An Industrial Neighborhood in Transition
Named for a creek that has long since been filled in, Dutch Kills was one of western Queens' original manufacturing districts, and its streets still carry the evidence — squat warehouse buildings, loading docks, rail infrastructure running along the edge of Sunnyside Yards. In among the industrial stock sit older wood-frame and brick houses, some held by the same families for generations, alongside newer conversions that have brought a different kind of resident to blocks that used to close down at five o'clock. The result is a neighborhood without a single obvious center, closer in feel to a working district than a residential enclave.
That split shows up directly in the gifts BonVivant sends into Dutch Kills — a housewarming basket for a couple who converted a warehouse loft into their first home, a family gift for a household that has lived on the same residential block for decades, a corporate order for one of the small businesses still operating out of the neighborhood's older industrial buildings. Delivery routes vary block by block far more here than in a more uniform neighborhood.
