Ed Wendell, Author at Queens Ledger

Wendell: Dominick Brienza, Woodhaven fixture, dead at 73

Ed Wendell on June 1, 2022

Woodhaven is mourning a terrible loss this week. Dominick Brienza, a longtime fixture on Jamaica Avenue, owner of Sal’s Pizza for the last 2 decades, passed away after a brief illness.

“Our hearts are broken,” said Raquel Olivares, executive director of the Woodhaven Business Improvement District. “Dominic was a kind and generous man and we are all better off having known him.”

“Dominick was a great man whose commitment to our community ran deep,” said Martin Colberg, President of the Woodhaven Residents’ Block Association.

Dominic was a very familiar face in Woodhaven, having done business on Jamaica Avenue for over 50 years. But his familiarity with Jamaica Avenue went back even further, to his early childhood when he moved here from Brooklyn at 9 years old. He not only went to St. Thomas the Apostle but he went to PS 97 and as a young man he worked as a busboy at Le Cordon Bleu.

Dominick went to Edison High School and then went to City College where he studied to be an engineer but he was looking for something a little bit more hands-on so he switched to education with plans of becoming a teacher.

But it was the 70s and New York City was bankrupt and not hiring any more teachers, so Dominick Brienza took a different path – and we are forever grateful that he did.

He purchased and operated “Dom’s Deli” near the corner of 90th Street and Jamaica Avenue and that was a fixture in Woodhaven for nearly 19 years.

Eventually, the deli itself grew old and needed a complete overhaul so Dominick gutted it out and instead of a new deli he opened a laundromat, which he ran for the next 10 years.

After the laundromat, Dominick was able to put his Education degree to use as a social worker for Catholic Charities, specializing in criminal victim assistance for seniors, an experience he found very rewarding.

But Jamaica Avenue came calling again and he bought Sal’s Pizza, which he owned for the last 17 years. Sal’s was the kind of business that was often the first stop for former residents of Woodhaven whenever they came back to town.

The pizza from Sal’s always reminded folks of the pizza from the old days. But it wasn’t just the tasty food that kept people coming back time and time again. Dominic was a big part of that.

He was a good man, the kind of person you were always happy to see, the kind of man we need more of in the world these days.

Last fall, Dominick was honored by the School Sisters of Notre Dame Educational Center for Women, presented with their Commitment of Service Award.

“He holds a special place in his heart for the education that we continue to offer in this neighborhood,” Sister Cathy Feeney said when announcing this honor.

“An entrepreneur extraordinaire, Dominick has fed generations at his deli and most recently at Sal’s Pizza. Dominick is never outdone in generosity,” Sr. Feeney said.

As word spread around town and on social media, people began to share their thoughts about Dominick and the words kind and generous were frequently used.

People shared memories of Dominick, many of them stretching all the way back to their childhood when he ran Dom’s Deli, which is when I first met him. As a kid, I always admired how friendly and funny he was. Dominick had a great smile and a terrific sense of humor, which is what I will miss most about him.

He was a kind and decent man and he will be deeply missed in Woodhaven and on Jamaica Avenue. Our deepest condolences go out to his wife Andrea and all of his family and friends.

Friends and residents will gather this Thursday evening, June 2nd, at 8 PM in front of Sal’s Pizza at 85-07 Jamaica Avenue to pay tribute to Dominick. Please join us for this Woodhaven tribute to a man most of us knew and loved, a good man who will never be forgotten.

Wendell: Memorial Trees still standing in Forest Park 102 years later

Ed Wendell on May 24, 2022

Of all the memorials in and about Woodhaven, of all of the monuments and tributes to those who sacrificed their lives for our country, I think the most touching is the Memorial Trees in Forest Park.

Woodhaven was a small but growing community and World War I took a tremendous toll on its population. Week after week, names of young Woodhaven men who were killed in battle appeared under the somber headline Taps on the front page of the very newspaper you are reading right now.

By the time the war had ended, over 60 bright young lights had been extinguished, their lives ‘sacrificed on the altar of liberty,’ as the Leader-Observer described it in 1918.

