"52nd Street, north from Queens Boulevard to Roosevelt Ave., showing in the background the I.R.T.; B.M.T. elevated subway station, November 1, 1936." The billboards that dominate the facades of the buildings on 52nd Street advertise the monument and gravestone companies that were established in this neighborhood to service the nearby massive Calvary Cemetery and smaller Mt. Zion Cemetery. These cemeteries are the northernmost part of the Cemetery Belt of Queens and Brooklyn that runs south from LIC/Woodside through Middle Village and Glendale and veers west into Ridgewood and the edge of Bushwick.

Phipps Garden Apartments, 1932. The Phipps Garden site had been set aside for development by the City Housing Corporation, a limited-dividend company responsible for the construction of the adjacent Sunnyside Gardens community between 1924-1928. Remaining lots were sold off, including the future Phipps Garden site — two square blocks between 50th (then Fitting) and 52nd Streets (Dickson), north of 39th Avenue (Middleberg) — which was purchased by the Society of Phipps Houses, a “model tenement group.” Henry Phipps, a steel magnate, envisioned a development for “white collar clerical workers” and hired Clarence Stein, the Sunnyside Gardens architect, to design the complex. Phipps Garden is a notable early example of “superblock” architecture; the developer was allowed to close 51st Street (Stone) to accommodate a larger building. The first Phipps building was constructed between 1931-2, with a second building added in 1935. In 2007, the Landmarks Preservation Commission included Phipps Garden in the Sunnyside Gardens Historic District.

Steinmann Gardener, 1936. Much like the proliferation of monument and gravestone businesses, Woodside also had an abundance of nurseries and florists, which also catered to the nearby cemeteries and their visitors. The outdoor displays at this shop are all wreaths meant for grave sites.

“51st Street, west side, just north of 43rd Avenue, viewing northwestward, showing the remains of an old farm — the Mrs. Beals property of 1873 — on the former Astoria Road (extreme left), also known as Celtic Avenue. The road marked the boundary between Long Island City and Newtown. The view is north and shows newly-erected apartments on the former farm. 1931.” - P.L. Sperr (photographer)

Public School 11, 1925. The Union Free District School No. 10 opened in 1894, sitting high on a 100-foot hill. Four years later, when Queens became a borough of the consolidated city, this wood-frame structure with its soaring belfry was one of the borough's tallest buildings. Renamed the Woodside High School in 1897, the building had two, three-story, brick wings added in 1905. Renamed Public School 11 in the early 20th century, the school served Queens' growing population. By the mid-century, the wood-frame building was no longer in use and scheduled for demolition. Before it could be razed, it was lost to a massive fire in 1951. A new, three-story, brick school was completed on the site a few years later. In 2017 a large, new extension was completed to relieve the cram of students in New York City's most crowded elementary school.

Phipps Garden Apartments, 1932. The Phipps Garden building is notable for architect Clarence Stein’s use of decorative brick in the facade, inspired by German and Dutch housing developments of the 1920s.