Fresh Meadows | |
---|---|
Coordinates: 40°44′06″N73°46′48″W / 40.735°N 73.78°W | |
Country | United States |
State | New York |
City | New York City |
County/Borough | Queens |
Community District | Queens 8 [1] |
Population | |
• Estimate (2010) | 17,812 |
Based on 2010 U.S. Census figures; excludes Hillcrest | |
Ethnicity | |
• Asian | 47.1% |
• White | 32.9% |
• Hispanic | 9.9% |
• Black | 7.6% |
• Other/Multiracial | 2.5% |
Economics | |
• Median income | $64,005 |
Time zone | UTC−5 (EST) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC−4 (EDT) |
ZIP Codes | 11365, 11366 |
Area codes | 718, 347, 929, and 917 |
Fresh Meadows is a neighborhood in the northeastern section of the New York City borough of Queens. Fresh Meadows used to be part of the broader town of Flushing and is bordered to the north by the Horace Harding Expressway and Auburndale; to the west by Pomonok, St. John's University, Hillcrest, and Utopia; to the east by Cunningham Park and the Clearview Expressway; and to the south by the Grand Central Parkway.
Fresh Meadows is located in Queens Community District 8 and its ZIP Codes are 11365 and 11366. [1] It is patrolled by the New York City Police Department's 107th Precinct. [5] Politically, Fresh Meadows is represented by the New York City Council's 23rd and 24th Districts. [6]
The name "Fresh Meadows" dates back to before the American Revolution. Fresh Meadows was part of the Town of Flushing, which had large areas of salt meadows, such as the original "Flushing Meadows". The wetlands in the hilly ground south and east of the village of Flushing, however, were fed by freshwater springs, and thus were "fresh meadows". Fresh Meadows Road (which today follows the same route under a number of names, including Fresh Meadows Lane and part of Utopia Parkway) traversed the area, and served as the route from the landing place at Whitestone to the village of Jamaica. In The Evening Post in 1805, farm owner James Smith advertised the sale of his 60-acre farm "on the road to Fresh Meadows and Flushing". [7]
During the American Revolution, British troops marched through the area. [8] General Benedict Arnold and his troops stayed at farms along was the way. [9] General Arnold drilled his troops in the area, on the current location of M.S. 216. In order to help move military supplies from British ships using the Whitestone Landing, and the troops encamped further east, a new road was built to connect the Fresh Meadows Road with Hempstead. This road began at what is now the intersection of Utopia Parkway and 73rd Avenue, near a local landmark along the Fresh Meadows Road: the remnants of a large tree that had burned after being struck by lightning, and that was known as the "Black Stump". The road took its name from this feature, and was called "Black Stump Road". [10] [11] [12]
During the 19th century, a farming community known as Black Stump developed in the area. The Black Stump School was built before 1871. [13] The school was expanded in 1900, and a second story was added in 1905. [14] [15] The remains of the Black Stump School were demolished in 1941 in order to build present-day Utopia Playground, located at 73rd Avenue and Utopia Parkway. [16] [17]
For several years, the woods of Black Stump were rumored to be haunted because people heard strange sounds coming from the woods. [18] In 1908, the mysterious sounds were discovered to be coming from a recluse who lived in a small hut and sang Irish folk songs at night. [18]
In 1868, Samuel Parsons opened Parsons Nurseries, one of the earliest commercial gardens, near what is now Fresh Meadows Lane. [9] With help of a team of collectors, Parsons Nurseries found exotic trees and shrubs to import into the United States, and its advertisements filled gardening magazines with depictions of these exotic plants. [19] [20] During the late 1880s, Parsons Nurseries was importing 10,000 Japanese maples into the United States each year with help from Swiss immigrant John R. Trumpy. [19] Parsons Nurseries also was the first to introduce the California privet in the United States from Japan. [21] Samuel Parsons' children, Samuel Bowne Parsons and Robert Bowne Parsons, later took over running the nursery. In 1886, Samuel Bowne Parsons helped renew the plantations of Central Park while serving as Superintendent of Parks. [22]
Samuel Bowne Parsons gave the lake on his property the name "kissena", which he thought was the Chippewa word for "it is cold". [23] Kissena Lake was initially used as a mill pond. [24] Parsons later used the lake for ice cutting, where surface ice from lakes and rivers is collected and stored in ice houses and use or sale as a cooling method before mechanical refrigeration was available. [23] The lake was also a habitat for wood duck through the 1900s. [25] Just east of the lake was a water pumping station. [26]
