Queens · Neighborhood guide
Ridgewood
Ridgewood's brick rows reward looking closely at stoops, doors and cornices from the sidewalk. The Central Ridgewood Historic District is a useful focus, with notable streetscapes on 69th Avenue, Madison Street and Catalpa Avenue. It covers part of the neighborhood.
Understanding Ridgewood
Trolley and elevated-train improvements helped change Ridgewood from farmland and amusement parks into an urban neighborhood. Many houses in the central district were built between 1906 and the First World War by German American builders and immigrants.
The Vander Ende-Onderdonk House preserves an earlier farmhouse layer beside Ridgewood's later streets. After a serious fire in 1975, residents organized to save it and formed the Greater Ridgewood Historical Society, which maintains the site as a house museum and community venue.
Places to explore
69th Avenue streetscape
Central Ridgewood Historic DistrictCompare the repeating house forms and changes in brick color and detail along the row.
Madison Street and Catalpa Avenue
Central Ridgewood Historic DistrictThese are two other streetscapes highlighted by the LPC. Look for surviving doors, ironwork and pressed-metal cornices rather than treating the district as one uniform facade.
Meyerrose House
66-75 Forest AvenueThe LPC identifies this house among the district's notable sites. Include it as an exterior observation. No public interior or tour is established by the designation source.
Vander Ende-Onderdonk House
1820 Flushing AvenueThe fieldstone farmhouse adds an earlier building type to the brick-house collection. Use the operator's current program information for a visit; the museum and its grounds have specific visitor arrangements.
Read the NYFE place guide
Planning a visit
Choose a Central Ridgewood street or an Onderdonk House program, then check current MTA service to that destination.
View houses from public sidewalks and keep stoops and gardens private. Ask the museum about individual access needs for the program you choose.
Visitor update
Museum tours at the Vander Ende-Onderdonk House are temporarily closed for construction. The operator says its back lawn and tent host public programs; check the current calendar for dates and arrangements.
Sources and visitor information
- Central Ridgewood approved as historic districtNYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
- Vander Ende-Onderdonk House visitor informationGreater Ridgewood Historical Society
- 2020 Neighborhood Tabulation Areas (NTAs), NYC Open Data 26BNYC Department of City Planning / NYC Open Data