Briarwood, Queens
Encyclopedia
Briarwood is a neighborhood in the New York City
borough
of Queens
. It is located northwest of Jamaica
and roughly bounded by Queens Boulevard
, Parsons Boulevard, Union Turnpike
, and Hillside Avenue. The neighborhood is part of Queens Community Board 8
. It is serviced by the IND Queens Boulevard Line
of the New York City Subway
at the Briarwood–Van Wyck Boulevard station . It lies in the northern half of the 11435 zip code
.
Briarwood is today a very diverse community, with lead fractions of the population being African-Americans (36.6%) and European-Americans (30.2%). It has many Bukharian Jewish, Greek, Hispanic
, African American
, Albanian
, and South America
n residents. It now has a distinguishable and fast-growing Asian American
(14.4%) community as well. Economic activity is mostly confined to small restaurants, delis, markets, and other small businesses.
The neighborhood is named for the Briarwood Land Company, headed by Herbert O'Brien, which built housing there beginning in 1905. However, the company quickly went bankrupt and the area was largely empty until the 1920s. The New York Life Insurance Company
and the United Nations
constructed housing in the 1940s; United States diplomat Ralph Bunche
and feminist writer Betty Friedan
have lived there.
The neighborhood is known to be very inexpensive and provide affordable housing to middle class families.
The lack of major landmarks in the neighborhood coupled with its small size have caused Briarwood to remain relatively unknown; many life-long-residents of Queens have never heard of it and the local ZIP Code
11435 is actually designated as Jamaica
. Parkway Village, a garden apartment complex initially built for United Nations employees is also in Briarwood and, in years past, lent the area a very international flavor with families from all over the world living there and attending the local public schools.
Briarwood is home to the Catholic Archbishop Molloy High School
. Some of the school's more famous alumni are Andrew Cuomo, current New York State Governor and former New York State Attorney General, and actor David Caruso
, who is currently featured on the series CSI: Miami
. The school is named in honor of Archbishop Thomas Molloy. It has about 1,550 students.
Also located in Briarwood is Robert A. Van Wyck M.S. 217Q, a middle school of 1,300 students in grades 6-8. The school was established in 1955 and was named after the first mayor of the Greater City of New York
, Robert A. Van Wyck, a Tammany Hall
lawyer.
In the Briarwood–Van Wyck Boulevard station hang many paintings done by the students of Archbishop Molloy High School, M.S. 217Q, and P.S.117Q during the mid-1980s. They are titled, "Beautifying Briarwood".
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
borough
Borough (New York City)
New York City, one of the largest cities in the world, is composed of five boroughs. Each borough now has the same boundaries as the county it is in. County governments were dissolved when the city consolidated in 1898, along with all city, town, and village governments within each county...
of Queens
Queens
Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
. It is located northwest of Jamaica
Jamaica, Queens
Jamaica is a neighborhood in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York, United States. It was settled under Dutch rule in 1656 in New Netherland as Rustdorp. Under British rule, the Village of Jamaica became the center of the "Town of Jamaica"...
and roughly bounded by Queens Boulevard
Queens Boulevard
Queens Boulevard is a major thoroughfare in the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Queens connecting communities from Midtown Manhattan to Jamaica...
, Parsons Boulevard, Union Turnpike
Union Turnpike (New York)
Union Turnpike is a thoroughfare stretching across central and eastern Queens in New York City. It runs from Myrtle Avenue in Glendale to Marcus Avenue in North New Hyde Park, about a mile into Nassau County, New York. Initially designed as a toll road, it takes a straight-arrow path from Kew...
, and Hillside Avenue. The neighborhood is part of Queens Community Board 8
Queens Community Board 8
The Queens Community Board 8 is a local government in the New York City borough of Queens, encompassing the neighborhoods of Briarwood, Cunningham Heights, Flushing South, Fresh Meadows, Hilltop Village, Holliswood, Jamaica Estates, Kew Gardens Hills, Pomonok Houses and Utopia...
. It is serviced by the IND Queens Boulevard Line
IND Queens Boulevard Line
The Queens Boulevard Line is a fully underground line of the B Division of the New York City Subway in Manhattan and Queens, New York City, United States. The line provides crosstown service across Manhattan under 53rd Street and east through Queens to Jamaica...
of the New York City Subway
New York City Subway
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the City of New York and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, a subsidiary agency of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and also known as MTA New York City Transit...
at the Briarwood–Van Wyck Boulevard station . It lies in the northern half of the 11435 zip code
ZIP Code
ZIP codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, is properly written in capital letters and was chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use the...
.
Briarwood is today a very diverse community, with lead fractions of the population being African-Americans (36.6%) and European-Americans (30.2%). It has many Bukharian Jewish, Greek, Hispanic
Hispanic
Hispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...
