The area was originally referred to as "Whitepot". The current name comes from the Cord Meyer Development Company, which bought in central Queens in 1906 and renamed it after Forest Park. Further development came in the 1920s and 1930s with the widening of Queens Boulevard through the neighborhood, as well as the opening of the New York City Subway's Queens Boulevard Line. Forest Hills has a longstanding association with tennis: the Forest Hills Stadium hosted the U.S. Open from 1915 through 1977 and the West Side Tennis Club offers grass courts for its members. The area's main commercial street, Austin Street, contains many restaurants and chain stores.

Forest Hills is located in Queens Community District 6 and its ZIP Code is 11375. It is located within .

History

Development

thumb|left|Station sign at [[Forest Hills station (LIRR)|Forest Hills station]]

The development of adjacent Forest Park, a park on the southern end of Forest Hills, began in 1895. Starting in 1896, the landscape architecture firm of Olmsted, Olmsted & Eliot was contracted to provide a plan for the park.

In 1906, the Cord Meyer Development Company, headed by Brooklyn attorney Cord Meyer, bought abutting land made up of six farms (those of Ascan Bakus, Casper Joost-Springsteen, Horatio N. Squire, Abram V. S. Lott, Sarah V. Bolmer, and James Van Siclen). The company then renamed the aggregate "Forest Hills", after Forest Park. Single-family homes, designed by architects such as Robert Tappan and William Patterson, were constructed on the combined area. The most expansive buildings are in Forest Hills Gardens, but many are located in the area loosely bounded by 68th Avenue on the north; 72nd Road on the south; 108th Street on the west; and Grand Central Parkway on the east.

The construction of this area used a prefabricated building technique. Each house was built from approximately 170 standardized precast concrete panels, fabricated off-site and positioned by crane. The houses were mostly constructed between 1910 and 1917.

Growth and expansion

thumb|282x282px|Southwestern Forest Hills at dusk

The Long Island Rail Road opened a station in Forest Hills in 1906, and the Queens Boulevard trolley line opened seven years later. The LIRR station was built with a brick courtyard, a clock tower, and arch-filled underpasses, fitting in with the Forest Hills Gardens section of the neighborhood. The U.S. Open and its predecessor national championships were held there until 1978, making Forest Hills synonymous with tennis for generations. Forest Hills also had a golfing presence for a short time. The Queens Valley Golf Club started constructing a golf course in the neighborhood in 1922 and it was open by 1924.

thumb|292x292px|[[Queens Boulevard, looking eastward in 2006]]

Queens Boulevard was widened in the 1920s. During the late 1920s, in anticipation of the arrival of the subway, land was bought by developers and was built up. Zoning laws were changed to allow fifteen-story apartment buildings to be built, and made the neighborhood of Forest Hills a more desirable place to live, especially as it was an express stop. Queens Borough President George Harvey predicted that the introduction of the subway to Forest Hills would turn Queens Boulevard into the "Park Avenue of Queens."

The population nearly doubled in the late 1920s, increasing from 9,500 residents in 1927 to 18,207 residents three years later. By 1940, after the subway opened, the population had increased to 32,500 residents.

In 1972 residents protested against Forest Hills Houses, a proposed public housing development with three 24-story buildings at 62nd Drive and 108th Street. It was part of Mayor John Lindsay "scatter-site" plan to construct public housing in neighborhoods that had none (as opposed to concentrating public housing in poor neighborhoods). White middle-class residents believed that the public housing would depreciate the community's quality of life because poor residents would move into the housing. Advocates for the project accused residents of racism, since the proposed development's residents would be mostly people of minority races. Lindsay garnered significant opposition due to the controversy surrounding Forest Hills Houses. Mario Cuomo, a lawyer and the future Governor of New York, was assigned to mediate the dispute and succeeded in halving the size of the project. The New York City Housing Authority ultimately implemented a rigorous screening process for prospective residents of Forest Hills Houses, with quotas for elderly and poorer tenants.

