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APRIL 27, 1912
QUEENS, THE BOROUGH OF SMALL HOMES.
Some 25,000 Dwellings Have Been Erected and 1,500 Acres Have
Been Built Over in Ten Years—Marvelous Growth of Industry, Too.
QUEENS is essentially the borough
of small homes. Land has been I'ela-
tively cheap when compared with values
in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx,
largely because of its isolation in the
past from the great business section of
the city, for the lack of tunnels, bridges
and other methods of transit. This has
made it the refuge of escape for the man
of moderate means who wishes to bring
up his family in the privacy of a one
or two family dwelling. That the demand
for such homes has been readily sup¬
plied by the borough is evidenced by the
fact that the percentage of increase of
population in Queens has been greater
than in any of tho other boroughs, ex¬
cept the Bronx, where tenements and
flats prevail.
The enormous addition of over 1.30,000,
or 87 per cent, to the population of the
borough in the last ten years means ihat
not fewer than 25,000 dwellings have
been built and that over 1,500 acres have
been covered with buildings.
That the growth of the borough wiil be
even greater in the future is shown by
the tables prepared by Dr. Joseph Cacca¬
vajo, indicating that the increase of pop¬
ulation from the preseni time to 1920
wiil be twice as great in Queens as in
any other borough; the present popul:>-
tion of 3.-5 people per acre in Queens, 42
per acre in Brooklyn and 18-5 per acre in
Manhattan, being increased in 1920 by
217 per cent in Queens, 53 per cent in
Brooklyn, and only 7 per cent in Man¬
hattan.
Moreover, the phenomenal growth in
population and development is going on
in spite of improper transportation fa¬
cilities, lack of sewers and other munici¬
pal improvements.
Since consolidation tbe citizens of
Queens have submitted patiently to an
enormous increase in taxation, the as¬
sessed valuation of the borough bavins
increased from .^lOS.OOO.OOO in 1902 to
$407,000,000 in 1911. the increase in
1911 alone bemg over .^lOOOOO.OOO. What
they do object to, however, and what
they will no longer submit to, is the
spending of their tax money for munici¬
pal improvements in the otiier boroughs.
If all of this money, deductins:. of course.
its proper share of the general expenses
of the municipal government, was de¬
voted, as it properly should be, to local
improvements, the borough of Queens,
relieved fi-om its present handicap,
would rapidly outstrip its sister bor¬
oughs both in population and develop¬
ment. W'th an area greater than Brook¬
lyn. Manhattan and the Bronx combined,
possessing distinct advantages in access¬
ibility, climatic conditions and in beau¬
ty of scenery, it is destined in the near
fL'iure to assume its proper place as the
leading borough of the Greater City.
Needs nf the Borimeh.
The needs of Queens taken in the or¬
der of their importance are: Better tran¬
sit facilities, sewers, highway improve¬
ments and a municipal water supply.
The transit s'tuation has been so thor¬
oughly discussed of late that I will mere¬
ly refer you to the very admirable arti¬
cle on that sub.iect in another part of
â– this paper. In passing, however, I want
to express my conviction that the diffi¬
culties of this problem are now in a fair
way of solution and that tbis greatest
of handicaps to the borough's progress
wiil soon be removed.
To appreciate the handicap which
Queens has labored under with regard
to sewers, it is only necessary to say
that the rapidly growing sections adja¬
cent to the Brooklyn, the "Woodhaven,
Union Course. Forest Parkway, Rich¬
mond Hill, Ozone Park, Chester Park
and Morris Park districts, in which there
are not less than 8,000 buildings, have not
yet the beneflt of a sewerage svstem. It
is gratifying, however, to note that at
last the subject is being taken up in an
intelligent, systematic manner. that
progress is being made on the necessary
maps, and that the outlook is brighter
than it has been at any time in the
past. â– =:'; *]
The deplorable condition of the roads
of t*ie borough is well known to all who
By FRANK E. HURLEY.
have occasion to make use of them and
we can hope for nothing better until we
succeed in convincing the Board of Esti¬
mate and Apportionment of our needs in
this respect and of the unjust discrim¬
ination which has been practiced against
us in the past. But in this departmeni,
too, the signs of betterment are very en¬
couraging. The present Highway Com¬
missioner, a man of irreproachable char¬
acter and unquestioned ability, has taken
up the work with enthusiasm and intelii-
gence, and already a marked improve¬
ment in the disposition of the Board of
Estimate and Apportionment toward this
department is noticeable.
One of tlie improvenients which lias
recently been made is the renaming of
â– the streets and avenues. There are moi-e
than 3,000 streets in the borough of
Queens, and many of them have similar
names, so a new system of street nam¬
ing has been adopted. The streets will
be for the most part numbered. The
necessity for this reform will be recog¬
nized when it is known that at present
there are twenty-two Washington streets
and nineteen Lincoln streets.
