New-York tribune., 1922-11-05
Home Builders
w I'LL Soon Take
Over l.. L. CITY
Strategical Relation to Man-
hattan's Business Dis.
sricis and Low Land
Values Force Building
BY Walter |. Willis
Secretary Chamber OF Commerce Of
the Borough Of Queens

If the Long Island City section of
queens coald be rotated on an axis
through Herald Square its area would
exactly correspond with that wonderful
residential section Of Manhattan be-
tween Fifty-ninth and i45th streets, in
which nearly 100000 people reside to-
day. The population of long Island
City. however, is only 100, 900.
Because al of the Long Island City
section is within fve-miie radius of
the center OF Manhattan il logically
follows that the multiple family type
Of building is the ono best suited for
this area. The Borough of the Bronx
all of which is further distant from the
center 6f Manhattan than Long Island
City. has been built up within the last
twenty years with apartments and
other multiple-family dwellings.
While Queens Borough has many at
tractive residential communities in
which the single family detached dwell
ing prevails. it is generally agreed that
the most economic type of home build
ing fer the Long Island City section is
either the apartment house or the null
tiple- family dwelling.
Long Island City is the name which
was given to that municipality created
in 1870 by an act Of the New York
Legislature authorizing the consolida-
tion of such former villages. which
were then part of the town Of New
town in the County Of Queens, as As
toria, Blissville, Bowery Bay, Dutch
Kills, Steinway and Ravenswood. Long
Island City continued as q separate
municipality--in fact, the only city in
Queens County-for twenty-eight years,
or until 1893, when it became part of
greater New York. Since that time it
has become, politically, the lst Ward
of the borough of Queens Of the City
of New York. Long Island City is di-
rectly east of that section of Manhat
tan extending from Thirty fourth
Street northward to t16th Street.
"Old Long Island City-the com
munity which existed before the
>Queensboro Bridge was opened in 1909
before the greensboro Chamber OF
commerce, which was organized in
1911, or before the greensboro subway
entirely dependent upon ferry service
for tr nsIor tion to Manhattan. 1t was
"a section of New York City almost un-
known to the great mass OF people who
lived in other boroughs. It's name was
associated with old types. of factories
with trolley car transportation, with
the terminal Of the Long Island Rail-
road before its electrihcation and tun-
nels to Manhattan. with beautiful old
homes along the Fast River shore and
with large undeveloped areas.
"New" Long Island City has beau
tiful industrial bui dines, new rapid
transit lines, tunnels and bridges join
ing it with Manhattan, wide, clean
streets. perks, office buildings, banks.
Borough Hall, County Courthouse and
modern apartments.
careful study OF the fundamental
economic advantages which the Long
Island City section possesses will con-
vince any one that it is the logical area
for the next great apartment home
building development in New York City,
such as that which took place in the
Washington Heights section Of Manhat-
tan and along the subway routes in the
Bronx, following the extension of rapid
transit to these sections.
Proximity to Center of Manhattan
The Long Island City section is only
four to eight miles in straight line
from the Battery and the skyscrapcrs
in lower Manhattan. Within FIVE
mile circle from Grand Central Sta
tion there are more square miles of
Queens Borough than any other bor-
ough except Manhattan. Most of this
area in Queens is in the Long Island
City section. Within that five-mile
circle there is fourteen square miles of
Queens as compared with one square
mile Of the Bronx, seventeen square
miles of Manhattan and ten square
miles in Brooklyn.
The business center Of Manhattan
has gradually moved northward until
to-day II is directly opposite Long
Island City 4 generation ago the
shopping center was located between
Fourteenth Street and Twenty-third
Street. Then it moved TO Thirty
fourth Street. and from there to Forty
second Street. Huge Office buildings
\ have been erected in the Fifty-seventh
&Street zone. Its growth further north
y