History

1850-1900

Throughout its history Great Neck’s location was considered attractive because of its proximity to New York City. Various transportation projects bridged the gap, beginning in 1866 when the Flushing Northside Railroad was extended from Flushing to Great Neck. In the 1870s and 1880s Queens Boulevard (Jericho Turnpike) and Northern Boulevard were widened and paved and extended from Queens County to Nassau County. These improvements spurred investors and speculators to buy land in the rural hamlet. While some built grand estates, others waited in the wings.

 

Circa 1870 Alex Robertson commissioned “The Robertson Block” at 29-35 North Station Plaza, while his brother, John, most likely commissioned 25-27 North Station Plaza (now demolished). Both brothers were also merchants, and together, their two-story buildings formed a commercial row that dominated the blockfront facing the train station across the street. Designed in a late Italianate style, both buildings originally contained a series of stores in their ground floors and apartment units in their upper floors. Over time, other tenants would include a luncheonette, a Christian Science reading room, offices and an adjacent theater on the north side of nos. 25-27. During the 1930s, Brooks’ Club Tavern opened and shortly thereafter became a fixture of the Village dining scene.

 

William Russell Grace, industrialist and former Mayor of New York City, began acquiring and developing real estate in Great Neck Plaza by the late 1800s. Grace’s projects, augmented by those of his investor friends, made him one of the most influential figures in forging the Village’s identity. His vision for Great Neck Plaza entailed a community of businessmen and celebrities from New York City, supported by working-class shopkeepers and service workers. Eventually, trains hailing from New York City brought weekend visitors, eager to enjoy the fresh air and to ogle the celebrities who had settled in Great Neck.

 

During the late 1800s many African Americans and European immigrants moved to Great Neck to work as estate gardeners, landscapers, masons and domestics, settling on Steamboat Road and the Long Island Railroad (LIRR) station area. Clarence Gregory of the Gregory Coal & Lumber Company built several houses on Walnut and Pearce Place for his workers among rows of single- and two-family homes, built side by side to accommodate many families and residents. Today, some of the descendants of these families reside in their ancestral homes. In addition, Grace became a landlord to many of the mechanics and engineers who worked on the railroad, renting houses to them on nearby Park Place for $10-$12 per month. These simple one- and two-story houses lined the downtown streets, providing inexpensive shelter to those in need. Although the Park Place houses are gone, the easter half of the Robertson Block survives.

1900-1910

By the early 1900s railroads from coast to coast had been completed, the California Gold Rush and mining boom was underway and new millionaires were looking for opportunities to invest their wealth. William K. Vanderbilt Jr. constructed Motor Parkway, a toll road from Queens to his Ronkonkoma estate, giving nascent motorists a leisure activity and aspiring racers the opportunity to compete with one another. At the same time, these millionaires built grand estates and homes on the North Shore including Great Neck. Their comings and goings would later form the substance of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.

 

Farmers like Eddie Allen and immigrants found work driving hacks from the train station to people’s homes and also as estate workers. Workers’ houses along Chelsea Place, Ash Place and Canterbury Road were built in vernacular styles similar to those near the station. These simple frame structures housed single families and couples, including immigrants from Eastern Europe, though none of the original houses remain. As the years passed, the Robertson building became a popular gathering spot for local residents as well as the theatre crowd. The completion of the LIRR tunnel to Manhattan meant that more visitors could vacation on weekends or during the summer in the seaside town. Yachts typically anchored at Steppingstone Park near the Merchant Marine Academy and then took jaunts into town for dinner and a show. All of these activities led to greater interest in the Village.

