by Michael Perlman, Forest Hills, NY
mperlman@queensledger.com, (917) 446-7775
February 4, 2018
From The Queens Ledger “Mic From Forest Hills” column
As 2017 marked the centennial of the Forest Hills Gardens’ Tennis View Apartments, a committee formed to document, preserve, and celebrate the history and spirit of a half-timbered Tudor co-operative. Among the festivities were a centennial celebration on the Forest Hills Stadium stage, and now the celebration continues with a soon-to-be published centennial book and a centennial tree. It is also timely to honor notable figures that called it home or played a role in its development, contributing much soul.
Developed by Forest Hills Gardens resident Guyon Locke Crocheron Earle (1885 – 1968) and built by Fred F. French Co. in 1917, the 64-apartment “4 Dartmouth Street” originated as “Gardens Apartment,” the first elevator apartment house in the district. Following in its success was the 111-apartment “6 Burns Street,” also developed by Earle and designed by Timmons and Chapman, which originated as “Tennis Place Apartment” circa 1919 to 1921. Earle designed the all-steel, one-piece, “One-Wall Kitchen of Beauty, Quality, and Equipment,” a feature of the kitchens at 6 Burns Street as of 1939.
Earle also served as director of the Forest Hills – Kew Gardens Apartment House Owners Association. Earle’s other local developments included Kew Gardens Terrace, Kew Hall, and Forest Park Apartments. Specializing in the construction of fine homes, 70 Greenway South was the recipient of a 1st prize award in the Better Building Competition of the Queens Chamber of Commerce for 1929.
Elisabeth Krug, granddaughter of Guyon Locke Crocheron Earle and daughter of Rita Ruth Earle, said “The remaining members of the Earle family, where four of us are named Guyon after our grandfather and great-grandfather, are so very pleased that Tennis View Apartments is celebrating the centennial of this beautiful place. Our dear Guyon wanted to make the world a better place, and we are very proud of him. He thought architecture and innovations, like his 1940s high-tech kitchen unit that he marketed with Buckminster Fuller, could transform people’s lives, so that they could concentrate on what’s important; family, friends, service to the country and G-D. He wanted places to be beautiful, so that we could reach beyond our hum-drum existence and think about things larger than life. He loved New York, was raised in Manhattan, and lived in Forest Hills, where my mom and her two sisters were raised. He attended Horace Mann, like my mom, and Columbia, like my brother, cousin, and I.”
In 1931, Doris Earle, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Guyon L.C. Earle of 37 Greenway South, wed Arthur Travis Williams, and after their honeymoon, settled at 6 Burns Street.
A notable resident of 4 Dartmouth Street was Alrick Hubbell Man, Jr. (1892 – 1975) whose father Alrick Man developed Kew Gardens and his grandfather Albon Man founded Richmond Hill. Building upon his family’s real estate roots, he worked for his father and later served as president of the Forest Hills – Kew Gardens Apartment Owners Association between 1934 and 1950. He told The New York Times in 1939 that 26 elevator apartment buildings were erected locally in 1938, offering accommodations for nearly 1,800 families. He attributed the success to the new municipal subway, expansion of the Long Island parkway system, and the upcoming 1939 World’s Fair.
He is largely remembered for his influences in tennis. He was the WSTC Captain from 1935 to 1937, observed, developed, and coached young tennis players as chair of the Junior Davis Cup Committee in 1937, and earned the title of president of the West Side Tennis Club from 1941 to 1943, after serving as vice president from 1939 to 1940. During his presidency, WSTC celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1942, and members in “Gay Nineties” costumes participated in a reenactment of the founding before a delighted gallery who attended the tennis championships finals.
As the non-playing captain of the US Davis Cup team from 1947 to 1950, he assisted players to prepare physically and mentally, resulting in victories by Jack Kramer, Ted Schroeder, and Pancho Gonzales. Additionally, he served as chairman of the US Davis Cup committee from 1951 to 1955, and among his other positions was chairman of its national championships committee. With a mission to promote tennis worldwide, he founded the International Club.
