| Rego Park, Queens |
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HISTORY A swath of farmland until the early 20th century, the area that came to be called Rego Park was once populated by Chinese farmers who sold their produce to merchants in New York's Chinatown . The name "Rego Park" came from the Real Good Construction Company, which began development of the area in 1925. Like its neighbor, Forest Hills, Rego Park has long had a significant Jewish population, with a number of Synagogues and Kosher restaurants. Cartoonist Art Spiegelman grew up in Rego Park and made it the setting for significant scenes involving his aged father in '' Maus '', his Graphic Novel about the Holocaust . Even as many Jews have departed for further-flung suburbs over the years, they have been replaced by Jewish Immigrants from the former Soviet Union . Today the neighborhood has a strong Russia n character, with many signs visible in Cyrillic script. Immigrant populations from Israel , Romania , Iran , India , Colombia and South Korea are also well-represented. Though some areas populated largely by immigrants fall victim to high crime rates and low property values, Rego Park, long a diverse immigrant community, has remained one of the safer and more-desirable neighborhoods in Queens. Real-estate prices are some of the highest in the borough, in part because of easy access to Manhattan via several Subway lines. The CBS sitcom '' The King Of Queens '' is set in Rego Park. PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION The Long Island Rail Road overpass between Austin and Alderton Streets hosted the Rego Park station until its abandonment in 1962 . Though physically part of the railroad "Main Line" heading out to Jamaica , the station operated as part of the Rockaway Line , which ceased operation in 1962. The station was later dismantled, and little can be discerned of its existence now save for the flattened clearing beside the tracks. The IND Queens Boulevard Line of the New York City Subway has a local station at 63rd Drive () and Queens Boulevard , dating from the mid- 1930s . It is, at various times of the day and week, serviced by the , , , and trains. COMMERCE Along Queens Boulevard , Rego Park is home to some of Queens' most popular shopping destinations, including the Rego Park Center , a retail complex with large Sears , Bed Bath & Beyond , Circuit City , Marshalls , and Old Navy locations. The Queens Center mall, the borough's largest, lies just to the west in Elmhurst. Rego Park's boundaries include Queens Boulevard, the Long Island Expressway , Woodhaven Boulevard , and Yellowstone Boulevard. EDUCATION Rego Park's public schools, as are the public schools in all of New York City, are operated by the New York City Department Of Education . The following elementary schools serve Rego Park:
All areas in Rego Park are zoned to J.H.S. 157 Stephen A. Halsey (7 - 9), in Rego Park, or J.H.S. 190 Russell Sage (7-9) in Forest Hills. Rego Park is not zoned to a high school as all New York City high schools get students by application. Forest Hills High School is located in nearby Forest Hills. SIXTY-THIRD DRIVE Sixty-Third Drive is the main business thoroughfare of Rego Park . The main section extends from Woodhaven Boulevard in the south, to Queens Boulevard in the north, with the central business dictrict of Rego Park nestled between Alderton Street (just south of the Long Island Railroad overpass), and Queens Boulevard. The stretch south of Alderton is entirely residential. The business district is anchored by PS 139 , an elementary school dating from 1928 , and significantly enlarged in the 1980s . The business district is criss-crossed by major Rego Park side streets Saunders, Booth, Wetherole and Austin. Most of the businesses lining 63rd Drive are the original single story "Taxpayers" dating from the 1930s. Across Queens Boulevard to the north, 63rd Drive becomes 63rd Road, and its business district continues another three blocks. One block to the east another 63rd Drive extends from Queens Boulevard, but this spur is a minor, narrow, one way residential street. It was common practice when the numbering system for streets and avenues evolved, for the street names to change from one side of Queens Boulevard to the other. SIXTY-THIRD DRIVE FIRE OF 1972 The short block of 63rd Drive between Austin Street and the railroad overpass was the scene one blistering February morning in 1972 , of a wild fire that claimed a row of stores and the neighborhood library. The fire reportedly started in the second store on the block from Austin, a shoe store, and quickly spread with the gusting winds to neighboring stores, including a television repair shop, toy store, pet shop and a pioneering Indian restaurant, and finally, the library, where row upon row of oily books and wooden shelves sent flames high into the sky and up the embankment of the railroad. Firefighters scrambled to keep the windswept flames from reaching an apartment house behind the stores, a new supermarket across Austin Street, or the Shell gas station just across the drive. The library caved in before flames could damage the electrical wires lining the railroad. A new library eventually opened across the street (on the former site of the Shell gas station). FAMOUS RESIDENTS
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