease on life as a beer-producing, summer-resort area. Today, College Point is mostly residential and includes waterfront condos. The 550-acre College Point Corporate Park offers mega-stores, industrial plants, and office buildings in a park-like setting. The 29-acre MacNeil Park features basketball and handball courts, a baseball diamond, play equipment, and a waterfront walking path.

College Point's resident celebrities have included John Frankenheimer, director of The Manchurian Candidate; Yankees pitcher Steve Karsay; and crime family boss Thomas Luchese.

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Douglaston

Residents of enchanting Douglaston know they're lucky to have its charm, and they'll fight to keep it. A campaign begun in 1989 to preserve the neighborhood's ambience and architecture encompasses about 800 turn-of-the-20th-century homes, designed in Tudor, colonial, and Victorian styles. Along with million-dollar waterfront mansions, Douglaston also offers inexpensive co-op garden apartments, single-family and two-family houses, and condos in townhouse-style buildings.

One of Queens' wealthiest communities, both historically and today, Douglaston was launched in 1906, on the peninsular farmland of George Douglas. The site borders three city parks, features highly regarded schools, and offers varied shopping outlets. Restaurants include the Douglaston Manor, which overlooks the 104-acre Douglaston Golf Course and the Manhattan skyline.

Actress and dancer Ginger Rogers once called Douglaston home, and John McEnroe learned to play tennis at the Douglaston Club.

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Floral Park

Talk about flower power. Flower-loving John Lewis Childs arrived here in 1874, rented some acreage, and began planting. His business grew large enough to justify the presence of a railroad station. Pointing to the miles of colorful blossoms he had created, Childs convinced the Central Railroad of Long Island to name the new station Floral Park.

As a lasting tribute to its founder, Floral Park's streets have kept the flowery names he originally assigned them, including main thoroughfare, Tulip Avenue. The neighborhood features single-family and two-family homes, floral displays in Heritage Park and Centennial Gardens, and recreational facilities at the local rec center.

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Fresh Meadows

It doesn't take a marketing genius to see the wisdom in renaming a neighborhood called Black Stump. It's speculated that Fresh Meadows' unappealing former name may have stemmed from the rows of blackened stumps that defined plantation borders. New York Life Insurance Company launched the modern Fresh Meadows in 1949 when it created a model community here. It came complete with row houses, apartment high-rises, schools, a theater, and a shopping center. Another draw was the landmark Bloomingdale's, which opened that year and closed in 1991.

Fresh Meadows' original housing options remain today, along with three shopping centers that meet local retail needs. The area's Cunningham Park provides a tree-lined path for walkers, runners, and bicyclists. The park also hosts such annual events as New York Philharmonic concerts and Big Apple Circus performances.

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Glen Oaks

Who was Glen Oaks? The question should be, what was Glen Oaks? Developers in the 1940s adopted the name of a golf course that had been part of William K. Vanderbilt's estate here. Neither the greens nor the estate remain, but the neighborhood is going strong.

Glen Oaks' primary growth spurt occurred after World War II, when it provided returning GI's with much-needed housing. These days, residential options include apartment buildings and single-family homes. Residents take an active role in maintaining their neighborhood's suburban character.

Along with Floral Park and Bellerose, Glen Oaks shares the 52 rural acres of the Queens County Farm Museum, possibly the nation's most visited museum of its kind. Glen Oaks also is the former home of Weight Watchers founder Jean Nidetch, and it contains Queen's highest point (North Shore Towers Hill, at 258 feet).

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Jamaica Estates

Armed with the city's oldest and most active civic association, Jamaica Estates is serious about preserving its ambience. To do so, the Jamaica Estates Association keeps close watch for any violations of building or zoning codes. And the association was just as vigilant in 1928 when the neighborhood was founded: It was determined that all dwellings would be detached two-story houses, with attics and without flat roofs, and with a price exceeding a pricey-for-the-time $6,000.

Cruise the winding streets in this neighborhood and you'll witness the architectural variety-a turn-of-the-20th-century Tudor here, a brick Georgian-style there, a modern split-level next door. Oak, maple, elm, and chestnut trees, some centuries old, punctuate the view. Most of the dwellings here are single-family homes. For apartments, you'll have to head to the neighborhood's periphery. For shops and restaurants, try Union Turnpike and Hillside Avenue.

Named after the nearby Jamaica neighborhood, over time Jamaica Estates became a refined habitat for judges, doctors, and civic leaders. Notables who have resided here over the years include Donald Trump, Will Rogers, and Rodney Dangerfield.

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Kew Gardens Hills

From the hills here you can see the community of Kew Gardens, so the neighborhood practically named itself (with help from developers Abraham, Leon, and Morty Walsoff). It claims one of the city's largest Orthodox Jewish communities, a population majority of 75 percent by one estimate. This is evidenced on Main Street, which features Israeli-owned businesses and kosher eateries.

Built on a swamp, Kew Gardens Hills houses its residents in single-family and two-family homes, garden apartment complexes, and co-ops. And it has several claims to fame: Actors Michael Landon and Martin Landau grew up in the neighborhood.

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Little Neck

Although the name sounds like a slur, "Little Neck" simply refers to nearby Little Neck Bay. The Matinecocks tribe valued the area for its shells and seafood, and by the 1860s, white settlers had turned clam and oyster fishing here into big business. After industrial pollution killed the industry in the early 20th century, Little Neck went residential.

Demographics show this mostly white neighborhood as enjoying the borough's highest median family income. Locals live in single-family homes and apartment complexes, and do their shopping at the Douglaston Shopping Center on Northern Boulevard. And for the past several decades, Little Neck has drawn attention to itself by hosting New York City's biggest Memorial Day parade.

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Oakland Gardens

For several decades, Oakland Gardens was home to the East's second-oldest golf club. Established in 1896, the Oakland Golf Club was created on the site of a former horticultural farm that featured orchids and roses. When the city purchased the grounds in 1960, it built a housing development and other facilities. Current residential options include single-family and two-family homes, and low-rise and garden apartment buildings.

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Queens Village

Along with the Roaring '20s, the housing market in Queens Village went boom. Hundreds of row houses were built with small backyards, enabling city workers to live as suburbanites. In addition to the single-family homes and a few apartment complexes, today's Queens Village offers shopping along Springfield Boulevard, and Jamaica, Hillside, and Braddock Avenues. The variety of ethnic groups includes a large African-American population, most of whom have Caribbean roots.

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Whitestone

You could say that Whitestone has been much sought after. When a stamping mill was constructed in 1854, workers came here, seeking jobs. When a natural iron spring was hyped for its healing properties that same decade, the afflicted came, seeking well-being. And when the railroad arrived in 1869, millionaires came here, seeking to build mansions on the waterfront.

Today, prospective residents seek out this residential community for its single-family homes and apartments. It also has many shopping and dining options on 14th Avenue, on 150th Street, and at the Whitestone Shopping Center. Famed locals have included Walt Whitman, Harry Houdini, Mary Pickford, Oscar Hammerstein, and Declaration of Independence signer Francis Lewis.

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