Text size:

City Living: Kew Gardens

By Patrick Verel | Special to amNewYork

May 18, 2006

The Kew Gardens neighborhood of Queens has retained a bucolic splendor for decades even though it's bordered by two major highways and bisected by the Long Island Rail Road.

Part of the reason is the area, which was first developed at the turn of the 19th century, also features Maple Grove Cemetery and Forest Park. But the tree-lined streets and mix of Colonial, Victorian and Tudor-style single family houses and large pre-war buildings do a lot for the character, too.

Lefferts Boulevard, the main commercial strip, leapfrogs over the Long Island Rail Road tracks in an engineering concept that is similar to the 16th-century Ponte Vecchio bridge in Florence, Italy. That link to the Old World is fitting: Over the years the neighborhood has been home to Iranian Jews and immigrants from Uzbekistan, Yemen and Central America.

Its location, roughly halfway between LaGuardia and Kennedy Airport, has earned it the nickname "Crew Gardens," thanks to the concentration of pilots and flight attendants living there.

Alberta Gray, owner of Gray's Bicycles and a resident for more than 40 years, agrees it's become more diverse.

"It was strictly a Jewish neighborhood back then; now we have, like, a United Nations here -- and I like that," she said.

William Levin, a broker and owner of ERA Gotham Realty, said many apartments are co-ops that were converted in the 1980s, but it is possible to find a studio to rent for $900 or a one-bedroom for around $1,100.

"There are a lot of older, pre-war buildings with high ceilings large rooms, dining rooms. We have one apartment on the market right now that's a three-bedroom, 1,750 square feet, which is the size of some homes," he said. "If you drove by on Queens Boulevard and you looked up across the street and saw these towers, you would never think there was a quiet residential neighborhood back behind there."

Varuna Singh, the principal broker for Crossings Reality and a neighborhood resident since 1985, said a housing stock comprised mostly of co-ops and houses has kept the population relatively stable.

"There's not a very large rental market, and because of that most of the residents have a vested interest," he said. "A lot of people from areas like Brooklyn Heights and Park Slope and the city who have been priced out of those markets have been coming to Kew Gardens."

The varied architecture and sense of community makes it attractive, too.

"You go to a store twice and the guy knows your name. ... You've got the park right nearby, and we're just a stone's throw from the shopping in Forest Hills," Singh said. "So you can still be close to the action."

Find it
The borders of Kew Gardens are the Jackie Robinson Parkway to the north, the Van Wyck Expressway to the east, Myrtle and Hillside avenues to the south and Forest Park to the west.

Real estate
What's selling
Co-ops -A 650-square-foot studio on Talbot Street and Lefferts Boulevard: $135,000 n An 850-square-foot one bedroom on Beverly Road: $192,000 n A 1,250-square-foot two bedroom at Lefferts Boulevard and Kew Gardens Road: $319,000

Houses
-A five-bedroom colonial on 60 by 100 foot plot on Audley Street: $1.15 million n A four-bedroom wood-frame colonial on a 40-by-100-foot plot on 116th Street and 84th Avenue: $725,000 n A three-bedroom frame colonial on a 20-by-100-foot plot on 123rd Street and 84th Avenue: $585,000

To see