Saturday, November 7, 2015

Cornell Farm may be in trouble

Forgotten-NY
From the Queens Chronicle:

Cornell Farm, a space hidden from view behind approximately 150-year-old trees, on the Nassau-Queens border in Little Neck, has been sold to a church, and historical preservationists are lamenting the sale.

The approximately 1 1/2 acre farm, which is located at 54-47 Little Neck Pkwy., was bought by The Harvest Church of New York, and the sale was filed in January 2014, according to records from the Department of Finance’s website.

The church was also approved as of May 5, 2015 for a permit to construct a new house of worship, according to a Department of Buildings spokesperson.

Jim Trent, who founded the Queens County Farm Museum in Floral Park, said he worked to obtain capital money for the space to be used by the farm museum to purchase the property, raising $1 million from Borough Hall, but fell short of the asking price.

The previous owners, the Patriy family, who purchased the plot from William Cornell’s daughter, had been asking $5.8 million, but the property sold for about $2 million to The Harvest Church.

The area is about 55 percent in Queens and 45 percent in Nassau, Trent said.

On the property are a number of buildings, the oldest being a farmhouse built in 1826. There’s also an 1880 barn nearby, a newer house with an adjacent carriage house — and there used to be a 1905 greenhouse.

Although there are no demolition permits on the property’s history, according to the DOB spokesperson, the curved-glass greenhouse no longer stands.

A spokesperson for The Harvest Church said the greenhouse had been taken down before the church bought the land.

Questions remain as to whether other buildings on the site will be taken down to accommodate the new worship hall.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why is there any question. Once again, where is our borough historian, our self styled 'umbrella historical society' or that group that Mitchel Grubler runs.

Like a broken record we see the same story over and over.

Where are the electeds? letters thrown in their face? community board inaction publicly scorned at every meeting.

All we do is complain, then go home quietly to wipe off the shit they rub into our faces.

Anonymous said...

Another one bites the dust.

No great mystery. Everything gets knocked down and/or gutted and a huge stainless steel monstrosity gets built.

Why do we find out after the sales that these properties are at risk? Why isn't there a list of properties of significance at risk that we can get behind?

(sarc) said...

Lets see, $1 million or $2 million?

The art of the deal - Donald Trump

Why the hell would you show your cards, just to have a bunch of people living in the past, playing on some blogs, cost you an easy million dollars???

Anonymously Grey Gardens said...

Another site that could have been properly preserved and conserved, that will fade away into oblivion---like 'Triumph Of Civic Virtue itself' (which, from the very beginning of its creation has completely symbolized all virtue over corruption and vice)!

Alas, I tried to warn the citizens of Queens County about how Neo-Fascism quietly and efficiently works its way into the daily fabric of life and purportedly 'free' living, that slowly and progressively chips away at all Constitutionally guaranteed freedoms, liberties, rights---and democracy itself---and, this is how it works to betray it, with impunity!

And, given the current climate of corruption, deniability, brainless stonewalling and an intensely incompetent administration that currently occupies Queens Borough Hall (as if it wasn't already entrenched enough by the previously corrupt administration of Helen Marshall), then brace yourself for more of the same borough hall monarchy rule, where the new breed's mantra continues to reinforce: 'Delay, Deny And Hope That You Die'---where good people ARE actually dying in their dishonest, dishonorable and disloyal wake!

spy vs SPY said...

Another one bites the dust.

NO NOT REALLY. ONLY IN QUEENS

No great mystery. Everything gets knocked down and/or gutted and a huge stainless steel monstrosity gets built.

AGAIN, IF QUEENS WAS PLUGGED IN TO THE REST OF THE CITY YOU WOULD SEE THERE IS AN ANGRY MOVEMENT AFOOT TO STOP THIS. OUR POLITICIANS MAKE IT TOXIC FOR EVERYONE ELSE BECAUSE WE ARE NOT ON THE BALL BUT NO ONE BOTHERS TO GET US UP TO SPEED FOR THE OBVIOUS REASONS: EVER TRY TO GET ANYTHING GRASS ROOTS DONE IN THIS BORO?

Why do we find out after the sales that these properties are at risk? Why isn't there a list of properties of significance at risk that we can get behind?

THERE CERTAINLY ARE - THE BORO HISTORIAN KNOWS ABOUT THIS, MITCHEL GRUBLER ADVISTORY COMMITTEE KNOWS ABOUT THIS. THE LANDMARKS COMMISSION EVEN DID A SURVEY OF EACH AREA OUTLINING SENSITIVE HISTORIC LOCATIONS BUT REFUSE TO GIVE IT TO COMMUNITY GROUPS: ONLY FOR THE EYES OF YOUR ELECTEDS, BOROUGH HALL, AND OF COURSE, THE DEVELOPERS.

(sarc) said...

Richard Iritano

So let me try to understand this;

We are living in a Neo-Fascist borough run by a communist mayor in a representative republic that is called a democracy, run by a socialist.

What happened to liberty, freedom, libertarianism, capitalism, and the American way of life?

Can't we all just get along???

Anonymous said...

The Harvest Church of New York

Take a look: https://www.crowdrise.com/HCNY

This could be the new owner.



Anonymously Grey Gardens said...

To (sarc), who poses the question: "What happened to liberty, freedom, libertarian, capitalism and the American way of life?"

Those Constitutionally guaranteed freedoms speak of an actual democracy from another place, another time, more than 50 years ago.

And, once a cabal of corrupt, dishonest politicians began to seize all power and control (that metastasized with a vulgarian crumb like Donald Manes, where all political appointments now demand a dictatorship of totalitarian, monarchy rule), then there is no pretense of the freedoms and democracy of which you speak, because it's been involuntarily replaced with an arrogant power grab that betrays all public trust and integrity with impunity.

For further proof, just look around at our false, fake and failed leadership, all of whom are now full blown politicians (and not public servants, who USED TO lead by example and lawful conduct).

And, when you finally locate one, please ask him or her about how "how all of us can get along" (they didn't get the memo), and then share with the rest of us. Because, they are rarer than a herd of gazelles grazing in my NYC backyard!

And, that's why Neo-Fascism and Neo-Bolshevism are back with a vengeance---and the public be eternally damned!

Anonymous said...

Richard, I don't think you recognize sarcasm when you see it.

Anonymous said...

The LOC does not give a damn about it so it will be razed.
Welcome to Queens where nobody cares, especially the politicians who take money from developers.
As for the other half in Nassau County...well they wrote the book on corruption.