The entirety of Community Board 6, which comprises Forest Hills and Rego Park, had 115,119 inhabitants as of NYC Health's 2018 Community Health Profile, with an average life expectancy of 85.4 years. This is higher than the median life expectancy of 81.2 for all New York City neighborhoods. The plurality of inhabitants are middle-aged and elderly adults: 31% are between the ages of 25–44, 28% between 45–64, and 19% over 64. The ratio of young and college-aged residents was lower, at 16% and 5% respectively. In 2018, an estimated 16% of Forest Hills and Rego Park residents lived in poverty, compared to 19% in all of Queens and 20% in all of New York City. One in seventeen residents (6%) was unemployed, compared to 8% in Queens and 9% in New York City. Rent burden, or the percentage of residents who have difficulty paying their rent, is 50% in Forest Hills and Rego Park, lower than the boroughwide and citywide rates of 53% and 51% respectively. Based on this calculation, , Forest Hills and Rego Park is considered to be high-income relative to the rest of the city and not gentrifying. The Asian and Latino populations of Forest Hills experienced the most growth from 2010 to 2020.

While Forest Hills Gardens has historically been White and Christian, the rest of Forest Hills grew to be predominantly populated by Jews who had arrived from the Bronx and Brooklyn. By 1970, the neighborhood was estimated to be two-thirds Jewish.

In the present day, Forest Hills continues to have a significant Jewish population (~36%), although it is no longer a majority; many of these are Bukharian Jews, who have had a substantial presence in the neighborhood since the 1970s, especially in the 108th Street area. As of 2011, Forest Hills also has the largest concentration of Filipinos in New York City, at 44%. Furthermore, the neighborhood also has a significant, growing Chinese population, and has been referred to as a Chinatown.

Land use

thumb|right|Forest Hills Gardens, part of Forest Hills

thumb|right|[[The Church-in-the-Gardens in Forest Hills Gardens]]

thumb|right|Grace Baptist with decorative streetlamp in Forest Hills Gardens, Queens

The southern part of Forest Hills contains a particularly diverse mixture of upscale housing, ranging from single-family houses, attached townhouses, and both low-rise and high-rise apartment buildings. South of the Long Island Rail Road, the Forest Hills Gardens area is a private community that features some of the most expensive residential properties in Queens County. Until the 1970s, it was subject to restrictive covenants which, while containing no explicit economic, social or racial restrictions, effectively excluded "working-class people", as noted by Eric P. Nash in his 2002 New York Times book review of A Modern Arcadia. Forest Hills Gardens was named "Best Community" in 2007 by Cottage Living magazine. The adjacent Van Court community also contains a number of detached single-family homes. There are also attached townhouses near the Westside Tennis Center and detached frame houses near Metropolitan Avenue.

The north side of Forest Hills is home to the Cord Meyer community, which contains detached single-family homes. Teardowns and their replacement with larger single family residences has had a significant impact on the architectural integrity of the area. However, the Bukharian Jewish community, whose members have settled in the area in large numbers since the late 1990s, advocating the changes say the bigger homes are needed for their large extended families.

On the northwestern edge of Forest Hills, on 62nd Drive and 108th Street immediately adjacent to the Long Island Expressway, is the Forest Hills Co-op Houses, a New York City Housing Authority low-income housing project. Its construction provoked controversy among the residents in the more prestigious areas of Forest Hills when it was constructed in the early 1970s.

Philip Birnbaum and Alfred Kaskel also designed and constructed numerous apartment buildings scattered throughout Forest Hills. These include the Grover Cleveland, the Van Buren Apartments, the Thomas Jefferson, the Maplewood, the Richard Apartments, the Stephen Apartments, the James Madison, the Cedar Apartments, the Howard Apartments, the James Monroe, the Nathan Hale, the St. Regis, the Roanoke, and the Kennedy House. Birnbaum and Kaskel's buildings largely remain standing, and are distinguished by their spacious lobbies, interior courtyards with fountains, curved brick corner terraces, and sunlit exposures.

Two monuments were erected in Forest Hills Gardens: one is a tribute to the victims of World War I and the other is the mast of the Columbia, the winner of the America's Cup yacht races in both 1899 and 1901.

