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Foundation of an Empire: Modest Queens Homes, Built by Donald Trumpโs Father
The seedlings of the Trump real estate empire are here in Hollis, Queens where Fred C. Trump built some of his earliest houses before going on to father the Trump Organization and the future presidential candidate. Along those quiet streets, shaded by tall oak trees and lined with tidy flower beds, modern-day Trump hallmarks โ the glitziness, the swankiness โ simply do not apply.
โReally? I feel like I won the lottery or something,โ Hazel Thomas, 53, said upon learning last week that the elder Mr. Trump had built the compact beige stucco house with maroon trim she has owned since 2002.
โIโm aware of some of his views,โ Ms. Thomas, a registered dietitian who emigrated from Trinidad nearly 40 years ago, said of Donald J. Trump. She laughed. โSome of them are really far-out views.โ Another laugh. โIโm a registered Democrat.โ
Still, she felt compelled to add: โItโs a beautiful home. Itโs really a strong house, it really is, I have to say that about it. He did a wonderful job.โ
Over the course of seven decades of erecting houses and high-rises across Brooklyn and Queens, Fred Trump earned a reputation as a meticulous developer, the kind who punctually repainted the ironwork and, to save money, mixed his own disinfectant. Born to German immigrants, he built his first house in Woodhaven, Queens, within two years of graduating from high school, according to โThe Trumps: Three Generations That Built an Empire,โ by Gwenda Blair.
The next two houses went up in Queens Village. But by 1926, three years after graduation, Mr. Trump had found a neighborhood to match his ambitions in Hollis, a middle-class community rising as fast as developers could put up new houses. Too young to sign checks, he teamed up with his mother, Elizabeth, to form E. Trump & Son.
The classified advertisements of The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, The Queens Leader-Observer and other local newspapers became showcases for his plans. โWhy not visit!โ one ad for an E. Trump & Son model home shouted, more command than suggestion.โLocated in the very best section of Hollis only 5 minutes from the station, having every city convenience, including sewers, concrete street and sidewalks.โ The price was listed at $9,950, though the company sold some homes around the same time for as little as $3,990.
William Socolow of Brooklyn was among those who bit, buying one of six Trump homes on 198th Street between 110th and 111th Avenues in July 1926 โ the same house Ms. Thomas would buy nearly 80 years later. Like its five neighbors, it had three windows on the first floor facing the street, a dormer window above, an attic and four steps leading to the front door
Inside were a spacious living room, a dining room with parquet flooring and a kitchen with a breakfast nook. A small garage was in the back.
โIt was a nice house to grow up in. Not a mansion, but a nice home,โ said Adrienne Wollenberg, 89, Mr. Socolowโs second of three daughters. โIt stood us well through the years.โ
โFrom what Iโve heard, he was someone who was a peopleโs person, someone who was empowering and uplifting middle-class people,โ Ms. Robinson-Turner, a university health care administrator, said of the elder Mr. Trump.
By the time Constance Robinson-Turnerโs family bought the house next door in the 1960s, the neighborhood was beginning to fill with upwardly mobile black families like hers, the kinds of families who still dominate the area today. The names of local real estate barons โ Stark, LeFrak, Trump โ adorn several buildings there. But Ms. Robinson-Turner did not know about her homeโs Trump connection until last week.
Ron Walker, 41, an electrician who lives in a two-story home clad in white siding several blocks from Ms. Robinson-Turnerโs, was delighted to learn of his Trump connection. The closest he had come to a Trump affiliation before this, he said, was doing some electrical work at Trump Village, Fred Trumpโs middle-income housing development in Coney Island, Brooklyn.
It was โjust awesome,โ he said of his link to his preferred presidential candidate, โa very smart manโ who โknows business and knows how to run things.โ
Mr. Walker said he was a registered Democrat, but would be willing to switch parties to vote for Mr. Trump. โYou know the looks I get when Iโm wearing this?โ he said, flourishing a โTrump 2016โ T-shirt.
When the real estate business crumbled during the Great Depression, Fred Trump took a brief but profitable detour into food, opening Queensโs first supermarket. Months later, he sold Trump Market to the King Kullen chain and returned to developing.
That building is still a grocery store, but the location of his first house in Woodhaven is unclear. At the time, no one was keeping track.
โHe was well known around here, but itโs kind of like, who knew that was going to be important?โ Ed Wendell, the president of the Woodhaven Cultural and Historical Society, said. โItโs not really a monumental achievement, opening a supermarket โ you know what I mean?โ
By the time he died in 1999, Fred Trump had accomplished enough that the organization erected a plaque in his honor at the edge of the storeโs parking lot.
โBegan building at 15, built this store, founded E. Trump & Son now Trump Organization,โ it reads. โFather of โThe Donald.โ โ
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/18/nyregion/foundation-of-an-empire-modest-queens-homes-built-by-donald-trumps-father.html