Auburndale Branch Library

History :

In 1901, President L.H. Green of the New England Development and Improvement Company named Auburndale after his New England hometown. Previously the ninety acres had been the farm of Mr. Thomas Willet. Auburndale was born in 1901 as a housing development.

During the twentieth century, New York City experienced one of the most rapid population increases in history. With the railroad expansion and the creation of the city of Greater New York, Queens was no longer a backwater to the cities of Brooklyn and New York. Queens' population grew steadily through to the 1940s. Bridges linked Queens to both Manhattan and the Bronx. After World War II, Auburndale's population and demographics exploded. The GI Bill recipients coupled with immigrants fleeing post-war Europe flooded into Queens. By the 1960s, Auburndale did not look anything like a family farm.