The Church-in-the-Gardens, St. Luke's Episcopal Church, and United States Post Office are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

center|thumb|750px|Panoramic view of Station Square, 2016

Police and crime

Forest Hills and Rego Park are patrolled by the 112th Precinct of the NYPD, located at 68-40 Austin Street. The 112th Precinct ranked 6th safest out of 69 patrol areas for per-capita crime in 2010. DNAinfo attributed the area's low crime rate to its seclusion and reputation as a "suburb within the city". , with a non-fatal assault rate of 14 per 100,000 people, Forest Hills and Rego Park's rate of violent crimes per capita is less than that of the city as a whole. The incarceration rate of 102 per 100,000 people is lower than that of the city as a whole.

In May 2026, a crime spree of vandalism with antisemitic graffiti and swastikas in Forest Hills and Rego Park struck several synagogues, including Congregation Machane Chodosh and the Rego Park Jewish Center, along with homes, businesses and vehicles. New York public officials condemned the actions as hate crimes, including Governor Hochul as well as Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who called the incidents "a deliberate act of antisemitic hatred meant to instill fear". The New York City Police Department released video of four suspects sought in the incidents.

Fire safety

Forest Hills has a New York City Fire Department (FDNY) fire station, Engine Co. 305/Ladder Co. 151, at 111-02 Queens Boulevard.

Health

, preterm births and births to teenage mothers are less common in Forest Hills and Rego Park than in other places citywide. In Forest Hills and Rego Park, there were 66 preterm births per 1,000 live births (compared to 87 per 1,000 citywide), and 4.6 births to teenage mothers per 1,000 live births (compared to 19.3 per 1,000 citywide).

Post office and ZIP Code

Forest Hills is covered by ZIP Code 11375. The United States Post Office operates the Forest Hills Station at 106-28 Queens Boulevard and the Parkside Station at 10119 Metropolitan Avenue. It was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on November 17, 1988.

Education

Forest Hills and Rego Park generally have a higher percentage of college-educated residents than the rest of the city . The majority of residents (62%) have a college education or higher, while 8% have less than a high school education and 30% are high school graduates or have some college education. By contrast, 39% of Queens residents and 43% of city residents have a college education or higher.

Forest Hills and Rego Park's rate of elementary school student absenteeism is less than the rest of New York City. In Forest Hills and Rego Park, 10% of elementary school students missed twenty or more days per school year, lower than the citywide average of 20%.

K–12 schools

thumb|Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Roman Catholic Church

thumb|[[Forest Hills High School (New York)|Forest Hills High School]]

thumb|Russell Sage Junior High School

Public schools

Forest Hills contains the following public elementary schools which serve grades PK–5 unless otherwise indicated:

  • PS 101 School In The Gardens
  • PS 144 Col. Jeromus Remsen School
  • PS 174 William Sidney Mount
  • PS 175 Lynn Gross Discovery School
  • PS 196 Grand Central Parkway
  • PS 220 Edward Mandel
  • PS 303 The Academy for Excellence through the Arts (grades PK–5)

The following public middle schools serve Forest Hills:

  • JHS 157 Stephen A. Halsey (grades 6–8)
  • MS 167 Metropolitan Expeditionary Learning School (grades 6–12)
  • JHS 190 Russell Sage (grades 6–8)

There are no zoned high schools in New York City. The following high schools in Forest Hills serve grades 9–12:

  • Forest Hills High School
  • Queens Metropolitan High School

Private schools

Private schools in Forest Hills include two Catholic schools (Our Lady of Mercy and Our Lady Queen of Martyrs) and The Kew-Forest School, an independent school. Also located in Forest Hills is Yeshiva Gedolah Lubavitch, an ultra orthodox Chabad high school and branch of Tomchei Temimim.

Colleges

Bramson ORT College was an undergraduate college operated by the American branch of the Jewish charity World ORT. Its main campus was in Forest Hills, with a satellite campus in Brooklyn. It closed in February 2017 after failing to meet standards set by the New York State Education Department Board of Regents and losing its accreditation. Touro College/NYSCAS has a branch location in Forest Hills. Plaza College, a small regionally-accredited college offering associates and bachelors degrees, is also located in Forest Hills.

Libraries

The Queens Public Library operates two branches in Forest Hills. The Forest Hills branch is located at 108-19 71st Avenue, while the North Forest Park branch is located at 98-27 Metropolitan Avenue.