By 1898, Samuel Bowne Parsons' son, George H. Parsons, had taken over as superintendent of Parsons Nurseries. [27] Later that year, George was found in the lavatory by his father; he had died of heart failure. [27] Parsons Nurseries closed in 1901, [28] and Samuel Bowne Parsons died in 1906. [29] Two real estate developers, John W. Paris and Edward McDougal, bought most of the Parsons land, then built large houses as part of the "Kissena Park" residential development. [29] New York City bought the rest of the Parsons land and a few other land parcels to create Kissena Park. [23] [30] A 14-acre (5.7 ha) tract of Parsons' exotic specimens was preserved in the modern-day park and is now the Historic Grove. [31] : 3
In 1921, Park Slope resident Benjamin C. Ribman and others from the Unity Club of Brooklyn were looking to build a golf course. [32] [8] The group chose the intersection of Fresh Meadow Lane and Nassau Boulevard as the site, because the land was suitable for golf and roads provided accessibility to other parts of the city. [8] The 106 acres of land were purchased in late 1921, and another 26 acres were purchased the next year. [33] [34] A. W. Tillinghast designed the golf course. [33]
Originally, the name was to be the Woodland. [35] After the Brooklyn Daily Eagle pointed out that there was already a golf course name Woodland in Boston, the founders decided to name the course Fresh Meadow Country Club. [35] The name came from an area northeast of Flushing even though the golf course was actually located southeast of Flushing, just south of what is presently the Long Island Expressway near 183rd Street. [36]
Fresh Meadow Country Club opened on May 30, 1922. [37] [38] [36] At the golf course's dedication, the first round of golf was played by former NCAA golf champion Jesse Sweetser and club professional Willie Anderson. [37] Sweetser won by two strokes. [37] People in attendance included New York State Supreme Court Justices Mitchell May, Edward Lazansky, and Harry Lewis, and Borough President Maurice E. Connolly. [37]
The clubhouse opened on September 8, 1923. [32] Nine days later, the clubhouse burned to the ground from an explosion of a boiler. [32] Firefighters from Flushing, Bayside, and Black Stump arrived but they were unable to save the clubhouse, in part because the nearest fire hydrant was a half-mile away, but they were able to stop the fire before it consumed an adjoining locker building and a two-story dormitory building. [32] [39]
The PGA Championship was held at Fresh Meadow Country Club in 1930, [40] and the U.S. Open in 1932. [41] In 1937, the golf course hosted a charity game between John Montague, Babe Ruth, Babe Didrikson, and Sylvania Annenberg, [42] a game that was watched by 10,000 fans, some of whom rushed the golf course and left Babe Ruth's shirt in tatters. [43]
In February 1946, the golf course's land was sold to New York Life Insurance Company for $1,075,000, equivalent to $16,800,000in 2023, in order to build a housing complex on the land. [44] [45] The Gross-Morton Company had also made an offer to buy the land, but it was not accepted. [45] The New York Life Insurance Company chose Ralph Thomas Walker as the chief designer, and it signed a contract with the George A. Fuller Company, which had built the Flat Iron Building, to construct the apartment buildings. [46] Construction cost the New York Life Insurance Company $35 million (equivalent to $547 million in 2023)). [47]
New York Life Insurance Company donated land on 69th Avenue at 195th Street to the city so it could build a school. [48] In 1947, the New York City Board of Education awarded contracts of over $1.8 million (equivalent to $24.6 million in 2023) to construct P.S. 26, an elementary school with a capacity of 1,494 students. [48] On April 21, 1947, ground was broken for the school's construction. [49] The school, P.S. 26, also known as the Rufus King School, opened in February 1949. [50] P.S. 173 opened soon afterwards, in September 1949, at 69th Avenue and Fresh Meadows Lane. [50] P.S. 173 was originally supposed to be built on the site of Utopia Playground one block west, but the school had been relocated due to opposition from Robert Moses, the New York City parks commissioner. [51] [52]
The first twenty families moved into the Fresh Meadows Housing Development on September 2, 1947. [53] As a result of housing segregation, New York Life Insurance Company did not allow black individuals to live in the Fresh Meadows Housing Development. [54] It was also built to house local World War II veterans. The complex and its eponymous shopping center were among the first in the United States designed primarily to accommodate automobile traffic rather than pedestrian traffic. [55] Apartment rents were between $74 and $108 per month, which included gas and electricity. [53] In 1949, architectural critic Lewis Mumford described the Fresh Meadows housing complex as "perhaps the most positive and exhilarating example of large-scale community planning in this country". [56] The construction of the final residential building, a 20-story apartment building at 67th Avenue and 192nd Street, was completed and ready for occupancy in May 1962. [57] At the time the building's construction ended, 11,000 people were living in the Fresh Meadows Housing Development. [57]
