Woodhaven: History, greenery and an active community in the heart of Queens

Easily accessible by the J train, the working/ middle-class neighborhood of Woodhaven offers Victorian homes, quaint row houses, tree-lined streets and a well-loved gem — Forest Park, the sprawling 500-acre-plus green space extending from Woodhaven to neighboring Glendale.

It’s both a quiet and busy neighborhood with sleepy blocks, bustling pieces of Jamaica Avenue and Woodhaven Boulevard and a number of establishments hailing from eras past that preserve its history.

“Woodhaven is sometimes referred to as a haven in the city, which I think is a fitting nickname because I’ve never felt too far from nature, and I don’t feel the bustle people usually associate with New York,” said Alex Blenkinsopp, a lifelong resident, Community Board 9 member and director of communications for the Woodhaven Residents Block Association (WRBA).

The neighborhood’s transportation options make it easy to get to downtown Manhattan, Brooklyn or other parts of Queens.

And many residents take advantage of Forest Park, which offers running tracks, playgrounds, a carousel that was recently given landmark status by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, a dog run, a golf course and tennis courts.

“It’s a fantastic backyard to have,” said WRBA president Ed Wendell.

According to local experts, Woodhaven was settled in the mid-18th century and was originally named Woodville, but after the neighborhood petitioned for its own post office shortly after its founding, the name was changed to avoid confusion with another Woodville in upstate New York.

According to Blenkinsopp, in the past five years Woodhaven has experienced an increase in civic involvement, something he said adds to its already close-knit feel.

That neighborly ambience is what keeps him and Wendell from moving out, they said.

“A few years ago, we didn’t know anybody; I wasn’t involved,” said Wendell, who is also a lifelong resident. But after starting the Project Woodhaven blog with a friend in 2008, he became more civic-minded. Soon after, in 2009, he was voted president of the block association.

“In a way, we’re born-again Woodhavenites,” he said of himself and his wife, Josephine.

Blenkinsopp and Wendell added that the community engagement is not only fulfilling, but much needed in the neighborhood.

“You don’t have to feel anonymous if you don’t want to,” Blenkinsopp said. “If you do want to feel like you’re part of a community, Woodhaven can offer that to you.”

But the area is not without its problems. Noise, graffiti and illegal building conversions make for frequent complaints. Some recent crimes, including one in which 17-year-old Natasha Martinez was stabbed multiple times on her way home from work on July 29 — she survived the attack — have threatened that safe feeling.

But according to Wendell and Blenkinsopp, those kinds of crimes are infrequent.

“It’s not perfect,” Blenkinsopp said, but “there’s always going to be problems with any urban neighborhood.”

He stressed that’s why he hopes more residents will get involved.

“I myself have been frustrated with some aspects, but I’m much more motivated now to do something to make Woodhaven better,” Blenkinsopp said. “There’s always been crime and noise. It’s not to say we shouldn’t try to fix it. But that’s what happens when you live in a city; you constantly have to work against problems to ensure they don’t get worse.

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Woodhaven is surrounded by the neighborhoods of Cypress Hills, Glendale, Richmond Hill and Ozone Park.

It runs from Eldert Lane and Dexter Court in the west to 100th Street and the abandoned LIRR tracks in the east. To the south, it stretches from Atlantic Avenue up to Park Lane South and through Forest Park, where it ends in the north at Myrtle Avenue.

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A variety of restaurants that line Jamaica Avenue reflect Woodhaven’s diversity — offering American, Spanish, Caribbean, and Thai cuisine, among others.

In 2012, the Forest Park Carousel, affectionately known as “the jewel of Forest Park,” managed to scoop up a vendor, NY Carousel, enabling it to operate once again after its shuttering in 2008. Last May, the hand-carved carousel reopened. This June, it attained landmark status from the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission — something that community leaders pushed to get for decades.

The Woodhaven Library, which has been undergoing major renovations since March, reopened to the community in August. According to the Queens Library, the branch now has a handicapped-accessible bathroom and a new circulation desk with self-check-in and -checkout kiosks, among other updates.

The neighborhood is also seeing some new safety measures. Alex Blenkinsopp, director of communications of the Woodhaven Residents Block Association, noted that a new NYPD security camera will be installed on Jamaica Avenue and 75th Street by year’s end. However, he said the precise location is not necessarily final.

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