Transportation

Public transportation

The following MTA Regional Bus Operations bus routes serve Forest Hills:

  • : to Elmhurst or Old Howard Beach or Hamilton Beach (via Woodhaven Boulevard)
  • : to East Elmhurst (via 108th Street and 69th Avenue)
  • : to Maspeth (via 62nd Drive (to Maspeth), 63rd Road (to Forest Hills), 63rd Drive)
  • : to Elmhurst or Arverne (via Woodhaven/Cross Bay Boulevard)
  • : to Woodside or Rockaway Park (via Woodhaven/Cross Bay Boulevard)
  • : to Jamaica, Queens or Williamsburg, Brooklyn (via Metropolitan Avenue)
  • : to South Jamaica, Queens or East Midtown, Manhattan (via Queens Boulevard)
  • : to Electchester (via 69th Road/Jewel Avenue)
  • : to Queensborough Community College (via 69th Road/Jewel Avenue)
  • : to Elmhurst or Queens Village (via Horace Harding Expressway)
  • : to Ridgewood or Flushing (via Horace Harding Expressway)
  • : express to Midtown Manhattan (via 69th Road/Jewel Avenue, Sixth Avenue)
  • : express to Midtown Manhattan (via LeFrak City, Sixth Avenue)
  • : express to Lower Manhattan (via Queens Boulevard, LeFrak City, Water Street, Church Street)
  • : express to Midtown Manhattan (via Yellowstone Boulevard, Sixth Avenue)
  • : express to Midtown Manhattan (via Woodhaven Boulevard, Sixth Avenue)
  • : express to Midtown Manhattan (via Queens Boulevard, Sixth Avenue)
  • : express to Midtown Manhattan (via LeFrak City, Third Avenue)
  • : express to Midtown Manhattan (via Yellowstone Boulevard, Third Avenue)
  • : express to Midtown Manhattan (via 69th Road/Jewel Avenue, Third Avenue)
  • : express to Midtown Manhattan (via Woodhaven Boulevard, Madison Avenue)

The following New York City Subway stations serve Forest Hills:

  • ()
  • ()
  • ()
  • ()

Forest Hills is home to the eponymous LIRR station, which is located on Continental Avenue. The southern part of the neighborhood is also close to the Kew Gardens station in neighboring Kew Gardens.

Road

thumb|JetBlue's former headquarters on Queens Boulevard

The main thoroughfare is Queens Boulevard. The street's width and complexity have led to a large number of pedestrian deaths, earning it the moniker "Boulevard of Death". Metropolitan Avenue is known for its antique shops. The commercial heart of Forest Hills is a mile-long stretch of Austin Street between Yellowstone Boulevard and Ascan Avenue: the latter thoroughfare was named in 1909 by developer Frederick Backus for his own father, Ascan Backus II.

Other thoroughfares include 108th Street, which goes to East Elmhurst and terminates at Queens Boulevard at a junction with 71st Avenue and Continental Avenue, Grand Central Parkway, which goes to the Triboro Bridge and Eastern Long Island, and the Long Island Expressway, also known as I-495, or abbreviated to the LIE, which goes to the Midtown Tunnel towards Manhattan, and terminates at Riverhead in Eastern Long Island.

Parks and recreation

Forest Hills is bordered by two of the largest parks in Queens managed by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation: the Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, which is the site of two World's Fairs (in 1939 and 1964) and the iconic Unisphere; as well as the Forest Park. Within Forest Hills, parks and playgrounds include the Yellowstone Municipal Park – Katzman Playground (located on Yellowstone Boulevard, between 68th Avenue and 68th Road); the Annadale Playground (located on Yellowstone Boulevard, between 64th Road and 65th Avenue); the Willow Lake Playground (located off the Grand Central Parkway, between 71st and 72nd Avenues); the Ehrenreich-Austin Playground (located on Austin Street, between 76th Avenue and 76th Drive); and the Russell Sage Playground (located on 68th Avenue, between Booth and Austin Streets).

Access to Flushing Meadows-Corona Park is limited by the Grand Central Parkway, which bisects the neighborhood and the park itself. Pedestrian access over the Grand Central Parkway is available at Horace Harding Expressway, 64th Avenue, Jewel Avenue, and 72nd Road. A shuttered entrance at 78th Avenue, which previously led to Willow Lake and provided pedestrian access to the rest of the park as well as neighboring Kew Gardens Hills, has been closed since 2001. The ballfields and the playground that once surrounded the lake have long been abandoned and neglected by the Parks Department.

