Our Neighborhood
Cuisine, Shopping, Entertainment and Services
Forest Hills is comprised of a diverse series of cultures, and the local cuisine readily represents this. A quick walk brings residents of Chatwick Gardens to Austin Street and Metropolitan Avenue, both of which house a myriad of food options ranging from coffee and pastry shops to prepared take-out to fine dining. Station Square and Restaurant Row along 70th Road provide residents an opportunity to enjoy a variety of al fresco dining options. Several bars provide local nightlife, and Austin Street is also home to a local billiard room.
National specialty retailers as well as distinctive boutiques line Austin Street and Queens Boulevard, providing local shopping options for residents. Additionally, supermarkets, health clubs, drug stores, delicatessens, newsstands, dry cleaners and other convenience stores – many of which are open 24/7 – are within a short walk of our community.
Multi-screen movie theaters are conveniently located on Queens Boulevard and Metropolitan Avenue, and the local Forest Hills branch of the Queens Public Library is a short walk from the cooperative. The area boasts a variety of religious institutions as well for individuals of all faiths.
Transportation
Chatwick Gardens is conveniently located near a variety of public transportation options. One block east brings residents to historic Station Square, which houses the local Long Island Railroad station. The LIRR offers a fifteen-minute commute to Manhattan, as well as a variety of options for travel to eastern Long Island. Residents can also conveniently travel to Jamaica Station where they can transfer to the AirTrain for service to JFK Airport for domestic and international flights.
One block north of Station Square is the 71st – Continental Avenue subway stop, providing both local (M, R) and express (E, F) service to midtown Manhattan in as little as twenty-five minutes. Select Bus Service is available from the nearby Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Avenue station for travel to LaGuardia Airport. The local Q23 bus service is available on the corner of Burns Street and 68th Avenue, and the QM12 and QM42 bus service is available one block west at the corner of Burns Street and Yellowstone Boulevard.
Forest Hills is also convenient for drivers. The Long Island Expressway, Grand Central Parkway, Jackie Robinson Parkway and Van Wyck Expressway are all situated around our neighborhood. Both major airports are easily accessible by car or taxi with LaGuardia airport about a ten-minute drive and JFK airport about a fifteen-minute drive from Chatwick Gardens.
Schools
Chatwick Gardens is located within walking distance of some of the best and most coveted public schools within the five boroughs of New York City. Our community is zoned for P.S. 144 Col Jeromus Remsen Elementary School, J.H.S. 190 Russell Sage Middle School, and Queens Metropolitan High School. Additionally, there are numerous private and religious schools that offer families access to excellent education choices.
Parkland and Recreation
Forest Hills is home to several major public parks and areas of recreation and is a short commute to some of the city’s revered nature reserves and beaches. Bordered on the northern and southern extents by two of the largest parks in Queens, as well as home to a series of smaller parks and playgrounds within the central areas of our neighborhood, our community offers a variety of scales of open parkland for residents to enjoy.
Along the northern edge of our neighborhood is Flushing Meadows Corona Park. Home of the 1939 and 1964 New York World’s Fair and the largest park in Queens, Flushing Meadows Corona Park offers a variety of activities including bicycle and greenway trails, boating along Meadow Lake, fishing, skating, ice-skating, multiple playgrounds, swimming, handball, baseball, soccer, football, volleyball, tennis, cricket and golf. Additionally, the park offers areas for outdoor barbequing and eateries.
Within the park are a series of cultural and educational destinations, including the Queens Zoo, the New York Hall of Science, the Queens Museum, the Unisphere, the New York State Pavilion, and the Queens Theatre. Immediately adjacent is the Queens Botanical Garden. At the northern extent of the park lies the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, home of the Arthur Ashe Stadium which hosts the US Open, as well as Citi Field, home of the NY Mets.
