What, What, Where, and When?
Here is one local history item I think you will enjoy.
Share some local history - The How and Why
The first photo is a postcard image of an intersection in Woodhaven around 1910. We are looking north on Woodhaven Blvd. from Jamaica Avenue. The elevated train runs along Jamaica Avenue now, but you can see the trolley tracks gong from right to left on the ground.
The corner property at the right with the house and stately trees, according to one old map belonged to Dominicus Vandeveer. Those are huge trees and must have been a few hundred years old at this time. Dominicus had a huge farm that extended further north. As you can see Woodhaven Blvd. was a narrow road and on the left is a fashionable Victorian house with a distinctive turret and wrap around porch.
Now flash forward 95 years later and we are standing at the same spot with teh second photo. Woodhaven/Crossbay Blvd. is now a major traffic route and has up to nine lanes across. The old farmhouse and those streets would be smack in the middle of a busy highway today.
Advice
- The house with the turret is still there and if only it could talk and tell us what it has seen...
