Nuisance Land
The nickname for Sunnyside in the early 1900's, by the people on the way to Woodside


Sunnyside, Queens, New York – circa 1915
Houses along Skillman Avenue – this photo was taken from 43^rd Street looking southeast  The ladies are standing at the corner of Skillman Ave. and 44^th Street and the wagons are on 44^th Street.  Most of these houses were torn down to make way for Queen of Angels

  The early residents of Skillman Avenue were (from left to right):   
44-20       Jakob and Katherine Hüther              ]
44-18     Nicholas Hegadus family                                   
44-16     Frank and Louise Leahy owned this house and lived in it until they retired 1960. It was sold to a Manhattan couple who then  sold the house to Queen Of Angels church in 1970, at which time the houses were all demolished.
44-10     Peter Foy family
44-08       Nee family
44-06       Puppalo family
The early residents of 44^th Street were (from left to right):
Relatives of the Puppalo family
- Stratford family (house partially blocked by tree)
"It was weeds, and lots, birds, mushrooms and sun flowers. "Alice Havlena echoes the memories and first impressions of many of the borough's early "settlers", like herself, who moved to Queens in 1912. At the times Queens was literally a new frontier. Men and woman seeking a fresh start and an escape from the teeming overcrowded tenements of Manhattan stepped across the newly built Queensboro Bridge with the same spirit as the pioneers who had conquered the west. (this passage was taken from Ron Zrin's "American Dreamland")

(This 1915 picture and information comes from the archives
of the Leahy family)