I visited Trump's childhood neighborhood on the outskirts of NYC, and it didn't take long to see why he's called it an 'oasis'
- President Donald Trump grew up in Queens, New York City.
- His family lived in a five-bedroom Tudor-style house and later in a 23-room home in Jamaica Estates, a secluded, upper-middle-class community in Queens.
- The Tudor-style home where Trump lived until he was four years old has been for sale at auction on and off over the past two years since it last sold at auction for $2.14 million in March 2017.
- Last year, I took a tour to see what Trump's childhood neighborhood was like, and it was immediately clear why he's called the area an "oasis."
- It was peaceful and secluded, filled with stately homes and quiet leafy streets.
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President Donald Trump grew up on the outskirts of Queens in New York City.
Jamaica Estates, where he lived until age 13, is an affluent community, filled with stately homes and wide, tree-lined streets.
"Different parts of Queens were rough; this was an oasis," Trump told the New York Times in 2015. He said Jamaica Estates "was safe — it was very family oriented."
The five-bedroom Tudor-style house where Trump lived until he was four years old was put up for auction after it failed to sell for its $2.9 million asking price earlier this year.
I walked around the neighborhood on a spring day in 2019 and visited the two houses where the Trump family lived. Here's what it was like.
Source: The New York Times
Source: The New York Times
The train ride from my office in lower Manhattan took about an hour and 10 minutes. I got off at the Hillside Av/179 St. stop in Jamaica, Queens, at the end of the F train line.
Source: Times Ledger
The neighborhood began as a gated community.
Source: Washington Post
Source: The New York Times
Source: CNN Money
Source: CNN Money
In the past couple of years, it's been up for auction on-and-off with Paramount Realty USA, but it hasn't yet sold.
"There is a large sense of community and the residents really care about the neighborhood," she said. "All the lawns are very well cared for, as are the homes."
Source: The New York Times
Source: Washington Post
Source: Washington Post
Source: Washington Post, Washington Post
It was a pleasant 25-minute walk from the Trump family house.
Unlike Central Park or Prospect Park or other usually busy city parks, there were only a few people walking their dogs, riding bikes, and relaxing on park benches.
A baseball field similar to one where Trump might've played in the 1950s stood empty.
Source: Washington Post
Source: The Kew-Forest School
Jason Horowitz of the New York Times described the Jamaica Estates of the 1950s as "an exclusive and nearly all-white place, resistant to outsiders and largely impenetrable to minorities."
"It's a very diverse community, with a strong Jewish presence (there is a Jewish community center on Union Turnpike), Greek, Chinese, and Bangladeshi ... We have it all," Wong told me.
Source: NYC Planning