 

1910-1920

By 1910, with the completion of the LIRR extension, the Village was poised for expansion. Great Neck Estates and Saddle Rock were completed, and in 1911 both villages were incorporated. In 1913, William R. Grace completed 11 Middle Neck Road, also known as the Grace Building, whose three-and-a-half floors housed stores and offices in close proximity to the local train station. Designed by architect James O’Connor, the massive development reflects an Eclectic style that marries Shingle-style architecture and massing with “New England-style materials” consisting of brick and slate. Over the years, the “Grace Block”, as it came to be called, would undergo various transformations, including the conversion of its upstairs offices into apartment units. The Grace Building, symbolic of Grace’s dominance in Great Neck Plaza, is also evocative of English-based plans that featured large-scale commercial buildings containing multiple tenants as community anchors in commuter suburbs. Elsewhere, the English influence would come to inform much of the Village’s development, as manifested in Tudor Revival-style residential buildings, anglicized building and street names, and a proliferation of public and private gardens surrounding its buildings.

 

Architect James O’Conner was also responsible for another Eclectic building at 8 Bond Street, constructed in 1926. This handsome mixed-use building incorporates a variety of stylistic elements, including Colonial Revival (brick cladding, first-floor cornice with dentils, six-over-six windows, cross-gable roof), Romanesque (Roman-arched entrances), Arts and Crafts (display windows with ribbon transoms) and Beaux Arts (attic-story bull’s-eye windows with molded lintels). Eight Bond Street was designated as a local landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

 

By 1914 the peninsula’s population was approximately 5,000. In 1914, the telephone company established a Great Neck office. With these new symbols of economic power came new structures. In 1916, the Great Neck Trust Company, now Citibank, built its headquarters at the southeast corner of Middle Neck Road and Grace Avenue. The Neo-classical facades incorporate limestone cladding incorporating towering pilasters with Corinthian capitals, double-height, multi-light windows, a wraparound frieze accentuated with medallions under a wraparound entablature, and an expansive lobby inside. Both its size and visibility signaled that the bank was to be a major financial resource for the community.

 

Shortly thereafter, the Nassau Building was erected at 45 Middle Neck Road to the south of the Great Neck Trust Company. Similar in design to its banking counterpart, the Nassau Building includes Classically-inspired features and a limestone façade. It included street-level shops and offices upstairs, attracting a workforce to the burgeoning downtown.

 

Between 1916 and 1919 the economic growth of the Village was curtailed by America’s entry into World War I. On July 5, 1919, Harry Krah, owner of the Krah Hotel, sold a portion of his property for use as a restaurant. The Wychwood Garden Tea Room, the site of small parties and gatherings, was popular among elite residents. In a few years the site would be transformed as the Village itself was transformed.

1920-1930
By the 1920s Great Neck was a destination for the wealthy, the theatrical crowd and sailors. Kings Point and Kensington were incorporated in 1920-22. The Kensington School enrolled children of different ethnic backgrounds, reflecting Great Neck’s new cultural diversity. At the same time, residents built two new churches. The construction of St. Paul’s Church began in 1921 and was completed in 1924. The Community Church, across the street from the Kensington School was also built in the early 1920s. In 1925 a new train station was built that remains the center of Village life.

The Colony House Hotel, formerly on Grace Avenue and Bond Street, boasted six stories, a full-service restaurant and accommodations for several hundred people. It was popular among actors and theatregoers, along with local wheeler-dealers and speculators.

With the growth of downtown, many developers started building elaborate apartment buildings designed for upper-class city dwellers. The residents included former estate owners, doctors and other professionals, along with wealthy businessmen. The first of these apartments was Kenwood Gardens at 160 Middle Neck Road, soon joined by the Wychwood at 8 Barstow Road. The Wychwood was developed by businessman Walter W. Davis who envisioned a grand residence reminiscent of French and English Renaissance architecture. Designed by Schwartz and Gross of Manhattan, it would rise to an impressive eight stories, including luxury penthouse apartments with formal fireplaces and mantel pieces, hardwood floors, enclosed sun porches and landscaped gardens designed by Mann & MacNeille.

