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QC01142016

36 LIVING IN WHITESTONE/COLLEGE POINT s The QUEE NS Courier • living in • JANUARY 14, 2016 for breaking news visit www.queenscourier.com NEIGHBORHOD SNAPSHOT: COLLEGE POINT’S EDUCATIONAL ROOTS BY THE QUEENS COURIER STAF editorial@queenscourier.com @QueensCourier It has a name bearing the pinnacle of education, but College Point isn’t your average American college town. Situated on a peninsula bordered by the East and Flushing rivers, College Point was named for St. Paul’s College, which was founded in 1839 by Rev. William Augustus Muhlenberg of St. George’s Church in Flushing. The college closed 10 years later, and its remaining structures were used by the community for religious services, as private residences and as a small school. The city purchased the former St. Paul’s College site in 1930 to make way for what is now the neighborhood’s most prominent green space, MacNeil Park. According to the College Point Civic Association, the population grew during the 1850s as real estate developers marketed the area as an affordable place to live. One of the settlers was successful manufacturer Conrad Poppenhusen, who contributed much to the public during his time. The downtown shop district in College Point was created mainly to serve workers at his nearby rubber plant, who made up a sizable portion of the local population. Poppenhusen also connected College Point to the larger community by building a cobblestone road to Flushing which would later become College Point Boulevard and founded a Northside Railroad and the Poppenhusen Institute — which hosted free adult education programs for all and the country’s first free kindergarten program. College Point was created on relatively narrow streets, with most commercial activity located along the main stretch, College Point Boulevard. According to the Planning Department, recent development has centered on replacing older, detached buildings with semi-detached or attached structures. The city approved a zoning change in 2005 to preserve the low-density area and limit new development to be consistent with traditional, predominantly detached building types. Much development has also occurred near the former site of Flushing Airport, which last operated in 1984. Its future has been up in the air since that time, especially as the former airfield has predominantly reverted into the marshy wetland prior to the airport’s development. Poppenhusen Institute LOCAL AREA HOT SPOTS


QC01142016
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