BY COLE SINANIAN | cole@queensledger.com
RIDGEWOOD — Do you live in Stierville?
If your home is somewhere within the boundaries of Fresh Pond Road, 71st, Putnam, and Forest Avenues, then you probably do.
It was these streets within which the legendary builder and Sheriff of Queens County Paul Stier built hundreds of homes in the early 20th Century. The German immigrant was instrumental in transforming this portion of southwestern Queens from a rural, roadless farming community to the Ridgewood of today, building an estimated 2,000 homes, many in the unique style that soon became Ridgewood’s architectural trademark; curved facade, brownstone stoops, cut glass windows, wood doors and alternating red-and-brown-brick exteriors. If you wanted one back in 1910, you’d have had to pay up— $5,600 for a Stier-built home.
Stier built the Ridgewood Democratic Club, which is still standing today, and even has a dead-end named after him: Stier Place, at the end of Putnam Avenue west of Fresh Pond Road.
At Ridgewood History night on Thursday, September 24th at Willow’s Tavern on Fresh Pond Road, local historian Liz Babish eloquently recounted the story of his life, his work, and his untimely death in 1916, which occurred on the job, just one year after being sworn-in as Sheriff.
“He was going to serve a warrant in Whitestone, Queens,” Babish told the crowd of history buffs at the packed tavern. “Officers earlier in the week had gone to try to get him out and had shots fired on them. So Stier, in his way, went and said, ‘Fuck that! I’m doing it myself.’”
Unfortunately for Stier and lovers of his buildings, he was shot dead by the subject of the warrant— a mad inventor and squatter who was hoarding guns and not paying his bills.
“His October 26th wake drew about 200 people,” Babish said. “That included his employees, his homeowners that he sold homes to, people from the Democratic Club that he founded. He was a really beloved character.”
Babish’s talk on Ridgewood’s greatest builder was just one of four featured at the latest installment of History Night, a traveling series that sees amateur historians and history lovers gather at their local watering holes for PowerPoint-style presentations about the lesser-known stories from the neighborhood’s past.
Thursday night’s event — hosted by comedian Natasha Ferrier — also featured presentations by Alex Smith, Brian Huselton, and Amanda Mcloughlin. Other mentioned topics included the fierce and sometimes violent 18th-Century border skirmishes between residents of Ridgewood and Bushwick, a large boulder at the Vander Ende-Onderdonk House known as the “Arbitration Rock,” and a possible but unconfirmed network of prohibition-era underground rum tunnels linking Ridgewood’s historic drinking establishments.
The History Night series began as Greenpoint History Night at the neighborhood’s Oak and Iron Tavern, originally conceived by local bartender and writer, Rick Paulas. But the series has grown in popularity, and has recently stopped in Ridgewood and other neighborhoods, like Bushwick, Astoria, and Williamsburg.
Keep an eye on @willowstavern and @gphistorynight on Instagram for the next History Night.
