At Metropolitan Avenue

Down that quiet, tree lined, sepia toned street, the world is more than 80 years younger.  The setting is Lefferts Boulevard at Metropolitan Avenue, and the circa 1920 photograph bears not a hint of the crowded, noisy intersection that was to come. That was Kew Gardens as its founders, the Man Family, envisioned it - bucolic, peaceful, with green grass and fresh air - a refuge from the congested, dirt filled, city of endless stone and concrete. The Mans modeled both Kew Gardens and Richmond Hill after Garden City, L.I., founded in 1869 by A. T. Stewart. Garden City was the first planned garden community to be built around the convenience of a railroad.  Kew Gardens followed suit some 40 years later.

Reference: Barry Lewis, Kew Gardens: Urban Village in the Big City, pp. 9 - 10 ( Kew Gardens Council for Recreation and the Arts 1999).

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