page_title: Woodside, Queens
section_title: Other factors
hierarchical_section_title: Woodside, Queens / History / Early years / Other factors
caption_attribution_description: English: 1909 Atlas sheet showing Queens Ward 2 (encompassing the village of Woodside). This property map, used for fire insurance purposes, shows houses and other buildings, streets, rail and trolley lines, and elevation and hydrants.
context_page_description: Woodside is a residential and commercial neighborhood in the western portion of the borough of Queens in New York City. It is bordered on the south by Maspeth, on the north by Astoria, on the west by Sunnyside, and on the east by Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, and East Elmhurst. Some areas are widely residential and very quiet, while other parts, especially the ones around Roosevelt Avenue, are busier.
  In the 19th century the area was part of the Town of Newtown. The adjacent area of Winfield was largely incorporated into the post office serving Woodside and as a consequence Winfield lost much of its identity distinct from Woodside. However, with large-scale residential development in the 1860s, Woodside became the largest Irish American community in Queens, being approximately 80% Irish by the 1930s and maintaining a strong Irish culture today. In the early 1990s, many Asian American families moved into the area, with the population being 30% Asian American. South Asians and Latinos have also moved to Woodside in recent years.
  Reflecting its longtime diverse foods and drink, the neighborhood is filled with many cultural restaurants and pubs.
context_section_description: Chief among these circumstances were continued improvements to the public transportation network. This network continued to expand and Woodside evolved as a hub for railroad (the Long Island Rail Road's Main Line electrified in 1908), elevated rapid transit (the joint IRT/BRT Corona and Woodside Line, 1917), and electrified trolleys (Newtown Railway Company, 1895, and New York and Queens County Line, 1896). With the incorporation of Queens into New York City in 1898 and subsequent passage of legislation mandating a five-cent citywide transit fare in 1904, Woodside residents had both abundant and inexpensive options for rapid public transportation. In fact the real cost of the five-cent fare declined dramatically during the inflation years of World War I and the 1920s, and it remained in place, despite further inflation, until 1948. The construction of bridge and tunnel connections to Manhattan—the Queensboro Bridge in 1909 and the Steinway Tunnel in 1915—enabled the working members of a tenement-dwelling immigrant family to rent a garden apartment in Woodside while having jobs in the central city. The commute was cheap and short, and during rush hours, the five-cent trip took as little as eight minutes to Times Square. Although other areas of Queens benefited from the expansion of cheap transit, Woodside was, back then, the only village in Queens with both railroad and rapid transit stations in addition to trolley lines.
  A second circumstance aiding the influx of upwardly-mobile low-income residents was a dramatic increase in local employment prospects. Although cheap, fast, and convenient transit made it possible for workers from Queens to have other-borough jobs, intra-borough employment opportunities were increasingly a realistic option. The waterside regions of Queens had long had substantial industries and businesses that benefited from access to water-borne transport. These commercial establishments multiplied as rail transportation became increasingly available and, in a virtuous growth cycle, as more prospective employees moved into the borough. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Woodside residents could find employment to the east in Brooklyn, to the north in College Point, and, especially, to the west. Hunters Point, Sunnyside, and other west-Queens communities possessed foundries, rail yards, chemical works, and numerous factories, including the famous Steinway Piano factory. When, in 1870, these communities formed themselves into Long Island City opportunities for employment grew rapidly, so much so that by the turn of the 20th century, the city could boast that it had the highest concentration of industry in all the United States. There were jobs within Woodside as well. The village had long had the city's largest cemetery, Calvary, as a stimulus to local business. It also possessed a brewery, a major florist, and many local retail establishments. In 1875, the Bulova Watch Company established its headquarters there.
  Along with good transportation and access to jobs, Woodside possessed many local amenities. It was an attractive place with plentiful open spaces, lots of trees and wooded areas, healthful air, and an overall pleasant ambiance; one news article in 1926 described this as "sylvan beauty", As it had in the other villages, the creation of the Borough of Queens in 1898 brought improvements in local government and increased spending on police, roads, schools, and public spaces, to Woodside. However, Woodside had provided fire protection, sewers, and street lights earlier on, and its transit facilities gave way to a wide variety of retail options. One newspaper article published in 1926 singled out its school, P.S.11, as "one of the leading public schools in Queens."
  As in nearby communities of the time, religious observance played an important role in the lives of Woodside residents, and its churches both reflected this importance and signaled welcome to prospective newcomers. Its first church, St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal, showed the dominant faith of the area's oldest and most prominent re
caption: This sheet from a 1909 atlas of Queens was used for fire insurance purposes.[65] More details This map shows streets, lots, and structures within Ward 2, encompassing the village of Woodside. As the key (shown here) indicates, it also gives elevation above high water, location of hydrants, rail and trolley lines, width of streets, and other data.
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