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.

“66th Road, (path in foreground) east from 102nd Street, showing on the Road in the background the Jarvis Jackson farmhouse just east of 108th St.” Eugene Armbruster, October, 1928. Armbruster’s photo illustrates the rapid pace of 20th century development in this part of Queens. Today, this vantage point is surrounded by high-rise apartment buildings and the Forest Hills hospital.

Sprung Monuments, 1962. Sprung Monuments, a cemetery monument and gravestone company, was established in the mid 1920s by Bella and Isidore Sprung. In the years after the Second World War, their son, Hy opened the showroom seen here on Queens Boulevard. Today that showroom remains open, the business has expanded to locations on Long Island, and it is run by the grand children of its founders.