New York Life Insurance Company built a 12-acre shopping center on 188th Street at Horace Harding Expressway. [58] The shopping center was planned to include a Bloomingdale's, a movie theater, Canterbury Shops clothing store, Mary Lewis, Ormond Hosiery Shop, Woolworth's, Miles Shows, Buster Brown children's shoes, Selby women's shoes, Food Fair, a Horn & Hardart automat, Whelan's Drugs, Fanny Farmer, Union News, Womrath's Book Shop, Barrett Nephews dry cleaners, and Harris Brothers delicatessen, a Bank of Manhattan, a Jamaica Savings Bank, and a post office. [58] Bloomingdale's opened on May 24, 1949. [59] [60] [61] Century Meadows Theatre opened November 1949. [62] In 1973, Bloomingdale's added a three-level extension to the store, on what had been a pedestrian plaza. [47] Five 36-year-old oak trees were uprooted to construct the extension, to the dismay of nearby residents. [47]
The QM1 express bus to Manhattan started operating in 1968 as part of a 90-day trial run proposed by city traffic commissioner Henry A. Barnes, transportation administrator Arthur A. Palmer, and the New York Life Insurance Company. [63] This service was eventually kept, and it was expanded in 1970 with branches running further east into Queens. [64] [65] The combined QM1/QM1A service eventually became among the busiest privately operated express routes in the city by the 2000s. [66]
In 1972, Harry B. Helmsley and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation partnered to buy the Fresh Meadows housing and retail complex for $53 million from the New York Life Insurance Company. [38] [67] The MacArthur Foundation acquired the property outright in 1995. [67] In 1997, Witkoff Group and Insignia Financial Group bought the residential property, and Federal Realty Investment Trust bought the commercial property for $215 million. [67] [68]
Two months after the Bloomingdale's store was sold in August 1991, Kmart signed a 31-year lease for the space. [60] Kmart's grand opening was on October 22, 1991. [69] Kmart closed the store in 2003, as part of an effort to close underperforming stores. [70] Kmart sold the lease to the Fresh Meadows location and four other locations to Kohl's for $16 million in 2003. [71] The Kohl's in Fresh Meadows was the first Kohl's location in New York City. [72]
Fresh Meadows was home to Klein Farm, the last surviving commercial farm in New York City, located on 73rd Avenue between 194th and 195th Streets. [73] [74] [75] Adam Klein, from Brooklyn, bought the Voorhis farm in the 1890s. [8] [73] [76] [77] Klein bought the 200-acre plot of land for $18 per acre. [78] The family sold portions of the land over time, but kept the two acres surrounding the farm house. [73] [76] His son, Charles Klein, was born on the farm and operated it after his father's death in 1954 at age 89. [73] By the early 1990s, John Klein Sr. ran the farm as well as two larger farms, one in Riverhead and one in upstate New York. [75] The family had received many offers over the years to buy the land in Fresh Meadows. In 1991, the family declined an offer from the owner of a local pizza store, who wanted to buy the property in order to convert the family's home into a country-style restaurant. [75] John Klein Jr., the great-grandson of Adam Klein, was running the farm by the late 1990s. [77]
The farm gradually become unprofitable, and in 2001, John Klein Sr. signed a contract to sell the two-acre property to Flushing-based developer Audrey Realty, who wanted to build 22 two-family homes on the site. [76] [79] The farm's last day open was November 21, 2001. [80] [81] Many in the community were opposed to the proposed sale, including the Fresh Meadows Tenants Association, the West Cunningham Park Civic Association, the Flushing Heights Civic Association, the Hillcrest Estates Civic Association, the Utopia Estates Civic Association, and the Utopia Park Civic Association. [81] The community later learned that the developer was owned by the family of Tommy Huang, whose permits to restore the landmark RKO Keith's Theater in Flushing were revoked when he destroyed its lobby. [81] [82] Huang had also admitted to failing to report a spill of 10,000 gallons of heating oil from an underground tank into the soil beneath the RKO Keith's Theater in 1999. [79] John Klein Sr. completed the sale to Huang for $4.3 million in late 2003. [78]
The land was located in a Special Planned Community Preservation District and required a special permit to build homes there. [76] David Weprin, the neighborhood's representative in the New York City Council, opposed granting the special permit. [81] Faced with strong community opposition, Huang and Audrey Realty decided not to go forward with the plan, [83] and they instead agreed to sell the land to a Westchester-based developer, Steven Judelson. [84] At the time, Judelson said he had not decided what to do with the land. [84] The sale did not go through. [85]