FRANK E. HURLEY,
Manager of the Jamaica branch of the Title
Guarantee and Trust Co.
With reference to the water supply,
while up to the present time it cannot
be said that the borough has suffered in
this respect, it is nevertheless true that
no systematic provision has been made
for the future. In fact, with the excep¬
tion -of the First and Third Wards, the
water throughout the borough is supplied
by private companies.
Everyone who has given the matter
any thought realizes the folly of such a
system, and it is, therefore, to be hoped
that public opinion will speedily be
aroused to the necessity of providing a
proper municipal water system for the
entire borough.
Niilural AdTnntages.
Despite these drawbacks, the natural
advantages of Queens are so great that
it is rapidly outstripping the other bor¬
oughs in population and development. It
is noteworthy that Queens was the only
borough where the cost of new buildings
was gi-eater in 1911 than in 1910, the in¬
crease in Queens being more than -fG.OOO,-
000.
And why should we be surprised at
this? Starting right from the throbbing
life of the great city. Its broad expanse
of 81,000 acres stretches out into the
beauties and the productiveness of an
ideally located garden spot. To the lover
of the soil, to the man or woman who
cherishes the trees, the grass, and the
pure air, a new life is opened. You may
take a train at the Pennsylvania Station"
in Manliattan, and in eight minutes ar¬
rive in Long Island City, and from that
tim* on your ride will be through a
beautiful country. You will pass by
Newtown, Forest Hills, Kew Gardens,'
Richmond HiU and other towns and vil¬
lages, and country villas charmingly art¬
istic and beautiful. From the noise and
dust of the crowded city you wil quickly
pass throagh green fields and lovely
gardens. You can reach either Jamaica
or Flushing in sixteen minutes and Port
Washington or Far Rockaway within
half an hour, and within this territory
millions of people can be comfortably
quartered.
I Elv rea sea Land Values,
In this great country the increase in
land values during the past ten years has
been remarkable, and so, too, has the in¬
crease in buildings. During the year 1911
over 5,000 buildings were erected, and it
is safe to say that this increase must be
still more rapid during the next flve years
in order to care for the increase of popu¬
lation which will be crowded out from the
borough of Manhattan. The wage earners
and the big factories are being rapidly
forced out, and Queens Borough, with its
great area and its improved transporta¬
tion facilities, is ready to receive them.
There are about 50,009 factories in New
York City, with an annual output of more
than .? 10,000.000,000, about one-tenth of
the industrial output of the United
States. These factories are already rap¬
idly moving into Queens Borough, most
of them locating in Long Island City. This
exodus ia .'Speedily transforming Long
Island City frora a barren waste to a.
teeming hive of industry. And with the
building of the factories goes on apace the
bulding of liomes for the factory workers.
Fortunately, unsurpassed facilities for
both are to be found in Queens.
And not only for factory workers are
homes to be found here, but also for men
in every walk of life, homes for the sala¬
ried man and the man in moderate cir¬
cumstances, as well as the flne estates and
dwellings for the wealihy. And for all of
these are to be found unsurpassed attrac¬
tions; fcr the average man, his little gar¬
den patch, wherein his natural desire for
farming can be satisfled; for pleasure-
seekers, the joys of flshing, shooting, boat¬
ing, golf and all the other outdoor games,
together with tlie delightful summer re¬
sorts On ocean and sound.
With all its natural advantages, the
buiiding up of this land of promise is de¬
pendent upon the ease with which money
can be borrowed upon mortgages, and
were this task of supplying funds to the
home builders left to individual investors,
the development of the borough would
have been neither rapid nor systematic-
Fortunately, the wonderful possibilities
of the borough, now apparent to all, at¬
tracted many years ago the largest title
guaranteo company in the city. So great
was its confldence that this conipany has
loaned during the past six years moi-e
than §25,000,000 on mortgages in Queens
Eorough.
Types of Houses.
By means of this enormous mortgage
fund, this company has exercised an im¬
portant influence on the character of the
buildings, conflning its loans in each sec¬
tion to buildings most suitable for that
particular locality. In this way, houses
suitable to the different localities are be¬
ing built and both the owner and the
lender have found the following classes
of buildings to be the most satisfactory.
In Ridgewood and vicinity, two and
three faniily attached brick houses, selling
for $6,000 to $7,500 each: also six-family
attached tenements selling for $10,500 to
$12,000.
At Long Island City some apartment
houses are being built near the Bridge
Plaaa, and in the sections within easy
walking distance of the new Pennsylva¬
nia yards, several rows of six-family brick
houses, similar to the ones which flnd
such ready sale at Ridgewood are be'ng
built and offered for sale at about S12,-
000.
At Corona and Elmhurst two-family
frame dwellings sell for $5,500 to $G.500
and there is a. great variety of cottages to
be had at prices ranging from $4,-500 up.
At Flushing the one-family frame house
is most popular and here there is a wide
range of prices to select from and a great