112 Mowbray Drive
In 1960, this was home to the Straub family. [1960 photograph courtesy of David Straub.]
If you have pictures of yourself showing any Kew Gardens locale in the background, email me high resolution jpegs and I will post them here as space permits.
To download a copy of the
Queens Courier's Sept. 2003 article about Old Kew Gardens.com, click on one of the following links. Turn off your browser's auto-resize if the JPEG text appears too small to read.
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I have spent many hours, if not days or weeks, searching for clues of my family's past. Trying to get an idea of what it might have been like to live in Richmond Hills / Kew Gardens in the early 20's till the 60's. I am the granddaughter of John Daniel Bussell "Jack" and Dorothy M.Thompson (surname). What an amazing site!!! Great Gradnfather.. Arthur Bussell married to Bessie, they had 3 Children, Elizabeth, Arthur F. & John D. Bussell.Anyone who knew of them please write me.
Ancestor of the Bussell Family
mmcgr10644@cox.net
April 29, 2003
Born in 1943 and living there until 1959 - I have wonderful memories of 'growing up' in Kew Gardens. It was such a beautiful, safe, quiet world. Our family lived in the Kent Manor. Quite a large complex of buildings; yet I remember them as quiet, dignified and private. Approximately 40 apartments per side - 2 sides to each building. (Not terribly large by today's standards.) From a child's perspective, large rooms and windows. (I wonder what I would feel now if I returned for a visit!?!) Playing in the alley, where my mother could see me from the window. Going into the park - where (in the fall/winter) my mother could see me from the window. PS 99, Russell Sage. Having friends living on the 'other side' of Metropolitan Ave. zoned for RHHS when we went to FHHS. "Unfair" is what we thought! Metropolitan Avenue with cobblestones and trolley tracks. Taking the trolly to Jamaica. Simco & Baker shoe stores, Montgomery Ward among so many other stores. The Valencia movie theatre. So beautiful. Feeling perfectly comfortable walking on Jamaica Avenue. Going shopping for my mother in "the Village" (Lefferts Blvd). The Austin theater where I got to see Doris Day and Rock Hudson movies. Remember the sofas they had in their balcony?? Quite unlike any other theater I had/have been to. On Metropolitan Avenue - Irving, the butcher, who gave us a slice of bologna each time my mother shopped at his store or when we were sent to pick-up her order. Does anyone remember the 'egg man'? He actually came to the apartment and sold/delivered eggs. Not only do I remember the man wanting to buy 'old clothes' how about the knife sharpener?? I still have friendships from those long ago days. We share our memories fondly.
Carol Feigl Paplin
April 28, 2003
I ran through all the past months of posts and grabbed all comments about FHHS and wrote to them. I can only presume there are others who went to FHHS but didn't comment about it so..... If you attended FHHS please check out the following link for ALL ALUMS. If you received an e mail from me with the link please go to it and register. It is a FREE Message Board and updates and news about reunions and locating old buds. Now I have the school ands current Principal behind me and helping. We will have a major Alumni Assoc. & Directory sometime in 2004.
FHHS FREE FORUM http://pub27.ezboard.com/bforesthillsclassof19631965
Bonni The FHHS YENTA
ForestHillsHS@aol.com
April 26, 2003
Lived in Rh all my life and love the photos of the old days, compared to now.. There were so many more Trees what happned to all that beauty..???
Flo Strong
Flostrong@aol.com
April 26, 2003
Anyone know the Langenbachs who lived in the first house on the south side of Abingdon Road off the corner of Lefferts Boulevard, where the Dupont Funeral Home was--and before, as I understand it, that business bought and demolished it for its expansion? If not, do you remember that house? This, of course, goes back many decades.
Edwin Bergmann
(Looking for information and hopefully a photo of the Langenbachs' home.)
eb@rpccorp-si.com
Ed.'s Note: Is this the house you are looking for?
April 24, 2003
Saw a page of the trollys that were on Metropolitan Avenue. When I was growing up (till age 5) we lived in the Lefferts House and on Wednesday, the nanny would take my sister and I on the trolly to visit my father who had a law office at Bridge Plaza in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It was a wonderful time in my life.
Linda Widder Wiesner
LindaJ42@aol.com
April 24, 2003
Looking for General Information
Madeline Soto-Figueroa
MadJak06@aol.com
April 18, 2003
Wonderful photos and very interesting things. I'm a life time Richmond Hill resident. Keep up the great work. More photos of RH too.
Flo Strong
Ed.'s Note: More Richmond Hill photos are in the works.
April 12, 2003
To Nancy of RHHS...
Why not start a site like I did. It is really easy and only $9.95 a quarter for ad free. Go to EZBoards.com then post to Classmates.com and get all your buds from all classes. Or go into the reunion & party planning business as I did. I can help if needed. Webmaster here has my contact info. I give him permission to share with you.
Bonni from FHHS
...and our Celebs were more than JUST S&G. Partial list as follows.
