Glendale, New York

Glendale is a middle class neighborhood in the west-central portion of the New York City borough of Queens.

Glendale is bordered to the north by a section of the Montauk Branch of the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) in the western portion (Lower and Middle Glendale), and by Cooper and Metropolitan Avenues in the eastern portion (Upper Glendale). To the east, the border is the Rockaway Beach Branch of the LIRR, just east of Woodhaven Boulevard, and Forest Park, from south of Union Turnpike. Forest Park, along with a number of contiguous cemeteries, through which the borough line with Brooklyn runs, creates the southern border. Glendale's borders are completed in the southwest and west (from Cooper and Wyckoff Avenues) by the Bay Ridge Branch of the LIRR, and in the northwest by Fresh Pond Road and the elevated BMT Myrtle Avenue Line, which, due to its private right of way, creates five dead-end streets north of 68th Avenue. Because Cooper Avenue runs slightly in a diagonal direction, and since Glendale is somewhat rectangular-shaped, it is part of Glendale's borders at opposite corners of the neighborhood.

Originally named Fresh Ponds, this was a swampy area of land with fresh water pools. It was part of 74,000 acres (30,000 ha) of land collectively called Newtown, chartered by the Dutch West India Company in 1642. Fresh Ponds became a thriving German farming community in the 19th century.

In 1847, the State Rural Cemeteries Act was passed in New York, which put an end to the establishment of any new cemeteries in Manhattan. Cemetery owners were encouraged to build in Brooklyn and Queens. Glendale quickly became almost encircled by cemeteries being located in what is called the "Cemetery Belt".

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Wikipedia