Neighborhood Info:
Queens Village - Bellerose

Queens Village was known as Inglewood in the 1860's when Alfred M. Wood, a one-time mayor of the city of Brooklyn, bought up large tracts of land with a train station of that name. But the Long Island Rail Road found that Inglewood was too often confused with Englewood, N.J., and the station name was changed to Queens. That in turn became confused with Queens County, so a railroad station that opened in 1924 was called Queens Village. That name stuck. Queens Village has evolved from what once was a largely German, Irish and Italian population to one that includes many blacks, Hispanics, Asians and South Americans, and everyone shares the same reasons for choosing Queens Village: good schools and a very stable neighborhood where people put down roots. Queens Village has a scattering of apartment houses and some garden apartment complexes but the prevailing housing stock is single-family colonials. Detracting from the community is the lack of an attractive shopping area. Although small stores are dispersed throughout the community, Jamaica Avenue between Francis Lewis and Springfield Boulevards, once the hub of shopping, has become dominated by used car dealerships, car repair shops and other car-oriented users. Queens Village has more reasonably priced houses than neighboring Bellerose.

Some people call the Queens Bellerose "Bellerose Manor" to distinguish it from the Long Island Bellerose, although both communities got their start when the United Holding Company purchased and developed 77 acres with Helen Marsh as General Manager in about 1906. However, most of the homes here were built between 1920 and 1950. An oddity called Queens County Farm Museum, technically in Floral Park, is New York City's longest continuously farmed site in New York State, starting in 1697, and is the only working historical farm in the City. Bellerose mostly consist of single and multi family homes.