Looking East to Westmoreland

Bound by Northern Boulevard on the south, Little Neck Parkway on the west, the Long Island Railroad to the north and Nassau Road on the east, Westmoreland is a neighborhood straddling northeast Queens' suburban-urban divide.

“It’s great because I live in the city, but get to feel this sense of 'green space' surrounding my home, which is something I value greatly,” said Walter Mugdan, a longtime Westmoreland resident. “That’s why I moved here 30 years ago.” 

Built between 1905 and 1930 on farmland purchased from Mary and Benjamin Woolley by the Rickert-Finlay Company, Westmoreland's bucolic aesthetic is written into every title and deed of the 320 homes included in the neighborhood.

The stipulations, also known as covenants, call for each homeowner to protect the trees that give Westmoreland its leafy character.

And according to Mugdan, it certainly does 'take a village' to enforce these protective covenants.

“The Westmoreland Association works tirelessly to protect the character of our community,” Mugdan said. “Even if it means taking a new developer to court when they violate these agreements."

However, Mugdan admitted some of the 13 building restrictions set forth by the Rickert-Finlay Company when they developed the area aren’t particularly relevant today.

"Some of the covenants are a bit dated, like not being able to build a stable closer than 60 feet to the front line of your lot," he said. "However, others are quite useful in maintaining the open welcoming aesthetic that I think the Rickert-Finlay Company was going for when they built the Westmoreland community."

It's a look appreciated by many in the Little Neck-Douglaston area, many of whom are enamored by the rolling hills and mixed-style homes peppered throughout the area.

“One of the nicest things about living here is getting to soak in streets like those in Westmoreland,” said Little Neck Hills resident Carol Byrnes while waiting for the Penn Station-bound train at Little Neck LIRR station near Westmoreland.

“Especially in the spring and summer… I love basking in the mix of Tudors, Capes, and Colonials as I make my way home from work,” Byrnes said. “It’s refreshing.”

Still, there’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes to keep the streets of Westmoreland looking as rustic as they do.

“The city cannot enforce the covenants attached to the title and deeds of the Westmoreland home,” said Community Board 11 district manager Susan Seinfeld. “So the onus is on residents living in the community to enforce those rules.”  

Though for community activists like Mugdan, the ongoing fight to preserve Westmoreland's unique character is well worth all the court battles.

“There’s something to be said for doing things the old-fashioned way ... and I love my little community,” said Mugdan, who summed up the tug-of-war between development and preservation by paraphrasing Thomas Jefferson's famous quote on freedom: “Eternal vigilance is the price of our protective covenants."