In 2005, Huang sent a proposal to the City Planning Commission to build 18 two-family homes on the site. [86] The proposal was not approved, and a day-care center was opened instead. [87] [83] Huang attempted to evict the day-care center in 2009, saying that he needed to end the lease early in order to sell the property. [83] Huang settled with the day-care center to terminate its lease three months early so that Huang could sell the property to Fresh Meadows Jewish Development LLC for $5.6 million. [88] The sale did not go through. [85] In 2012, Huang was convicted of embezzling over $3 million of federal funds that were intended to pay for children's lunches at Huang's Red Apple Child Development Centers. [85]
Huang finally sold the property to Ziming Shen's Fresh Meadows Children's Farm LLC for $5.6 million in 2014. [85] New York City fined Shen $1,600 after Shen's daycare center, Preschool for America, cut down trees and modified the driveway on the property without the required permits. [85]
Around 1939, Paul Roth bought 27 acres (11 ha) of land that had been part of the Klein farm and the Boggs farm. [89] [90] The land was bounded by 73rd Avenue, 185th Street, Union Turnpike, and 188th Street. [91] The 204 homes were designed by architect Arthur E. Allen. [89] [91] Roth named the community Holliswood Homes. [90] Houses were sold for an average of $7,400 each. [91] Roth had previously developed areas elsewhere in Queens, Brooklyn, and Long Island. [90]
Meadowlark Gardens is a 288-unit residential apartment development between 65th Avenue, 197th Street, and 73rd Avenue. [92] It was built by Mortimer M. Reznick, and George Miller was the architect. [92] The first residents moved in on July 1, 1950. [92] Reznick had previously built homes in the Williams Homes development at 197th Street and 73rd Avenue. [93] Reznick also built residential developments called Williams Homes in Flushing and Bonnie Meadows in New Rochelle, and a commercial development in Yonkers. [94] [95] [96]
Meadowlark Gardens Tenant Association was organized on June 3, 1977, in order to advocate for the tenants' rights. [97] [98]
Hillcrest is a neighborhood in the center of Queens; the name comes from its location on the hills between Flushing and Jamaica. Hillcrest stretches from the Grand Central Parkway to 73rd Avenue, between Utopia Parkway and Parsons Boulevard. Its main commercial street is Union Turnpike. Hillcrest is part of Queens Community Board 8. The ZIP Codes for the neighborhood are 11366 (Fresh Meadows and Flushing zip code) for anything above Union Turnpike, and 11432 or 11439 (Jamaica zip codes) for the southern part of the neighborhood (below Union Turnpike, north of Grand Central Parkway). It neighbors Kew Gardens Hills and Pomonok to the west, Fresh Meadows to the north, Utopia to the east, and Jamaica Hills to the south. It is mostly made up of single-family homes, is in a relatively well-off public school district, and has a low crime rate.
As with many neighborhoods in the city, different residents have varying perceptions of its boundaries. [99]
75th Avenue was originally known as Hell Fire Lane, then Quarrelsome Lane, and then Eiseman Avenue. [100] [101]
In 1938 and 1939, Moss Brothers built approximately 550 homes along Utopia Parkway between Horace Harding Expressway and Grand Central Parkway. [102] [103] Moss Brothers hired architect Arthur E. Allen to design the homes. [103] [104] The development was called Hillcrest Gardens. [103] [104]
Utopia is in the southeastern part of Fresh Meadows, bordered by Utopia Parkway to the west, 73rd Avenue to the north, 188th Street to the east, and Union Turnpike to the south. [105] Utopia is part of Queens Community Board 8 [1] and is often considered to be a part of Fresh Meadows, though The New York Times and the New York City Department of City Planning delineate Utopia as a separate neighborhood. [105] Utopia's residents includes many Conservative and Orthodox Jews, Chinese Americans, Korean Americans, Russian Americans, Indian Americans, and Hispanic and Latino Americans. Utopia primarily consists of houses and tree-lined streets. [105]
The triangular-shaped Utopia Playground, at Utopia Parkway and 73rd Avenue, used to be the site of the Black Stump School, when the area was still called Black Stump. [105] The school was later replaced by Black Stump Hook, Ladder, and Bucket Company, a volunteer firehouse. [105] Today, it has a playground, a softball field, basketball courts, and handball courts. [105]
It is bordered by the neighborhoods of Hillcrest to the west, Fresh Meadows to the north and east, and Jamaica Estates to the south. Utopia is also home to the Hillcrest Jewish Center and the Queens Public Library at Hillcrest, both located on Union Turnpike.