, African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
, Albanian
Albanians
Albanians are a nation and ethnic group native to Albania and neighbouring countries. They speak the Albanian language. More than half of all Albanians live in Albania and Kosovo...
, and South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
n residents. It now has a distinguishable and fast-growing Asian American
Asian American
Asian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau definition of Asians as "Asian” refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan,...
(14.4%) community as well. Economic activity is mostly confined to small restaurants, delis, markets, and other small businesses.
The neighborhood is named for the Briarwood Land Company, headed by Herbert O'Brien, which built housing there beginning in 1905. However, the company quickly went bankrupt and the area was largely empty until the 1920s. The New York Life Insurance Company
New York Life Insurance Company
The New York Life Insurance Company is one of the largest mutual life-insurance companies in the United States, and one of the largest life insurers in the world, with about $287 billion in total assets under management, and more than $15 billion in surplus and AVR...
and the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
constructed housing in the 1940s; United States diplomat Ralph Bunche
Ralph Bunche
Ralph Johnson Bunche or 1904December 9, 1971) was an American political scientist and diplomat who received the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize for his late 1940s mediation in Palestine. He was the first person of color to be so honored in the history of the Prize...
and feminist writer Betty Friedan
Betty Friedan
Betty Friedan was an American writer, activist, and feminist.A leading figure in the Women's Movement in the United States, her 1963 book The Feminine Mystique is often credited with sparking the "second wave" of American feminism in the twentieth century...
have lived there.
The neighborhood is known to be very inexpensive and provide affordable housing to middle class families.
The lack of major landmarks in the neighborhood coupled with its small size have caused Briarwood to remain relatively unknown; many life-long-residents of Queens have never heard of it and the local ZIP Code
ZIP Code
ZIP codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, is properly written in capital letters and was chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use the...
11435 is actually designated as Jamaica
Jamaica, Queens
Jamaica is a neighborhood in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York, United States. It was settled under Dutch rule in 1656 in New Netherland as Rustdorp. Under British rule, the Village of Jamaica became the center of the "Town of Jamaica"...
. Parkway Village, a garden apartment complex initially built for United Nations employees is also in Briarwood and, in years past, lent the area a very international flavor with families from all over the world living there and attending the local public schools.
Archbishop Molloy High School
Archbishop Molloy High School is a co-educational, college preparatory, Catholic school for grades 9-12, located on in the Briarwood section of Queens in New York City, thirty minutes east of Manhattan. Molloy currently has an endowment of about $6,000,000 . The school's current principal is Br...
. Some of the school's more famous alumni are Andrew Cuomo, current New York State Governor and former New York State Attorney General, and actor David Caruso
David Caruso
David Stephen Caruso is an American film and television actor and producer, best known for his role of Lieutenant Horatio Caine on the TV series CSI: Miami. The role that gained him initial significant recognition was the role of Det...
, who is currently featured on the series CSI: Miami
CSI: Miami
CSI: Miami is an American police procedural television series, which premiered on September 23, 2002 on CBS. The series is a spin-off of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation....
. The school is named in honor of Archbishop Thomas Molloy. It has about 1,550 students.
Also located in Briarwood is Robert A. Van Wyck M.S. 217Q, a middle school of 1,300 students in grades 6-8. The school was established in 1955 and was named after the first mayor of the Greater City of New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Robert A. Van Wyck, a Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society...
lawyer.
In the Briarwood–Van Wyck Boulevard station hang many paintings done by the students of Archbishop Molloy High School, M.S. 217Q, and P.S.117Q during the mid-1980s. They are titled, "Beautifying Briarwood".
Noted natives
Notable residents of Briarwood have included:- Steve HofstetterSteve HofstetterSteve Hofstetter is an author, columnist and comedian, who started with material particularly pertaining to college life, and has since become a social commentator...
- radio personality and comedian. - Hanna RosinHanna Rosin-Career:Hanna Rosin is a co-founder of DoubleX, a women's site connected to the online magazine Slate. She is also a writer for The Atlantic. She has written for the Washington Post, The New Yorker, GQ and New York after beginning her career as a staff writer for The New Republic. Rosin has also...
- U.S. journalist and author of God's Harvard. - Steven WeberSteven Weber (actor)Steven Robert Weber is an American actor. He is best known for his role in the television show Wings which aired throughout the 1990s on NBC.-Early life:...
, actor who appeared on the television series Wings - John Kerwin, talk show host of The John Kerwin ShowThe John Kerwin ShowThe John Kerwin Show is an American monthly late-night talk show filmed in Santa Monica, California and is broadcast in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, carried nationally on JLTV, and featured on YouTube....