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Type E lamposts like this one were being installed all over New York in 1913 and as late as the 1940s.— Forgotten New York. of the Long Island Star- Journal, a daily paper that informed the community about local and world news until it folded in 1968. A banner across the Star-Journal masthead reminded readers that the newspaper's name came from the merger of the Long Island Daily Star

1876) and the North Shore Daily Journal- The Flushing Journal (1841).

Welcome to January 1913!

“Little Baby 1913”, although but an infant, is a person of whom great things are foretold. Around the world a reception committee of many millions waited patiently. In churches he found many greeting him in an atmosphere of quiet and reverence.

The little chap was hustled into Long Island City with the usual noises on the stroke of midnight. Attending the celebration outside were the usual stabbings, gang fights, ordinary assaults, auto accidents, store window smashing stunts, falls followed by ambulance calls, riotous New Year parties and the occasional respectable and well conducted social affairs.

The beginning of a year was a good opportunity to take stock in the county’s growth. With 15,000 street lights, Queens could boast some of the best lit highways in the city. During the previous year, 1912, the borough continued a major push to light its streets. More than 2,000 lights were installed on Merrick Boulevard, Parsons Boulevard, 31st Street, Hillside Avenue, Queens Boulevard, and Northern Boulevard between the Long Island City line (at 51st Street) and Flushing. Even in remote Little Neck, the road to Nassau County (which was mostly used by farmers) had newly installed lights. In Highland and Forest Parks new lighting was being monitored nightly by Department of Water, Gas, and Electricity employees.

On New Year’s Day the post office inaugurated a new service when it opened at 8 a.m.: parcel post. Dr B. F. Heath of 74 East Ave. (5th Street) mailed the first package out of Long Island City to his mother in Washington, D.C. At nearly three pounds the postage was 17 cents. By the second day, both Long Island City post office branches (on Jackson Avenue in Hunters Point and 21st Street in Astoria) handled about 100 parcels.

Communities around the borough were abuzz over plans for the elevated train system. They expressed outrage in a series of meetings and hearings.

The Star reported on January 10 that many residents in Flushing did not want a rather live as an exclusive enclave. Angered at the prospect of an elevated trestle slicing through Downtown Flushing en route to Eastern Queens over even Nassau County, irate citizens held a meeting and passed resolutions condemning the plan. Although some thought subway service was far better than an elevated line, everyone insisted that nothing be built beyond Flushing creek.

Attendee Eugene Loweree shared his discussions with Amity Street residents (as Roosevelt Avenue was then called) who opposed the noise and dirt of an elevated structure on their doorstep. Dr. Bloodgood went as far as saying an elevated train would “destroy his home”. William Parsons, also present, declared he was “unalterably opposed” to the train. He further noted that it was not necessary since the Long Island Rail Road was a few blocks away.

The real fear was, however, that mass transit would bring, as they expressed it, “undesirable residents”. Former Manhattan resident John Baumeister claimed that the “elevated destroyed residential areas ‘turning out’ churches and establishing cat and dog hospitals in what had been fine residences”. The elevated would create “a general hodge-podge of a community. It would bring the tenements and tenement dwellers which was something that was not desired”. All agreed that the beauty of Flushing was its homes and its desirability as a place of quiet residences.

Mass transit proposals had rough sailing in Long Island City, too. Heated meetings were held on the Ely Avenue (23rd Street) route where John Klagas, president of the Long Island City Business Men’s Subway League declared that “not only would property owners and residents along 23rd Street suffer many annoyances, but inmates of both St. Johns Hospital and the Queens County Court House would be inconvenienced”. Others suggested that pillars supporting the proposed elevated line would be a menace to traffic, obstruct the highway and interfere with the work of fire companies. Noise and dust from the operation would be detrimental to everyone’s health.

Real estate agent George Clay declared that the line would depreciate property values as far away as 21st Street. He declared, “The character of the neighborhood would be changed, adversely affecting stores in the neighborhood.” When someone asked if he would be willing to wait 10 years for a subway rather than have the elevated line built now, he responded “I would wait twenty!”

Overnight, resistance to the plans collapsed. It was so sudden as to be almost orchestrated.

Almost immediately the Dutch Kills Citizen’s Association endorsed the plan favoring the elevated line. Five days later, on the 16th the commissioners from the Public Service Commission gave a fatal blow to the subway lobby by declaring that the land was already acquired for the elevated line. They flatly stated it would be virtually impossible to change plans. Their hearings on the issue were rendered moot.

Flushing’s position against the elevated line was also outflanked, this time by Frank Knab of Whitestone, the former president of the Whitestone Improvement Association. “Some people seem to think there is no place but Flushing,” he declared. “But Whitestone, College Point, Bayside and other communities are as much entitled to transit as Flushing. They too have an interest in these proceedings.

“Three years ago a public meeting of 2,000 people was held in Astoria to discuss both funding and routes for mass transit in Queens. Fully 90 percent of the property owners I spoke to thought a good plan was devised for better transit. Where was Flushing? Most of them were quiet or bitterly opposed the plan.”

As Queens struggled with the challenges of the 20th century, a piece of the 19th was laid to rest. The 100-year-old Jamaica and Hempstead Turnpike (today Hempstead Avenue), the last of the old turnpike companies in the borough, was quietly wiped out of existence on Jan. 21, 1913.

On that date, Justice Blackmar of the Queens County Supreme Court directed William Warnonk, president of the Jamaica Savings Bank, to pay the City Treasurer $2,240, the company’s last assets. There it was to remain until claimed by stockholders. If after 50 years any money remained, it was to be considered abandoned property and permanently turned over to the city.

The turnpike, once considered a “gilt investment”, that is, it gave a very good return to shareholders, but became all but worthless after the tollgates were abolished in the 1880s and revenue fell off to nothing. About 1900, the boards of supervisors for both Queens and Nassau Counties purchased the bankrupt road and paid off unpaid debts that had accumulated from maintenance. A balance of $4,600 remained. The legislature in Albany passed a bill dissolving the corporation and Aaron Degraw, a trustee, was appointed to find the investors. They were to receive $3.75 per share.

Of the 1,200 stockholders (who lived mostly in Jamaica, Hempstead, and North Hempstead) nearly 900 were tracked down by trustee Degraw who unfortunately died just as the task neared completion. The remaining funds, which were sitting in his estate, were transferred by executor Warnonk under court order to the city.

That’s the way it was in January 1913!

The Greater Astoria Historical Society, located in the Quinn Gallery, 4th Floor, 35-20 Broadway, Long Island City, is open to the public on Saturdays from noon to 5 p.m. and on Wednesdays from 6 to 8 p.m. For more information, call the Greater Astoria Historical Society at 718-278- 0700 or visit www.astorialic.org. Visit the Society’s online gift shop, too.