Susan Isaacs Abramowitz ('61) Author
Burt Bacharach ('46), Songwriter
Ina Balin ('53, Ina Rosenberg), Actress
Susan Mayer Bauman ('61), Mayor of Madison, WI.
Louise Bernikow ('57), Author,Journalist
Art Buchwald ('42), Writer, Cartoonist
Robert Chartoff ('52) Produced all the Rocky movies and Raging Bull
Ron Chernow ('66), Author
Ray Danton ('49 Ray Kaplan), Actor
Ian Eagle ('86), WFAN personalty, NJ Nets
Alan Feinstein ('59), Actor
Geraldine Ferraro ('53), VPres. Nominee
Al Fredito ('49, Al Levy), Latin Band Leader
Art Garfunkel ('58), Entertainer (Simon and Garfunkel)
David Geisel ('43), TV Director
David Goldbeck ('60), Author, Publisher
Frank Gorshin ('50), Actor, Comedian
Ernie Grunfeld ('73), Athlete, NY Knicks
Anthony Heilbut ('57), Author
Alan Hevesi ('57), New York City Comptroller
Daniel Hevesi ('88), Senator
Rosellen Brown Hoffman ('56), Author
Marty Ingels ('54, Martin Ingerman), Comedian, Producer
Steve Kahan ('57) Actor
Bob Keeshan ('45), TV's Captain Kangaroo
Claudia Henschke ('58), Development of early cancer detection methods.
Gary Kaye ('66) Producer CNN Paula Zahn Show
Julian Krainin ('58), Academy Award and Emmy winning producer/director
Emily Perl Kingsley ('56), Emmy winning writer, Author
Gary Kurfirst ('64) Owner of Radioactive Records & The Ramone's Mgr.
Michael Landon ('54, Eugene Orowitz) Did not graduate, Actor
Lauren Soefer Lawrence ('66), Dream Interpreter to the stars and wrote 6 books so far.
Francisco (Frank) Lorenzo ('57), Continental, Eastern, People Express, and Texas Air
Robert Lypsite (?), Author, Journalist
Angus MacLise ('56), Poet, musician
Eddie, Michael and Dennis Magid "THE MAGID TRIPLETS" ('60), Entertainers
Mathew Margolis (60), expert training dogs TV personality seen on ABC/NBC
Nomi Mitty ('57), Actress
Rosemary Prinz ('47) Actress
Joey Ramone ('69, Jeffrey Hyman) The Ramones
Ron Rifkin (Saul Rifkin '55) Alias star
Dennis Rinsler ('64) Producer Full House and Disney projects
Peter Sabatino ('64) Vagrants Rock Group
Telly Savalas A teacher at FHHS in the early 50's Actor
Donald Scalzo ('69) rock band musician (Marshall Crenshaw Band)
Fred Silverman ('54), Movie and TV Producer
Connie Simmons (40's ), Athlete (basketball), NY. Knicks
Paul Simon ('58), Entertainer (Simon and Garfunkel)
Gary Smith ('52), TV Producer Hullabaloo Jack Paar's stage manager and Emmy's
Jerry Springer ('61), Talk show host
Dick Stockton ('60, Richard Stokvis), Sportscaster
Lubert Stryer ('54), Author
Carol Montparker Taub ('56), Pianist, Author
Dennis Tito ('58), Paid Russia $20 million for a ride to the Space Station
Danny Troob ('66), Hollywood and Broadway music arranger and orchestrator
Tatiana Troyanos ('56) World renowned mezzo soprano
Leslie Urdang ('76), Hollywood producer
Robin Urdang (did not graduate), Music producer
Terry Urdang (78), Actress
John Vinocur ('57) N.Y. Times writer, Editor Times in France and Germany
Larry West ('67, Larry Weinstein)
Leslie West ('64, Leslie Weinstein) Rock band musician (Vagrants & Mountain)
Paul Witt ('58), TV and Film producer. Golden Girls and Empty Nest
Hal Wixon ('57), Film and Television actor
Karen Barasch Wixon ('58), Special Effects Artist for Film and TV
Linda Yellen ('65), Producer, Director, Writer. Parallel Lives, The Simian Line, Chantilly Lace and more...
Bonni from FHHS
ForestHillsHS@aol.com
April 11, 2003
i live in kew gardens so its very interesting to know how it looked like before!
Bryant
Bryant490@aol.com
April 7, 2003
Any link to rhhs? We were never as hi-tech as FHHS, but perhaps someone created a website for RHHS alumni, no? FHHS had Simon & Garfunkel..but RHHS had Cindi Lauper & Phil Rizzuto!
Nancy Straub
newsb44@aol.com
April 7, 2003
Great photo of 112 Mowbray Dr, Dave! Lots of great memories there in the 50's & 60's. Tom Tully's boarding house is to the left (110 Mowbray Dr). This website is fantastic!!!
Nancy Straub
newsb44@aol.com
March 1, 2003
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