Remembering Flessel’s of College Point

December 20, 2013, 8:00 am

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14th Road and 119th Street was the location of an undeclared landmark in College Point, Queens for 127 years ­before most of Queens was even settled. Flessel’s was there when Queens was double its current size ­including all of Nassau County ­and before it was a part of New York City. It was built during the Ulysses S. Grant administration and was there before the Brooklyn Bridge connected Long Island to New York City. But Flessel’s didn’t make it into the 21st Century. I had long known about Flessel’s, even before I moved to Queens in 1993, from its description in Willensky and White’s AIA Guide To New York City, and always admired its out-of-time quality. After moving to Queens, I had always talked about getting up to Flessel’s for a drink or a meal. But it never happened. Flessel’s closed for good in December 1998, the property was sold, and the building… Read More

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Rockaway’s Abandoned Courthouse to See Revitalization

December 24, 2013, 8:00 am

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The abandoned courthouse has stood silently on Beach Channel Drive and Beach 90th Street, just east of Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge, for several decades, awaiting either the day when it would once again be occupied, or meet a wreckers’ ball. The Magistrates’ Court sports the clean lines of the new Art Moderne buildings that were being built in 1932, the year it opened. In 1962, Queens consolidated its courts in Jamaica and Kew Gardens, and it was shuttered. It was reopened in the 1970s, briefly, by a cultural and theatrical group which soon succumbed to the fiscal crisis of that decade. It has stood sentinel now over Jamaica Bay for more than forty years — it’s been closed for longer than it’s been open. The Wave, the Rockaway peninsula newspaper, has reported on various plans to revive the courthouse. In 1985 Community Board 14 voted to support an application to the Board… Read More

Bohack Restaurant, Flushing Avenue and Troutman Street, Ridgewood

January 3, 2014, 8:00 am

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German immigrant Henry C. Bohack opened his first grocery in 1887 and over the years Bohack’s developed into one of the first powerhouse grocery store chains. Grand Union, Key Food and all the rest were to follow. When the Depression arrived in late 1929, Bohack responded by actually opening more stores to provide employment. The founder passed away in 1930. You can still see a remaining Bohack sign when an older awning is removed, and what’s beneath it is in full view. Bohack was recognizable by the distinctive “B” in the logo. A building now used as a warehouse in the triangle formed by Flushing Avenue and Troutman Street still has those B’s emblazoned on the sides of the building. As this photo from the 1930s demonstrates, this building once housed a Bohack’s restaurant. A Bohack warehouse across Troutman has a chimney with the Bohack name painted on it as a reminder… Read More

Three Generations in Corona Yards

January 7, 2014, 8:00 am

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Corona Yards is the largest trainyard in Queens devoted entirely to the care and maintenance of subway cars, servicing equipment used on the Flushing #7 line, which was built in stages beginning in 1915. The line used tunnels under the East River that were originally meant to carry trolley cars belonging to William Steinway’s New York and Queens Railroad Company, which ran extensively in Queens but was never expanded to Manhattan. Eventually, the trolley line shuttered in 1937 and was replaced by bus lines. The Flushing Line was extended to Corona by 1925 and to Main Street, Flushing in 1928. There has been periodic talk of extending the line to the city line via Northern Boulevard, but it’s been just talk. In this photo we see three generations of subway cars that have been used on the line since 1964. At left is a new R-188 car, part of a new… Read More

The Lewis Latimer House: One of Queens’ Brightest Lights

January 10, 2014, 8:00 am

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Lewis Latimer (1848-1928), inventor and engineer, was born in Massachusetts to parents formerly held in slavery in Virginia. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1864 and upon his release, answered an ad for an office assistant from the patent law firm of Crosby and Gould, ascended to head draftsman, and discovered he had a knack for invention. While still at Crosby and Gould, Latimer assisted Alexander Graham Bell, providing the drawings for Bell’s patent application for the telephone; after leaving the law firm, Latimer joined the U.S. Electric Lighting Co, a chief rival of Thomas Edison. There he would produce a long-lasting carbon filament that was a major improvement on Edison’s 1878 electric lightbulb; Edison’s filaments, which used bamboo filaments, burned out quickly, making early bulbs impractical. Latimer published “Incandescent Electric Lighting, A Practical Description of the Edison System,” an early electric lighting guidebook, and went on to develop arc lamps and… Read More

