Forest Hills is a neighborhood in the central part of the borough of Queens in New York City. It is next to Corona to the north, Rego Park and Glendale to the west, Forest Park to the south, Kew Gardens to the southeast, and Flushing Meadows–Corona Park and Kew Gardens Hills to the east.

The area was originally called "Whitepot." The name Forest Hills came from the Cord Meyer Development Company, which purchased 660 acres (270 hectares) in central Queens in 1906 and renamed the area after Forest Park. More development happened in the 1920s and 1930s, including the expansion of Queens Boulevard through the neighborhood and the opening of the New York City Subway's Queens Boulevard Line. Forest Hills has a long history with tennis: the Forest Hills Stadium held the U.S. Open from 1915 to 1977, and the West Side Tennis Club provides grass courts for its members. The main commercial street, Austin Street, has many restaurants and chain stores.

Forest Hills is in Queens Community District 6, and its ZIP Code is 11375. The area is patrolled by the New York City Police Department's 112th Precinct. Politically, Forest Hills is represented by the New York City Council's 29th District. It is located in New York's 6th congressional district.

History

The development of adjacent Forest Park, a park located on the southern end of Forest Hills, began in 1895. In 1896, the landscape design company Olmsted, Olmsted & Eliot was hired to create a plan for the park.

In 1906, the Cord Meyer Development Company, led by Brooklyn lawyer Cord Meyer, purchased land that included six farms owned by Ascan Bakus, Casper Joost-Springsteen, Horatio N. Squire, Abram V. S. Lott, Sarah V. Bolmer, and James Van Siclen. The company combined these 600 acres (240 hectares) and renamed the area "Forest Hills," after Forest Park. Single-family homes, designed by architects such as Robert Tappan and William Patterson, were built on this land. By 1910, roads in Forest Hills were completed. Today, Ascan Avenue is named after Ascan Bakus.

In 1908, Margaret Sage, who founded the Russell Sage Foundation, purchased 142 acres (57 hectares) of land from the Cord Meyer Development Company. This land was used to create "Forest Hills Gardens," a development on the southern side of Forest Hills.

Grosvenor Atterbury, along with his associate architect John Almy Tompkins II, who lived in Forest Hills, was asked to design Forest Hills Gardens.

Many homes in Forest Hills are built in the Tudor Revival style, often featuring stucco walls and red Ludowici clay tile roofs. The largest buildings are in Forest Hills Gardens, but many are found in the area bounded roughly by 68th Avenue on the north, 72nd Road on the south, 108th Street on the west, and Grand Central Parkway on the east.

The construction of this area used a prefabricated method. Each house was made from about 170 standardized precast concrete panels built off-site and placed by crane. Most houses were built between 1910 and 1917. To manage trash, Forest Hills Gardens was designed with alleys where small garbage trucks collected household waste.

The Long Island Rail Road opened a station in Forest Hills in 1906, and the Queens Boulevard trolley line opened in 1913. The LIRR station included a brick courtyard, a clock tower, and arch-filled underpasses, matching the style of Forest Hills Gardens. Because these transportation options connected to Manhattan, they helped increase development in Forest Hills.

In 1914, the West Side Tennis Club moved from Manhattan to Forest Hills Gardens. They built the Forest Hills Tennis Stadium, which had about 13,000 seats, in 1923. The U.S. Open and its earlier national championships were held there until 1978, making Forest Hills closely associated with tennis. Forest Hills also had a golf course for a short time. The Queens Valley Golf Club started building a course in 1922 and opened it in 1924, but the club closed in 1938 to make way for new housing.

Queens Boulevard was widened in the 1920s. Planning for a subway line along Queens Boulevard began around this time. Two subway stations were proposed in Forest Hills: one at 71st Avenue for express trains and one at 75th Avenue for local trains. In the late 1920s, developers bought land and built up the area in preparation for the subway. Zoning laws were changed to allow fifteen-story apartment buildings, making Forest Hills more attractive to live in, especially as it would be an express stop. Queens Borough President George Harvey predicted the subway would make Queens Boulevard the "Park Avenue of Queens." Subway construction began in 1931, and the two stations in Forest Hills opened in 1936 along with six other stations on the line.

The population in Forest Hills nearly doubled in the late 1920s, growing from 9,500 residents in 1927 to 18,207 residents by 1930. By 1940, after the subway opened, the population reached 32,500 residents. Development slowed during World War II, but about 25 empty lots in Forest Hills Gardens were built on after the war. At the same time, many single-family homes in Forest Hills were torn down to make space for new apartment buildings. By the 1960s, the land in Forest Hills Gardens was fully developed, but some empty lots in Forest Hills remained until the mid-1990s.

