WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES MARCH 19, 2020 25
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
from a loyalist family turned out
to be the 200-acre Dow Van Duyn
farm. It was sold at a public auction
to New York City merchant Thomas
McFarren. It’s believed that the Van
Duyn family changed the spelling of
their name to Van Dine in the wake
of the scandal.
The former Dow Van Duyn farm
would change several times over
the next few decades.
Meanwhile, descendants of Cornelius
Van Duyn kept the family
farm together, and over the next 50
years, the Van Dine family would
buy nearby parcels of land in the
present-day Glendale area, including
some of the former Dow Van
Duyn farm. By 1832, Garret Van
Dine owned 150 ½ acres of land in
the Glendale area.
Garret Van Dine died in 1857, and
directed in his will that his estate
be sold, with the proceeds divided
among his brothers, sisters and other
relatives. His executors, however,
decided not sell everything in one
parcel, choosing instead to divide it
into 16 lots which were sold on July
27, 1860, for a total of $35,483.
Because each parcel had to have
access to a public road, the surveyor
that the executors hired laid out
a road running north and south
through the property, and called it
Van Dine Avenue.
Some of the land south of Cooper
Avenue was sold to farmers and
later to the Catholic Church for the
creation of St. John Cemetery. Other
parcels of land were sold and resold
This 1927 photo shows Van Dine Avenue/88th Street at the railroad crossing, looking north.
Ridgewood Times archives/Courtesy of Greater Ridgewood Historical Society
over the next 40 years to farm families
in the community.
In the early 1890s, the Long Island
Rail Road installed crossing gates
at Van Dine Avenue, and hired a
watchman to raise and lower them
as the trains passed. This crossing
is still there today and is used by
trains running on the LIRR’s Lower
Montauk Branch.
It’s one of only two at-grade
railroad crossings in the Glendale
area. The other is at the corner of
Edsall Avenue and 73rd Street, near
the now-closed Glendale station.
During the early 1900s, most of
the farm land was sold to developers,
and the community evolved from a
rural landscape into an industrial
and residential neighborhood.
For instance, in 1923, the Asco
Supply Company, which handled
concrete pipe and did sheet metal
work, occupied 4 ½ acres on Van
Dine Avenue between Cooper Avenue
and the Long Island Rail Road,
employing 50 men.
In June 1923, Charles J. Hettesheimer
was selling building lots on Doran
Street (now 72nd Avenue) and Delia
Street (now 84th Street), adjacent to
Van Dine and Cooper Avenue. John J.
Kessel and Caroline Drentalau were
also offering building lots on the
west side of Van Dine Avenue.
In 1928, P.S. 113 was constructed
at 87-21 79th Ave., at 88th Street, for
the children of Glendale. Then, on
Aug. 14, 1928, Bishop Thomas Molloy
of Brooklyn purchased an acre of
former Van Dine farmland on the
north side of 78th Avenue between
83rd and 85th streets; this would
become Sacred Heart Church and
School.
On Aug. 1, 1937, Oscar F. Schmidt
and Charles Raedel, operating as
Van Dine Homes Inc., purchased
farm land on the west side of 88th
Street and 72nd Avenue. They
would build 60 bungalows sold for
$5,500 a piece.
Reprinted and edited from the
Sept. 5 and Sept. 12, 1985, Ridgewood
Times.
* * *
If you have any remembrances or
old photographs of “Our Neighborhood:
The Way It Was” that you would
like to share with our readers, please
write to the Old Timer, c/o Ridgewood
Times, 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY
11361, or send an email to editorial@
ridgewoodtimes.com. Any print photographs
mailed to us will be carefully
returned to you upon request.
Sewer construction is shown in this 1938 photo along 79th Avenue near 88th Street, adjacent to P.S./I.S. 113.
Ridgewood Times archives/Courtesy of Greater Ridgewood Historical Society
/WWW.QNS.COM
/ridgewoodtimes.com
