Text size:

New York Real Estate: Kew Gardens, Queens

By Lana Bortolot | Special to amNewYork

August 28, 2008

Austin's Ale House. (Phil S. Kropoth / August 27, 2008)

If you are a believer of "great things come in small packages," then Kew Gardens might be your kind of neighborhood. This triangular-shaped enclave has many conveniences of city life, yet retains a small-town feel.

One of seven planned communities in Queens built between 1870 and 1950, Kew Gardens was part of the garden-suburb movement that provided a complete range of lifestyle amenities to help "civilize the American City," says architectural historian and lecturer Barry Lewis, a 38-year resident.

"Physically, it retains the ideal of greenery and yet is a city neighborhood. It was part of the new urbanism of the early 20th century built around rapid transit meant to be a healthful urban experience," he said.

Click to see photos of the Kew Gardens neighborhood

These neighborhoods, Lewis says, have long been in the shadow of historic darlings such as Park Slope or Brooklyn Heights.

"Everyone loves brownstones in Brooklyn, but, really, they were the Levittown of their time," Lewis says. "They were pretty grim, and the garden suburb movement was a response to that."

Kew Garden houses were designed in a number of revival styles -- Arts & Crafts, Dutch and Spanish Colonial and Tudor among them. They are particularly distinguished by their use of light and space, built on large lots with bay windows facing the sun and trees planted to provide not only naturalistic settings, but also shade to cool the houses.

Apartment buildings were not part of the original plan, but those built after World War I were to a scale appropriate for the neighborhood. Their many eclectic styles, along with superior interior details such as high ceilings and corner windows, made them highly desirable.

Blessed with wide lawns, old-growth trees and winding streets, Kew Gardens looks like a postcard from Anytown, U.S.A. Multi-generational shops line Lefferts Boulevard, the main street here, and the neo-Tudor architecture gives the street its uniformity. There's no visual cacophony here--and residents want to keep it that way.

"We have a strong belief in rehabilitating the current housing stock, not tearing it down and putting up modern tenements," says Andrea Crawford, president of Community Board 9, which covers Kew Gardens. "Its not about cultural wars, it's about respecting what's here, and that is a beautiful, quiet neighborhood."

The neighborhood's nickname, "Crew Gardens," is a nod to the many airline personnel living here, but Kew Gardens has always been home to the jet set: Charlie Chaplin, Will Rogers, Dorothy Parker and George Gershwin were among the artistic community that settled here in the 1920s. Now, the neighborhood has a mix of people who were born here and those who have moved here from Eastern Europe, Iran, Yemen and the Americas.

"It's a nice place to raise a family and a nice place to be single," says Crawford. "It's not a neighborhood that gears itself to one or the other. It's just a little garden gem carved out of a very urban area."

Click to see photos of the Kew Gardens neighborhood

FIND IT

Kew Gardens is bounded by Queens Boulevard on the north, 85th Avenue and 127th Street on the south. Green spaces also create natural boundaries: Forest Park on the northwest and Maple Grove cemetery on the east.

TRANSPORTATION

E/F to Union Turnpike/Kew Gardens

LIRR to Kew Gardens station

SCHOOLS

PS 99, 82-37 Kew Gardens Road; PS 54 Hillside School, 86-02 127th St. Parents also send their children to schools in neighboring Richmond Hill: PS 56 Harry Eichler Schoolý, 86-10 114th St.; Richmond Hill High School, 89-30 114th St.; PS 90 Horace Mann School, 86-50 109th St. Kew Gardens is served by Hillcrest High School in Jamaica, 160-05 Highland Ave., and Russell Sage Junior High School 190 in Forest Hills, 68-17 Austin St.