From NY1:Ivan Mrakovicic, the founder of the Richmond Hill Historical Society, says the neighborhood's architecture is quite special.
"Richmond Hill has a dynamic and rich architectural style -- predominately Victorian," said Mrakovicic. "Within the Victorian you have some free classic and have some very rigid symmetrical styled homes. You have Tutor arts and crafts style homes and pretty much they range from 1860s to 19-teens in terms of their architectural vintage."
Many of the homes have oversized porches, unique built-ins, inlaid floors and multicolored shingles -- details many residents work hard to preserve.
In the late 1800's, Richmond Hill served as home to many Manhattan business owners who were looking for space and some peace and quiet. Many of the original homes are still standing. And even though some may need a little TLC, buyers really can get a lot for their money.
And from the Queens Chronicle:
[Lisi] De Bourbon said many Richmond Hill proposals have crossed desks at the LPC, but the agency has found the community lacking a special sense of place because a number of its houses have been altered and enlarged, with many of their historic, original details such as siding, porches and dormers removed. The presence of larger apartment buildings in the area also compromise Richmond Hill’s ability to meet the definition of a historic district, as stated in a letter written by Robert Tierney, chairman of the LPC, to the late Nancy Cataldi, former president of the RHHS.
Perhaps surprisingly, Ditmas Park, a neighborhood in Brooklyn that boasts million-dollar Queen Anne Victorian homes, was granted landmark status last year, despite an admission by Historic Districts Council Executive Director Simeon Bankoff that “many [Ditmas Park houses] have had their original siding replaced by synthetic shingles or aluminum, porches have been enclosed and details removed.”
9 comments:
Ditmas Park...iz dat where da Rev. Al Sharpie keeps his mistress?
H-m-m-m!
Lisi must have been hitting the Bourbon hard again if she can't see straight enough to know that Richmond Hill certainly deserves to be designated an historic district!
But, after all, she was just following bumbling Bob Tierney's orders who in turn is on Bloomberg's leash!
"Thanks" for red-lining this neighborhood too, along with Flushing, Maspeth, etc. your "honor"!
Hope to see your ass whooped at the polls so NYC can finally be rid of its pint sized wannabee Napoleon!
That is why the mishandling of the St Saviours was an astounding missed opportunity to have taht perfidious law struck from the books.
Now we get a Disnified joke in a location totally out of character with its orginal setting, wasting millions of taxpayers dollars.
If the church was torn down, the last fig leaf of credibility in the law would have been shattered.
They knew it. That is why they went apeshit to 'save' it.
Nothing will happen until that law gets overturned, and there is an acceptance that community preservation is a right of everyone, not the rich, the white, the resident who enjoys the accident of location.
Righto.
Why do we keep revisiting this time and again?
Until you change the law, nothing will change.
Stop wasting people's time on this. Its beating a dead horse.
LPC with its sweeping judgment re: apartments is confusing Richmond Hill with Kew Gardens, whose Queen Anne architecture got sold out decades ago to towering multiplexes. Please, all, do what you can to keep lightning from striking twice and maintain RH and the Albon Mann vision...
yet i see "queens for bloomberg" signs in the windows of business's along grand ave (around 69th) in maspeth
yet i see "queens for bloomberg" signs in the windows of business's along grand ave (around 69th) in maspeth
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Sure, do they have a chance to hear anything else?
As usual, the good community folks are doing a wonderful job of public education.
The Ditmas Park Historic District was designated in 1981; most of its bungalow-style homes remain intact. Perhaps you are thinking of the much larger Fiske Terrace-Midwood Park Historic District, which borders Ditmas Park to the west. It was designated early in 2008.
You are lucky if they don't crash the building on your head--let alone landmark it. The biggest threat to Queens is deadly construction. We have to fight for our lives and homes, not just for the beauty of the past.
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