Shortly after the Wychwood was completed, construction was finished on Westminster Hall at 4 Maple Avenue. The building was designed in the Tudor Revival style, which characterized the building’s exterior and interiors. The six-story building included red brick accentuated by clinker (burnt) bricks in the first two stories and half-timbering and a combination of brick and stucco walls in the upper stories. According to New York Times advertisements, the Westminster included “automatic elevators with attendants, a completely equipped gymnasium with showers, a fine roof garden, General Electric refrigerators, maid service, servant’s quarters, and sound-proof walls”. Benefits touted included convenience to shopping and recreation and “polite and efficient service.” During WWII the Westminster served a dual purpose as a mini-hospital for war-related emergencies.

In 1929, the New York Telephone Company broke ground for its new offices at 9 Barstow Road. The building reflected the latest architectural styles with an ornamental brick façade and reinforced concrete. It was completed in ten months, and opened in March 1930. Other luxury buildings included 1 Hillside Avenue, which had expansive lobbies, paneled walls and decorative interior woodwork. It also boasted Tudor Revival-style details and woodwork, including a courtyard and patio accessible only to residents.

 

In addition to a hectic building pace, there were also major cultural changes in the Village. Immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe including Jews, Italians, Poles and Lithuanians worked in small businesses. Local religious institutions welcomed them and provided them with meeting spaces for worship, employment services, housing and social activities. New businesses included a kosher butcher shop, several kosher delicatessens and Jewish tailor shops. The production of Purim and Hanukah plays became part of community life. Pastimes included annual summer visits by Clyde Beatty’s circus, movies at the Playhouse theatre where 15¢ bought a Saturday double feature, or ice cream at Kriegal’s Ice Cream Parlor.

 

With the arrival of the automobile, new car dealerships were established. Belgrave Motors, today’s Tower Ford, built an impressive showroom with European styling and architectural details. A Cadillac showroom was located on Middle Neck Road across from the Squire Theatre. With the new autos, the Village also began its attempts to coordinate traffic and parking, initiating a challenge that continues today.

1930 – 1940
With the stock market crash of October 1929, many proposed developments were either postponed or abandoned altogether. Some families had to sell their homes, moving into nearby apartment buildings. The playhouses stopped production and many theatre professionals no longer came to the village. However, other plans continued.

 

In April 1930 the Village of Great Neck Plaza was incorporated, with George Hollis Kennehan as its first mayor. In 1931, the Villages of Russell Gardens and Thomaston were also incorporated. At the same time, the downturn incurred by the Great Depression resulted in the opening of local offices housing Works Progress Administration and “Home Relief” agencies, which provided federally sponsored job and housing assistance to those in need. The Zenith Motors gas station installed a slot machine in order to make ends meet. Families of means donated clothes and food to local churches. Construction all but stopped until the mid-1930s.

 

In January 1935 the LIRR lowered its tracks, a change that prevented auto and pedestrian accidents at the train crossing. To stimulate the nation’s economy, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) provided low-cost loans for apartments and houses. In January 1936, the Callan Brothers announced their plans to build “Wyngate” a residential development with housing prices ranging between $12,000 and $18,000. The houses set a new standard in the Village. Advertisements proclaimed “The atmosphere of peace and charm is maintained at Wyngate by a group of congenial fellow-owners as the surest guarantee of life-long happiness to all home owners here.” The homes featured “General Electric Oil furnaces, winter air conditioning, GE kitchen equipment, slate roofs, sewers and concrete roads and Old Shade Trees.” Advertisements stressed their convenience to New York City and two-car garages. The Callans, like other developers, did not sell to Jewish or African American families.

 

In 1938, Brookwood Hall at 90 Knightsbridge Road was also completed. The first residents were professionals and young couples whose parents were immigrants in the early 1900s. They were later joined by recent arrivals from Europe, including Holocaust survivors. Brookwood Hall and other apartment buildings were attractive for many women because they could do their grocery shopping in the Village without having to drive.

