Queenswalk: The Leslie Apartments in Forest Hills Gardens

In 1909, the Russell Sage Foundation, under the leadership of Mrs. Margaret Olivia Sage, purchased 142 acres of land in Forest Hills from the Cord Meyer Development Company. It was their intention to create a model community based on the principles set forth in the “garden cities” movement in England. The Foundation hired architect Grosvenor Atterbury and landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. to design the perfect model community.

Ironically, Forest Hills Gardens was designed to be affordable for the middle class worker. But even before the buildings were done, it was obvious that this was not going to be the case. The whole thing was just too expensive to build and maintain. Forest Hills Gardens became one of the most exclusive and expensive neighborhoods in Queens.

By the end of the 1920s, most of the Gardens were complete. The private homes, the apartment buildings, row houses and cottages surrounded by lawns and parkland were pretty much established. When the community was being built, the Russell Sage Foundation built a sales office where would-be homeowners met the agents, and closed the deals.

That office was on an oval shaped patch of land created by the splitting of Greenway Terrace, the landscaped entrance to the Gardens. It was a large piece of land, and perfect for a good sized building of some sort, but what to put there?

The communities restricted covenants would not allow anything other than a residential building, but it had to be worthy of the surrounding neighborhood. The site stayed empty until 1942 when developer Robert M. Harriss commissioned what would become the Leslie Apartments.

The complex was designed by the firm of Fellheimer & Wagner. Alfred Fellheimer and Steward Wagner’s firm existed between 1923 and 1961, with offices on East 42nd Street, in Manhattan. The firm grew out of their parent firm, Stem & Reed, for whom both men worked. They specialized in railway stations, and Alfred Fellheimer had worked on projects in Grand Central Station for them in 1903. Steward Wagner joined Stem & Reed in 1910.

F & W continued to do railway stations, but also began branching out in Queens, designing schools, arts centers, hospitals, banks and this apartment building. All of their designs were firmly grounded in the modern styles of the day, but this one is special.

How does one combine the Old English charm of Atterbury’s Forest Hills Gardens with the modern mid-20th century designs favored by Fellheim & Wagner? Of course, one could simply copy the Old English look, but the building would lack the modern “zing” that would make it attractive to the 1943 market. No one really wants to live on a movie set, or in a theme park.

Or, like many architects today, they could have ignored their surroundings entirely, and put up a building that said, “Look at me! I’m an avant garde architect.” The design would not have been approved, first of all, and secondly Fellheim & Wagner wanted to do the site and themselves proud. So they combined the modern and the traditional, and came up with the Leslie.

The large complex is surrounded by a decorative wall, and is entered through archways that are reminiscent of guard houses. Tenants can also enter through the underground parking garage. Behind the low walls is a very big building, built to look like many smaller structures, with wings that alternately stand out and recede, with a center bell tower and flanking central wings with smaller towers on the sides with slate-looking roofs.

The towers have traditional English Tudor half-timbered turrets. Most of the building is brick mixed with clinker brick accents, with the lower levels constructed in a combination of flat stone and clinker brick. It is a handsome and well-built building.

The modern part comes in the details. The fenestration is reminiscent of Art Deco apartment buildings, with two large 90% corner picture windows on the protruding towers. The flat windows are also large, modern picture windows, which the architects did not ruin by trying to make them look ancient, with diamond shaped panes or too many mullions. These windows are modern, streamlined, and Moderne.

The building’s expansive roof was put to use as recreational space for the tenants. There were roof gardens, lounge space and playgrounds. Inside, all of the apartments were cooled by cross ventilation; all of them had two or more exposures.

In 1948, the Queens Chamber of Commerce awarded the Leslie a bronze plaque for excellence in design in the apartment building without stores category. They were taken by the combination of traditional and modern, as well as the buildings innovative method of having two points of egress for each apartment without having to put fire escapes on the exterior of the building. Egress was achieved by interior fire towers.

Fellheim & Wagner achieved their goal. The Leslie Apartments fit into the Forest Hills Gardens’ aesthetic well. But its position on the streetscape, and modern design elements set it apart. Only a couple of blocks way, the Forest Hills Garden Hotel and apartments provide a great contrast. They are pure Arts & Crafts style, drawing their inspiration from the English village, but with that early 20th century difference that mark them clearly as Arts & Crafts.

Here we have the same idea; A late Deco/Art Moderne building sharing many of the same features of a Bronx Grand Concourse Art Deco building, but also conforming to many of the style and material dictates of that same English Village style. Two very different times; two very different buildings. Both a wonderful architectural legacy for Forest Hills Gardens, Queens. The address is 150 Greenway Terrace, Forest Hills Gardens.

Thanks to Frampton Tolbert’s QueensModern blog for much of the information and the photos. The above photo of the Leslie is his.