The Deepdale of Yore

It's hard to imagine it today, but where  now sits used to be a land of pastures, farms and forests. 

"As a child, I'd go to those hills with my brother... they were the highest point in Little Neck and on a clear day we could see all the way to the city," said Mary Meeuws, a longtime Little Neck resident who has lived in the area for over 70 years.

"We used to love looking at the Empire State building," she said, reminiscing about a rural enclave that long ago faded into history.

"My cousins also joked how they loved visiting the country whenever they came to see us," Meeuws said, noting that when she was a little girl cows were plentiful and houses were few and far between. "We'd hike the trails with them, and go on nature walks and pick blackberries off the wild bushes that populated the hills."

But the country landscape of Little Neck changed very rapidly with the end of World War II.

Driven by the demands of veterans returning home from war, the Deepdale Garden Apartments sprang up and, by 1954, the largest federally sponsored 'limited-equity' housing cooperative in the area opened for occupancy — satiating a need for affordable housing for the city's growing population.

"There wasn't a whole lot in the area before the 1950s... only a few roads. Then we saw an explosion in the population of Little Neck," Meeuws said.

According to Meeuws, in just a few short years, farmland and pastures gave way to schools, playgrounds, community centers and houses of worship. Throughout the 1950s and 60s the region raced to develop.

“The area certainly changed... for the better I think. And the people in Deepdale definitely helped shape the landscape of Little Neck,” she said.

Today local residents can take advantage of the in the summers, or join in one of the many activities at the , which has been in existence for over 60 years.

Meeuws also noted that Little Neck is home to , one of the highest rated schools the New York City public education system, and that the children of Deepdale are in walking distance from their elementary and junior high schools.

Still, from time to time, Meeuws likes to look back at a time when Little Neck was a little less city and a lot more country.

"It was nice growing up here back then ... Talking about it makes me very nostalgic," Meeuws said.

is a self-managed cooperative community consisting of 69 buildings, which house 1,396 garden-style apartments. Each home comes with a share in one of four corporations.