34 NOVEMBER 18, 2021 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
BY THE OLD TIMER
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
Years ago, Queens cooks would
have had to prepare their holiday
dinners without the benefi t
of supermarkets.
Peddlers in horse-drawn wagons
made the rounds of the scattered
homes of the non-farm families in
the area, selling meat, fruit and
vegetables. However, as the population
grew, stores opened and the day
of the peddler came to a close. The
stores that opened were groceries,
bakers, butchers, fruit and vegetable
stands, ice cream parlors and candy
stores.
Because of the rural nature of
the Ridgewood area, there were a
number of dairies, each with 50 to 60
cows, producing milk which was sold
for home delivery, or to local grocers
and ice cream parlors.
Who were some of the dairies of
our area? Let’s take a look.
Joseph Caccioppo started a small
dairy in 1901 at McKibben Street
and Bushwick Avenue, and then
relocated the following year to 1484
Metropolitan Ave., where he started
the Grandview Dairy with 50 cows.
The Grandview Dairy was on the site
of the present-day Grover Cleveland
High School.
He made home deliveries of “loose”
milk which was poured into customers’
milk cans. In 1905, he started
delivering his milk in bottles. In 1914,
he installed a pasteurization unit to
comply with state Board of Health
requirements.
Julius Oechslein had a dairy located
between Central Avenue and the
Long Island Rail Road, and ran from
Webster Avenue (later Olmstead
Place, now 71st Street) to Madison
Avenue (later Edison Place, now 71st
Place) in Glendale.
George Schwartz had a dairy between
Cooper and Central Avenues,
which ran from Webster to Madison,
with 30 cows. He sold milk at his
dairy for 5 cents per quart.
Charlie Lempke, who had a dairy at
what is today 78th Avenue and 78th
Street in Glendale, sold milk at his
farm for 3 cents per quart.
In June 1911, Charles Flugge bought
the old Montauk Brewery located on
the east side of Forest Avenue, just
south of Metropolitan Avenue, and
modernized it for his Metropolitan
Dairy Company Inc. He had been associated
with Henry Dobt in the milk
business when, in 1892, he went into
business for himself with a dairy
located on Old Fresh Pond Road
(now Cypress Hills Street), where
the Philip Dietz coal yard was later
located.
Flugge supplied milk and cream to
ice cream parlors and candy stores
in the area. In 1902, he organized the
High Ground Dairy and then sold out
in 1911 to organize the Metropolitan
Dairy Company Inc.
SPICES AND APPETIZERS
In addition to dairies, other local
enterprises supplied food products.
August Bauer, who was born in
Rothenfels, Bavaria, in 1853, came
to America in 1879 and settled in
Williamsburg. In 1883, he started
selling fresh horseradish, and then
added mustard and pickles. In 1903,
he moved from Williamsburg to 1446
Metropolitan Ave., not too far from
Caccioppo’s dairy.
The dairy may be long gone, but
Bauer’s mustard remains in operation,
although it relocated from
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
How Queens did their holiday shopping a century ago
Ridgewood Times photos
The site of the Metropolitan Dairy Company in Ridgewood.
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