Bordering the southern edge of our neighborhood is Forest Park. Known for its “knob and kettle” terrain (a series of small hills) and 165 acres of trees, the park is home to a series of hiking and bridle trails along its eastern extent. Residents can hire horses from a nearby private stable. Along the park’s western extent, an athlete’s playground awaits with softball, baseball, tennis, bocce, and handball courts open to the public. Victory Field at the Park’s center contains a running track, as well as soccer and football fields. Forest Park is also home to a 110-acre, par 67 golf course modeled after Scottish links. Cultural destinations within the park include the George Seuffert, Sr. Bandshell that hosts free concerts throughout the warm season and the historically-preserved Forest Park Carousel.
For those residents that are a bit more adventurous, a short drive or bus ride south brings one to the Jamaica Wildlife Refuge that offers open trails to view wildlife of the local intertidal marshes. A short distance further south is Rockaway Beach, which provides miles of public access to city-owned beachfront, including two surf beaches.
Within the Forest Hills Gardens and greater Forest Hills neighborhood, there are a multitude of pocket parks and playgrounds for residents to enjoy. CITG Community House, a ninety-year-old non-profit, nonsectarian recreational facility, provides a common meeting place with constructive activities and programs for children, as well as activities and social events for adults, including an indoor swimming pool. Located directly across the street from Chatwick Gardens is the West Side Tennis Club, a 125-year-old tennis club and home to the original US Open, which offers social, dining, tennis and swimming activities for members. Its Forest Hills Stadium provides live entertainment and concerts throughout the warm-weather seasons.
Forest Hills Stadium and West Side Tennis Club
In 1912, the West Side Tennis Club moved from its Manhattan location to what was then known as Forest Hills, Long Island. The club constructed a Tudor-style clubhouse and built a series of grass and clay courts. In 1915 the United States Lawn Tennis Association National Championship, later renamed the U.S. Open, moved to the West Side Tennis Club. The success of the event necessitated the construction of a 14,000-seat stadium in 1923. This stadium, known today as the Forest Hills Stadium, was home to some of the world’s greatest tennis tournaments before the U.S. Open moved to the USTA Billie King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows Corona Park in 1978.
Today, the West Side Tennis Club is comprised of 38 tennis courts with four surfaces (clay, Har-Tru, grass and hardcourt), a junior Olympic-size swimming pool, dining facilities, as well as a series of other amenities housed within the historic clubhouse. In 2013, the Forest Hills Tennis Stadium experienced a renaissance after decades of dormancy. A series of outdoor concerts are held within the warmer months, and have included such musical icons such as Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, The Who, and many others.
Chatwick Gardens is located directly across the street from the West Side Tennis Club and the Forest Hills Stadium. Residents interested in obtaining memberships to the club can learn more by contacting their membership team at www.foresthillstennis.com. As a neighbor of the stadium, residents of Chatwick Gardens are eligible for early purchase of all concert tickets prior to general sale. To learn more about the upcoming concert offerings and ticket options, visit www.foresthillsstadium.com.
Forest Hills Gardens
Chatwick Gardens is located along the western edge of the historic Forest Hills Gardens. Noted as the preeminent American expression of the garden suburb ideal due to it’s unique combination of city planning and architecture, the Forest Hills Gardens was developed in 1909 through the vision of the Russell Sage Foundation in conjunction with the Olmstead Brothers as their planners and Grosvenor Atterbury as their primary architect. Modeled on English planning and German medieval architecture, the Forest Hills Gardens organized a variety of residential housing types (single family, apartments, and hotels) around public, central greens and linked the main civic center at Station Square to the residential heart of the development through the design of the Greenway. All of this was made possible due to the newly electrified main line of the Long Island Railroad that linked Forest Hills to Manhattan’s Penn Station with a fifteen minute commute.
The Forest Hills Gardens provided a bucolic setting within the ever-expanding city of its time, and it continues to do so today as the homes and structures maintain their original qualities due to the enforcement of strict covenants enacted at the time of the development. This region of the greater Forest Hills provides our residents with a series of open parks, easy access to transportation, shops and restaurants – all within walking distance of our community.