By Matt Hampton

The Four Borough Neighborhood Preservation Alliance isn’t exactly a name that rolls easily off the tongue. The name is probably not familiar, either. It’s a rarity, among New York institutions, because it deliberately leaves Manhattan out in the cold – a stance that would usually be the kiss of death for an organization whose sole purpose is to highlight historically significant architecture.

But the Four Borough Neighborhood Preservation Alliance isn’t concerned about Manhattan, or it’s gobs of money. As far as they’re concerned, Manhattan is perfectly fine on its own.

“Every time we go to a meeting and say who we are, they stop us in mid-sentence and say ‘four boroughs? Who did you leave out?’” said James Trent, Chairman of the not-for profit organization and President of the Queens County Farm Museum.

“The Landmarks Commission seems to be only interested in Manhattan,” he added. “Ten percent of the land area in Manhattan is designated landmarked. [But] when it comes to the outer boroughs, they show no interest.”

A Clear Mission

Trent said that the Four Borough Neighborhood Preservation Alliance, a two pronged lobby-group/educational foundation, was formed out of a concern for the overall character of areas that were suffering from antiquated zoning restrictions – one-family homes that were built at a time when Queens itself was still a sleepy suburb, and overcrowding was not on anyone’s mind.

“Because the zoning that is in place was placed in 1961, [it] for the most part, does not match what’s already built,” he said. “They fact that the zoning in a particular area was for something larger than a one-family house, nobody was going to tear that house down. Now of course that’s not the case.”

So the Four Borough Neighborhood Preservation Alliance busies itself with the task of preserving their namesake, and this month, they’ve gone to great lengths to ensure that New Yorkers, all of them, appreciate the rich heritage and distinct character of the city at large, proposing a throng of landmarks, including 36 locations in Queens.

Fundamental Preservation

“We [created the list] because of the general impression that [the NYC Landmarks Commission is] less cognizant of Queens and Staten Island, in particular,” Executive Director Robert Furman said.

The landmarks on the list dot the borough from Astoria to the Rockaways, and hit practically every neighborhood in between. They include churches, schools, factories, homes and parks. They also include some areas that the State Preservation Commission has chosen to landmark, or that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, yet which the city has ignored.

“We are looking to get city designations because that is the most significant form of designation,” Trent said. “When you get into Federal and State designations, they tend to be more honorific, with very little teeth.”

Trent also said that one problem has been the Landmarks Commission’s propensity to tag sites that aren’t in any real danger. Furman agreed.

“They’ve been calendaring city owned sites, which is sort of an empty gesture I suppose,” he said. “It manages to increase their total without really doing that much, and certainly without exposing them to any possible political disagreement.” Furman was quick to add, however, that he was encouraged by the move toward creating a historic district in Sunnyside Gardens and the recent landmark designation of the Sohmer Piano Factory in Long Island City.

From the home of 1890’s Heavyweight Boxing Champ “Gentleman” Jim Corbett in Bayside, to the Forest Park Carousel, each nominated structure contains enough history to warrant attention, which it just hasn’t received yet from the New York City Landmarks Commission.

Easy To Miss

Trent said that the problem with neighborhoods in Queens lay in the fact that people look past them, without realizing the value and history of what’s already present.

“Queens is vast, and we all live in our own little part of our neighborhood, and sometimes we only find out what’s out there just as the bulldozer’s coming up the driveway,” he lamented.

Trent also blamed the Landmarks Commission for not being willing to fight developers when the fate of a neighborhood, or building was in question.

“They tend to run away from a site if a developer already got his mitts on it,” he said. “I know they’ll move quickly when it comes to Manhattan. They don’t seem to want to move quickly when it comes to Queens.”

He is also distrustful of the make-up of the Commission, saying that even the Queens representatives that sit on the Committee are only placeholders, not strong advocates for the borough.

In response to these concerns, the Four Borough Neighborhood Preservation Alliance has taken the onus upon themselves, doing the legwork and the research, unearthing the history and rich cultural heritage that the outer boroughs hold, in the hopes that the New York City Landmark’s Preservation Commission will see the signs.

“I don’t know what it is that makes it so difficult,” Trent said. “[For Queens areas that received landmark status,] it only happened dragging them along kicking and screaming. Why they don’t see them from the same light we do, I don’t know.”