Forest Hills, Queens
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Forest Hills, Queens Coordinates: 40°42′58″N 73°51′00″W / 40.71611°N 73.85000°W Forest Hills is an affluent neighborhood located in the New York City borough of Queens.[1] Originally, the area was referred to as “Whitepot”.[2] Forest Hills is bounded by 62nd Drive, Thornton Place, and Selfridge Street to the west, Metropolitan Avenue to the south, Union Turnpike to the east, and the Grand Central Parkway to the north. Forest Hills Gardens, a place within Forest Hills with many Tudor-style houses, is bounded by Burns Street to the north, Union Turnpike to the east, Greenway South and Harrow Street to the west, and Tennis Place and Continental Ave to the west. Forest Hills and For- Southeastern portion of Austin Street with typical Queens six- est Hills Gardens contains Station Square, shown in the story red brick apartment buildings on one side and residential picture at right. homes on the other 1 History Austin Street, the main shopping area The development of adjacent Forest Park, a park on the southern end of Forest Hills, began in 1895. Starting in 1896, the landscaping firm of Olmsted, Olmsted & Eliot was contracted to provide a plan for the park.[3](p428) Queens Boulevard, looking eastward In 1906, Brooklyn attorney Cord Meyer bought abutting land made up of six farms (those of Ascan Bakus, Casper Joost-Springsteen, Horatio N. Squire, Abram V. S. Lott, The stated plan was to build good low-income housing Sarah V. Bolmer, and James Van Siclen) and then re- and improve living conditions of the working poor, but named the aggregated 600 acres Forest Hills. There is a the resulting huge property values made this claim to- street named after Ascan Bakus, Ascan Avenue, in For- tally impractical. Grosvenor Atterbury, a renowned ar- est Hills today. In 1909, Margaret Sage, who founded the chitect, was given the commission to design Forest Hills Russell Sage Foundation, bought 142 acres (0.57 km2) Gardens. The neighborhood was planned on the model of land from the Cord Meyer Development Company. of the garden communities of England. As a result, there 1 2 3 POINTS OF INTEREST are many Tudor-style homes in Forest Hills, some more and high-rise apartment buildings. South of the Long Is- sprawling ones located in Forest Hills Gardens while most land Rail Road, the Forest Hills Gardens area is a private are located in the Cord-Meyer section (loosely bounded community that features some of the most expensive res- by 68th Avenue on the north; 72nd Road on the south; idential properties in Queens County. It was subject to 108th Street on the west; and Grand Central Parkway restrictive covenants until the 1970s, which contained no on the east).[4] The construction of this area used a explicit economic, social or racial restrictions[6] even if prefabricated building technique; each house was built “working-class people” were said to be excluded by Eric from approximately 170 standardized precast concrete P. Nash in a 2002 New York Times article, in his review panels, fabricated off-site and positioned by crane.[5] In of A Modern Arcadia.[7] Forest Hills Gardens was named 1913, the West Side Tennis Club moved from Manhattan “Best Community” in 2007 by Cottage Living Maga- to Forest Hills Gardens. The U.S. Open and its predeces- zine.[8] The adjacent Van Court community also contains sor national championships were held there until 1978, a number of detached single-family homes. There are making Forest Hills synonymous with tennis for genera- also attached townhouses near the Westside Tennis Cen- tions. ter and detached frame houses near Metropolitan Avenue. Finally, there are a number of apartment buildings scat- tered throughout the community. The most notable high- 2 Land use rise apartment buildings are The Continental on 108th St, Kennedy House, the Pinnacle, and the Windsor. On the northwestern edge of Forest Hills, on 62nd Drive and 108th Street, immediately adjacent to the Long Is- land Expressway is a NYCHA (New York City Hous- ing Authority) low-income housing project that provoked controversy[9] among the residents in the more prestigious areas of Forest Hills when it was constructed in the early 1970s. The north side of Forest Hills is home to the Cord Meyer community, which contains detached single- family homes. Teardowns and their replacement with larger single family residences has had a significant im- pact on the architectural integrity of the area.[10] How- ever, the Bukharian Jewish community, whose members Forest Hills Gardens, part of Forest Hills have settled in the area in large numbers since the late 1990s, advocating the changes say the bigger homes are needed for their large extended families.