In the late 1950s, a small neo-Nazi group called the "United Nordic Confederation," led by resident George Leggett, was active in Forest Hills. In 1958, the NYPD stopped the group’s plan to rob a bank in nearby Kew Gardens to fund an upstate training camp.

In 1972, residents protested against Forest Hills Houses, a proposed public housing development with three 24-story buildings at 62nd Drive and 108th Street. The project was part of Mayor John Lindsay’s plan to build public housing in neighborhoods without existing housing, rather than concentrating it in poor areas. White middle-class residents feared the housing would lower the quality of life, while supporters argued the opposition was racist, as the residents would mostly be people of minority races. Lindsay faced strong opposition due to the controversy. Mario Cuomo, a lawyer and future Governor of New York, helped mediate the dispute and reduced the project’s size. The New York City Housing Authority later used strict screening for residents, including quotas for elderly and low-income tenants.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Forest Hills became more racially diverse. Discriminatory rules for Forest Hills Gardens residents were removed, and immigrants from Iran, India, Israel, and the former Soviet Union began living in the area.

Demographics

According to the 2010 United States census, Forest Hills had a population of 86,364 people, which was an increase of 1,318 (1.5%) compared to the 85,046 people counted in 2000. The neighborhood covers an area of 1,328.22 acres (537.51 hectares) and has a population density of 63.0 people per acre (40,300 per square mile; 15,600 per square kilometer).

Community Board 6, which includes Forest Hills and Rego Park, had 115,119 people as of NYC Health’s 2018 Community Health Profile. The average life expectancy in this area was 85.4 years, which is higher than the median life expectancy of 81.2 years for all New York City neighborhoods. Most residents are middle-aged or elderly adults: 31% are aged 25–44, 28% are aged 45–64, and 19% are over 64. Fewer residents are young (16%) or college-aged (5%).

As of 2025, the median household income in Community Board 6 was $54,057. In 2018, about 16% of residents in Forest Hills and Rego Park lived in poverty, which is lower than the 19% poverty rate in all of Queens and the 20% rate in all of New York City. About 6% of residents were unemployed, compared to 8% in Queens and 9% in New York City. Rent burden, or the percentage of residents struggling to pay rent, was 50% in Forest Hills and Rego Park, which is lower than the boroughwide rate of 53% and the citywide rate of 51%. Based on this data, Forest Hills and Rego Park are considered high-income areas compared to the rest of the city and are not gentrifying.

The 2010 census showed that the racial makeup of Forest Hills was 58.3% (48,822) White, 2.5% (2,086) African American, 0.1% (63) Native American, 24.2% (20,233) Asian, 0.0% (22) Pacific Islander, 0.4% (373) from other races, and 2.1% (1,719) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents made up 12.4% (10,410) of the population. The Asian and Latino populations grew the most between 2010 and 2020.

Historically, Forest Hills Gardens was mostly White and Christian. However, the rest of Forest Hills became predominantly Jewish, with many Jews moving from the Bronx and Brooklyn. By 1970, about two-thirds of the neighborhood’s residents were Jewish. Today, Forest Hills still has a large Jewish population (about 36%), though Jews are no longer the majority. Many of these residents are Bukharian Jews, who have lived in the area since the 1970s, especially near 108th Street. As of 2011, Forest Hills had the largest concentration of Filipinos in New York City, with 44% of residents being Filipino. The neighborhood also has a growing Chinese population and is sometimes called a Chinatown.

Land use

The southern part of Forest Hills has a variety of high-quality homes, including single-family houses, attached townhouses, and both low-rise and high-rise apartment buildings. South of the Long Island Rail Road, the Forest Hills Gardens area is a private community with some of the most expensive homes in Queens County. Until the 1970s, this area had rules that, while not explicitly based on race, income, or social status, still limited the ability of working-class people to live there, as noted by Eric P. Nash in his 2002 New York Times book review of A Modern Arcadia. In 2007, Forest Hills Gardens was named "Best Community" by Cottage Living magazine. Nearby, the Van Court community has several detached single-family homes. Attached townhouses are also found near the Westside Tennis Center, and detached frame houses are located near Metropolitan Avenue.

The northern side of Forest Hills includes the Cord Meyer community, which has many detached single-family homes. Over time, some older homes have been torn down and replaced with larger single-family homes, which has changed the look of the area. However, the Bukharian Jewish community, which has lived in the area since the late 1990s, supports these changes, saying larger homes are needed for their large families.