Simon Freeman, Samuel Resler, and Joseph Fried incorporated the Utopia Land Company in 1903. [106] The following year, the Utopia Land Company bought 161.25 acres (65 ha) of land between the communities of Jamaica and Flushing. [107] [108] The Utopia Land Company intended to build a cooperative community for Jewish families interested in moving away from the Lower East Side of Manhattan. They intended to name the streets after those on the Lower East Side, where there was already a large Jewish population. [108]
After its initial acquisition, the company was unable to secure enough funding to further develop the area. [109] In 1909, 118 acres (48 ha) of the land was sold to Felix Isman of Philadelphia for $350,000, equivalent to $11,900,000in 2023. [110]
The area remained farmland until 1935, when the land was bought by the Gross-Morton Park Corporation, run by George M. Gross, Alfred Gross, and Lawrence Morton. [111] [112] Gross-Morton had experience in building residential developments in Queens, such as when it had developed the land of the Belleclaire golf course in Bayside, around today's 48th Avenue and 211th Street. [111] [112] In 1937, the company bought 27 acres (11 ha) of contiguous farmland on the south side of Black Stump Road (now 73rd Avenue) from the Klein family. [113] In 1939, it bought 117 acres (47 ha) of land that had been formerly part of the Klein Farm and the Wigmore estate. [114] The land included about one mile of land directly on Union Turnpike, on which it built about forty stores. [114]
On the land it bought in Utopia, the Gross-Morton Park Corporation built colonial and Cape Cod-style homes with either two or three bedrooms, each on approximately 4,000 square feet (372 m2) of land in the early 1940s. [105] Arthur Allen was the architect of the homes. [115] [116]
In 1938, Paul Roth bought the portion of the Klein Farm on the north side of Union Turnpike, between 185th Street and 188th Street, to build 70 houses. [117]
The Batterman family owned and operated a farm on land bounded by Union Turnpike, Utopia Parkway, 75th Avenue, and 170th Street. [118] In 1938, the Foch Building Corporation bought the Batterman Estate in order to develop it into a residential neighborhood, named University Manor. [118] The Foch Building Corporation had previously built 111 houses in what is now St. Albans, Queens. [118]
Based on data from the 2010 United States Census, the population of Fresh Meadows (including Utopia but excluding Hillcrest) was 17,812, a change of 439 (2.5%) from the 17,373 counted in 2000. Covering an area of 636.38 acres (257.53 ha), the neighborhood had a population density of 28 inhabitants per acre (18,000/sq mi; 6,900/km2). [2]
The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 32.9% (5,864) White, 7.6% (1,355) African American, 0.1% (17) Native American, 47.1% (8,381) Asian, 0% (2) Pacific Islander, 0.4% (74) from other races, and 2% (356) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 9.9% (1,763) of the population. [3]
The entirety of Community Board 8, which comprises Fresh Meadows as well as Kew Gardens Hills and Jamaica Hills, had 156,217 inhabitants as of NYC Health's 2018 Community Health Profile, with an average life expectancy of 83.9 years. [119] : 2, 20 This is higher than the median life expectancy of 81.2 for all New York City neighborhoods. [120] : 53 (PDF p. 84) [121] Most inhabitants are middle-aged adults and youth: 20% are between the ages of 0–17, 28% between 25–44, and 27% between 45–64. The ratio of college-aged and elderly residents was lower, at 10% and 15% respectively. [119] : 2
As of 2017, the median household income in Community Board 8 was $64,005. [4] In 2018, an estimated 22% of Fresh Meadows residents lived in poverty, compared to 19% in all of Queens and 20% in all of New York City. One in eleven residents (9%) were unemployed, compared to 8% in Queens and 9% in New York City. Rent burden, or the percentage of residents who have difficulty paying their rent, is 54% in Fresh Meadows, slightly higher than the boroughwide and citywide rates of 53% and 51% respectively. Based on this calculation, as of 2018 [update] , Fresh Meadows is considered to be high-income relative to the rest of the city and not gentrifying. [119] : 7
Population estimates of Fresh Meadows vary widely depending on which boundaries are considered. Zip codes 11365 and 11366 together have an estimated population of 59,873 as of 2017, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, but this also includes part of Auburndale north of the Long Island Expressway, while excluding Hillcrest. [122] According to 2009 census data, however, the neighborhood had 16,100 residents, 44 percent of whom residents are white, 24 percent Asian, 14 percent black, 29 percent Hispanic, and 3 percent identify as multiracial. [123] The neighborhood has historically and traditionally been home to one of New York City's most notable Jewish communities. Today, there is an increasing presence of younger Asian American and Colombian American families, Israeli Americans, Bukharian Jews, and West Indian Americans living in the neighborhood. [124]
