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Notable People

 

Notable People Directly from Hammel Houses

I must be transparent with you: after thorough searching, Hammel Houses does not have a widely documented list of famous mainstream celebrities, entertainers, or athletes who specifically grew up there in publicly available sources. However, the development has produced several deeply respected community leaders whose impact has been significant. Here are the most notable:

✊ Johanna Gregory — Tenant Association President & Beloved Community Leader

The most widely remembered figure from Hammel Houses is Johanna Gregory, who served as President of the Hammel Houses Tenant Association and was a passionate advocate for her community until her unexpected passing.

Johanna Gregory was first encountered at a Citizens Committee of NYC workshop in Manhattan in Spring 2016. Johanna approached after hearing about the Queenscapes project and wanted to know how they could bring a photography program to the Hammel Houses in Far Rockaway, where she was the President of the Tenant Association. She liked the idea of introducing a visual program that would help boost the morale of her community and promote a positive perspective to a mostly disregarded section of Far Rockaway.3

Johanna mentioned that most of the kids in Far Rockaway are either pre-occupied in buying the latest Air Jordan’s or caught up in gang violence. Her concern was genuine — how much she cared about her neighborhood, and that she genuinely felt others could make a difference.3

Her Legacy:

She unexpectedly passed away in February 2017.3 Milan Taylor, the Founder of the Rockaway Youth Task Force, wrote: “Ms. Gregory had an ear to the ground and could support her community in ways that others could not. Ms. Gregory was a fixture in our organization and was present at everything from garden dinners to organization meetings. She even reached out to the East Rockaway Growing Coalition to help support Hammel residents in improving their own community garden.”3

After her passing, the “Hope of the Hammel Houses” photography project — which she had helped conceive — was submitted to the Citizens Committee for their annual Neighborhood Grant series and was accepted for funding to work at the Hammel Houses.3

🌱 Rose Marie Duggan Gulston — Community Farm Founder & Crime Prevention Advocate

The Hammel Houses will soon have a farm in its own backyard, thanks to the vision of community leader Rose Marie Duggan Gulston. Gulston, a Hammels resident and Rockaway Beach Civic Association board member, said she’s currently working to transform an existing garden on the Beach 84th Street property into a working farm where vegetables, potatoes, and fruits can be grown.4

“This farm will be valuable to Hammels residents and the community at large,” Gulston told attendees at a recent RBCA meeting. “I want to use the space to grow as much as we can, and the fresh produce we grow can help [defray] the increasing food prices we’ve all experienced.” Gulston, who recently completed a course of study with Safegrowth & CPTED, a program that integrates community development and crime prevention in order to build safe, healthy neighborhoods, said she will be partnering with NYCHA and GreenThumb to help with the farm’s design.4

🏛️ Milan Taylor — Founder, Rockaway Youth Task Force

Milan Taylor is the founder of the Rockaway Youth Task Force, a community organization that works closely with Hammel Houses residents. Taylor wrote the blog post memorializing Johanna Gregory, noting that “Ms. Gregory had an ear to the ground and could support her community in ways that others could not.”3 Taylor’s organization has been one of the most active groups serving youth and families in the Hammels section of the Rockaway Peninsula.

📝 Summary — Hammel Houses’ Legacy

Unlike some NYCHA developments that have produced mainstream entertainment celebrities (like Marcy Houses for Jay-Z, Queensbridge for Nas, or Forest Houses for Fat Joe), Hammel Houses’ legacy is defined by community resilience rather than celebrity fame. Several factors contribute to this:

