Kew Gardens is a neighborhood in the central area of the New York City borough of Queens. Kew Gardens is bounded to the north by the Union Turnpike and the Jackie Robinson Parkway, to the east by the Van Wyck Expressway and 131st Street, to the south by Hillside Avenue, and to the west by Park Lane, Abingdon Road, and 118th Street. Forest Park is to the west and the neighborhood of Forest Hills to the northwest, Flushing Meadows–Corona Park north, Richmond Hill south, Briarwood southeast, and Kew Gardens Hills east.
Kew Gardens is located in Queens Community District 9 and its ZIP Code is 11415. It is patrolled by the New York City Police Department's 102nd Precinct. Politically, Kew Gardens is represented by the New York City Council's 29th District.Current City Council Districts for Queens County, New York City. Accessed May 5, 2017. It is located within New York's 5th congressional district.
History Early development Kew Gardens was one of seven planned garden communities built in Queens from the late 19th century to 1950."New York Real Estate: Kew Gardens" , AM New York, August 28, 2008. Accessed July 4, 2009. Much of the area was acquired in 1868 by Englishman Albon P. Man, who developed the neighborhood of Hollis Hill to the south, chiefly along Jamaica Avenue, while leaving the hilly land to the north undeveloped.Donovan, Aaron. "If You're Thinking of Living In/Kew Gardens, Queens; Small-Town Feeling at a Busy Crossroads", The New York Times, October 15, 2000. Accessed August 27, 2018.
Maple Grove Cemetery on Kew Gardens Road opened in 1875. A Long Island Rail Road station was built for mourners in October and trains stopped there from mid-November. The station was named Hopedale, after Hopedale Hall, a hotel located at what is now Queens Boulevard and Union Turnpike. In the 1890s, the executors of Man's estate laid out the Queens Bridge Golf Course on the hilly terrains south of the railroad. This remained in use until it was bisected in 1908 by the main line of the Long Island Rail Road, which had been moved to the south to eliminate a curve. The golf course was then abandoned and a new station was built in 1909 on Lefferts Boulevard. Man's heirs, Aldrick Man and Albon Man Jr., decided to lay out a new community and called it at first Kew and then Kew Gardens after the well-known botanical gardens in England. The architects of the development favored English and neo-Tudor styles, which still predominate in many sections of the neighborhood.
Urbanization
In 1910, the property was sold piecemeal by the estate and during the next few years streets were extended, land graded and water and sewer pipes installed. The first apartment building was the Kew Bolmer at 8045 Kew Gardens Road, erected in 1915; a clubhouse followed in 1916 and a private school, Kew-Forest School, in 1918. In 1920, the Kew Gardens Inn at the railroad station opened for residential guests, who paid $40 a week for a room and a bath with meals. Elegant one-family houses were built in the 1920s, as were apartment buildings such as Colonial Hall (1921) and Kew Hall (1922) that numbered more than twenty by 1936.
In July 1933, the Grand Central Parkway opened from the Kew Gardens Interchange to the edge of Nassau County. Two years later, the Interboro (now Jackie Robinson) Parkway was opened, linking Kew Gardens to Pennsylvania Avenue in East New York. Since the parkways used part of the roadbed of Union Turnpike, no houses were demolished.
Around the same time, the construction of the Queens Boulevard subway line offered the possibility of quick commutes to the central business district in Midtown Manhattan. In the late 1920s, speculators, upon learning the route of the proposed line, quickly bought up property on and around Queens Boulevard, and real estate prices soared, and older buildings were demolished in order to make way for new development.
In order to allow for the speculators to build fifteen-story apartment buildings, several blocks were rezoned. They built apartment building in order to accommodate the influx of residents from Midtown Manhattan that would desire a quick and cheap commute to their jobs. Since the new line had express tracks, communities built around express stations, such as in Forest Hills and Kew Gardens became more desirable to live. With the introduction of the subway into the community of Forest Hills, Queens Borough President George U. Harvey predicted that Queens Boulevard would become the "Park Avenue of Queens". With the introduction of the subway, Forest Hills and Kew Gardens were transformed from quiet residential communities of one-family houses to active population centers.
The line was extended from Jackson Heights–Roosevelt Avenue to Kew Gardens–Union Turnpike on December 30, 1936.*
Following the line's completion, there was an increase in the property values of buildings around Queens Boulevard. For example, a property along Queens Boulevard that would have sold for $1,200 in 1925, would have sold for $10,000 in 1930. Queens Boulevard, prior to the construction of the subway, was just a route to allow people to get to Jamaica, running through farmlands. Since the construction of the line, the area of the thoroughfare that stretches from Rego Park to Kew Gardens has been home to apartment buildings, and a thriving business district that the Chamber of Commerce calls the "Golden Area".
Later years Despite its historical significance, Kew Gardens lacks any landmark protection.
On November 22, 1950, two Long Island Rail Road trains collided in Kew Gardens. The trains collided between Kew Gardens and Jamaica stations, killing 78 people and injuring 363. The crash became the worst railway accident in LIRR history, and one of the worst in the history of New York state.
