Hot Meeting at Kew Gardens
 To view a slideshow of the Kew Gardens Civic Association 2006 Annual Meeting, click here. |
A description of the Civic Association's 2006 Annual Meeting held Tuesday night, May 2nd, at the Kew Gardens Community Center could be lifted straight out of the Richmond Hill Record's January 19, 1923, story headlined Hot Meeting At Kew Gardens:
"There was an exciting time at the meeting of the Kew Gardens Civic Association Tuesday night, the meeting breaking up in disorder at midnight, but many remained to hotly debate the questions that had been discussed at the meeting."[To read the entire article, click here.] There are major differences, of course. This year's meeting was orderly, though heated, and the questions homeowners debated in 1923 were about zoning and the new Kew Gardens Road location of what is now PS 99. (It used to be on Cuthbert Road.) The debate last night, in contrast, was over a proposal currently being pursued by our community leaders that the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission consider designating a major section of the neighborhood as a Historic District ["landmarking it"] to preserve its beautiful and historic houses before they fall victim to "Home Depot doors", jarring architecture, monstrous walls surrounding what traditionally were open front lawns and flower beds, and plastic siding.
However, the basic premise remains the same: How can we best preserve our historic community's sense of place?
To illustrate Kew Gardens of 100 years ago and Kew Gardens today, the evening's key speaker, Joe De May, Jr., gave a rapt audience a tour that stretched from the early days when the Long Island Rail Road built a rail line and station spurring early development and growth, to the present. Mr. De May's website, www.oldkewgardens.com, is one of the Internet's treasures, providing an astounding and wondrously illustrated compilation of the neighborhood's history, news and reminiscences.
The dirt roads lined with trees that once crisscrossed the community are, of course, all gone, but as Mr. De May illustrated with his slide show, a huge collection of the early houses that sprang up --- all built within strict esthetic guidelines dictated by the developer, the Kew Gardens Corporation --- still remains. Unfortunately, and Mr. De May showed a number of examples, many of those houses have been altered in ways that will inexorably change the ambience of the neighborhood if the trend is allowed to continue.
Ivan Mrakovic, Chair of Community Board 9 and an architect who has worked on historic renovations in Kew Gardens and Richmond Hill, pointed out that there are many ways to renovate a house that needs repair and/or preservation in a sensitive manner with materials that reflect what the original architect intended and that may be no more costly than the faux replacements that too many people now favor. A list of vendors stocking such items as classic columns and pediments is readily available. And past damage may be reversible. One of his clients was able to take his house that had been covered with vinyl siding and strip it back to original details that had been covered up, but not dismantled, by thoughtless renovation.
Several members of Tuesday's audience, ignoring the appeal to preserving history that they had just heard, vigorously expressed their opposition to landmarking because, they said, it will stop them from expanding their houses to accommodate growing families, will place an undue financial burden and will cause delays on making exterior repairs. They also feared that landmarking will devalue the area by making houses more difficult to sell.
Landmarking advocates said the opposite is true. They stressed that expansion is limited only by zoning, not by landmarking, and that although the Landmarks Preservation Commission monitors changes to the exterior of a house, it works only to preserve the quality of the community. They felt that it was the only route left to preserve the aspects of Kew Gardens that attracted most homeowners there in the first place.
They pointed to the landmarked sections of Douglaston, Sunnyside and Jackson Heights, whose residents fought long and hard to achieve landmark status, as examples of oases against blight that landmarking has created. They wish no less for Kew Gardens.
When both sides had presented all their positions, the meeting was adjourned. It was almost 11:00 pm! [Back to top of Page]