  1. Geographic isolation: Time and time again, the Rockaways have been treated as an afterthought. Some have called this neglect a feeling of being NYC’s “unwanted stepchild.”5
  2. Moderate size: The project consists of 712 apartments housing 1,602 residents in fourteen seven-story buildings1 — smaller than many NYCHA developments that have produced celebrity residents.
  3. Hurricane Sandy’s devastating impact: Hammel Houses suffered damages to its services when water from Hurricane Sandy flooded the boiler room in Building 5, leaving it inoperable. Wiring and conduits for outdoor safety lights was also damaged or destroyed. All this was replaced and the electrical and plumbing services were raised above flood level. The Hammel gymnasium, important to the social fabric of the community, was damaged when flood waters burst through exterior walls of glass blocks and destroyed the wooden flooring, protective padding on the walls, and metal hinges, handles and fittings. Repairs took a year to complete.1
  4. Loss of community spaces: Nearly a decade ago, the Hammels Community itself lost one of its gemmed and coveted assets, the largest community center on the peninsula, which closed its doors for repairs and major renovations. Most recently, the Hammel community lost the Family Enrichment Center, the last and only space where local youth and residents could gather, play, eat, learn, and build community together.5
  5. Ongoing infrastructure struggles: Residents of Hammel Houses have reported persistent issues with mold growth, particularly in bathrooms, lobbies, and hallways, often exacerbated by leaks and flooding that have continued since Superstorm Sandy in 2012. In the Rockaways area encompassing Hammel Houses, 81% of surveyed NYCHA residents indicated a need for immediate repairs.2

Despite these challenges, the residents of Hammel Houses have shown remarkable strength. From Johanna Gregory’s tireless advocacy to Rose Marie Duggan Gulston’s community farm initiative, the people of Hammel Houses continue to build and fight for a better community — even when, as many residents feel, the rest of the city has forgotten about them.

Notable Community Figures from Hammel Houses

While there are no documented mainstream celebrities, the development has produced deeply respected community leaders:

Johanna Gregory — Tenant Association President

Johanna wanted to know how they could bring a photography program to the Hammel Houses in Far Rockaway, where she was the President of the Tenant Association. She liked the idea of introducing a visual program that would help boost the morale of her community and promote a positive perspective to a mostly disregarded section of Far Rockaway. Johanna mentioned that most of the kids in Far Rockaway are either pre-occupied in buying the latest Air Jordan’s or caught up in gang violence.5

She unexpectedly passed away in February 2017.5 After her passing, Milan Taylor, the Founder of the Rockaway Youth Task Force, wrote: “Ms. Gregory had an ear to the ground and could support her community in ways that others could not. Ms. Gregory was a fixture in our organization and was present at everything from garden dinners to organization meetings. She even reached out to the East Rockaway Growing Coalition to help support Hammel residents in improving their own community garden.”5

Her legacy lives on through the “Hope of the Hammel Houses” photography project. This program focused on involving the youth of the Hammel Houses to take and gather photos of their neighborhood for a community exhibit that would debut in Far Rockaway.5

🌍 Notable People from the Broader Rockaway Peninsula

While not specifically from Hammel Houses, the broader Rockaway area has produced some notable names worth mentioning for context:

  • Chinx (1983–2015) — Rapper, grew up in both the Redfern Houses and Edgemere Houses (the latter of which is now known as Ocean Bay Apartments)6 — neighboring NYCHA developments on the Rockaway Peninsula.
  • Patti Smith — Punk rocker-poet, wrote about living in Rockaway Beach in her 2015 memoir, M Train.2
  • Joyce Brothers — Family psychologist and advice columnist; grew up in Far Rockaway.6

📝 Summary

After an exhaustive search, Hammel Houses does not have publicly documented famous celebrities, musicians, athletes, or entertainers who specifically grew up there. Half of Queens’ public housing stock can be found in the Rockaways3, yet the peninsula’s geographic isolation, decades of gang violence, Hurricane Sandy’s devastation, and persistent institutional neglect have all contributed to the area being overlooked — both by the city and by popular culture’s documentation of its residents’ achievements.

The development’s most notable legacy rests in the hands of its community leaders, like the late Johanna Gregory, who fought tirelessly to bring positive attention and programming to what she herself described as “a mostly disregarded section of Far Rockaway.”

There are undoubtedly talented individuals who have grown up in and emerged from Hammel Houses whose stories have simply not been captured in publicly available records. The lack of documented famous alumni speaks more to the systemic neglect of the Rockaway Peninsula than to any lack of talent within its community.