Man Jr. is a class of 1913 graduate of Yale University, where he was a team captain, runner-up in the national intercollegiate singles championship in 1912, and shared the doubles title a year later.
In 1925, Dr. Philip Bovier Hawk (1874 – 1966), a soldier, an accomplished biochemist and tennis player took residence at 6 Burns Street, and said he wanted to “live as close as possible to the tennis courts, without actually living on them.” He was a winner of the 1921, 1922, and 1923 National Veterans Tennis Championship and WSTC captain from 1926 to 1929, before becoming vice president in 1930 and president from 1931 to 1932. Additionally, he served as first vice president of the Eastern Lawn Tennis Association. He was the wife of tennis player Gladys Taylor.
He founded Food Research Laboratories in 1922, and tested his theories on humans and white rats, rabbits, and guinea pigs. In 1931, he stated, “Recently, we were working on the problem of food compounds that would cure rickets. By taking certain elements from the food of the rats, we soon made them rickety. X-ray pictures showed the condition plainly. Then we experimented and discovered what elements cure the condition again. Our knowledge can now be used to help human children.”
He earned his Master of Science from Yale in 1902 and Doctor of Philosophy from Columbia University in 1903. His numerous membership affiliations included the Davis Cup Committee, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Medical Association, and American Chemical Society. Hawk authored books such as “Off The Racket: Tennis Highlights and Lowdowns,” Streamline For Health,” “What We Eat and What Happens To It,” and “Practical Physiological Chemistry.”
Architect, inventor, theorist, and author R. Buckminster Fuller (1895 – 1983), the “father of the Geodesic Dome,” resided at 6 Burns Street. Fuller incorporated Earle’s revolutionary kitchen into his famed aluminum “Dymaxion House of the future.” This remnant of Forest Hills history was salvaged in the early 1990s from 6 Burns Street to Michigan’s Henry Ford Museum.
Fuller’s daughter, Allegra Fuller Snyder is the founder and first president of Buckminster Fuller Institute, Professor Emerita of Dance and Dance Ethnology, UCLA, and founding coordinator of the World Arts and Cultures Program. As a result of Alrick Man, Jr, her mother Anne Hewlett Fuller moved into 6 Burns Street in 1944. She said, “I came to 6 Burns Street after my graduation in 1945. One of my favorite recollections is Alrick Man Jr introducing me to Don Budge, and he would take me and my mother to the National Tennis Championships in Forest Hills.”
She explained, “My father was in Wichita, Kansas, working with the Beech Aircraft Company on the development of the Dymaxion Deployment Unit, which they hoped would be the mass-produced, single-family dwelling unit, whose production and distribution were modeled after Henry Ford’s mass-produced auto industry. They hoped that this would solve the acute housing shortage experienced by the soldiers and their families following World War II, but Beech then decided to stay in the aircraft industry.” Fuller came to Forest Hills in 1948.
The Geodesic Dome was patented by Fuller in 1947, and his domes worldwide exceeded 4,000 through 1970. A dome’s spherical structure is considered a most efficient interior atmosphere for shelter, since air and energy are allowed to circulate without obstruction, and enables natural heating and cooling.
A most popular Fuller dome accommodated the United States pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal, but locally in Flushing Meadows Corona Park stands the Aviary. This Geodesic Dome of the Queens Zoo was erected for the 1964 World’s Fair as the “World’s Fair Pavilion” and dedicated to Winston Churchill. The firm behind its installation was Eggers & Higgins, and the framing was designed by Synergetics, an organization that he established, but Fuller was behind the dome.
“My father holds 47 honorary degrees and received approximately 90 awards including the Medal of Freedom, the highest award presented in America,” she said. He delivered approximately 1,035 lectures at 522 educational institutions countrywide and worldwide, and was the author of 26 books.
To learn more about Buckminster Fuller: https://foresthillsgardensfoundation.org/buckminster-fuller/
Thank you to the researchers at the WSTC Foundation for providing information from their archives.
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