The Ridgewood Savings Bank from 1939-40 is Forest Hills only designated New York City landmark. The architects Halsey, McCormack & Helmer, were known for bank architecture, designing all over the city, including the home office of this bank in Ridgewood. The bank managers chose the Forest Hills location for the bank’s first branch office because of its growing population and newly-opened subway stop. The style is Deco, not Modern, but shows movement toward a more modern style that was already present in Queens.

Designed by Samuel Paul & Seymour Jarmul and completed in 1965. 3 30 story towers with distinctive entrance pavilions and each building had a distinctive name that expressed itself through the lobby design. Like other major apartment complexes, open space was a premium and the Birchwood buildings occupy only 23% of the site. One major component is a large outdoor swimming pool which originally included fountains and rainbow lighting at night according to the brochure.

RIDGEWOOD SAVINGS BANK 107-55 Queens Boulevard Halsey, McCormack & Helmer, 1939-40 The first branch of the Ridgewood Savings Bank, the location was chosen for its proximity to public transportation and the area’s growing population. Situated on its own triangular lot, the limestone-clad bank is a prominent structure on bustling Queens Boulevard. Aside from its location, the bank is noteworthy for its mix of Art Deco and Modern Classical style design. Its rounded ends are connected by side walls with alternating flat and curved panels, as well as large windows and decorative motifs that include eagles, wavy lines and clock faces. At the rounded ends, vertical piers mimic Classical columns and bronze doors and window grates at the main entrance feature simple spear and fan motifs. Just off of Queens Boulevard at 108-19 71st Avenue is another civic structure: the Forest Hills Branch of the Queens Public Library, a simple brick building designed by Boak & Raad and built in 1957.

International Lawn Tennis Challenge, Forest Hills, 1914. In December 1912, the West Side Tennis Club — so named for its original Central Park West location — purchased land for a permanent home in Forest Hills that would become the country’s premier tennis venue. The new West Side Tennis Club hosted the final of the 1914 International Lawn Tennis Challenge (now known as the Davis Cup), contested by the defending champion United States and Australasia, a team featuring players from Australia and New Zealand. The American team was defeated by three matches to two. The following year, the United States Lawn Tennis Association National Championship, the predecessor of the U.S. Open, moved from Newport Casino in Rhode Island, to Forest Hills. The tournament was played at West Side until 1978, when it moved to new facilities at Flushing Meadows.

The Kelvin Apartments, viewed from Queens Boulevard, November 25, 1928. The Kelvin, a low-rise apartment building by the Cord Meyer Development Company, was an early example of the high-density residential architecture that would soon arrive in this part of Forest Hills, spurred by the 1936 extension of the IND Queens Boulevard Line.

Excavation for the IND Queens Boulevard subway, March 17, 1930. This view of mid-construction Queens Boulevard is eastward from near Harvest Street (now 70th Road) at the site of the future 71st-Continental Avenues station (now Forest Hills-71st Avenue). Forest Hills IND stations opened on New Year’s Eve 1936.

Queens Boulevard, February 18, 1930. The house at left is at the southwest corner of Queens and Yellowstone Boulevards.

WEST SIDE STADIUM (NOW FOREST HILLS STADIUM), CLUBHOUSE AND STADIUM Clubhouse- Grosvenor Atterbury and John Almay Tompkins, 1913 Stadium- 69th Avenue between Clyde Street and Dartmouth Street, Kenneth M. Murchison, 1921-23 This internationally renowned tennis stadium is most famous for hosting the United States National Championship tennis tournaments, which were combined in 1968 to become the U.S. Open, from 1915 until 1977, when the tournament moved to the Arthur Ashe stadium in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. The West Side Tennis Club was established in 1892 and originally operated on Central Park West in Manhattan, giving the club its name. The clubhouse was designed in the neo-Tudor style, in keeping with Atterbury’s other work in Forest Hills. The 14,000-seat stadium was designed by Kenneth M. Murchison, a well-known architect of public institutional buildings, having also designed such distinguished structures as Penn Station in Baltimore and the Hoboken Terminal. The United States’ first concrete tennis stadium, its architectural features include blue and gold glazed terra-cotta shields bearing the WSTC logo and “1923″, archways, eagles, shields, flagpoles and cornices. In 1956, the stadium hosted a major turning point in American history, when Althea Gibson became the first African American woman to compete in a world tennis championship (she won the Grand Slam). The stadium also served as a performance venue from the 1950s to the 1990s (Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Barbra Streisand and Bob Dylan, to name a few). In 2013, after many years of neglect, the West Side Tennis Club began an overhaul of the structure to restore it for use as a music venue once more. Turn left onto Dartmouth Street to make your way back to Station Square, noting the lovely streetscapes along the way.