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The actual
territory of Queens has been inhabited
for more than 10,000 years. The old dwellers, Lenape
Native Americans, were pushed away from their land by the Dutch
colonialists as a result of the 1640 Governor Kieft’s War, and the 1655
Peach War. Although Woodside was one of the earliest European settlements
in West Queens, it did not substantially grow by the 1800s, and was a
dangerous and isolated area of snake-infested swamps and wolf-inhabited
woods*.
In 1867, the developer Benjamin Hitchcock purchased a 115
acre farm, divided it into building lots, and sold them in 1869,
generating the first massive building of the new village, whose name
became Woodside.
.jpg)
Mazzari House at 38-22 Woodside Ave. A typical view
of the recently urbanized Woodside in the
early 1900s. The picture was taken in 1905. ©La Guardia and Wagner
Archives, La Guardia CC, City University of New York.
Three events that
took place almost simultaneously have changed not only the looks of
Woodside, but of whole Queens County.
A. The
construction of Queensboro Bridge over the East River has allowed easy
access of cars and trucks from and to Manhattan.
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Shortly after the inauguration of Queensboro Bridge (1909) the
population of Woodside started increasing tremendously, reaching 6,000
people in 1910 (4 times increment).
B. As soon as the subway tunnel across
East River, the Steinway’s old dream, came true, urbanization became a
time rally.
 1907, The First Car (See the trolley, that was soon
afterwards replaced by the third rail, due to the limited pass par tout
height in tunnels). Click on the picture for actual size view.
C. The extension of the subway tracks
serving the Flushing IRT (Interborough Rapid Transit) and
BRT (Brooklyn Rapid Transit) Line gave development a new boost, so that
the Cosmopolitan Apartments Project of Metropolitan Life Insurance Co
(1923) and the private houses project of City Housing Corp. (1924) did not
come by surprise.
 Elevated
Railway Construction at 61st St Woodside, 1914.
La Guardia and Wagner Archives, La
Guardia CC, City University of New York.
Click on the picture for actual size view.
Woodside has become a new suburb
for working class, which was given the opportunity of home ownership,
understood to strengthen family life. Instead of migrating
from apartment to apartment, families remained in their own homes long
enough to become stable units…private houses awoke in women the domestic
and homemaking instincts that lay dormant in tenements. **
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