Bayside, Queens: Bell Boulevard, the Bell Farm and Four Landmarks

The Bayside Village Business Improvement District defines its district in its own words as "an eight block strip between Northern Blvd. and 35th Avenue along Bell Blvd.", and says it is "served by Community Board #11" and by the 111th Precinct, whose station house is at 45-06 215th Street.

The cobblestone house at 35-34 Bell Boulevard is a designated New York City landmark; the Landmarks Preservation Commission's designation report opens by placing it "on a commercial street in Bayside, Queens." The other three individual landmarks are houses and a burial ground. The John William and Lydia Ann Bell Ahles House, at 39-24 to 39-26 213th Street, is described in its designation report as "the only remaining example of the substantial Second Empire buildings erected in Bayside during the 1870s and 1880s" and as "one of the oldest surviving in Bayside"; the same report records that "Very few 19th century houses survive in Bayside," that the house was moved in 1924 when Christy Street became 213th Street, and that its designation was opposed by its owner for seven years while the Bayside Historical Society, the Community Board 11 Landmarks Committee and Friends of Oakland Lake & Ravine, Inc. pressed for it.

Hawthorne Court Apartments occupies 215-37 to 215-43 43rd Avenue and 42-22 to 42-38 216th Street. Benjamin Braunstein designed it, its brickwork is laid in monk bond and its roofs are jerkinheads, and it took a Queens Chamber of Commerce award in 1931.

Two more houses stand outside the landmarks register. The Cornell-Appleton House at 214-33 33rd Road is, in the wording of the neighborhood's Wikipedia article, "thought to be one of the oldest in Bayside"; Kevin Walsh, writing for Brownstoner and cited as that article's source, dates its construction to 1852 and calls it "venerable, but not as aged as, say, the Lent-Riker House in Jackson Heights or the Onderdonk House in Ridgewood." The Corbett House at 221-04 Corbett Road was the subject of Barney Nagler's New York Times piece of September 1, 1985, "Gentleman In The House On Corbett Road."

Abraham Bell acquired land in Bayside in 1824 and worked a farm of 246 acres. The Bell family donated the land for the railroad station, and a 95-acre parcel later went to the Bellcourt tract, one of the Rickert-Finlay Realty Company's developments. The Landmarks Preservation Commission's report on 35-34 Bell Boulevard gives the origin of the "Alley" name: "Initially, access was from Little Neck Bay, by boat, or via a road called the “Alley” that ran along the shore." Alley Pond Park borders Bayside along the neighborhood's eastern edge.

The Lawrence Graveyard, at 216th Street and 42nd Avenue, is entered in the Landmarks Preservation Commission's designation list as "LAWRENCE GRAVEYARD, 216th Street and 42nd Avenue, Bayside, Borough of Queens. Built about 1840." That report counts forty-eight graves, the last of them in 1925, and traces the ground to a 1645 patent; among those it names are Cornelius W. Lawrence and Anne Willets, and it describes a twin marker for two McKim children.

Crocheron Park sits along the Cross Island Parkway between 33rd and 35th Avenues, in ZIP 11361. The Parks Department files it as Q012 in Community Board 11 and gives its size as 45.79 acres; its hexagonal gazebos and the Crocheron family, among them Joseph Crocheron of Staten Island, both figure in the department's account of it. John Golden Park is filed as Q012B, also in Community Board 11.

All Saints Episcopal Church is at 214-35 40th Avenue, and can be reached at 718-229-5631. The neighborhood's Wikipedia article says the church holds "local examples of reputed works executed by Louis Comfort Tiffany." The Bayside Historical Society, founded in 1964, prints its own address as 208 Totten Avenue, Fort Totten, Bayside, NY 11359, and states that it began "with three goals: The preservation and restoration of the Lawrence Family Cemetery , Alley Pond and Fort Totten."

The Long Island Rail Road's Port Washington Branch calls at Bayside.

Crocheron Park lies along the Cross Island Parkway between 33rd and 35th Avenues, in ZIP 11361. All Saints Episcopal Church is at 214-35 40th Avenue and answers on 718-229-5631. The 111th Precinct station house is at 45-06 215th Street.

The four individual landmarks are addressed at 216th Street and 42nd Avenue (the Lawrence Graveyard), 39-24 to 39-26 213th Street (the Ahles House), 215-37 to 215-43 43rd Avenue and 42-22 to 42-38 216th Street (Hawthorne Court Apartments), and 35-34 Bell Boulevard (the cobblestone house). The Bayside Historical Society prints its own address as 208 Totten Avenue, Fort Totten, Bayside, NY 11359.