'Whitestone' Relates Community's Past, Present
BY LINDA J. WILSON

Whitestone by Jason D. Antos, Arcadia Publishing, "Images of America" Series, New York, ISBN: 0738546283l; 128 pp; $19.99.

Like other books in A r c a d i a Publishing's "Images of A m e r i c a " Series, in Whitestone Jason D. A n t o s through historic photographs and w e l l -

researched accompanying text chronicles the town's transformation from a quiet Dutch settlement to a massive urban center. Antos, a native of Whitestone who earned a master of fine arts degree in screenwriting and communication from the

University of

Miami and is a member of the Queens Historical Society, notes that Whitestone today "is a town caught in a battle between preserving its past and the creation of a new modern suburb" and the photographs he chose to illustrate the book's seven chapters: "In the Beginning", "A Town Is Born", "The Railroad", "A Seaside Resort", "Churches, Libraries, Schools, and Sports", "Celebrities" and "Whitestone and the Modern Age", most from the Queens Borough Public Library Long Island Division, the Poppenhusen Institute, the Bayside and Queens Historical Societies, and the archives of the Whitestone Branch of the Queens Borough Public Library, American Bridge and Gleason Funeral Home, leave no doubt as to which side he's on. The area's many historic places are not listed as historic or national landmarks, he notes, and the bulldozers of real estate companies are razing some three homes a month on average. The structures that perfectly encapsulate Whitestone's golden era are rapidly passing into obscurity.

Like other books in the "Images" series, Whitestone starts at the beginning. The area known as Whitestone occupies a peninsula on the northernmost tip of Queens between Flushing Bay and Long Island Sound. The area was named after a large limestone boulder, a glacial outlier left when an ice sheet retreated some 10,000 years ago and found in 1645 by the Dutch on the virtually flat seashore. The Dutch recognized the great potential for establishing the town as a major trading port due to its location by the East River and purchased the wooded and hilly terrain from the Matinecock tribe, who had been living on the fertile land, for the price of one ax for every 50 acres.

The town prospered, and the population grew. Antos notes that from 1645 to 1724, when the last of the Matinecocks left the area, Native Americans, Dutch and English settlers lived harmoniously. "Not one incident of murder, theft or lynching was ever recorded."

The first forays into the industrialization of an initially agricultural community began when the Matinecocks and then the Dutch and English settlers used clay from several deposits in the area to make pottery, spoons and peace pipes. In the 1800s John D. Locke opened a tinware factory that still stands, albeit in a sadly dilapidated condition, on Clintonville Street where he produced tinware and copper products and irons that could be heated for use on clothing. (Clintonville Street is the only reminder that DeWitt Clinton, originally of Maspeth and governor of New York from 1817 to 1822 and 1825 to 1828, stone, but service on the once flourishing railroad line decreased steadily as automobiles came into greater use. All railroad service to Whitestone ended when the railroad closed down the stations on Feb. 15, 1932.

In 1898, Whitestone became a part of New York City and the area experienced a real estate boom, especially after the Queensboro Bridge opened in 1909. Beautiful estates and private homes sprang up overnight. Celebrities from the golden age of cinema, such as Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, and Rudolph Valentino, established homes in the area.

The chapter "Whitestone and the Modern Age" takes the reader and Whitestone into the 20th century, noting that the two great bridges, the Bronx- Whitestone, regarded as the greatest suspension bridge ever built, and the Throg's Neck, that link Whitestone to The Bronx, were built under the aegis of Robert Moses and facilitated tourist travel to the 1939 and 1964 World's Fairs. Moses was also responsible for construction of the Cross Island Expressway and the Long Island Expressway, which destroyed many of Whitestone's historic sites and structures. Antos makes it plain that he does not regard this as a positive development. "The comparisons are shocking as Whitestone heads into the 20th century and beyond," he declares.

With its wealth of historic photographs, Whitestone takes the reader back to another, simpler time. An occasional spelling error and one or two convoluted sentences do not detract from the enjoyment of the journey. Moreover, Whitestone teaches a valuable lesson: that while we cannot live in the past, preserving some elements of it will help us on our journey into the future. This book is a welcome addition to the "Images of America" series and will find a place in the library of anyone who cares about preserving the past, even as the future approaches inexorably.