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Southeast Queens

Mostly simple and unassuming, the residential neighborhoods of Southwest Queens seduce residents with their peaceful distance from fast-paced Manhattan. Residents even might forget their proximity to Manhattan's hustle and bustle, were it not for overhead reminders heading to or from John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Southwest Queens' neighborhoods include:

Glendale
Howard Beach
Kew Gardens
Maspeth
Middle Village
Ozone Park/South Ozone Park
Richmond Hill
Ridgewood
Woodhaven

Glendale

Manhattan's 1852 law banning cemeteries had a spillover effect on Glendale, recruiting it into what is known as the Cemetery Belt. As evidence of this, just take a head count of Glendale's residents. Now count Glendale's headstones. You'll find that the names in the neighborhood's 12 cemeteries are more numerous than those of the living.

Developed in 1869, the neighborhood owed its initial growth spurt to German immigrants. Many settled here in the 1930s to work at textile factories, and later started up businesses. That influence is still evident in the local eateries serving authentic German cuisine and pastries. In the 1980s, Glendale drew immigrants from Romania, Yugoslavia, Poland, China, and the Dominican Republic.

Glendale's boundaries include the Long Island Rail Road tracks, Woodhaven Boulevard, and Fresh Pond Road.

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Howard Beach

Howard Beach's claim to fame, unfortunately, is an ugly splotch on the area's record. In 1986, a black man was killed here by a gang of white teens. In response, clergy and civil rights leaders led an interracial group march through Howard Beach, protesting racism. (As of 2000, whites remained the neighborhood's majority ethnicity-mostly Jewish and Italian-at about 84 percent, with Latinos counting for another 11 percent.)

But the bulk of Howard Beach's history shows it as a nice place to visit and live. A visitor in the 1890s called the then-fishing village a great spot for rambling around, giving birth to its original name of Ramblersville. The residential community was renamed in 1911 to honor its developer.
Filled today primarily with single-family and two-family houses, Howard Beach also offers garden apartments, condos, and coastal stilt homes. Diners, food shops, malls, clothing stores, and clam bars can be found along Cross Bay Boulevard.

Residents have included singer/songwriter Woodie Guthrie and crime-family boss John Gotti. Howard Beach is bounded by Belt Parkway, Spring Creek Park, JFK Airport, and Jamaica Bay.

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Kew Gardens

Before development began on Richmond Hill Golf Course in the early 1900s, one developer was struck by the lay of the land. It reminded him of London's Royal Botanical Gardens, also called Kew Gardens. Developers then gave Kew Gardens' homes an English and neo-Tudor flavor, which predominates in some sections today. The area also contains high-rise condominiums and pre-WW II apartment buildings, and its mix of homes, shops, restaurants, and offices offer a charming ambience.

The racially diverse community is home to immigrants from Israel, China, Iran, Afghanistan, Russia, India, Columbia, and Korea. Kew Gardens' celebrity residents have included Will Rogers, Charlie Chaplin, and Jacob Cohen (a.k.a. Rodney Dangerfield). The neighborhood boundaries are Interborough Parkway, Queens Boulevard, Kew Gardens Road, Myrtle Avenue, and Forest Park.

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Maspeth

Most agree that this neighborhood was named after the local Mespatches Indian tribe, who burned settlers' homes in 1643. A livelier hypothesis is that "Maspeth" comes from "Mecht-Pe-Es-It," an Indian phrase meaning "at the bottom of the bad water place." After all, Maspeth-and much of Queens-is former swampland. But the water here seems fine now, judging by the multi-generational families who make this working-class community their home.

Divvied up by developers in 1852, the early Maspeth drew workers with its carbon factory, which produced the substance that made New York City carriages black. Mostly populated by English Quakers, the community experienced its first wave of immigrants (German) after the Civil War. Immigrants since have included Indians, Pakistanis, Koreans, Irish, Poles, and Italians.

The wooded, stony-bridged neighborhood specializes in brick, two-story, English Tudor-style homes. The west end of Grand Avenue preserves Maspeth's industrial character with factories and warehouses, while the east end features bars, restaurants, and shops. Bounding Maspeth are the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, 69th Street, Metropolitan Avenue, Newtown Creek, and Brooklyn.

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Middle Village

Like Glendale, Middle Village benefited from Manhattan's ban on burials in 1852. The burial business migrated to include Middle Village as part of its Cemetery Belt. When people came to Middle Village to visit the cemeteries, there was a responding growth in monument works, flower shops, hotels, and saloons.

These days, the cemeteries still attract visitors, but the Metro Mall gives them an even livelier reason to drop by. So does Niederstein's Restaurant, the oldest restaurant on Long Island. Dating from about 1865 when it also was a hotel, the restaurant still serves up the German cuisine favored by Middle Village's first immigrants. Some of the more recent immigrants have included folks from Yugoslavia and the Balkans.