Sports

The U.S. Open tennis tournament was first held at the West Side Tennis Club from 1915 until 1977, when it was relocated to the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, about away. When the Open was played at the tennis stadium, the tournament was commonly referred to colloquially as "Forest Hills."

Film

A pivotal scene in Alfred Hitchcock's 1951 film Strangers on a Train, in which Farley Granger's character is a professional tennis player, features a lengthy championship game at the West Side Tennis Club, which was filmed there while the 1950 Davis Cup finals were being played.

In the 2001 movie The Royal Tenenbaums, Luke Wilson's character plays a tennis match at the club.

Literature

Forest Hills was featured as the home setting for the comic book superhero Spider-Man, where under the alias Peter Parker he grew up at 20 Ingram Street (). In the comics the home was depicted as a modest, two-story boarding house run by his Aunt May.

Music

thumb|278x278px|Two pigeons observe the [[Ramones mural on 71st Avenue under the LIRR]]

The Ramones were formed in Forest Hills. The band was recognized with the designation in 2017 of Ramones Way at 67th Avenue and 110th Street, in front of Forest Hills High School.

Simon and Garfunkel both graduated from Forest Hills High School in 1958. The duo performed at Forest Hills Stadium in 1966, 1967, 1968, and two nights in 1970. Paul Simon returned once again to Forest Hills Stadium in 2016 during his Homeward Bound farewell tour and has scheduled a performance there in 2026, his first date in the borough since performing in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in 2018.

Billy Eichner wrote the parody song "Forest Hills State of Mind" about the neighborhood.

Video games

The 2008 Rockstar Games open-world action-adventure/crime game Grand Theft Auto IV, which is set in a parody of New York City called Liberty City, features a parody of Forest Hills called Meadow Hills, located in the borough of Dukes, the GTA equivalent of Queens. It also features a parody of the Forest Hills Station called Lynch Street Station, though in the game it's utilized as a station for the Liberty City Subway system (based on the New York City Subway system) rather than its real-life usage as a Long Island Rail Road station.

Theatre

The 2024 off-Broadway drama The Other Americans, written by John Leguizamo, is about a Colombian family who moves from Jackson Heights to Forest Hills in 1998.