After the war had ended the families of the fallen, supported by the residents of Woodhaven, came up with a plan to create a unique memorial that would live on for years to come.

One tree was planted in the name of each fallen soldier along the road through Forest Park. On Sunday, May 11th 1919, residents from Woodhaven gathered in Forest Park, across from the golf clubhouse, and took part in a somber ceremony honoring their lives.

That year, and each year after, the families of the fallen would decorate their loved ones’ tree for Memorial Day. For the families, it was more than just a memorial. For them, it was a place to grieve their losses.

The names of the fallen soldiers would be etched in bronze and affixed to a large marble monument. If you want to see those names, that monument now sits in the front yard of American Legion Post 118 on 91st Street and 89th Avenue.

But it’s the memorial in Forest Park, the long row of 103-year old trees, which really touched me as each of those trees each had a very personal connection to the families of the dead.

As time marched on, the tradition began to fade and was all but lost by the time yet another World War came to pass. Pretty soon, even the memories of this lovely tradition were gone.

But this tradition was revived in 2015 when the Woodhaven Cultural & Historical Society rediscovered the purpose of the trees. And ever since, residents of Woodhaven have decorated the trees and paid honor to these young men from Woodhaven.

But on top of paying tribute to the soldiers, I think the purpose of the tree decorations is to honor the families and the pain and loss that they all suffered.

On Memorial Day, we all pause and pay tribute to the soldiers who lost their lives in service to our country. And then, we go back to our lives.

But for the families of the dead, their pain goes on and on. And every day, when the sun rises and the sun sets, their pain is still there. To me, that’s what the Memorial Trees symbolize; that although the young men the trees were planted for have been gone for over a century, the pain their families endured continued long after.

And so, it is very fitting that the residents of this community carry on this tradition in the names of the families who lived with this pain for so many years. And I think that if those families knew that their neighbors were carrying on that very personal tradition a century later, it would help ease their pain, even just a little bit.

A small group gathered this Monday in Forest Park and one by one, decorated the trees. At the back end of the trees, where the road is now closed to vehicular traffic, we paused for a moment of silence and played Taps.

We have no guarantees this tradition will continue deep into the future. We hope it will. We hope that future generations will learn of this and continue to honor the fallen and their families for many years to come.

But in the here and now, the best we can do is to remember and to pray; to pray that these families found some measure of comfort in their lives.

And together we pray that someday there will be no need for any new memorials. That would be the most fitting tribute of all, and it can be summed up in one word – Peace.

Wendell: The Great Woodhaven Yard Sale

Ed Wendell on May 17, 2022

The Great Woodhaven Yard Sale returns on Saturday June 11th from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (rain date Sunday, June 12th, same times). Sponsored by the Woodhaven Residents’ Block Association, the community-wide yard sale usually sees 40 to 50 participating households.

If you’d like to be one of those households, you can register for free by emailing the WRBA at info@woodhaven-nyc.org or calling and leaving a message at 718-296-3735.

For those of you not familiar with the Great Woodhaven Yard Sale, here’s how it works: instead of scattered households all over the neighborhood holding their yard sales by themselves on different dates, a large organized group holds their yard sales collectively, on the same exact day.

The Woodhaven Residents’ Block Association advertises the yard sale far and wide, and distributes maps of Woodhaven with little flags indicating all of the yard sale locations. And for those who are interested in taking it to another level, they encourage members advertise some of the items they plan to be selling on the WRBA’s Facebook page.

The maps encourage people to come to Woodhaven because they know that there are going to be plenty of yard sales to check out. In previous years, we received reports of people coming from New Jersey and Connecticut to browse the goods put up for sale by residents. In one case we had a person come from Maspeth by bus, bring all the stuff he bought home, and come back on the bus to check out other houses.

Another advantage of the Great Woodhaven Yard Sale is that you don’t have to walk around town, illegally putting up flyers advertising your individual sale. The Woodhaven Residents’ Block Association will advertise your sale for you by including it on their map and distributing it to many interested parties.

One year, my wife and I visited about 3 dozen different yard sales and found some great stuff. We looked for clusters of flags on the map, indicating concentrated areas where we could hit 5 or 6 houses on the same block. We heard the same thing from other shoppers, so if you want to boost your potential for sales, try to create your own cluster by asking your neighbors to join.

