Woodside-Sunnyside

Local historian Jason D. Antos has gathered rare and historic photographs to showcase the early years of this bustling Queens neighborhood.

From 1851 until 1857, John A.F. Kelly wrote a weekly column for the Daily Independent Press entitled Letters from Woodside. These dispatches sent from Kelly's rural homestead in western Queens County described his area as "a sleepy little village with a picturesque locality . . . a mere cluster of houses built of stone or logs." In 1867, developer Benjamin W. Hitchcock, who would later develop nearby Corona and Ozone Park, first came to the area, where he purchased the Kelly estate and created a neighborhood featuring America's first-ever installment plan program for new home buyers. This forever changed the look of Woodside. Hundreds of working-class families quickly came from across the city to buy their first home in the newly laid out suburb whose swamps and woods had been replaced by modern homes, businesses, city sewers, and paved streets. Sunnyside also takes its cue from neighboring Woodside, providing affordable housing to the masses with the building of Sunnyside Gardens, one of the earliest garden apartment neighborhoods in America and now a New York City landmark. It is also home to the Sunnyside Yards, one the nation's largest rail yards. This book celebrates the legacy and impact that Woodside and Sunnyside have left on New York City for almost 200 years with many rare, never before published photographs.