On the northwestern edge of Forest Hills, near 62nd Drive and 108th Street and close to the Long Island Expressway, is the Forest Hills Co-op Houses, a low-income housing project managed by the New York City Housing Authority. Its construction in the early 1970s caused controversy among residents in wealthier parts of Forest Hills.

The southeastern part of Forest Hills includes Forest Hills South, a group of seven Georgian-style apartment buildings built around a private English garden. This area was once part of 113th Street before the complex was built in 1939. It was designed by Philip Birnbaum.

Philip Birnbaum and Alfred Kaskel also designed many apartment buildings across Forest Hills. These include the Grover Cleveland, Van Buren Apartments, Thomas Jefferson, Maplewood, Richard Apartments, Stephen Apartments, James Madison, Cedar Apartments, Howard Apartments, James Monroe, Nathan Hale, St. Regis, Roanoke, and Kennedy House. Most of these buildings still stand today and are known for their large lobbies, interior courtyards with fountains, curved brick terraces, and bright, sunny rooms. Other notable high-rise buildings include the Continental (on 108th Street), the Pinnacle, Parker Towers, the Windsor, and a 17-story luxury condo building called the Aston, completed in 2014.

Points of interest

Austin Street is a busy, modern street with shops, cafes, restaurants, and other stores that are the main place for people in Forest Hills.

Two monuments were built in Forest Hills Gardens: one honors the people who died in World War I, and the other is the mast of the Columbia, the ship that won the America's Cup yacht races in 1899 and 1901.

The Church-in-the-Gardens, St. Luke's Episcopal Church, and United States Post Office are on the National Register of Historic Places.

Police and crime

The 112th Precinct of the NYPD, located at 68-40 Austin Street, is responsible for patrolling Forest Hills and Rego Park. In 2010, the 112th Precinct was ranked 6th safest among 69 patrol areas based on per-person crime rates. DNAinfo noted that the area’s low crime rate is due to its location away from the city center and its reputation as a "suburb within the city." As of 2018, the non-fatal assault rate in Forest Hills and Rego Park was 14 per 100,000 people, which is lower than the city’s overall violent crime rate per person. The incarceration rate in the area was 102 per 100,000 people, also lower than the city’s overall rate.

Compared to the 1990s, the 112th Precinct has a much lower crime rate today. Between 1990 and 2018, crime in all categories decreased by 91.5%. In 2018, the precinct reported 0 murders, 18 rapes, 41 robberies, 53 felony assaults, 69 burglaries, 403 grand larcenies, and 37 grand larcenies auto.

Fire safety

Forest Hills is home to a New York City Fire Department (FDNY) fire station called Engine Co. 305/Ladder Co. 151, which is located at 111-02 Queens Boulevard.

Health

As of 2018, fewer babies were born early and fewer babies were born to teenage mothers in Forest Hills and Rego Park compared to other areas in the city. In these neighborhoods, there were 66 early births for every 1,000 live births (compared to 87 per 1,000 citywide), and 4.6 births to teenage mothers for every 1,000 live births (compared to 19.3 per 1,000 citywide). Forest Hills and Rego Park have a small number of residents without health insurance. In 2018, about 11% of residents were uninsured, which is slightly less than the citywide rate of 12%.

The amount of tiny particles in the air, which is the most harmful type of air pollution, in Forest Hills and Rego Park was 0.0075 milligrams per cubic metre (7.5 × 10 oz/ft³), the same as the city average. Ten percent of residents in these areas smoke, which is lower than the citywide rate of 14%. In Forest Hills and Rego Park, 19% of residents are obese, 7% have diabetes, and 20% have high blood pressure—compared to citywide averages of 20%, 14%, and 24%, respectively. Also, 11% of children in these areas are obese, compared to 20% citywide.

Ninety-three percent of residents eat fruits and vegetables every day, which is higher than the city’s average of 87%. In 2018, 82% of residents said their health was "good," "very good," or "excellent," which is higher than the city’s average of 78%. For every supermarket in Forest Hills and Rego Park, there are 5 bodegas.

Long Island Jewish Forest Hills is located in Forest Hills.

Post office and ZIP Code

Forest Hills uses ZIP Code 11375. The United States Post Office operates the Forest Hills Station at 106-28 Queens Boulevard and the Parkside Station at 10119 Metropolitan Avenue. Forest Hills was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on November 17, 1988.