[11] 3 Points of interest Forest Hills was once the home of the U.S. Open tennis tournament. The event was held at the West Side Tennis Club before it moved to the USTA National Tennis Cen- ter in Flushing Meadows Park, about 4 miles (6.4 km) away. When the Open was played at the tennis stadium, the tournament was commonly referred to merely as For- est Hills, just as All-England Lawn Tennis Association Championships are referred to, simply, as Wimbledon. In the 2001 motion picture, The Royal Tenenbaums, Luke Wilson's character plays a tennis match at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills. A pivotal scene in Alfred Hitchcock's 1951 film Strangers on a Train, in which the main character (played by Farley Granger) is a pro- fessional tennis player, features a lengthy championship A church in Forest Hills Gardens game at the Club, with distinctive shots of the surround- ing community. The Tennis Stadium, which hosted nu- The southern part of Forest Hills contains a particularly merous music concerts including The Beatles after the diverse mixture of upscale housing, ranging from single- U.S. Open departed for Flushing Meadows, resumed family houses, attached townhouses, and both low-rise hosting music concerts during the summer of 2013 when 4.1 K-12 Schools 3 the British rock band Mumford & Sons played there to an overflowing crowd. Stadium officials have said they will now host as many as six music or cultural events at the Stadium each season. Two monuments are erected in Forest Hills Gardens: a tribute to the victims of World War I, the “Great War"; and the mast of the Columbia, the winner of the America’s Cup yacht races in both 1899 and 1901. Panoramic view of the skyline Russell Sage Junior High School 4 Education • P.S. 101 School In The Gardens • P.S. 144 Col. Jeromus Remsen School • P.S. 175 Lynn Gross Discovery School • P.S. 196 Grand Central Parkway • P.S. 220 Edward Mandel Junior high students in Forest Hills attend either J.H.S. 157 Stephen A. Halsey (commonly referred to as Halsey) in Rego Park or J.H.S. 190 Russell Sage (known as Sage) in Forest Hills as well as the newest school from grade 6 to 12, M.S. 167 (otherwise known as Metropolitan Expedi- tionary Learning School (MELS)), “a school for a sustain- Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Roman Catholic Church able city”. This school does partnership with New York City Outward Bound. New York City high school stu- dents at the turn of the 21st century began applying to the high schools of their choice, as there is no longer a zoning policy for Forest Hills High School or Queens Metropoli- tan High School. Students from all over New York City may apply to high schools in other parts of the city. In addition to Forest Hills High School, a large percentage of students from both J.H.S. 157 and J.H.S. 190 gain ad- mission to other high schools in New York City. Many J.H.S. 157 students also attend the Bronx High School of Science and Brooklyn Technical High School.[12] Traditionally many more students from J.H.S. 190 choose to study at Stuyvesant High School and Townsend Har- ris High School, in addition to the Bronx High School Forest Hills High School of Science.[13] Numerous students from Forest Hills also choose to attend middle and high school at the Forest Hills is served by the New York City Department Baccalaureate School for Global Education, a public of Education. school in Astoria, which teaches grades 7 through 12 and follows the International Baccalaureate curriculum. Many of the students from outside the district accepted 4.1 K-12 Schools to attend Forest Hills High School are those who ap- plied to either the school’s Law & Humanities program, Pupils attend several public different elementary Schools, or the Carl Sagan program in accelerated math and sci- including: ence. FHHS began admitting students by audition to their 4 7 PARKS AND RECREATION Academy of Instructional Music and Performing Arts in 2005.[14] Famous graduates of Forest Hills High School include Jacob Lew, current US Secretary of the Treasury; Dennis Tito, the first outer space tourist; as well as many show-business stars, including musicians Burt Bacharach, Simon & Garfunkel, and The Ramones. Catholic schools include Our Lady of Mercy and Our Lady Queen of Martyrs. 4.2 Colleges Bramson ORT College is an undergraduate college oper- ated by the American branch of the Jewish charity World Forest Hills – 71st Avenue (IND Queens Boulevard Line) subway ORT. Its main campus is in Forest Hills, with a satel- station in 2007 lite campus in Brooklyn. Touro College/NYSCAS has a branch location in Forest Hills. 6 Transportation The main thoroughfare is Queens Boulevard, which is 4.3 Public libraries very wide.