Fresh Meadows is patrolled by the 107th Precinct of the NYPD, located at 71-01 Parsons Boulevard. [5] The 107th Precinct ranked 11th safest out of 69 patrol areas for per-capita crime in 2010. The low crime rate was attributed primarily to the area's isolation and to local neighborhood patrols. [125] As of 2018 [update] , with a non-fatal assault rate of 22 per 100,000 people, Fresh Meadows's rate of violent crimes per capita is lower than that of the city as a whole. The incarceration rate of 191 per 100,000 people is lower than that of the city as a whole. [119] : 8
The 107th Precinct has a lower crime rate than in the 1990s, with crimes across all categories having decreased by 88.8% between 1990 and 2018. The precinct reported 5 murders, 23 rapes, 138 robberies, 131 felony assaults, 149 burglaries, 539 grand larcenies, and 101 grand larcenies auto in 2018. [126]
Fresh Meadows is served by two New York City Fire Department (FDNY) fire stations. [127] Engine Co. 299/Ladder Co. 152 is located at 61-20 Utopia Parkway and serves Utopia and the Fresh Meadows development, [128] while Engine Co. 315/Ladder Co. 125 is located at 159-06 Union Turnpike and serves Hillcrest and southern Fresh Meadows. [129]
As of 2018 [update] , preterm births and births to teenage mothers are less common in Fresh Meadows than in other places citywide. In Fresh Meadows, there were 74 preterm births per 1,000 live births (compared to 87 per 1,000 citywide), and 6.7 births to teenage mothers per 1,000 live births (compared to 19.3 per 1,000 citywide). [119] : 11 Fresh Meadows has a relatively average population of residents who are uninsured. In 2018, this population of uninsured residents was estimated to be 11%, which is slightly lower than the citywide rate of 12%. [119] : 14
The concentration of fine particulate matter, the deadliest type of air pollutant, in Fresh Meadows is 0.0078 milligrams per cubic metre (7.8×10−9 oz/cu ft), lower than the citywide and boroughwide averages. [119] : 9 Fourteen percent of Fresh Meadows residents are smokers, which is equal to the city average of 14% of residents being smokers. [119] : 13 In Fresh Meadows, 19% of residents are obese, 11% are diabetic, and 29% have high blood pressure—compared to the citywide averages of 20%, 14%, and 24% respectively. [119] : 16 In addition, 18% of children are obese, compared to the citywide average of 20%. [119] : 12
Eighty-nine percent of residents eat some fruits and vegetables every day, which is higher than the city's average of 87%. In 2018, 79% of residents described their health as "good", "very good", or "excellent", about the same as the city's average of 78%. [119] : 13 For every supermarket in Fresh Meadows, there are 5 bodegas. [119] : 10
The nearest large hospitals to Fresh Meadows are Queens Hospital Center in Hillcrest and NewYork–Presbyterian Queens in Flushing. [130]
Fresh Meadows is covered by ZIP Codes 11365 north of 73rd Avenue; 11366 between 73rd Avenue and Union Turnpike. [131] The United States Post Office operates two locations in Fresh Meadows: the Fresh Meadows Finance Station at 193-04 Horace Harding Expressway, [132] and the Utopia Station, at 182-04 Union Turnpike in Utopia. [133]
Fresh Meadows generally has a higher ratio of college-educated residents than the rest of the city as of 2018 [update] . Half of residents (50%) have a college education or higher, while 14% have less than a high school education and 37% are high school graduates or have some college education. By contrast, 39% of Queens residents and 43% of city residents have a college education or higher. [119] : 6 The percentage of Fresh Meadows students excelling in math rose from 51 percent in 2000 to 71 percent in 2011, and reading achievement rose from 56% to 57% during the same time period. [134]
Fresh Meadows's rate of elementary school student absenteeism is less than the rest of New York City. In Fresh Meadows, 15% of elementary school students missed twenty or more days per school year, less than the citywide average of 20%. [120] : 24 (PDF p. 55) [119] : 6 Additionally, 86% of high school students in Fresh Meadows graduate on time, more than the citywide average of 75%. [119] : 6
Fresh Meadows and Hillcrest contain the following public elementary schools. [135] [136]
Fresh Meadows and Hillcrest contain the following public middle schools. [135] [136]
Francis Lewis High School (grades 9–12) is located in Fresh Meadows. [147]
St. Francis Preparatory School, the largest Catholic high school in the United States, is located in Fresh Meadows.
The Summit School, a state-approved tuition-free private school serving students with special education needs, holds classes at Hillcrest Jewish Center in Utopia.
St. John's University, a private Catholic university, has its main campus in Hillcrest.