Education

As of 2018, Forest Hills and Rego Park had a higher percentage of residents with college degrees compared to the rest of the city. In these areas, 62% of residents have a college degree or higher, 8% have less than a high school diploma, and 30% have a high school diploma or some college education. In contrast, 39% of Queens residents and 43% of city residents have a college degree or higher. Between 2000 and 2011, the percentage of students in Forest Hills and Rego Park who performed well in math increased from 42% to 61%, while reading achievement rose slightly from 48% to 49% during the same time.

In Forest Hills and Rego Park, fewer elementary school students missed school compared to the rest of New York City. Only 10% of elementary students in these areas missed 20 or more days per school year, which is lower than the citywide average of 20%. Additionally, 91% of high school students in Forest Hills and Rego Park graduated on time, which is higher than the citywide average of 75%.

Queens Community House offers free English classes to immigrants.

Public elementary schools in Forest Hills include the following, which serve grades PK–5 unless otherwise noted:
• PS 101 School In The Gardens
• PS 144 Col. Jeromus Remsen School
• PS 174 William Sidney Mount
• PS 175 Lynn Gross Discovery School
• PS 196 Grand Central Parkway
• PS 220 Edward Mandel
• PS 303 The Academy for Excellence through the Arts (grades PK–5)

Public middle schools in Forest Hills include:
• JHS 157 Stephen A. Halsey (grades 6–8)
• MS 167 Metropolitan Expeditionary Learning School (grades 6–12)
• JHS 190 Russell Sage (grades 6–8)

New York City does not have zoned high schools. High schools in Forest Hills that serve grades 9–12 include:
• Forest Hills High School
• Queens Metropolitan High School

Private schools in Forest Hills include two Catholic schools (Our Lady of Mercy and Our Lady Queen of Martyrs) and The Kew-Forest School, an independent school. Yeshiva Gedolah Lubavitch, an ultra-orthodox Chabad high school and branch of Tomchei Temimim, is also located in Forest Hills.

Bramson ORT College was an undergraduate college operated by the American branch of the Jewish charity World ORT. Its main campus was in Forest Hills, with a satellite campus in Brooklyn. It closed in February 2017 after failing to meet standards set by the New York State Education Department Board of Regents and losing its accreditation. Touro College/NYSCAS has a branch in Forest Hills. Plaza College, a small regionally-accredited college offering associate and bachelor’s degrees, is also located in Forest Hills.

The Queens Public Library operates two branches in Forest Hills. The Forest Hills branch is located at 108-19 71st Avenue, while the North Forest Park branch is located at 98-27 Metropolitan Avenue.

Transportation

The following MTA Regional Bus Operations bus routes serve Forest Hills:

• Q11: to Elmhurst, Old Howard Beach, or Hamilton Beach (using Woodhaven Boulevard)
• Q23: to East Elmhurst (using 108th Street and 69th Avenue)
• Q38: to Maspeth (using 62nd Drive, 63rd Road, and 63rd Drive)
• Q52 SBS: to Elmhurst or Arverne (using Woodhaven/Cross Bay Boulevard)
• Q53 SBS: to Woodside or Rockaway Park (using Woodhaven/Cross Bay Boulevard)
• Q54: to Jamaica, Queens or Williamsburg, Brooklyn (using Metropolitan Avenue)
• Q60: to South Jamaica, Queens or East Midtown, Manhattan (using Queens Boulevard)
• Q64: to Electchester (using 69th Road/Jewel Avenue)
• Q74: to Queensborough Community College (using 69th Road/Jewel Avenue)
• Q88: to Elmhurst or Queens Village (using Horace Harding Expressway)
• Q98: to Ridgewood or Flushing (using Horace Harding Expressway)
• QM4: express to Midtown Manhattan (using 69th Road/Jewel Avenue, Sixth Avenue)
• QM10: express to Midtown Manhattan (using LeFrak City, Sixth Avenue)
• QM11: express to Lower Manhattan (using Queens Boulevard, LeFrak City, Water Street, Church Street)
• QM12: express to Midtown Manhattan (using Yellowstone Boulevard, Sixth Avenue)
• QM15: express to Midtown Manhattan (using Woodhaven Boulevard, Sixth Avenue)
• QM18: express to Midtown Manhattan (using Queens Boulevard, Sixth Avenue)
• QM40: express to Midtown Manhattan (using LeFrak City, Third Avenue)
• QM42: express to Midtown Manhattan (using Yellowstone Boulevard, Third Avenue)
• QM44: express to Midtown Manhattan (using 69th Road/Jewel Avenue, Third Avenue)
• BM5: express to Midtown Manhattan (using Woodhaven Boulevard, Madison Avenue)

The following New York City Subway stations serve Forest Hills:

• 67th Avenue (M and R trains)
• Forest Hills–71st Avenue (E, F, <F>, M, and R trains)
• 75th Avenue (E, F, and <F> trains)
• Kew Gardens–Union Turnpike (E, F, and <F> trains)

Forest Hills has a train station named after the area, located on Continental Avenue. The southern part of the neighborhood is near the Kew Gardens station in the neighboring area of Kew Gardens.

