From 1851 until 1857, John A.F. Kelly wrote a weekly column for the Daily Independent Press
entitled Letters from Woodside. These dispatches sent from Kelly's
rural homestead in western Queens County described his area as "a sleepy
little village with a picturesque locality . . . a mere cluster of
houses built of stone or logs." In 1867, developer Benjamin W.
Hitchcock, who would later develop nearby Corona and Ozone Park, first
came to the area, where he purchased the Kelly estate and created a
neighborhood featuring America's first-ever installment plan program for
new home buyers. This forever changed the look of Woodside. Hundreds of
working-class families quickly came from across the city to buy their
first home in the newly laid out suburb whose swamps and woods had been
replaced by modern homes, businesses, city sewers, and paved streets.
Sunnyside also takes its cue from neighboring Woodside, providing
affordable housing to the masses with the building of Sunnyside Gardens,
one of the earliest garden apartment neighborhoods in America and now a
New York City landmark. It is also home to the Sunnyside Yards, one the
nation's largest rail yards. This book celebrates the legacy and impact
that Woodside and Sunnyside have left on New York City for almost 200
years with many rare, never before published photographs.
