Poppenhusen Institute

Sitting on 14th road and 114th street is a single Victorian Structure which is surrounded by small houses and low - rise factories, exudes importance that gives a certain bravado. This is the Poppenhusen Institute which was built in 1868. It was constructed with the donations from Conrad Poppenhusen who is called the benefactor of College Point. When it was built it housed the Justice of the Peace, the first College Point Savings Bank, German Singing Societies, and the first Library in the area. It included a courtroom, Sheriff’s Office that contained 2 jail cells, as well as the first free kindergartens in the United States in 1870.Within the Institute lays a auditorium that seats 200 people and there is also a museum that exhibits the history of College Point and of Conrad Poppenhusen. The Poppenhusen Institute was recognized as an New York City Landmark in 1970.

In 1980 the trustees felt with the German people moving away that they should make a change with the Institute. They had decided that instead of continually spending money on the maintenance that they would sell the building. They began selling the historical pieces and documents that lay within this historical building. With each piece that was sold, a piece of the history of College Point and Poppenhusen was lost with it. When this became public the residents of College Point began to fight back to save the Institute because they didn’t want to lose yet another Structure due to development. The residents won the battle when it was taken to court and the Poppenhusen Institute still lay in the same spot as it has since 1868. All of the interior and exterior remain the same; the interior is still intact but the outside has been worn down during the years which promoted it to be repainted.

Still standing strong is the Poppenhusen Institute which has been through all of the changes that College Point has seen. It is one of the few structures that still stands that resembles what College Point is. Conrad Poppenhusen was the face and benefactor of College Point and he still lives on through this structure that stands strong and sticks out amongst factories and houses around it. As long as it still stands the history and character of the town will never be lost

Description of College Point

College Point was a small town that had very few people and only had private homes. Most of the homes at the time was farmland and an abundance of land. As time passed people started to move into College Point and the demand for land increased. In turn the owners of the property started selling off pieces of there land and developers began building townhouses and multifamily apartments.

College Point has turned into a haven for developers. They are constantly building new multifamily homes that brings in more people. The more people that are integrated into a area come an increased amount of shoppers. The more shoppers that are within an area means more money for the stores and if the stores are desirable the word will be spread as it has, and both the consumer and stores benefit.

Historical Component I cont.

11356, College Point.2007. BrainyMedia.com

http://www.brainyzip.com/zipcodes/11/11356.html

In this website it provides population, housing units, the land area, zip code, and even the latitude and longitude. Along with the basic info it breaks them down into categories like males to females and all the different ethnic backgrounds. You can also find out about the different aspects of the Social, Economic and Housing Characteristics.

Historical Componet I

College Point, NY population and demographics data.2007.Sperlings BestPlaces

http://www.bestplaces.net/city/College_Point_NY-71135600000.aspx

In this website it explains the population number and how much it has increased over the years. You can find out the average pricing of houses, the appreciation of homes in the area or the average cost of living compared to the rest of the United States. It also compares how much College Point school system spends on there students compared to the average spent on a student.

College Point Shopping Center

As the population of College Point continually increased developers saw their opportunity to make a great deal of money. So they built a various chain of stores on the strip
that includes Waldbaums, Target , BJ’s, Circuit City, T J Max, Staples, and on the other side there are another series of stores that include Models, Old Navy , and Babies R Us. There is also a McDonald’s, a Starbuck’s, and also Boulder Creek a restaurant that sits in the middle of these two strips.
The strip of these chain stores accomplished exactly what the developers wanted; PROFIT. You can virtually purchase what you desire in this diverse grouping of stores. To all of it’s advantages there are also disadvantages and certain problems theses stores brought like increased amount of consumers into the town. With all the new commuters driving along the streets of 20th avenue and along the expressway on any given weekend there is endless amounts of traffic. If you plan on shopping in one of these stores on the weekend be prepared to wait in lines and continually drive around the parking lot to find that spot to park so that you don’t have to break a sweat just to get to the desired store of your choice.
College Point has turned into a haven for developers. They are constantly building new multifamily homes. With the multifamily homes comes more people; and with more people come an increased amount of shoppers. The more shoppers that are within an area means more money for the stores and if the stores are desirable the word will be spread as it has, and both the consumer and stores benefit

My Neighborhood

In this picture the image on the right is a house that’s an example what the neighborhood used to be, and to the left of the picture is what it has become. College Point was a small town that had very few people and only had private homes. Most of the homes at the time was farmland and an abundance of land. As time passed people started to move into College Point and the demand for land increased. In turn the owners of the property started selling off pieces of there land and developers began building townhouses and multifamily apartments. At one point there was only one house with one family’s living on the lot of property but now there is still that house but about six more family’s living on that same piece of land. This seems to be the new trend and is being done throughout town. In the single family house you only have to worry about a certain amount of people within that one family but with these new homes you have to worry about six families, and with more people comes more trouble. As you can see the new apartments that were built towers over the meager house beside it.

This not only is a concern due to the fact that the town is quickly becoming overpopulated but there are and increased amount of car’s that contribute to the pollution and the limited space that remains of this small town . It’s just a matter of time before developers have taken over and buyout the rest of the private houses to benefit them selves in making these townhouses. Not only will it increase the population but it would change the whole identity of the town. It will be changed from once a small town into overpopulation with homes right upon one another that don’t have enough space for a backyard with grass. There will be no more house’s with that white picket fence or a backyard with grass, you will only have townhouses around with its metal gates and balconies that will enable you to see what the neighborhood has become over the years.

http://www.nycbloggers.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City

Forgetten New York

The Site shows the various aspects of New York and how they once were and what we call forgotten times that consist of places and things that all were there in the past. You are able to finally know what your neighborhood once looked like, and other various aspects of the forgotten New York ranging from ally’s to cemeteries. This site even makes it possible to check out the different types of signs or ads they had in the past. This enables us to compare how things are today with things in the past without that gray area of going by someone’s words since it is documented and presented in visual aids for us. With each photograph within the site is an detailed explanation of the photograph and what is its importance along with some history. The Site provides dates and places for all of the material provided within the site, and shows a picture of what it looked like before and what the place now looks like.

There is a part of the site that is dedicated to signs that were displayed in various places within New York. These signs are unlike the signs that are displayed today that are uniform in color and lettering, instead they are different from one another and are not placed in the most conventional area’s where u would think signs would be placed. At one time you would find signs on lamp post, buildings, and they often displayed various colors to catch the eye. Many of the old signs consisted of the letters containing neon lights whether it was a sign for a bar or for prescriptions because they wanted to catch the attention of the customers. Unlike today that all sign are located on some kind of material; in the past they used to engrave the names of the company or people onto the building. One of the more unique ways that has seemed to be lost nowadays is the placement of signs that were located on the side of buildings. This shows us how much things have changed since then and now. We went from signs on the sides of buildings to Billboards that you can see from expressways. This shows that even the signs have changed just as times and society has.