Here is Part 2 of this wonderful look back at Old Woodhaven Village . . .

How it all began

According to the society, a 41-year-old New York drygoods merchant named John R. Pitkin took the first step to making Old Woodhaven a village in 1835 when he began purchasing "East New York" real estate and laid out a town plot that he called "Woodville."

A formal survey and map of Woodville made by Martin C. Johnson was filed in the Queens County clerk's office on April 15, 1852.  At that time, the existing street patterns were well established.

The following April, John Sharpe of Brooklyn bought 10 lots at the northeast corner of today's Atlantic Ave. and 92nd St. from Richard C. McCormick.  The latter built a chisel factory in a stone building.  Another man named Phineas Walker built a house east of Woodhaven Blvd.

Pitkin himself is said to have built two houses, and by 1859 the village had 20 buildings, including the chisel factory, a boot and shoe factory, land office, general store, bindery, church and a school.

When Woodville sought to establish a post office in 1853, it was revealed that an upstate town was already called by that name, so the inhabitants agrees to call their village "Woodhaven."

The chisel factory seemed to be Woodhaven's principal industry in 1853, but it failed to succeed and the property changed hands a few times before Grosjean acquired it.

Now part of Ozone Park

The Queens Historical Society, in its work, points out that the name "Woodhaven" has come to suggest the residential area north of Atlantic Ave., while actually the original Woodhaven Village is now included in the area called Ozone park.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the society said, the land that now is Woodhaven and vicinity was bisected by roads following the course of today's Jamaica Ave., Woodhaven Blvd., Rockaway Blvd., and Liberty Ave., east of Woodhaven Blvd.

Old Queens families with such names as Lott, Lefferts, Van Wyck and Ditmas owned tracts of farmland ranging from 20 to several hundred acres.

"With effort and research," the society contends, "this old village district could easily recapture its distinctive former identity, realizing its potential as an historic region of the borough, and thus increasing its style and attractiveness."

In 1872, Old Woodhaven Village was concentrated between today's 95th and 97th Aves., Woodhaven Blvd. and 85th St., and within the compact centers scores of beautiful 19th-century Victorian buildings still remain.

We hope you enjoyed reading this as much as we did.  And we had a ball cruising through the streets where "Old Woodhaven Village" used to sit -- looking for the 2009 counterparts to the 1979 pictures.  Most were easy to find -- the only troubling one was the first one on this page, showing the stores on 95th Avenue.  It appears that those stores have since been converted into ground floor apartments.

Click here to view the original Daily News article. 

If you have any comments, or would like to suggest other projects, drop us a line at info@projectwoodhaven.com or projectwoodhaven@aol.com.  

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