The main road in Forest Hills is Queens Boulevard. This road is wide and complex, which has led to many pedestrian accidents. Because of this, it is sometimes called the "Boulevard of Death." Metropolitan Avenue is known for its antique shops. The commercial center of Forest Hills is a one-mile stretch of Austin Street between Yellowstone Boulevard and Ascan Avenue. Ascan Avenue was named in 1909 by developer Frederick Backus for his father, Ascan Backus II.

Other roads include 108th Street, which connects to East Elmhurst and ends at Queens Boulevard near 71st Avenue, Continental Avenue, and Grand Central Parkway. Grand Central Parkway leads to the Triboro Bridge and Eastern Long Island. The Long Island Expressway, also called I-495 or the LIE, connects to the Midtown Tunnel toward Manhattan and ends at Riverhead in Eastern Long Island.

Parks and recreation

Forest Hills is surrounded by two of the largest parks in Queens, managed by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation: Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, which covers 1,255 acres (5.08 km²), and Forest Park, which covers 544 acres (2.20 km²). Flushing Meadows–Corona Park is famous for hosting two World's Fairs in 1939 and 1964 and for the well-known Unisphere. Forest Park is also a major green space in the area. Within Forest Hills, there are several smaller parks and playgrounds, including Yellowstone Municipal Park – Katzman Playground (on Yellowstone Boulevard, between 68th Avenue and 68th Road); Annadale Playground (on Yellowstone Boulevard, between 64th Road and 65th Avenue); Willow Lake Playground (off the Grand Central Parkway, between 71st and 72nd Avenues); Ehrenreich-Austin Playground (on Austin Street, between 76th Avenue and 76th Drive); and Russell Sage Playground (on 68th Avenue, between Booth and Austin Streets).

Access to Flushing Meadows–Corona Park is limited because the Grand Central Parkway divides the neighborhood and the park. Pedestrians can cross the parkway at the Horace Harding Expressway, 64th Avenue, Jewel Avenue, and 72nd Road. A closed entrance at 78th Avenue, which once connected to Willow Lake and allowed access to the rest of the park and nearby Kew Gardens Hills, has been sealed since 2001. The ballfields and playground near Willow Lake are no longer used and have not been maintained by the Parks Department.

In popular culture

The U.S. Open tennis tournament was first held at the West Side Tennis Club from 1915 until 1977. It was then moved to the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows Park, about 4 miles (6.4 km) away. When the tournament was held at the tennis stadium, it was often called "Forest Hills" by people.

An important scene in Alfred Hitchcock's 1951 movie Strangers on a Train takes place at the West Side Tennis Club. In this scene, Farley Granger's character is a professional tennis player. The scene was filmed there during the 1950 Davis Cup finals.

In the 2001 movie The Royal Tenenbaums, Luke Wilson's character plays a tennis match at the club.

Forest Hills is the home setting for the comic book superhero Spider-Man. In the comics, Peter Parker, Spider-Man's alter ego, lives at 20 Ingram Street (40°42′46″N 73°50′36″W / 40.712805°N 73.843281°W). The home is shown as a small, two-story boarding house owned by his Aunt May.

The Ramones, a famous band, was formed in Forest Hills. In 2017, a street named Ramones Way was created at 67th Avenue and 110th Street, near Forest Hills High School.

Simon and Garfunkel both graduated from Forest Hills High School in 1958. They performed at Forest Hills Stadium in 1966, 1967, 1968, and two nights in 1970. Paul Simon returned to Forest Hills Stadium in 2016 during his Homeward Bound farewell tour.

Billy Eichner wrote a parody song called "Forest Hills State of Mind" about the neighborhood.

The 2008 video game Grand Theft Auto IV includes a parody of Forest Hills called Meadow Hills. It is located in the game's version of Queens, called Dukes. The game also includes a parody of the Forest Hills Station called Lynch Street Station, which is used as part of the Liberty City Subway system, similar to the real New York City Subway.

The 2024 off-Broadway play The Other Americans, written by John Leguizamo, tells the story of a Colombian family that moves from Jackson Heights to Forest Hills in 1998.