The Japanese Weekend School of New York, a Japanese weekend school, holds classes at the building of P.S. 26. The school also holds classes in Westchester County and Long Island. [148]
The Japanese School of New York formerly held classes in Fresh Meadows between 1980 and 1991. [149] [150] [151]
The Queens Public Library operates two branches in Fresh Meadows. The Fresh Meadows branch is located at 193-20 Horace Harding Expressway, [152] and the Hillcrest branch is located at 187-05 Union Turnpike in Utopia. [153]
Although there are no New York City Subway stations in Fresh Meadows, several local MTA Regional Bus Operations routes serve the neighborhood and connect to the subway. These include the: [154]
In addition, the Union Turnpike express buses run along Union Turnpike, 188th Street, and 73rd Avenue, providing service to Manhattan: [154] [162] [156]
The Long Island Rail Road (LIRR)'s Auburndale station is nearby and provides access on the Port Washington Branch to Midtown Manhattan. Buses also run to the LIRR stations at Flushing–Main Street and Jamaica. [163]
In June 1873, the Central Railroad of Long Island opened a station, called Frankiston, on Black Stump Road, now called 73rd Avenue. [164] It was east of the present-day Clearview Expressway, where Cunningham Park is now. The railroad line continued northwest, along the parkland between today's Peck Avenue and Underhill Avenue, ultimately ending in downtown Flushing.
The origin of the name Frankiston is unknown. Loomis L. White, the railroad's second largest stockholder, had bought all the land surrounding the station in April 1871. The station's building was built by E.W. Karker & Co. of College Point, April–May 1873. [165] : 147 The train fare from Frankston to downtown Flushing was $0.30 (equivalent to $8in 2023). [165] : 109 The station was first included in railroad timetables in June 1873. [165] : 147
On April 30, 1879, the station was closed and the railroad line was abandoned. [165] : 147 [166]
In the 1970s, an extension of the subway system along Horace Harding Expressway was proposed as part of the Program for Action, but it was ultimately not built. [167]
The Long Island Expressway (I-495) connects Fresh Meadows with both midtown Manhattan and Long Island, while the Clearview Expressway (I-295) provides access to the Bronx and the New England Thruway.
The Long Island Motor Parkway, formerly a highway, is now used as a biking and walking trail, as part of the Brooklyn–Queens Greenway.
In October 2011, a book written by Fred Cantor and Debra Davidson that chronicled the history of Fresh Meadows was released. [168] The book is part of the Images of America series. [169]
Flushing Meadows–Corona Park is a public park in the northern part of Queens in New York City, New York, U.S. It is bounded by I-678 on the east, Grand Central Parkway on the west, Flushing Bay on the north, and Union Turnpike on the south. Flushing Meadows–Corona Park is the fourth-largest public park in New York City, with a total area of 897 acres (363 ha).
The 1964 New York World's Fair was an international exposition at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York City, United States. The fair included exhibitions, activities, performances, films, art, and food presented by 80 nations, 24 U.S. states, and nearly 350 American companies. The 646-acre (261 ha) fairground consisted of five sections: the Federal and State, International, Transportation, Lake Amusement, and Industrial areas. The fair was themed to "peace through understanding" and was centered on the Unisphere, a stainless-steel model of the Earth. Initially, the fair had 139 pavilions, in addition to 34 concessions and shows.
The Unisphere is a spherical stainless steel representation of the Earth at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York City, United States. The globe was designed by Gilmore D. Clarke for the 1964 New York World's Fair. Commissioned to celebrate the beginning of the space age, the Unisphere was conceived and constructed as the theme symbol of the World's Fair. The theme of the World's Fair was "Peace Through Understanding", and the Unisphere represented the theme of global interdependence, being dedicated to "Man's Achievements on a Shrinking Globe in an Expanding Universe".
The 1939–1940 New York World's Fair was a world's fair at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York City, United States. The fair included exhibitions, activities, performances, films, art, and food presented by 62 nations, 35 U.S. states, and over a thousand organizations and companies. More than 44 million people attended over two seasons. It was based on "the world of tomorrow", with an opening slogan of "Dawn of a New Day". The 1,202-acre (486 ha) fairground consisted of seven color-coded zones, as well as two standalone focal exhibits. The fairground had about 375 buildings.
Interstate 495 (I-495) is an auxiliary Interstate Highway in southeastern New York state. It is jointly maintained by the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT), the New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT), MTA Bridges and Tunnels (TBTA), and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ). East of the Queens–Midtown Tunnel, I-495 is known as the Long Island Expressway (LIE).
The Mets–Willets Point station is a rapid transit station on the IRT Flushing Line of the New York City Subway. Located near the Citi Field baseball stadium, it is served by the 7 train at all times and by the express <7> train during rush hours in the peak direction or after sporting events. This station is located near Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Willets Point, Queens, on Roosevelt Avenue between 114th and 126th Streets.