 

The Depression also brought changes in existing buildings. On March 4, 1937, the newspapers reported that the Udall building at 30-32 Middle Neck Road was to be torn down for a new one-story brick building that would house a market. The longtime Chin Chin Inn and Great Neck Flower Shop were forced to move from the one-hundred-year-old structure. In order to promote local stores, the Great Neck Record profiled local shops, including Catherine Scheiner’s Knitting Shop, Albert Antor’s new jewelry store and automobile showrooms. At the same time, it was obvious that the Depression had impacted the local economy. The Cadillac showroom in the Barron building closed its doors, while other stores, such as Kriegal’s and Uhlman’s Bakery, endured.

 

Like other Long Island communities, Great Neck received WPA funds for a new post office that was previously located in the Wychwood lobby. The new facility was one of the best examples of the Neo-Classical style, melding Classically-inspired forms with a modern treatment. Louis Simon and William Dewey Foster designed the steel-frame building that opened in 1939. The round entranceway and concrete driveway were designed for car parking, a novelty at the time. Sculptor Gaetano Cecere carved an impressive eagle in the limestone panel above the main entranceway, while decorative features inside included a terrazzo floor and walnut veneer wall panels above marble wainscoting.

 

In 1939, the Dunstone Garden Apartments opened at 19 Barstow Road, designed by Wesley S. Bessell. These were the first of many garden apartments that would come to dominate the Village. The picturesque landscaped courtyard and modest one- and two-bedroom apartments included attached garages, recessed bookcases, fireplaces, cedar closets, modern gas stoves, oil heat and bedroom telephone outlets. Its Dutch Colonial architecture offered a visual counterpoint to the English-style homes at Wyngate. Remarkably, the two developments remain essentially as they were originally built. Their modest size attracted young couples and individuals. By the close of the 1930s, Great Neck Plaza was ready to resume its residential and commercial growth. Although many projects had been delayed, investors had not abandoned the Village. With the Federal government actively supporting new investment, the Village would become a premier example of affordable housing.

1941 – 55
With the end of the Depression and the beginning of World War II, many investors were hesitant to build in the Village. The Village’s Japanese citizens, including Mr. Takagi, a photographer, lost their homes and businesses. They were sent to internment camps but returned to the Village after the war ended. Elsewhere, the owner of Uhlman’s Bakery put a notice in their window saying “We are not Nazis, we are Americans.” Nevertheless, German storeowners were also subject to harassment.

 

The Merchant Marine Academy opened on the grounds of the former Chrysler Estate in 1943. The Academy employed local residents, including African Americans and first-generation Americans. To assist the new workers and returning veterans, the FHA asked developers to build affordable apartments that also accommodated cars. The first major FHA-sponsored buildings were the Village Gardens apartments. These apartments featured Colonial Revival motifs, such as red-brick cladding, semi-circular and columned porticos, six-light windows, wood cornices with dentils and pedimented gable-front roofs, while also providing curbside parking.

 

The largest apartment building developer was Sol Atlas, a Great Neck resident. Atlas initially targeted returning World War II veterans for his buildings. Shortly thereafter, Atlas submitted his plans to the United Nations, whose housing representatives asked that the proposed units for their workers be situated in nearby Lake Success, its first headquarters. When the veterans’ groups learned of the deal, they protested to Village authorities and local newspapers. On July 12, 1946, the Great Neck Record reported that the UN had agreed to release ninety of the Lake Success apartments to the veterans. While many UN workers occupied these modest apartments, others lived above downtown stores in Great Neck.

 

Manoug Exerjian worked with Atlas while also building 5 Bond Street, a streamlined Moderne-style structure that included stores on the ground floor with upstairs offices and terraced balconies with a streamlined iron balustrade. Exerjian was also responsible for 10 Grace Avenue, another Moderne-style mixed-use office building close by that wrapped around the corner at Bond Street, resulting in a panoramic experience for the passersby.

