Resources for Research on NYC Neighborhoods: Images of America Book Series

A world away from the bustle of Manhattan, College Point, Queens, boasts one of the most interesting histories of any New York City neighborhood. College Point began as a sleepy rural hamlet, but by the mid-nineteenth century, immigration and the industrial revolution had transformed it into a booming suburb. By 1900, the community had a distinct identity as home to several thousand residents and host to hordes of weekend visitors drawn by its spectacular East River setting and beer garden resorts. College Point recounts this neighborhood's colorful story through photographs and other illustrations from the magnificent collection of the Poppenhusen Institute, the community center founded in 1868 by a local industrialist and benefactor. The institute maintains an important place in College Point life, offering a wide range of classes, concerts, and other activities to this quirky but quintessential New York neighborhood.

This volume about Fresh Meadows, Queens captures the optimism of the postwar era by illustrating how middle-class families thrived in an environment that combined the best aspects of urban and suburban living. Located in northeast Queens, Fresh Meadows grew up around a housing development of the same name, built for World War II veterans. The site plan for the development not only provided an array of green open space, but it also enabled residents to enjoy a variety of services within walking distance. The development became the centerpiece of a brand-new neighborhood, which had been the site of a country club and farmland. In 1949, renowned urban and architecture critic Lewis Mumford hailed the Fresh Meadows housing development as ""perhaps the most positive and exhilarating example of large-scale community planning in this country.""

Flushing explores the dramatic changes of this ever growing city with many never-before-seen images. Jason D. Antos is the author of three other local Queens history books. In the 1890s, electric lighting and improved roads were just the beginning of the changes about to take place in Flushing, New York. Once a rural village of wide-open farms and magnificent estates, Flushing transformed into a community of more than 200,000 people and quickly became one of the busiest neighborhoods in Queens.

In a dazzlingly original work of nonfiction, the two time Pulitzer-Prize winning author of The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys recreates the exuberance, the chaos, the promise, and the heartbreak of New York. Here is a literary love song that will entrance anyone who has lived in--or spent time--in the greatest of American cities. A masterful evocation of the city that never sleeps, The Colossus of New York captures the city's inner and outer landscapes in a series of vignettes, meditations, and personal memories. Colson Whitehead conveys with almost uncanny immediacy the feelings and thoughts of longtime residents and of newcomers who dream of making it their home; of those who have conquered its challenges; and of those who struggle against its cruelties. Whitehead's style is as multilayered and multifarious as New York itself: Switching from third person, to first person, to second person, he weaves individual voices into a jazzy musical composition that perfectly reflects the way we experience the city. There is a funny, knowing riff on what it feels like to arrive in New York for the first time; a lyrical meditation on how the city is transformed by an unexpected rain shower; and a wry look at the ferocious battle that is commuting. The plaintive notes of the lonely and dispossessed resound in one passage, while another captures those magical moments when the city seems to be talking directly to you, inviting you to become one with its rhythms. The Colossus of New York is a remarkable portrait of life in the big city. Ambitious in scope, gemlike in its details, it is at once an unparalleled tribute to New York and the ideal introduction to one of the most exciting writers working today. Look for Colson Whitehead's new novel, Crook Manifesto, coming soon!