WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES AUGUST 1, 2019 23
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
What’s in Woodhaven’s name? History
The former Grosjean factory on Atlantic Avenue in Ozone Park. The clock tower survived a fi re that destroyed the original factory.
PRESENTED BY THE WOODHAVEN
CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
PROJECTWOODHAVEN@GMAIL.COM
It’s a more complicated question
that you would think: When was
Woodhaven founded?
The short answer is this: It was
originally founded as Woodville
in 1835 and renamed Woodhaven
in 1853 when the village applied
for a Post Office only to be denied
because there was already a
Woodville, New York.
And a precise answer could be
July 1, 1835 when John R. Pitkin
purchased the first piece of
property in the village. Pitkin
has long been considered the
founder of Woodhaven and it
was in 1935 that residents of
Woodhaven celebrated the
community’s centennial.
Pitkin purchased the land
as part of his grand scheme to
develop a brand new city; one that
Pitkin hoped would replace New
York City. In fact, he was using
New York City as the basis of the
name for his planned city: East
New York.
The land purchased by Pitkin
stretched from Brooklyn to
Long Island and Woodville was
earmarked to be the industrial
section, with lots of factories
and farms and houses for
the workers.
But the Panic of 1837 launched
a major recession that lasted into
the 1840s and a lot of investors,
Pitkin included, lost tremendous
amounts of money. As a result,
Pitkin had to sell off large tracts of
land to cover his losses and plans
for a giant East New York were
dashed (though the name lives on,
to this day, in Brooklyn).
That answers the
question of when
Woodhaven was
founde d but
the quest ion
o f wh e r e
Woo d v i l l e /
Woo d haven
was actually
located is a
lit tle more
difficult.
Today, the
residentia l
sect ion of
Wood haven
e x t e n d s
f rom Pa rk
Lane South to
Atlantic Avenue.
But in those days,
this huge piece of
land consisted mostly
of farms (and
one giant race
track, The Union
Course).
The residential
section of Woodhaven lived south
of Atlantic Avenue, in a section
that is known today as Ozone
Park. In those days it was called
Woodhaven Village and it housed
Photos courtesy of the Woodhaven Cultural and Hisotrical Society
many of the neighborhood’s
e a rl i e s t sett l e r s and
important families.
Woodhaven Vi l lage really
took off with the purchase of
a nearby factory by partners
Florian Grosjean and Charles
LaLance. The factory began
pumping out metal
kitchenware made
from tin through a
unique stamping
process and was
an immediate
success.
Gro s j e a n
e n t i c e d
many of his
countrymen
to come here
from France
a n d se t
them up in
row houses
t h a t he
owned along
U n i v e r s i t y
Place (now 95th
Avenue). As a
result, not only
did he have a strong
workforce but
he was also
collecting rent.
At that time,
it was estimated
that 8 out of every 10 people in
Woodhaven were tied financially
to the factory. If they didn’t work
at the factory, their spouse did. Or
they ran a business that depended
on the factory.
So when the Great Fire of 1876
destroyed the factory, many of
the workers figured they were
out of a job and were preparing
to leave. But Grosjean persuaded
them to stay and help him rebuild
from scratch.
And in place of the old wooden
factory, a new complex was built,
one with a large clock tower that
overlooked the entire community,
as if to proclaim that nothing was
going to drive them from this
town. And that clocktower stands
tall to this day, 143 years later.
Although the entire factory
did not survive and the business
went under in the 1950s, it marked
the rebirth of the community.
The factory not only survived,
it prospered and helped bring
rai lroads and light ing to
Woodhaven, turning it from a
sleepy village into a bustling busy
factory town, very much in line
with what Pitkin has envisioned
back in the 1830s.
And so, when I’m asked when
Woodhaven was founded I try
and answer it this way: It’s
always been here, from the
Yamecah Indians through the
earliest settlers until it was born
as Woodville in 1835, reborn as
Woodhaven in 1835 and reborn yet
again in 1876, eventually giving
birth to a second neighborhood,
Ozone Park.
Pre t t y stra i ght forwa rd,
isn’t it?
John R. Pitkin was the fi rst to
purchase land in the community
that became Woodhaven
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