Fresh Meadows Golf Course, created by Benjamin C. Ribman, a
Brooklyn resident, opened in 1923 and hosted the 1932 United States
Open. The golf course, located near the intersection of 188th
Street and Horace Harding Boulevard, was sold to the New York Life
Insurance Company on April 1, 1946 for the construction of a
residential community. The development, completed in 1949, was
dubbed a “model urban community” and was praised by the
urban historian Lewis Mumford as “perhaps the most positive
and exhilarating example of community planning in the
country.” In addition to both single-family and high-rise
buildings, New York Life built a shopping center, a theater, and
schools on the 141-acre property.