Waldheim Neighborhood, Flushing, Queens, New York, New York

This District is unique in preservation and predated the Landmark Preservation Commission by 40 years.  Preservation was response to apartment building at 42-66 Phlox Place.  Shingle Style and Queen Anne dominate in a District with boundaries defined by Franklin Ave., (West) Parson's Blvd. (North), a line between Cherry and 45th Ave. (East), and Bowne St. (South).  Best survivors on Ash and Beech, especially those reminiscent of early Frank Lloyd Wright.  Ash is most aristocratic streetscape in District.

Developers in the 1903, Appleton and Richardson, set to work building luxury housing and cutting through streets, named for plants in a likely hommage to Flushing’s former plant nurseries. Many of the old woods’ huge trees were retained as street trees, and the developers named the tract Waldheim, German for “woods home.” A small number of architects under the supervision of Appleton worked on the new neighborhood, which originally attracted Flushing’s wealthier set: at one time, the founder of Buster Brown shoes, the Hellman family of mayonnaise fame, and members of the piano-manufacturing Steinway family lived in Waldheim, as well as Appleton and Richardson themselves. The appellation “Waldheim” fell from favor during World War I.

143-64 Ash

143-32 Ash, bungalow with bumpety stone

143-40 Ash; 1908 concrete block

143-19 Ash, Shingle

143-37 Beech, Georgian in stained wood shingle