an off the beaten path thread on ridgewood,queens -- enjoy!

 

read all about it here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ridgewood,_Queens

 

also, thx to forgotten ny  :wave:

 

 

kicking off at the seneca avenue M train stop

 

 

the old planter’s peanuts ad was repainted in 1985 for a movie, but its reverted back to trashed since then

 

a couple platform views of that other borough that gets all the attention

 

on the ground

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

***  time out for a ridgewood factoid: ridgewood once had professional baseball, who knew? per wiki:

 

From 1886 to 1889, Ridgewood Park was home to the Brooklyn Bridegrooms (later the Brooklyn Dodgers and now the Los Angeles Dodgers) for their Sunday games  ***

 

 

 

the magnificent st. aloysius church beacons toward the first (of three) ridgewood destinations

 

 

here we “follow the yellow brick road” of stockholm street, on of nyc’s less known pretty little rowhouse streets - a 19th century blue collar factory worker development, the street and row housing use the same yellow bricks (kriescher brick co. of charleston, staten island)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the northern end of stockholm st is flanked by two handsome yellow brick apt bldgs

 

 

stockholm st would be all over movies and tv if it wasn’t so remote  :clap:

 

moving on toward destination number two…speaking of that don’t get your hopes up…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

around metropolitan avenue

 

 

 

so here is destination number two, metropolitan oval soccer field, which was a complete bust because since it was renovated it is 100% locked down

 

baaah what a bust! Anyway - met oval is the oldest soccer field in the usa and has a fantastic skyline view of manhattan

(meaning yes ridgewood is well named, it has steep, hilly ridges here) - oh well

 

moving on along flushing avenue, the sunken section on the right

 

 

this is mostly a scubby industrial area (we love‘m ha!) -- that only gets more so as you get into bushwick

 

the intersection of metropolitan ave & flushing ave is informally called bohack square

http://www.groceteria.com/store/regional-chains/a-e/hc-bohack/

 

still up on a “ridge,” so there are peeks of midtown along the way

 

closing in on the final destination….

 

 

here it is - the dutch vander ende/onderdonk house (1709), one of the oldest in queens

http://onderdonkhouse.org/default.aspx

 

 

“arbitration rock” sits in the backyard, once the dividing line between brooklyn & queens

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbitration_Rock

 

 

somehow the old house survived, but fittingly for this area it’s now surrounded by an old factory

 

 

*** that’s all she wrote for dense, stable multi-ethnic, middle-class ridgewood - bushwick is up next ***

 

Great tour.

I really enjoyed this tour, and I couldn't help but see OTR in so many of these buildings.  I like seeing the non Manhattan borroughs of NYC...you can really see how it is a city of immigrants.

Thanks for posting these great tours of areas that aren't midtown Manhattan. They're places I heard of as a kid during summers when Mom's friend from her public health nursing years would visit us on our Indiana farm to escape New York City's sweltering heat.

I love Queens, it all looks like that (or some gradient from medium-high to medium density) and seemingly goes on forever. 

I love Queens, it all looks like that (or some gradient from medium-high to medium density) and seemingly goes on forever. 

 

you said it -- what really is amazing is the top usa population density rankings are places that are all like 1/sq.mi. in size. then there is queeeens with it's pop density of 21+k/sq.mi., which puts it in the top ten, except spread evenly over 110 freakin sq. miles! not to mention there is starting to be a break in the midrise monotony on the easternmost side of queens with large apt and business towers going up in long island city.