Notable people

  • Jacob Arabo (born 1965), jewelry and watch designer who founded Jacob & Co
  • Awkwafina (born 1988), rapper and actress
  • Hank Azaria (born 1964), actor and voice artist
  • Burt Bacharach (1928–2023), composer, songwriter and producer
  • David Baltimore (born 1938), Nobel Prize-winning virologist
  • Remy Banks, rapper
  • Walter Becker (1950-2017), half of the musical duo Steely Dan
  • Jimmy Breslin (1929-2017), journalist
  • Joseph Bowler (1928–2016), artist and illustrator
  • Daniel Bukantz (1917–2008), Olympic fencer
  • Michael A. Burstein (born 1970), science fiction writer
  • Dale Carnegie (1888–1955), self-improvement lecturer and author of How to Win Friends and Influence People lived at 27 Wendover Rd in Forest Hills.
  • David Caruso (born 1956), actor in CSI: Miami, and NYPD Blue
  • Candy Darling (1944–1974), Warhol superstar who appeared in a number of his films
  • John R. Dilworth (born 1963), animator and creator of Cartoon Network's Courage the Cowardly Dog
  • Sergei Dovlatov (1941–1990), Russian short–story writer and novelist; in 2014, the corner of 63rd Drive and 108th Street was given an honorary designation in his name
  • Walter Egan (born 1948), singer-songwriter ("Magnet and Steel")
  • Billy Eichner (born 1978), comedian, actor, and host of Billy on the Street
  • Geraldine Ferraro (1935–2011), member of U.S. House of Representatives, television personality
  • Art Garfunkel (born 1941), singer-songwriter
  • Ernie Grunfeld (born 1955), former player and general manager of the Washington Wizards
  • Alan Hevesi (1940–2023), disgraced former Comptroller of New York
  • Steve Hofstetter (born 1979), comedian/radio personality
  • John V. Hogan (1890–1960), radio pioneer
  • John Francis Hylan (1848–1936), Mayor of New York City (1918–1925)
  • Ethel D. Jacobs (1910–2001), thoroughbred horse owner and breeder, wife of Hirsch Jacobs
  • Hirsch Jacobs (1904–1970), thoroughbred jockey, husband of Ethel D. Jacobs
  • Donna Karan (born 1948), fashion designer
  • Helen Keller (1880–1968), lecturer, author, fundraiser, activist
  • Alan King (1927–2004), actor/comedian
  • Andrea King (1919–2003), actress
  • Israel Knox (1904–1986), American philosophy professor
  • David Krumholtz (born 1978), actor
  • Gary Kurfirst (1947–2009), concert promoter and record producer
  • Michael Landon (1936–1991), actor known for his roles on Bonanza and Little House on the Prairie
  • George Leggett, local neo-Nazi leader
  • Harvey J. Levin (1924–1992), internationally recognized pioneer of communications economics, holder of Long Island's first professorial chair
  • Jack Lew (born 1955), United States Secretary of the Treasury from 2013 to 2017
  • Trygve Lie (1896–1968), first Secretary-General of the United Nations, serving from 1946 to 1952
  • Carol Lynley (1942–2019), actress best known for her role in The Poseidon Adventure
  • Jack McAuliffe (1866–1937), world lightweight boxing champion
  • Chieli Minucci (born 1958), jazz musician
  • Min Xiao-Fen (born 1961), pipa player and vocalist
  • Michele "Big Mike" Miranda (1896–1973), consigliere of the Genovese crime family and one of the most powerful New York gangsters in the 1950s and 1960s
  • Lore Noto (1923–2002), Off-Broadway producer
  • Carroll O'Connor (1924–2001), actor, best known for his role as Archie Bunker on All in the Family
  • Marco Oppedisano (born 1971), composer and guitarist
  • Rick Overton (born 1954), actor and comedian
  • Susan Polgar (born 1969), chess grandmaster
  • The Ramones, seminal punk rock band:
  • Dee Dee Ramone (1951–2002), bassist and songwriter of the Ramones
  • Joey Ramone (1951–2001), lead singer and songwriter of the Ramones
  • Johnny Ramone (1948–2004), guitarist of the Ramones
  • Tommy Ramone (1952–2014), drummer and record producer of the Ramones
  • Wilhelm Reich (1897–1957), psychiatrist known for his theories of Orgone energy
  • Renée Richards (born 1934), tennis player
  • Branch Rickey (1881–1965), Major League Baseball executive
  • Thelma Ritter (1902–1969), actress
  • Ray Romano (born 1957), actor-comedian, best known for Everybody Loves Raymond
  • Dave Rubinstein (1964–1993), punk rock musician
  • Chris Rush (1946–2018), stand-up comedian
  • Renato Russo (1960–1996), Brazilian bandleader* Todd Strauss-Schulson (born 1980), film director, screenwriter, producer, editor, and cinematographer
  • Debbie Wasserman Schultz (born 1966), member of the U.S. House of Representatives for
  • Joan Shawlee (née Fulton; 1926–1987), actress
  • Michael Simanowitz (1971–2017), member of the New York State Assembly
  • Paul Simon (born 1941), singer-songwriter
  • Tatiana Troyanos (1938–1993), mezzo-soprano known for her work at the Metropolitan Opera
  • Bob Tufts (1955-2019), Major League Baseball pitcher
  • Jeff Wayne (born 1943), musician known for his musical version of The War of the Worlds
  • Katharine Weber (born 1955), novelist, author of five novels, including Triangle and True Confections
  • Leslie West (1945–2020), of the hard rock band Mountain
  • Anthony Weiner (born 1964), politician
  • Adolph Alexander Weinman (1870–1952), sculptor
  • Henry Willson (1911–1978), Hollywood agent
  • Jack Wyatt (1917–2008), host of ABC's Confession; Episcopalian priest
  • Gideon Yago (born 1978), journalist, former correspondent at MTV and CBS News
  • Manuel Ycaza (1938–2018), jockey inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame
  • Pia Zadora (born 1954), actress

Notes

References

  • Forest Hills Neighborhood Profile , About.com