In 1964, the neighborhood gained news notoriety when Kitty Genovese was murdered near the Kew Gardens Long Island Rail Road station. A New York Times article reported that none of the neighbors responded when she cried for help.A Picture History of Kew Gardens, NY – Kitty Genovese – The popular account of the Kitty Genovese murder is mostly wrong as shown by the evidence from her killer's trial and other sources The story came to represent the apathy and anonymity of urban life. The circumstances of the case are disputed to this day. It has been alleged that the critical fact reported by The New York Times that "none of the neighbors responded" was false. The case of Kitty Genovese is an oft-cited example of the bystander effect, and the case that originally spurred research on this social psychological phenomenon.Dowd, Maureen. "20 Years After The Murder Of Kitty Genovese, The Question Remains: Why?", The New York Times, March 12, 1984. Accessed August 27, 2018.
Land use Kew Gardens remains a densely populated residential community, with a mix of one-family homes, apartments, co-ops and others converted and on the way or being converted as condominiums. A new hotel has been completed on 82nd Avenue, reflecting a modernization of the area. However, it is filled mainly with apartment buildings between four and ten stories high; while many are rentals, some are Housing cooperatives (co-ops). Although there are no New York City Housing Authority complexes in Kew Gardens, Mitchell-Lama buildings provide stabilized rental prices for families or individuals who may need help paying rent. On 83rd Avenue there is a 32-story Mitchell-Lama building. Along the borders of Richmond Hill, Briarwood, and Jamaica, smaller attached houses exist. Many of these are two or three family homes. Expensive single family homes are located around the Forest Park area. However, many owners are selling out their detached homes to developers who teardown and convert them into apartment housing or more expensive, lavish mini-estate houses. This has brought demographic change.
The neighborhood also has many airline personnel because of its proximity to the MTA's bus line to John F. Kennedy International Airport, as well as to Delta Air Lines, JetBlue Airways and other airlines' special shuttles that serve pilots and flight attendants staying in Kew Gardens.
Kew Gardens's commercial center is Lefferts Boulevard between Austin Street and Metropolitan Avenue. Major attractions include the Kew Gardens Cinemas, a 1930s art deco movie theater that has been converted into a six-screen multiplex and shows a mix of commercial, independent, and foreign films."Cinema Treasures- Kew Gardens Cinemas", November 2017. Accessed November 15, 2017. Lefferts is also home to the only bookstore in central Queens, Kew & Willow Books."Kew Gardens to Get Its First Bookstore in Decades" , May 2017. Accessed May 24, 2017.
Points of interest
Forest Park is the third-largest park in Queens and is located to the west of Kew Gardens. The Wisconsin Glacier retreated from Long Island some 20,000 years ago, leaving behind the hills that now are part of Forest Park. The park was home to the Rockaway, Delaware and Lenape Native Americans until Dutch West India Company settlers arrived in 1634 and began establishing towns and pushing the tribes out. The park contains the largest continuous oak forest in Queens. Inside the park, the Forest Park Carousel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.
In addition to Maple Grove Cemetery, the Ralph Bunche House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is also a designated National Historic Landmark.
The county's civic center, Queens Borough Hall, along with one of the county criminal courts, stand at the northern end of the neighborhood, on Queens Boulevard, in a complex extending from Union Turnpike to Hoover Avenue. Adjacent to Borough Hall is a retired New York City Subway R33 (Redbird) which lies on a fake track as well as a platform. Visitors used to be able to go inside the car, but it was closed in 2015 due to lack of visitors and sold in 2022.
Demographics Based on data from the 2010 United States census, the population of Kew Gardens was 23,278, a decrease of 610 (2.6%) from the 23,888 counted in 2000. Covering an area of , the neighborhood had a population density of .Table PL-P5 NTA: Total Population and Persons Per Acre - New York City Neighborhood Tabulation Areas*, 2010, Population Division - New York City Department of City Planning, February 2012. Accessed June 16, 2016.
The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 49.3% (11,478) White, 6.5% (1,515) African American, 0.2% (37) Native American, 15.6% (3,628) Asian, 0.0% (11) Pacific Islander, 1.1% (257) from other races, and 3.0% (701) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 24.3% (5,651) of the population.Table PL-P3A NTA: Total Population by Mutually Exclusive Race and Hispanic Origin - New York City Neighborhood Tabulation Areas*, 2010, Population Division - New York City Department of City Planning, March 29, 2011. Accessed June 14, 2016.
The entirety of Community Board 9, which comprises Kew Gardens, Richmond Hill, and Woodhaven, had 148,465 inhabitants as of NYC Health's 2018 Community Health Profile, with an average life expectancy of 84.3 years. This is higher than the median life expectancy of 81.2 for all New York City neighborhoods. Most inhabitants are youth and middle-aged adults: 22% are between the ages of between 0–17, 30% between 25–44, and 27% between 45–64. The ratio of college-aged and elderly residents was lower, at 17% and 7% respectively.