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ABOVE: 1909 Atlas of the city of New York, borough of Queens, Long Island City, Newtown, Flushing, Jamaica, Far Rockaway, from actual surveys and official plans / by George W. and Walter S. Bromley . Note William K Vanderbilt neighboring property. It was purchased after 1892 which was when Martin I purchased his farm. Nearby, Vanderbilt built one of his many Long Island mansions. Besides homes, Vanderbilt property was used for real estate investment, for building the Long Island Motor Parkway, (the first paved limited access highway in America) from Lake Success to Lake Ronkonkoma in Suffolk County, for developing his automotive racing interest through the Vanderbilt Cup races from 1902-1910 and for other sporting interests.
LEFT: A 1922 photograph taken on the former Martin Wesnofske Queens farm. Notice the flat, grassy relatively treeless plain that was ideal for agriculture. Shortly following, the land developers came in to build according to the new grid pattern laid out by New York City planners to serve the growing prosperity of New York City population. Photograph is an image commissioned by and retrieved from the New York Public Library. It was made by a Staten Island commerical photographer, Percy Loomis Sperr, working for the Library. He took 30,000 images seeking to record the changes economic development was to bring to the history of Queens, Long Island and Manhattan. Today his images of buildings are used for historic preservation documentation and copies of his maritime photos of ships in New York Harbor commercially sell for $300-$400. Philanthropists purchased other of his collections and donated them to the New York Public Library on Firth Avenue and 42nd Street.
BELOW: 1892 original Martin Wesnofske farm area outlined over today's development in Queens. Glen Oaks area is the old Vanderbilt estate area; the circular patterned layout of apartment houses and the golf course at the top are located close to the original Vanderbilt estate.
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