And it’s always interesting to see some of the old gems that people have stored away for years, taking up space in their basement. If you’re a frequent watcher of shows like Antiques Roadshow you know that people don’t always know the value of their own belongings. It could be that the $5 item you just purchased is worth hundreds of dollars or more!

Now that you’re sold on the idea, let’s repeat how you can become part of the Great Woodhaven Yard Sale (Saturday, 6/11; rain date the next day). You can register by sending an email to info@woodhaven-nyc.org or by calling and leaving a message at 718-296-3735.

There is no fee for registering, but you are required to give the WRBA your name and phone number (in case they need to reach you) and the address where you will be hosting your yard sale (must be in 11421). Here is an important point: they will put a flag on the map indicating your location, but they do not put your address or any other information on the map.

Now, even if you’re not planning on being a participating household we hope that you’ll help advertise this event by word of mouth. Tell your neighbors, tell your family. And tell your friends in Richmond Hill and Glendale and Ozone Park and beyond to come to Woodhaven for the biggest yard sale of 2022.

Wendell: Remembering Woodhaven’s Lt. Harry Joseph Schmitt

Ed Wendell on May 10, 2022

He was a Woodhaven boy. He lived on Jamaica Avenue. He attended PS 97 and Franklin K. Lane High School and picked up a few bucks delivering The Leader-Observer.

As a young man, he went to Queens College where he excelled in the classroom and on the baseball diamond. He was honored as a distinguished military graduate and received his commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Air Force, where he trained to be a pilot.

He was just 23 years old and his future was bright, but Woodhaven was still close to his heart. While stationed at an Air Force base in Dover, Delaware, as a radar observer, he kept an old postcard of Forest Parkway in his locker.

He kept in touch with his folks regularly and they spoke about his next visit to his old hometown. In fact, his bags were already packed and he was ready to go on leave.

And he would be bringing home a surprise for his family, the young woman who he was planning to make his wife.

But Harry Schmitt never came home. In July 1958, he was killed while on a routine flight over the Atlantic off the coast of Cape May, New Jersey

As with any accident, the details of what happened are as murky as the waters Harry Schmitt’s plane crashed into. It appears that the pilot did not realize how low he was flying. In fact, he may have even skipped the jet across the top of the ocean.

The pilot ordered Harry Schmitt to bail, but because the plane was so low when he ejected, his parachute never opened. The Air Force speculated that he was killed instantly but we’ll never know for certain as the young man from Woodhaven was never found.

It was front page news here in Woodhaven. Lt. Harry Joseph Schmitt was remembered at a Solemn High Mass of Requiem at St. Thomas the Apostle Church.

The Leader-Observer expressed their grief and fondly remembered the boy who delivered this newspaper.

“From the first day when he took his papers out on his route, his spirit of affable friendliness endeared him to everyone,” the paper recalled in an editorial.

They remembered his cheery greetings whenever he entered the newspaper’s office on Jamaica Avenue, and they shared how friendly Harry was to all of the customers on his paper route.

“The memory of Harry Schmitt’s grin and exuberant ‘Hi!’ will never be forgotten,” the Leader wrote.

But as the years went by, it would appear that the memory of young Harry Schmitt began to fade away in Woodhaven, but he was never forgotten, certainly not by American Legion Post 118.

Starting in 1961, our local American Legion has been honoring its members in their Garden of Remembrance, which was planned to be a “miniature Arlington Cemetery,” with a marker honoring residents of Woodhaven who died in service or afterwards.

It is a beautiful sight, a field of crosses filling the front yard of the post, each marker representing someone who is no longer with us. A ceremony is held every year in honor of those that the markers represent.

And every year since 1961, Harry Schmitt has been part of that Garden of Remembrance; a cross bearing his name has been on display, with all the others, every Memorial Day.

The Schmitt family left Woodhaven just a year after young Harry perished and they were unaware that the Post had continued to honor Harry in their garden each year. It touched them deeply that their Harry had never been forgotten.

