Neighborhood Info:
Kew Gardens Hills, Fresh Meadows

Kew Gardens Hills is nowhere near Kew Gardens, Queens; the developer just liked the name and used it when he built his houses in the mind-1900s to the southwest of Flushing. (Some people like to say you can see Kew Gardens from here, but you can't.) In the 1920s, the area became home to numerous golf clubs. Kew Gardens Hills is a tightly packed community of garden apartments, co-ops and private homes. The area attracts a large Israeli population, joining long-time Irish, Italian, and German immigrant families. Shopping is concentrated along Main Street. Union Turnpike to the south also provides stores and restaurants.

Fresh Meadows is in an area previously known as Black Stump. (The name may have come from rows of blackened stumps used to separate large plantations.) In about 1923, a Brooklyn sportsman, Benjamin C. Ribman, opened the Fresh Meadows Country Club. Thirty years later, the 141-acre club was sold to New York Life Insurance Co. The company created a model community to house returning WWII soldiers and their families with a mix of row houses and high-rise buildings, a shopping center, a theater and schools. It opened in 1949 and helped Fresh Meadows become a prestigious address. There are three shopping centers in the housing complex, which supply almost all of one's shopping needs. Kissena Park, which used to be a nursery, offers lots of outdoor activities.