Photograph of The Church-in-the-Gardens — Photograph by Jim.henderson, CC0 1.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Church-in-the-Gardens, The

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009. 17 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1889.

From the record

“The Church-in-the-Gardens, also known as Community Congregational Christian Church, is a historic Congregational church complex located in Forest Hills, Queens, New York. The complex includes the church (1915), Community House (1926), and Parish Hall (1953) connected by breezeways and a separate parsonage (1929).”
Wikipedia article The Church-in-the-Gardens, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 108 National Register listings published here for Queens County · listed in 2009 · category: Building.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 4 buildingss as contributing to the listing.
Address. 50 Ascan Ave., Forest Hills, 11375
When was it listed? December 2009
Category. building
Borough. Queens
National Register reference number. 09001086 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Then and now

1889 to 1994

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 105 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering Church-in-the-Gardens, The, surveyed 1994

Topographic sheet covering Church-in-the-Gardens, The, surveyed 1889

Fires near this property

3,011 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 3,011 fires within 5 miles of Church-in-the-Gardens, The between 1992 and 2020, burning about 1,312 acres in total. 179 started naturally. 143 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2214
Natural	179
Smoking	157
Arson/incendiarism	143
Misuse of fire by a minor	97
Equipment and vehicle use	85
Debris and open burning	75
Recreation and ceremony	44
Power generation/transmission/distribution	13
Fireworks	2
Railroad operations and maintenance	2

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
9 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	NA
9 September 2010	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 September 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 September 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 September 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 September 2005	Smoking	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 September 2004	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 September 2000	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	10 acres	Gateway National Recreation Area	FOUNTAIN1

Every fire recorded in Queens County

Storms near this property

5 since 2004

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Forest Hills, the town this property stands in, in 5 storm reports between 2004 and 2026: 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 hail, 1 heavy rain, 1 flash flood. The reports record 1 injury. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
July 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Forest Hills	1 hurt, $7,500	A man was injured when a tree fell on his car near the intersection of 164th Street and Underhill Avenue.
March 2026	Thunderstorm Wind	Forest Hills	-	ASOS site KLGA at LaGuardia Airport measured a 62 mph wind gust.
September 2023	Flash Flood	Forest Hills	-	FAA reports LGA Airport fuel farm flooded and unusable.
March 2010	Heavy Rain	Forest Hills	-	The Automated Surface Observing System at LaGuardia Airport recorded 3.16 inches of rainfall on March 13. This was the greatest 24-hour rainfall total for March 2010.
August 2004	Hail	Forest Hills	-	Golfball size hail was observed in Rego Park.

Every storm recorded in Queens County

Maps showing this location

17 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1889 USGS Brooklyn quadrangle1:62500
1891 USGS Brooklyn quadrangle1:62500
1897 USGS Brooklyn quadrangle1:62500 - 3 printings
1898 USGS Brooklyn quadrangle1:62500
1900 USGS Brooklyn quadrangle1:62500 - 11 printings
1947 USGS Jamaica quadrangle1:24000
1949 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000
1954 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1957 USGS Jamaica quadrangle1:24000
1957 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000
1958 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000 - 3 printings
1960 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1966 USGS Jamaica quadrangle1:24000 - 2 printings
1969 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000
1979 USGS Jamaica quadrangle1:24000
1984 USGS Long Island West quadrangle1:100000 - 2 printings
1994 USGS Jamaica quadrangle1:24000

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Saint Luke's Episcopal Church	0.2 miles	2010
US Post Office-Forest Hills Station	0.4 miles	1988
Kent Manor	0.7 miles	2022
Ralph Bunche House	0.9 miles	1976
Richmond Hill Historic District	1.1 miles	2019
Queens County Savings Bank	1.1 miles	2005

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 09001086 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Queens County	All 108 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.