In 2018, 60 years after Harry was lost, the Schmitt family returned to Woodhaven for Memorial Day services at the Post. Harry’s sister Margaret was presented with a memorial flag while everyone observed a moment of silence.

During the ceremony, Commander John Lawless asked everyone to look at the Garden of Remembrance. “Sadly, each year, our garden grows,” he said.

Each new marker is a new name that will forever be remembered and honored by American Legion Post 118 and the residents of Woodhaven.

Please note that American Legion Post 118 will be hosting a Memorial Day Observance at Forest Parkway and Jamaica Avenue on Thursday, May 26th starting at 6:30 p.m. And on Memorial Day itself, resident will begin gathering at 10:30 for the annual Memorial Day Observance outside the post, in front of the Garden of Remembrance.

Wendell: Remembering Woodhaven’s own on Memorial Day

Ed Wendell on May 2, 2022

Memorial Day on the last Monday in May pays honor to the men and women who lost their lives while serving in the military. The Woodhaven Cultural & Historical Society will be hosting a virtual tour of all the memorials in Woodhaven via Zoom next Tuesday, May 3rd at 8 p.m.; email us at woodhavenhistory@gmail.com for a free invite to this presentation.

American Legion Post 118 on 91st Street and 89th Avenue is the site of one of the many memorials in Woodhaven to those who lost their lives defending our country.

In the front yard of Post 118 is a large granite monument with a plaque containing the names of young men who lost their lives in World War I. This large monument once sat in Forest Park, where Memorial Day parades used to conclude, but it was moved to the American Legion when the new post building was built in the early 40s.

Each year, American Legion Post 118 turns their front yard into a miniature cemetery covered in markers dedicated to those no longer with us.

And that’s the point of Memorial Day, to remember. In 2018, the family of Air Force Lieutenant Harry Schmitt returned to Woodhaven where a cross bearing his name has been displayed every Memorial Day since he was killed in a plane crash 60 years earlier.

Another monument to the war dead is on 84th Street and 91st Avenue in Lieutenant Clinton L. Whiting Square, also known as “The Rock.”

Erected in the late 1920s, it memorializes a local lad who died in World War I. The local VFW, which was just a few houses away on 91st Avenue, was also named after Lieutenant Whiting.

Another monument sits on Forest Parkway and Jamaica Avenue and was erected in the early 1950s to honor local youth killed in World War II. For many years, this was an important stop for Memorial Day parades, and they even used to perform 21-gun salutes at this location.

Yet another monument is the rediscovered Memorial Trees of Woodhaven, which run along Forest Park Drive from Park Lane South past Oak Ridge and towards the Forest Park Carousel. These trees were planted for local soldiers who lost their lives in World War I.

Family members and residents used to decorate the trees with wreaths and patriotic ribbons on Memorial Day, a tradition that faded away once the granite monument was moved and Memorial Day parades no longer ended in the park.

The Woodhaven Cultural & Historical Society and American Legion Post 118 Auxiliary revived the act of decorating the trees back in 2015, and it has remained a yearly tradition since then, and they will be decorated again this year

East of the trees along Forest Park Drive sits Private First Class Lawrence Strack Memorial Pond, named after the first local youth killed in Vietnam.

Another monument is a location we’re all familiar with, but might not realize it was dedicated to the war dead. Victory Field was built and dedicated to “the unknown soldier of World War I.”

Inside St. Thomas the Apostle Church is another monument dedicated to the war dead of Woodhaven. Brass plaques with the names of young men from the parish who died in both World Wars used to be outside on the church wall, but when one of the plaques was stolen the other was moved inside.

The missing plaque was recreated through the efforts of Woodhaven resident and veteran Joe Virgona and returned to the church in 2009.

And two more memorials sit right on the border of Woodhaven. One, Father Lynch Memorial Triangle, was rededicated a few years ago. The triangle sits on the Ozone Park side of Atlantic and Rockaway and was dedicated in honor of Father Lawrence E. Lynch, a local priest killed at the Battle of Okinawa.

