Category: Forest Hills: Then & Now

The West Side Tennis Club, founded in 1892 and moved to Forest Hills in 1912, is a private tennis club, and home to the Forest Hills Tennis Stadium. Despite being denied landmark status in 2011 by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, it remains a site of extreme importance in the history of Forest Hills and    New York City.

With  a tudor style clubhouse  that matches the  nearby Forest  Hills  Gardens,  the West Side  Tennis  Club has a  definite air of  elitism,  featuring  glass cases  full of  memorabilia  (boasting the club’s  crest),  antique photos, and  a lavish dining  room. The  exclusive nature of the tennis club is reminiscent of  the former Masonic Temple  on Queens Boulevard, however its neighboring  tennis stadium tells a different  story. The stadium hosted a total of sixty U.S.  Open tournaments from 1915 –  1977, the Davis Cup was hosted at the venue 10 times, the US Pro Tournament   was hosted hosted there 11 times, and the Tournament of the Champions was hosted three times. While these prestigious events, and the sport of tennis in general,  often evoke white, upper-crust connotations,  over the years the Forest Hills Tennis Stadium  has reflected major demographic and cultural  shifts within Forest Hills and New York City. For  example, in 1950 Althea Gibson became the first  black player to play in a Grand Slam event, in 1957 she came the first black player to win the tournament, and in1968, Arthur Ashe became the first black man to win a Grand Slam tournament there. Furthermore, the West Side Stadium was used as a venue for many concerts since the 1960s, boasting names such as Frank Sinatra, The Supremes, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, The Who and The Beatles, and since then has featured artists such as Mumford & Sons in 2013. The expansion of representation and cultural events at the West Side Tennis Club reflects a degree of social progression within Forest Hills that seeks to cater to a demographic beyond middle and upper middle class (and likely white) individuals.

http://www.foresthillstennis.com/History.aspx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Side_Tennis_Club

At 108-01 Queens Boulevard stands Sterling National Bank, formerly Boulevard Bank, and originally a Masonic Temple. The metamorphosis of this corner lot is a telling example of the Forest Hills narrative, as the connotations of both institutions reflect the changing face of the neighborhood. The Masonic Temple was established on October 9, 1920, hosted a concert in 1922 to raise funds to construct St.Luke’s church, and was home to political meetings (for example, the City Fusion Party) starting in 1933. The Georgian Colonial style temple represented the homogenous face of the neighborhood, as well as the wiping away of the area’s Whitepot (the former title of Forest Hills) roots, in an era of increasing landmark erection. Freemasonry has strong associations with white, Christian men (however the organization only requires that members worship one supreme being) and has a notoriously exclusive, secretive reputation– qualities that often lend themselves to so-called WASPs. As a neighborhoods institutions change in accordance with the identity of its residents, the transformation of the Queens Boulevard building from a Masonic temple into Boulevard Bank & Trust Co. in 1929 and finally Sterling National Bank & Trust Co. in 1948, reflects an accommodation for a growing neighborhood, as well as a shift from an arguably Eurocentric, exclusive model, to one that is more diverse and accessible (take, for example, the association between Jewish-Americans and the financial sector).

https://www.flickr.com/photos/8095451@N08/sets/72157623071939110/comments/

http://books.google.com/books?id=yfz7w8mogvEC&pg=PA42&lpg=PA42&dq=masonic+temple+forest+hills+queens+boulevard&source=bl&ots=4MN0Z3uity&sig=5yvPDQcgnK-kjkoBSHvme3osGhg&hl=en&sa=X&ei=N7BuU5jDCIOisATSw4HoCw&sqi=2&ved=0CDkQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=masonic%20temple&f=false

http://www.msana.com/religion.asp