Central Avenue Historic District

Central Avenue Historic District covers parts of five city blocks in Ridgewood, Queens, and consists of 104 three-story brick tenements on 65th Place and 66th Street, between 70th Avenue and Myrtle Avenue. All were built in 1916 by developer Henry W. Meyer, who hired Louis Berger and Co., described as Ridgewood's most prolific architectural firm. Each building holds two apartments per floor and has amber iron-spot brick patterns, cast-stone lintels and sills, brownstone stoops with ironwork, and pressed metal cornices. Small enclosed front gardens sit behind the lot line. The rows imitate the 'Mathews Flats' model tenements, sharing wide lots, interior airshafts, large windows in every room and separate sanitary facilities in each apartment, though the facade treatment differs. Rows on 66th Street north of Central Avenue have brick parapets instead of metal cornices, reflecting an early move toward simpler detailing. The buildings remain largely intact, with changes mostly limited to doors, ironwork and awnings.