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You could call Ridgewood’s Stockholm Street the yellow brick road of Queens. The street’s main claim to fame is a charming landmarked block boasting 36 homes built with yellow brick from the Balthazar Kreischer kilns of Staten Island. The street itself  is constructed with red-brown brick from the same kilns — and it’s the only brick-paved street in the borough.

There are similar rows of yellow brick houses elsewhere in Ridgewood and in Long Island City, but only these have the added attraction of thin, Doric-columned porches.

It makes for one of the most distinctive parts of Ridgewood — an area that’s seeing an influx of newcomers arriving via neighboring Bushwick and other Brooklyn neighborhoods. It’s an area worth a visit for those thinking about following suit, or just exploring Queens.

Bushwick and parts of Ridgewood long ago were nicknamed Old Germania Heights; dozens of breweries and German beer halls used to dot the landscape on the side streets. While there are still many Germans in New York City, former strongholds such as the East Village, Yorkville, and this area have evolved and changed over the decades.

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The yellow-brick homes — which sit on the northeastern end of the street, between Onderdonk and Woodward Avenues — were nearly all constructed between 1907 and 1910, when German-Americans and immigrants from Germany were developing Ridgewood. The block was given landmark status in 2000. 

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Nearby attractions: St. Aloysius Church, built by architect Francis Berlenbach between 1907-1917 at Onderdonk Ave. and Stockholm Street, is the largest building in the city constructed with Kreischer brick. At 165 feet in height its twin campaniles are rivaled in the general area only by the Spanish Baroque St. Barbara’s R.C. Church at Central Avenue and Bleecker Street, eight avenues to the south.

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Near Stockholm Street is the historic  Van Der Ende-Onderdonk House, also known as the Van Nanda-Onderdonk House. Built around 1710, the structure — currently the home of the Greater Ridgewood Historical Society — is the last in a group of colonial-era Dutch houses in the Ridgewood-Maspeth area.

It was most likely built by a farmer, Paulus Van Der Ende of Flatbush; his heir Frederick Van Nanda owned it in the late 1700s and early 1800s. It was sold to Adrian Onderdonck in 1831, and his descendants lived in the house until the late 1880s. Of course the adjacent street, Onderdonk Avenue, is named for the family.

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How to get there and where to eat: The area is well-served by mass transit, as the DeKalb Avenue L train station serves the immediate neighborhood, while the B38 bus running on Stanhope Street and Woodward and DeKalb Avenues connects to the subway as well as to Bushwick, Bedford Stuyvesant and Downtown Brooklyn.

Nearby places to eat include the Bravo Cafe and Sabores Peruvian Restaurant. Park space abounds, including the Grover Cleveland High School Athletic Field and separate playground. Visitors and locals can find groceries at the Associated Supermarket.

Curious about real estate in the area? Houses in the immediate area rarely come up for sale, but when they do, you’ll pay upwards of $800,000 for a two-family. Rentals are easier to find, and generally start at about $1,500 for a one-bedroom. You can find sales and rental listings on Brownstoner Queens Real Estate.

History of the area: It turns out Stockholm Street was not named for any historic Scandinavian community in the area (there were certainly large ones in Bay Ridge and Sunset Park). It was named for two brothers, Andrew and Abraham Stockholm, according to Leonard Benardo and Jennifer Weiss’ handy Brooklyn By Name.

The brothers provided the land on which Bushwick’s Second Dutch Reformed Church was built in 1850. It’s still standing at Bushwick Avenue and Himrod Street.

Kevin Walsh is the webmaster of the award-winning Forgotten NY and the author of Forgotten New York and, with the Greater Astoria Historical Society, Forgotten Queens


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