And nearby, at the intersection of Rockaway and Elderts Lane in Woodhaven, sits Legion Square, an area dedicated to the American Legion. Though not explicitly dedicated to any soldiers that were killed, the triangle within the square was dedicated to the American Legion for memorial purposes and for many years, Woodhaven’s Memorial Day parades began here.

Email us at woodhavenhistory@gmail.com for a free invite to this presentation and learn all about the many memorials of Woodhaven.

Wendell: Leader localizes Titanic tragedy of 110 years ago

Ed Wendell on April 25, 2022

The cover of the Leader-Observer shortly after the April 15, 1912 disaster of the Titanic that left over 1,500 people dead. The Leader interviewed a resident of nearby Brooklyn who was well-known in this neighborhood and was a lucky survivor of that terrible disaster.

By Ed Wendell

The sinking of the RMS Titanic, the famed passenger ship which sank 110 years ago after striking an iceberg, was front page news around the world. The Leader-Observer was no exception, even finding a local angle on the fate of Margaret Welles Swift of nearby 171 Arlington Avenue in Brooklyn.

Mrs. Swift was well-known to locals in Woodhaven who belonged to the popular Fortnightly Library Club in Brooklyn, of which she was President. In the first issue after the disaster which left over 1,500 passengers dead, friends and relatives of Mrs. Swift were anxiously awaiting word of her fate.

Soon after it was confirmed that Mrs. Swift had survived she gave an exclusive account to the Leader. She began by describing the magnificence of the ship and told how the massive suction caused by its leaving port in Southampton drew the two ships on either side of her from their moorings.

She told how she heard a mighty crash that sounded like broken glass, and how the passenger next door showed her a huge chunk of ice which had burst through the porthole of his stateroom.

“The shock had not been great enough to cause any great alarm,” Mrs. Swift told the Leader. She said that she went on deck, where there didn’t seem to be any sense that they were in trouble.

“The captain assured those on deck that there was no danger,” she said. However, it was just a few moments later that he ordered the launching of the lifeboats. And that’s when things got serious.

“I was in the second boat lowered,” she told the Leader. “There were twenty women and four men. The boat was provisioned with two barrels of water and some bread.” Mrs. Swift reported that the captain told the rowers to head towards a light, far in the distance. He asked that they return as soon as possible.

She described the heartbreaking scene as the lifeboats left the ship. “Women and children threw kisses to their husbands and fathers, little thinking, as the oarsmen pulled the boats away, that they should never see their loved ones again.”

The Leader asked Mrs. Swift why only 24 people were placed in her lifeboat when reports said they could hold up to 60. “The davits (the crane that held the lifeboats) were only supposed to hold 15 people.” She added that by then, the captain and the officers were concerned about suction from the sinking ship pulling down the lifeboats and wanted to give them time to get as far away as possible.

An hour after she left Titanic, it went down. “First the lights gradually went out, and exactly at twenty minutes after two the Titanic went out of sight. She broke in the middle as she went down and the boilers exploded. It was awful.”

She grabbed the oars on the lifeboat and rowed when one of the men grew tired. She held on to the oars and rowed for nearly 5 hours until they reached the Carpathia, a rescue ship. When she came home, she found that she was a bit of a celebrity for being in the wrong place at the worst possible time.

Woodhaven had two other connections to that great disaster 110 years ago. One of the crew members of the Carpathia was Gottlieb J. Rencher, who later in life would work as a registered psychotherapist at 8551 Forest Parkway.

Rencher was awarded a medal by the surviving crew members of the Titanic for the aid that he gave the surviving passengers.

And every few years the Leader would run a story on John Parry, of 92-25 91st Avenue, who as a young man served as a merchant seaman on the Mackay-Bennett, the ship known for recovering the most victims of that dreadful night.

Over 364 bodies were found and either buried at sea or brought ashore for burial by Mr. Parry’s ship. The Leader would run his story every few years on the anniversary. The last time Mr. Parry’s tale was told in the Leader was on the Titanic’s 50th anniversary, 60 years ago in 1962.

The tragedy of the RMS Titanic is a story that belongs to the world, having been retold in countless books and several movies, including one of the highest grossing motion pictures of all time. But over the years, the Leader was able to explore some very local angles of this tragedy that brought this story very close to home.