Briarwood, located northwest of downtown Jamaica, contains one of the highest points in Queens. It is located approximately between the Van Wyck Expressway to the west, Union Turnpike to the north, Parsons Boulevard to the east, and Hillside Avenue to the south.
Demographics
Briarwood is a diverse community, according to 2010 census data that groups Briarwood with neighboring Jamaica Hills, the population consists of Asian-Americans, White, Hispanics, and African Americans. This is a marked change from the post-World War II period when the neighborhood was almost exclusively white, with a large and active Jewish community. Economic activity is mostly confined to small restaurants, delis, markets, and other small businesses. The neighborhood contains housing for middle-class families.
The neighborhood is served by the IND Queens Boulevard Line of the New York City Subway at the Briarwood station. In that subway station, there were many paintings done by the students of Archbishop MolloyHigh School, M.S. 217Q, and during the mid-1980s. They are titled, "Beautifying Briarwood". The paintings were removed during a renovation of the station in 2014.
History
The neighborhood is named for the Briarwood Land Company, headed by Herbert A. O'Brien, which built housing there around 1905 or 1907. O'Brien decided on the name Briarwood because of the brambles in its thick woods. The Ottilie Orphan Home was built on 148th Street in 1906. The Briarwood Land Company went bankrupt soon afterward, however, and the area was largely empty until 1924 when it was divided and sold at auction. Land went for $300 each for inside residential lots to $2,800 for lots along Queens Boulevard. Over the next four years, several single-family homes were built on the land. Briarwood's first school, P.S. 117, was built in 1927. Additional land was auctioned in 1928. On May 30, 1928, about 500 members of the Klansmen of Queens assembled in the forest of Briarwood. They burned a 50-foot cross, sang songs, and gave speeches. When police officers arrived, the group's leader, Major Emmett J. Smith, said that they had the right to assemble and speak on the land, because they had signed a lease to the land the previous day. The group soon left the area, without any physical violence or arrests having taken place. In 1936, a company called Briarwood Estates, owned by Leon, Morty and A. B. Wolosoff, started building Colonial and old English-style homes north of 84th Drive and west of Main Street. The homes sold for about $5,000, the. After World War II ended, other developers built houses closer to Parsons Boulevard. The United Nations built Parkway Village, a 670-unit development, as housing for its employees around 1947. The development is along Union Turnpike, between Main Street and Parsons Boulevard. Parkway Village is now a co-op and no longer connected to the United Nations. On November 23, 1954, Main Street's extension south to Queens Boulevard opened, and apartments were built in the neighborhood around the same time.
