20 SEPTEMBER 21, 2017 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Nolan backs expanded landmarking for Ridgewood
BY ANTHONY GIUDICE
AGIUDICE@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@A_GIUDICEREPORT
Aft er the Ridgewood Property
Owners and Civic Association
(RPOCA) urged the NYC Landmarks
Preservation Commission (LPC)
to move forward with designating two
additional districts in the neighborhood
for preservation, one lawmaker
has backed the group in their eff orts
to save more homes.
Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan,
an advocate for preserving the historic
housing stock in Ridgewood, recently
wrote a letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio
echoing RPOCA’s request to landmark
the two districts — mainly bound by
Seneca Avenue, Stockholm Street, St.
Nicholas Avenue and Cornelia Street.
“Landmarking these districts would
go a long way to preserving many of
the wonderful unique residential
buildings that off er so much history
over the last century,” Nolan wrote in
the Sept. 18 letter. “These homes are a
unique structure and its history deserves
to be preserved so that future
generations of residents of western
Queens can continue to admire and
enjoy them.”
There are currently four historic
districts in Ridgewood: the Stockholm
Street Historic District, which has 36
protected buildings; Ridgewood North
Historic District with 96 buildings; the
Ridgewood South Historic District
with 207 landmarked buildings; and
the newest — and largest district — the
Ridgewood Central Historic District
which landmarked 990 homes in November
2016.
Nolan also pointed out in the letter
her and RPOCA’s fears of uncontrolled
overdevelopment in the Ridgewood
community which threatens the historic
nature of these homes.
“Landmarking our neighborhood
will not only preserve it but also
protect it from additional unfettered
irresponsible development,” she
wrote. “Over the last several years,
I have seen new developments that
are out of character with the community,
residential homes being
altered or changed on the outside and
many smaller units demolished and
replaced with larger developments
further taxing the infrastructure of
our community.”
In addition to the request to move
on landmarking the two areas presented
by RPOCA, Nolan asked the
mayor to re-examine the LPC’s decision
to deny the request to preserve
a group of residential row houses on
DeKalb Avenue between Seneca and
Cypress avenues.
File photo/RIDGEWOOD TIMES
Assemblywoman Catherine
Nolan backed RPOCA's request
to get more of the neighborhood
landmarked.
Elmhurst’s St. James Church will become a city landmark
BY ANGELA MATUA
AMATUA@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@ANGELAMATUA
A 282-year-old church in Elmhurst
is offi cially a city landmark
after the Landmarks
Preservation Commission (LPC)
unanimously voted to give it that designation
today.
Old St. James Episcopal Church,
located at 86-02 Broadway, was built
in 1735 by the Church of England for
the Anglican community. It was built
in what was then called Newtown
Village, which was established by the
English in 1652 and was one of the fi rst
fi ve towns established in Queens.
The Commission is proud to designate
this historic church, signifi cant
for its association with the early
colonial settlement of Queens and
with the beginnings of the Protestant
Episcopal Church in New York,” said
LPC Chair Meenakshi Srinivasan. “As
the second-oldest church building in the
city, pre-dating St. Paul’s Chapel in Manhattan,
it is a site well-deserving of the
protection landmark status provides.”
The structure includes 18th- and
19th-century design features and
materials and is an “architecturally
signifi cant example of the colonial
meetinghouse,” according to the LPC.
It also includes 19th-century Gothic
Revival and Stick style details.
British soldiers used the church
during the Revolutionary War but
ultimately spared the building. The
church’s parish became one of the
earliest members of the Episcopal
Diocese of New York.
The structure went through several
renovations throughout the 19th and
20th centuries. The fi rst iteration was
a rectangular building with shingles,
round-arch windows and a tower facing
the graveyard, which is now a parking lot.
In 1848, the congregation built a
larger church one block away and the
original building became a parish hall
and chapel. The building’s style was
updated in 1883 with Gothic Revival
and Stick Style decorative details and
the parish constructed a small rear
addition where the original tower was
previously located.
In the 20th century, the hall became
a community meeting place. The building
was mostly restored to its 1883
appearance in 2004 with the help of
a $150,000 grant from the Landmarks
Conservancy’s Sacred Sites program.
The restoration cost $430,000 in
total and the improvements included
a new roof, the restoration of the cedar
siding, wood windows and reconstructing
the decorative bracketing
along the exterior.
“I have been a proud supporter of
eff orts to designate the Old St. James
Episcopal Church as a New York City
Individual Landmark and I’m thrilled
that the Landmarks Preservation Commission
has voted to do so,” said U.S.
Congresswoman Grace Meng, who
wrote a letter to the LPC to advocate
for landmark status. “Although this
historic church is already on the National
Register of Historic Places, the
designation as an individual New York
City Landmark will allow for further
preservation of this structure, and
greater awareness of the early history
of our great city. It will also ensure
that future generations are able to
share in the story and history of this
wonderful facility.”
Photo courtesy of NYC Department of Records
The Old St. James Episcopal Church was designated as a landmark by the
Landmark Preservation Commission.