 

In November 1946, a group of merchants and business people organized the Great Neck Chamber of Commerce. Their interest in forming this alliance stemmed from a desire to promote local businesses, along with a concern that Sol Atlas’ new Miracle Mile shopping center in Manhasset would impact their ability to attract customers.

 

At the same time, developers saw reason to build in Great Neck. In February 1947, the Callan Brothers started construction on the Town House apartments off Cutter Mill Road. These complex of brick-clad buildings, also designed by Exerjian, featured winding walks, flower gardens, evergreens and flowering shrubs, fireproof construction, balconies and sundecks. Units included dining alcoves, television antennas, oversized closets and washer and dryers. As with the Wyngate development, the Callans restricted the apartments to Christian families and couples.

 

In August 1947, Sol Atlas submitted plans for the tallest apartment building in the Village: an eight-story apartment building on Welwyn Road. In addition to the large size of the structure, there were no provisions for parking. As a result, the Village trustees held public hearings to limit building heights to four stories and/or sixty-feet. Although the building was never constructed, the ordinance passed. The Village also created five parking lots to help local merchants attract customers.

 

In June 1950, Wanamakers department store broke ground on its first suburban store at Sol Atlas’ new shopping center. Atlas envisioned that the center at Middle Neck and Cutter Mill Roads would offer shoppers a bucolic setting enhanced by its beautiful trees. The three-story structure included a two-story show window, two elevators and parking for five hundred cars. Wanamakers was replaced by Stern’s Department store in 1955 and later by Gertz Department Store.

 

By 1950, Great Neck had been transformed. The numerous apartment buildings, distinctive in style and size, attracted people of modest means who sought suburban calm within the bucolic setting of a garden apartment, afforded by easy access to Manhattan. The architecture of the area also saw changes. The historic commercial buildings remained, but there were new ones that offered a different vision of the community, characterized by modern façades with minimal ornamentation. The shopping center built by Sol Atlas marked a new beginning for the downtown augmented by the introduction of new stores on Bond Street. These priorities of modest affordable apartments, bolstered by new stores with convenient parking, would define the Village experience for many decades to come.

1955 – 70
In the early 1950’s Great Neck Road was introduced, creating a new thoroughfare for traffic and stores. The fireman’s fairs ended as new office buildings occupied open fields. New shops including Jahn’s ice-cream parlor opened. During the next fifteen years, more Jewish residents moved into the area so that by 1963, almost half of the population was Jewish and young children were no longer the only Jewish students attending local schools.

 

At the same time, there were growing concerns among local residents. The Cold War brought frequent public alerts and bomb shelters that could be easily accessed. Other issues included the growth of apartment buildings. In September 1955, the Great Neck Democratic Club held a forum on apartments, claiming they threatened the community. Club president Bertram Harnett said “unless this trend is checked, it is obviously going to lead to steadily increasing problems of traffic, school construction, water supply and policing….”

 

Great Neck Plaza continued to be a popular nightspot. A club on Cutter Mill Road hosted such celebrities as Della Reese, along with jazz players and Irish musicians. The Nightcap was known as a “black and white bar” because it attracted a racially-mixed audience.

 

Many of the new buildings during the 1960s were marked departures from their historic counterparts. The most famous of these was the Chase Manhattan Bank built in 1961. Architects Benjamin Thompson and Paul Dietrich of The Architect’s Collaborative (TAC), founded by Walter Gropius, designed the landmark bank. Their concept was that banks should go back to “looking and acting like banks,” rather than “supermarkets or shoe salons.” The bank was the first suburban Chase branch in Nassau County, and featured a modern classical temple design incorporating concrete columns under a coffered roof, large display windows and glass entry doors alternating with brick walls, drive-up teller service and a community room. Although it was not initially embraced by local residents upon opening, it did garner praise from the American Institute of Architects and other professional designers. By the end of the 1960s, a new style of architecture known as Brutalism had emerged in select areas of the Village. This style celebrated the sculptural qualities of concrete and became a popular style for mid-rise, multi-story, mixed-use office buildings.