18 SEPTEMBER 27, 2018 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
Mathews Flats helped make Ridgewood a special place
BY THE OLD TIMER
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
From the beginning, they were
something special.
The apartment houses rose
in the heart of Ridgewood, Queens
in stark contrast to the dark and
dingy tenements thousands of Lower
Manhattan residents called home. Not
only were they spacious, bright and
airy, but they also off ered those lucky
enough to own one a way to climb the
economic ladder and achieve real
economic success.
Like many American success
stories, the tale of the Mathews Flats
has its roots in Europe. The Mathews
brothers who built them were from
Paltino in Bavaria, Germany, in the
early 1900.
Gustave Xavius Mathews, who
was born in 1871, came to America
with his brothers in 1886. In 1900,
he married Clara Kuntz, whose
father was a builder. They had
four children: Ernest L., Curtis,
William Elliott and Gustave X. Jr.
Gustave Mathews began building
homes in 1903; on July 2, 1904,
Mathews Realty and Construction
Company purchased from Peter
Wyckoff a strip of land 100 feet
wide and 600 feet long — located
on what is today the north side of
Linden Street from Seneca Avenue
to about 100 feet east of St. Nicholas
Avenue.
Wyckoff took a purchase money
mortgage for the property, and
Mathews Realty agreed to build
on the property within a decade.
Although the deed specifies the
sale was made for “$1 and other
valuable considerations,” from the
down payment on the mortgages, it
is believed the land sold for $22,826
per acre.
When the Wyckoff Farm was divided,
the dividing line ran approximately
north to south 100 feet east
of what is today St. Nicholas Avenue.
Peter Wyckoff owned the land east
of the line, and his brother Nicholas
owned the land to the west.
Mathews Realty and Construction
was owned 50 percent by William
Matthews, Gustave’s older brother,
who served as president. The other
share was split between Gustave
and younger brother Ernest, who
was secretary.
In October 1904, Matthews Realty
and Construction obtained a
$45,000 mortgage for a 243 foot
frontage on Linden Street, west of
Cypress Avenue, laying out 10 lots
Patriotic banners fl ew from the Mathews Flats apartment houses on Palmetto Street between Fairview and
Forest avenues in this photo taken on July 4, 1917.
A block of Mathews Flats buildings in Ridgewood is shown in this 2010 photo
of 19.9 by 100 feet, and two lots of 22
feet by 100 feet. The German Savings
Bank, which provided the mortgage,
set the interest at fi ve percent, and
require repayment by Dec. 1, 1905.
The Mathews company also built
houses on Grove Street and Bleecker
Street.
BUILDING THE FLATS
About 1907, the Tenement House
Law changed and, as a result, Gustave
Mathews and his brothers designed a
six-family, three-story brick house on
a 27 1/2’-wide plot, 100’-feet deep, with
a backyard. They used light-colored
brick with red trim and included large
Ridgewood Times archives
air shaft s so every room had a window
with fresh air.
Each of the fl ats had fi ve rooms plus
a bath.
That year, the Mathews Brothers
purchased the Thomas Fleckenstein
Farm on Forest Avenue and began
building six-family houses. Each were
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