You'll find Middle Village midway between the communities of Williamsburg and Jamaica. It inherited blocks of single-family detached houses from the 1920s, and these survive in good condition today. Apartment buildings are few, which helps lend a suburban feel to the area. Neighborhood boundaries include Eliot Avenue, Woodhaven Boulevard, Cooper Avenue, and the Long Island Rail Road.

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Ozone Park/South Ozone Park

With the ongoing environmental debate about the ozone layer, you rarely hear "ozone" used in its other sense-"fresh air." Ozone Park and South Ozone Park were named for this older definition, due to their invigorating ocean breezes. Marketers in the 1880s employed the old "come breathe fresh air" pitch to lure new residents, but the development in neighboring Howard Beach now blocks the airflow.

South Ozone Park, however, has retained one of its grand traditions from the late 19th century-the 80,000-seat Aqueduct Racetrack. As the nation's largest thoroughbred racing track, "the Big A" serves as New York City's last remaining venue for horse racing.

Ethnically colorful, Ozone Park is home to Germans, Irish, Guyanese, Haitians, Trinidadians, and Columbians. Parts of the neighborhood are distinctly Italian, a subtle reminder that John Gotti once ran the Gambino crime family from the Bergin Hunt and Fish Club here. Shopping options abound on Atlantic and 101st Avenues in Ozone Park, and on Rockaway Boulevard in South Ozone Park.

Housing options include single-family and two-family detached and attached homes. Local authorities are cracking down on the illegal renting of apartments out of homes, which can lead to fire hazards, lack of parking, and lowered property values. Residents of the two neighborhoods also deal with the noise of flights into and out of nearby JFK Airport.

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Richmond Hill

Richmond Hill must be perceived by theatre owners as a bit small-townish, because the neighborhood has no movie theatres to call its own. The close-knit, working-class community focuses on simpler pleasures-like the 538-acre Forest Park, with horseback riding trails and a 1903-era carousel. Or like Jahn's Old-Fashioned Ice Cream Parlour, built in 1923, which features a still-working vintage nickelodeon piano. No doubt they also enjoy the late 19th century Victorian-style homes that are sprinkled throughout Richmond Hill North.

In the rest of the neighborhood, different housing styles fraternize-wood-frame homes next to brick apartment buildings, attached and detached houses across from each other. And, as in Ozone Park, the illegal conversion of homes into multiple dwellings creates a strain on the area's resources.

The immigrant-rich community drew Germans, Irish, and Italians in the early 1900s, and Indians, Guyanese, and Indo-Caribbeans more recently. Famed locals have included the Marx Brothers, Cindi Lauper, Jimmy Breslin, and Jack Kerouac. Shoppers find specialty stores on Jamaica and Atlantic Avenues.

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Ridgewood

German settlers put Ridgewood on the map in the mid-1800s, bringing in brewers and giving the community a beer-centric identity. Prohibition eliminated the breweries and beer gardens. But the Germans remained, to be joined later by Italians, Yugoslavians, Central Americans, South Americans, Poles, Romanians, Albanians, Serbians, and Bosnians. It's no wonder that the neighborhood exudes an Old World ambience.

The neighborhood's architecture adds to the atmosphere. Rows of turn-of-the-20th-century tenements and row houses, in Renaissance and Romanesque Revival styles, have official "historic" status, which helps preserve their beauty. To drive home the point, the Greater Ridgewood Historical Society makes its home in the house of a Dutch farmer, built in 1709. And the area's Stockholm Street remains the last brick-paved block in Queens, something the Historical Society is determined to keep that way.

Clean, quiet, and quaint, Ridgewood offers multi-family housing in the mid-priced range. For shops, head to Myrtle Avenue; for small businesses, turn toward Fresh Pond Road.

James Cagney and Phil Rizzuto learned their elementary basics at Ridgewood's P.S. 71. Demarcations for the neighborhood include Metropolitan Avenue, the Long Island Rail Road tracks, and the Brooklyn-Queens border.

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Woodhaven

"Woodville" was already in use in upstate New York, so this neighborhood chose "Woodhaven" as its name in 1853. Ten years later, the newly minted Woodhaven turned manufacturing community with the establishment of a tinware factory, which covered 11 acres and employed thousands. Following a good run, the factory shut down in 1955, leaving Woodhaven as little more than a densely residential neighborhood.

The traditionally Irish community has adopted Italian, Latin American, and Caribbean immigrants as well. Residential units include co-op apartments, attached and semi-attached colonial homes, and a few detached Victorian-style houses.

Woodhaven is bounded by Park Lane South, 106th and 107th Streets, Atlantic Avenue, and the Brooklyn border. Major commercial thoroughfares are Woodhaven Boulevard, and Jamaica and Atlantic Avenues.

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