Joseph Meyerrose House

The blonde brick house with the terra cotta trim on Forest Ave. at the corner with Putnam Ave. in Ridgewood was built in 1906 for Joseph Meyerrose. One of Ridgewood's leading citizens, Meyerrose was Queens County Sheriff from 1903 to 1906. The Meyerrose family lived in the house until 1920; the new owner in 1922 was a social club for local union members, the Queens Labor Lyceum. The club added a rear addition along Putnam Ave. for more meeting space. Later, the property became part of a church, Descent of the Holy Spirit Romanian Orthodox Church. The Joseph Meyerrose house is one of the nearly 1,000 buildings within the Central Ridgewood Historic District, a NYC landmark (2014) and National Register of Historic Places listing (1983).

Joseph Meyerrose served the local community for over 35 years. He was at times the Superintendent of Highways, Supervisor of Schools, and was elected Sheriff of Queens County in 1903. His father, Joachim's farm was one of the largest in the region. Joachim emigrated from Bremen (Germany) in 1844 and worked on others' farms in Manhattan and Queens until he saved enough to buy farmland. He built a farmstead in Ridgewood in 1856 near present-day Woodward Ave. and Cornelia St. One of his sons, Joseph, was born at the farmstead in 1859. Joachim died in 1892; his farmhouse was removed in 1911 to build a line of six rowhouses after the Matthews Company purchased fifteen acres of the farm in 1910 for development.

Joseph "Joe" Meyerrose worked on his father's farm as a young man and drove the farm's product to market. He married Anna Brunjes in 1880 and worked his own farm of about 80 acres; Joe's sister Margaret had married Anna's brother Martin a few years earlier. Joe was a Democrat, a member of the Elks Lodge, and an avid hunter. In 1898, when Queens became a Borough of New York City, Joe gained some fans and some criticism as the outgoing Superintendent of Schools. He decided to pay the public teachers and principals of Queens their salaries for the year instead of having their funds delayed by the changeover in school administration.

Louis Berger & Company built the house on Forest Ave. for Joe in 1906 at the beginning of the building boom in Ridgewood, as Joe was ending his three-year term as Queens County Sheriff. The house for Joe was constructed on the high point of Joachim's farmland. Soon, the company would build hundreds of other homes nearby. Louis Berger was a contemporary of Joe in Ridgewood; most of the Berger houses featured curving front bays. Many of the Berger houses have remained essentially unchanged on the exterior since their construction and form the majority of the structures within the Central Ridgewood Historic District. The district is one of nearly a dozen historic districts in the Ridgewood neighborhood; all were listed in the National Register in 1983.

By 1910, Joseph Meyerrose's children were grown and married: Alice Meyerrose was married to Frank Adel; Minnie was the wife of Charles B. Van Sise; and George Meyerrose was the husband of Christine Kline. Joe and his wife Anna shared the house at 187 Forest Ave. in 1910 with Frank (age 27) and Alice (24) Adel and two-year-old Ruth Adel. Frank Adel was a lawyer and had been married for four years. George Meyerrose (29), his wife Christine (28), and son (Howard, 4) lived next door in 1910 at 183 Forest Ave. George had been married for five years and worked as an office clerk. The same five people lived in the Joseph Meyerrose House in 1920 as in 1910; Joe was retired, and Frank was a lawyer in general practice.

The current use of the house is as the Descent of the Holy Spirit Church. Founded in 1985, the church is part of the Atlantic Seaboard Deanery of the Romanian Episcopate, part of the Orthodox Church in America. The pastor is the Rev. Ionut Preda.

Orthodox Church in America. Parishes: Descent of the Holy Spirit Church, Ridgewood, New York, Orthodox Church in America. January 1st 2022. Accessed May 28th 2022. https://www.oca.org/parishes/oca-ro-riwdhs.

Presa, Donald G. Betts, Mary Beth et al. Designation Report, Central Ridgewood Historic District. NYC landmarks. New York, NY. NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, 2014.

Schubel, George. Illustrated History of Greater Ridgewood.... Volume I. New York, NY. Ridgewood Times Printing and Publishing Company, 1913.

U.S. Census. Household of Joseph Meyerrose at 187 Forest Ave., Queens Co., N.Y., 2nd family in dwelling, family 274. Washington, DC. U.S. Government, 1910.

U.S. Census. Household of George Meyerrose at 183 Forest Ave., Queens Co., N.Y., family 272. Washington, DC. U.S. Government, 1910.

U.S. Census. Household of Joseph Meyerrose at 187 Forest Ave., Queens Co., N.Y., 2nd family in dwelling, family 45. Washington, DC. U.S. Government, 1920.