Published by The History Press
Charleston, SC
www.historypress.com
Copyright 2018 by Richard Panchyk
All rights reserved
Front cover: Library of Congress.
First published 2018
e-book edition 2018
ISBN 978.1.43966.478.0
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018936079
print edition ISBN 978.1.46713.853.6
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This book is dedicated to Grand Avenue in Elmhurst and Maspeth, a corridor of such central importance in my life. I have so many fond memories of the people and places I encountered along the avenue over the years. Along Grand were my favorite pizza places, the library where Id eagerly browse for new books and records, the variety store where I bought my baseball cards, the Met Food where my grandmother took me shopping, the pool hall where I sometimes played and my junior high school. Grand was my home, and still is. Even today, as I walk along Grand, I feel that perfect combination of excited and yet cozy and comforting. I feel the connection of the past to the present to the future. Thanks, Grand! I love ya!
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to all who encouraged me during my epic Queens journey. Special thanks to George Maharis, Ray Duke, Katherine Panchyk and James Sheehan for talking to me and helping shine light on some cool hidden history. Also thanks to Banks Smither and Rick Delaney at The History Press for their support.
INTRODUCTION
As I sat in my elementary school classroom in my native Elmhurst, listening to my teacher talk about the battles of the Revolutionary War, it all seemed so distant to me. Oh, sure, it was naturally fascinating to a young nerd such as myself, but it was distant, far removed from my reality in the moment. Little could I have known then that the very spot where PS 102 stood on a hill two blocks south of Queens Boulevard was once part of a massive encampment of British soldiers in 1776. I could not have dreamed that on the street where my friend and I ran around playing cops and robbers with our toy guns, soldiers cleaned their muskets and shined their bayonets two hundred years before.
And neither could I have imagined as I thumbed past the 45 single for Love Is a Battlefield in the Crazy Eddies on Fifty-Seventh Street and Queens Boulevard that I was standing exactly where General William Howe sat at a desk in September 1776, happily echoing the same thought as Pat Benatar after the important British win at the Battle of Long Island and penning his official report about the battle for the bigwigs (literally) back home in England.
Hidden History of Queens is a celebration of the rich history of this diverse and wondrous borough. Its filled with the secrets of the past uncovered, recovered and discovered. As I researched the book, my travels took me to every corner of Queens, looking for historys remnants from Astoria to the Glen Oaks, from College Point to the Rockaways. These far-ranging Queens adventures were filled with fun and surprises, as I saw familiar places through a new lensthe lens of the past. I learned so much of the boroughs hidden history, and Im excited to share all of these stories with you. Join me as we discover new reasons to love Queens.
CHAPTER 1
APPLES AND CREEKS AND PARKS, OH MY!
Queens has it allbeaches and wetlands, hills and meadows, creeks and coves, forests and parks. The borough is large and geographically diverse, with ample swaths of preserved nature alongside some of the most densely populated places in the country. That is part of the beauty of Queensthere is so much history hidden in the most unexpected places. In this chapter youll read about a grove of ancient trees, the birthplace of the worlds most beloved apple, the only inhabited island in Queens and other really cool (and occasionally stinky) places.
THE ALLEY POND GIANT
When I found out that the oldest and tallest tree in New York City resides in a hidden corner of Alley Pond Park, I knew I had to go and see for myself. I read about how to locate the tree, and it sounded pretty complicated, as if the tree was deep in the heart of a dense forest. Well, this only steeled my determination to find the Alley Pond Giant, though I was not terribly hopeful. I was not even sure where I could enter the park to begin my trek to the site.
It was easier than I thought. The tree is located just west of the intersection of the Cross Island Parkway and the Long Island Expressway (LIE). I parked on one of the side streets off East Hampton Boulevard and walked south. An encouraging sign was, well, an encouraging sign that had been placed just outside the park by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation describing the tree. There, I found an entrance to the park and a winding trail that led northeast, along a ridge, encircling a valley. Youd never know you were right next to a major highway (except for the glimpses of cars you can see as the trail gets to within a mere few feet of the LIE). The Alley Pond Giant sits at the bottom of the valley, which makes its height when seen from atop the ridge somewhat deceiving. But along the trail and near it are other tulip trees of tremendous height and age, so you quickly get the ideathis feels like a preserved piece of primordial forest. I read that to spot the Giant, you have to look for the chain-link fence that surrounds it. And there it was, rising up from below, a 134-foot-tall tree that is said to be more than 350 years old, dating to at least the 1660s, the Dutch era of New York. To get a better feel for its true size, I ambled down along some rocks to the forest floor. Among the giants down there I realized just how amazing it was that such a swath of ancient trees had been preserved.
Many of the tulip trees in Alley Pond Parks untouched corner of forest are giants that are hundreds of years old. Authors collection.
The Alley Pond Giant is the citys oldest and tallest tree. Authors collection.
All things must pass, but for now, the future looks bright for this middle-aged tree, as tulip trees can live up to six hundred years!
THE BIG APPLES APPLE
New York Citys moniker The Big Apple dates only to the 1920s, but in fact, apples played a big role in the citys history going back more than three hundred years. As the story goes, sometime around 1700, the seed of an ordinary apple tree bordering on the swamp on Gershom Moores property in Newtown, fell into the ground and germinated. (Gershom was the son of English immigrant Reverend John Moore and relative of Clement Clarke Moore, the Christmas poem author.) This type of thing presumably happened fairly often, but the result was unique. The seedling that grew developed into a mature apple tree whose fruit was quite different from the rest. Once the Moores realized the apples from this tree were different and better, they used the original tree to propagate more trees and develop an orchard full of them. Thus was born the Newtown Pippin (also known as the Gershom Moore Pippin in the early days).
