The neighborhood is named for the Briarwood Land Company, headed by Herbert A. O'Brien, which built housing there around 1905 or 1907. O'Brien decided on the name Briarwood because of the brambles in its thick woods. The Ottilie Orphan Home was built on 148th Street in 1906. The Briarwood Land Company went bankrupt soon afterward, however, and the area was largely empty until 1924 when it was divided and sold at auction. Land went for $300 each for inside residential lots to $2,800 for lots along Queens Boulevard. Over the next four years, several single-family homes were built on the land. Briarwood's first school, P.S. 117, was built in 1927. Additional land was auctioned in 1928.