The Queens Zoo is an 11-acre (4.5 ha) zoo at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York City, between Grand Central Parkway and 111th Street. The zoo is managed by the Wildlife Conservation Society and is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). Built along with the Queens Zoo is a children's zoo, which was originally called the Heckscher Children's Farm.
The Queens Museum is an art museum and educational center at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York City, United States. Established in 1972, the museum has among its permanent exhibitions the Panorama of the City of New York, a room-sized scale model of the five boroughs originally built for the 1964 New York World's Fair. Its collection includes a large archive of artifacts from both the 1939 and 1964 World's Fairs, a selection of which is on display. As of 2018, Queens Museum's director is Sally Tallant.
Interstate 678 (I-678) is a north–south auxiliary Interstate Highway that extends for 14 miles (23 km) through two boroughs of New York City. The route begins at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Jamaica Bay and travels north through Queens and across the East River to the Bruckner Interchange in the Bronx, where I-678 ends and the Hutchinson River Parkway begins.
The IND World's Fair Line, officially the World's Fair Railroad, was a temporary branch of the Independent Subway System (IND) serving the 1939 New York World's Fair in Queens, New York City. Part of the New York City Subway, it split from the IND Queens Boulevard Line at an existing flying junction east of Forest Hills–71st Avenue station, ran through the Jamaica Yard and then ran northeast and north through Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, roughly along the current path of the Van Wyck Expressway. The line continued along a wooden trestle to the World's Fair Railroad Station, located slightly south of Horace Harding Boulevard. The World's Fair station, the only one on the line, consisted of two tracks and three platforms.
Queens Botanical Garden is a botanical garden located at 43-50 Main Street in Flushing, Queens, New York City. The 39-acre (16 ha) site features rose, bee, herb, wedding, and perennial gardens; an arboretum; an art gallery; and a LEED-certified Visitor & Administration Building. Queens Botanical Garden is located on property owned by the City of New York, and is funded from several public and private sources. It is operated by Queens Botanical Garden Society, Inc.
Kew Gardens Hills is a neighborhood in the middle of the New York City borough of Queens. The borders are Flushing Meadows-Corona Park to the west, the Long Island Expressway to the north, Union Turnpike to the south, and Parsons Boulevard to the east.
Kissena Park is a 235-acre (95 ha) park located in the neighborhood of Flushing in Queens, New York City. It is located along the subterranean Kissena Creek, which flows into the Flushing River. It is bordered on the west by Kissena Boulevard; on the north by Rose, Oak, Underhill, and Lithonia Avenues; on the east by Fresh Meadow Lane; and on the south by Booth Memorial Avenue. The park contains the city's only remaining velodrome, a lake of the same name, two war memorials, and various playgrounds and sports fields.
The Parsons Boulevard station is an express station on the IND Queens Boulevard Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of Parsons Boulevard and Hillside Avenue in Queens, it is served by the F train at all times, the <F> train during rush hours in the reverse peak direction, and a few rush-hour E trains.
The Q17 bus route constitutes a public transit line in Queens, New York City, running primarily along Kissena Boulevard, the Long Island Expressway service road and 188th Street between two major bus-subway hubs in the neighborhoods of Jamaica and Flushing. It is one of the busiest local bus routes in Queens. Operated by the North Shore Bus Company until 1947, the route is now operated by MTA Regional Bus Operations under the New York City Transit brand.
Utopia Parkway is a major street in the New York City borough of Queens. Starting in the neighborhood of Beechhurst and ending in the Jamaica Estates neighborhood, the street connects Cross Island Parkway and Northern Boulevard in the north to Union Turnpike, Grand Central Parkway and Hillside Avenue in the south.
Kissena Creek is a buried stream located in the neighborhoods of Flushing, Fresh Meadows, Hillcrest, and Kew Gardens Hills in the New York City borough of Queens. Kissena Creek originates in a now-filled swamp within Kew Gardens Hills and Pomonok in central Queens, flowing east to Hillcrest. The creek then travels mostly north and west, largely flowing beneath Kissena Park Golf Course, Kissena Park, Kissena Corridor Park, and Queens Botanical Garden, before merging with the Flushing River in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park.
The Weeping Beech was a historic tree located at Weeping Beech Park in Flushing, Queens, New York City. It was the mother of all European weeping beeches in the United States.
Bowne Park is a 11.79-acre (4.77 ha) park in Broadway–Flushing, Queens, New York, east of downtown Flushing. It is bordered by 29th Avenue on the north, 32nd Avenue on the south, 155th Street on the west, and 159th Street on the east. The park consists of a playground, basketball courts, bocce court, and a kettle pond. The area immediately surrounding the park, developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, was originally also marketed as "Bowne Park" and is part of modern-day Murray Hill and Broadway–Flushing.