Beechhurst - Stepping Out of Whitestone's Shadow - NYTimes.com Residents of Whitestone, Queens, like to say that the only people who call the waterfront enclave at its northeastern corner "Beechhurst" are the people who live there - no one else differentiates between it and the rest of Whitestone. But that may be giving short shrift to this 70-block area, which has a storied history going back to the early 1900s and a closely integrated sense of community among its approximately 7,600 residents. To some, the charms of their colonial, Cape, Mediterranean, Victorian and Tudor homes remain unsung, along with those of their high-rise waterfront co-ops with copious amenities and views of the Throgs Neck and Bronx-Whitestone Bridges. They rave about their private beach on the East River. Anthony Carollo, a resident since 2005 and the broker-owner of Carollo Real Estate, says the area remains unknown to a lot of outsiders because, geographically, "there's no reason to visit the neighborhood unless you live there." "There's no through traffic here," he added. You're surrounded by water, so it's a nice quiet little area; it's a little sleeper of a community. Barbara Gordon, a longtime resident of Cryder House, one of the area's most expensive waterfront co-ops, and a real estate agent with Century 21 Bay Benjamin, also described the neighborhood as off the radar. "This area is a beautiful community with well-kept, immaculate homes, and I always say I live in Beechhurst," she said. However, I've noticed in my ads recently that some people don't know it, so now I also put Whitestone. In Ms. Gordon's view, this lack of awareness is unfortunate, as Beechhurst has a lot to offer, particularly Cryder House, which has 237 large co-ops in a 20-story high-rise with its own beach and dock. Census data show the population as down by about 3 percent from 2000 to 2010. Even so, brokers said, there have been newcomers, among them young professionals and "snowbird" retirees, who head to Florida in the winter. Enough have arrived to diversify this middle-class area - which has long been Irish- and Italian-American, and especially popular with the families of police officers and firefighters. William Kwok, 27, a Flushing resident buying his first home, conducted a three-month quest that ended in Beechhurst. A native of Long Island, Mr. Kwok said he had been looking for a similar slice of suburbia in the city, without the high taxes. Once he discovered Beechhurst's array of single-family homes, he spent time looking with his parents and eventually found a three-bedroom 1920 colonial. He bought it for almost $700,000 in August. Mr. Kwok says the location near the Cross Island Expressway is perfect for commuting to his job as a city employee; he has also been impressed by his affable, welcoming neighbors. "Beechhurst does make the effort to try to make everyone come together," he said, adding that once he had moved in, he immediately went to work renovating. That passion for perfection is one he shares with many. Nelly Andrushenko, a resident and the broker-owner of Power Realty, said this was one quality that stood out about Beechhurst: "People take such loving care of their properties." Beechhurst, which occupies roughly the northeast quarter of Whitestone, is frequently seen as bounded by the Cross Island Expressway, the Throgs Neck toll road, the East River and 154th Street, though some stretch the neighborhood to include the area bounded by Clintonville Street and 10th Avenue. The majority of the housing is single-family, though there are two-families here and there, Mr. Carollo said. Beechhurst was rezoned in 2005 to stymie a trend of demolishing smaller, older houses to build oversized properties. Although many buyers are still in the market for teardowns, the regulations limit the size of the home they can build, Ms. Andrushenko said. Its most exclusive area is Robinwood, a roughly 23-block southeastern area that has its own security guards, and homes on large lots, some 100 by 100, Ms. Andrushenko said. Those looking in wealthy neighborhoods like Malba, also in Whitestone, and Bayside Gables in neighboring Bayside, frequently ask about Robinwood, she said. Along the waterfront, Beechhurst has a string of co-op apartments and condominiums in high-rises and townhouses. In addition to Cryder House, there is LeHavre on the Water, with 1,032 units; Cryder Point, with about 360; the Towers at Beechhurst, with about 90; Wildflower Estates, with about 30; and Beechhurst Shores, with nearly 50. Of the almost 40 houses that went on the market in Beechhurst this year, 20 of them have closed, said Judy Markowitz, the broker-owner of the Energized Realty Group. The cheapest was an attached two-bedroom home, which sold for $539,000; the most expensive, on Powells Cove Boulevard near the waterfront, went for $1.35 million, she said.