Queens’ Road With Three Names

January 14, 2014, 8:00 am

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The only road that connects Douglaston and Little Neck north of Northern Boulevard runs between Douglas Road, at the eastern edge of Douglaston at Udall’s Cove Park, and Little Neck Parkway alongside the Long Island Rail Road. The city has never really settled on a name for the road, and thus it’s known by a variety of names depending on what part of the route you happen to be on.   Until Hagstrom listed it in the 1970s, it had never made city maps, either, which leads me to believe the road in its complete route is a relatively recent connection. Area residents have been calling it simply “the back road.” However, where the “back road” meets Douglas Road the city’s Department of Transportation calls it “Bayshore Boulevard” and Google Maps falls into line and calls the western section of the road Bayshore Boulevard as well.   While Hagstrom calls it “Sandhill Road” no DOT… Read More

East Astoria, a Small Town Remnant

January 17, 2014, 8:00 am

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Beers atlas, 1873 East Astoria was a very small community located on Astoria’s eastern edge, about where Astoria Boulevard between Steinway Street and 43rd Street are now. It was developed earlier than the surrounding area, and when more streets were finally cut through, much of East Astoria’s small street grid actually survived. North -south streets were Planet Avenue and Sound Street, while east-west streets were Bremen Avenue, Frankfort Avenue (both signs of Astoria’s German population during the 19th and early 20th centuries) as well as Nassau and Flushing Avenues. Flushing Avenue became Astoria Boulevard, and Nassau Avenue was demolished when the Grand Central Parkway was constructed. Planet and Bremen Avenues have disappeared.   Bromley atlas, 1909. The “ghosts” of East Astoria are still on the map. Over the decades, surrounding development swallowed up East Astoria, and its death knell as a separate community came when Robert Moses rammed through the Grand Central Parkway connection… Read More

Remains of a Former Astoria Asylum

January 21, 2014, 8:00 am

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At Ditmars Boulevard and 26th Street, there’s a curious ramp leading to a dead end, with a pair of gateposts. A high school now occupies the rear of the site. The ramp and gatepost are all that remain of River Crest Sanitarium, established here in 1896. Note the name of the asylum’s founder, “Jno. Jos. Kindred, M.D.” There is a Kindred Building on 31st Street near Ditmars, most likely named for U.S. Rep. John J. Kindred (1864-1937), a Virginia native who moved to Queens and was elected to the House of Representatives, serving from 1911-13 and 1921-29. Kindred, a physician by trade, founded several mental hospitals in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey. He was also a practicing attorney. River Crest Sanitarium  had closed by 1961 and was replaced by Mater Christi High School, now St. John’s Prep, seen in the background of the present-day photo. The above two postcards show it in 1920… Read More

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Marvelous Myrtle Avenue, Ridgewood

January 24, 2014, 8:00 am

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Myrtle Avenue, which runs from Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn all the way east to Jamaica Avenue in Richmond Hill, is one of those lengthy streets that belongs as much to Queens as it does to Brooklyn, much like Metropolitan Avenue a couple of miles to its north. It was originally built as a plank road and was added to in stages before reaching its final length in the mid-1850s. It was given its name because of the myrtle trees that proliferated at its western end when it first appeared on maps. From the late 1880s until 1969, most of Myrtle Avenue’s length was shadowed by an elevated train, the last such in NYC to use wood rolling stock. All of the Myrt’s route was overground, and wood cars were prohibited underground — if they caught on fire in the tunnels, the fire would be much harder to put out. After 1969,… Read More

In Bayside, Dermody Triangle’s Civil War Monument

January 28, 2014, 8:00 am

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Many of Queens’ original roads from the 19th century and even earlier survive, although they are couched in the modern Queens numbering system. Rocky Hill Road originally ran from Flushing to what is now Queens Village, skirting the northern edge of Flushing Cemetery and following the routes of 46th Avenue, Bell Boulevard, Luke Place, Springfield Boulevard and Braddock Avenue, ending at Jericho Turnpike/Jamaica Avenue. Today, a very short stretch at 48th Avenue just west of the Clearview Expressway retains the old name. At 46th Avenue and 218th Street, where Rocky Hill Road made a right turn, you’ll find one of Queens’ oldest memorials. It’s in a grassy area named Dermody Triangle, seen in the above photo taken during the summer.   Here you’ll see a large uneven boulder in the center, inscribed “For a Better Union 1861-1865.” The triangle honors Captain William Dermody, an outspoken abolitionist who was mortally wounded at the Civil… Read More

A Visit to the Kissena Park Velodrome, a Relic of the 1964 Olympics

January 31, 2014, 8:00 am

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Kissena Park, a large 234-acre tract bounded by Kissena Boulevard, Oak Avenue, 164th Street and Booth Memorial Avenue, is one-half “regular” city park with walkways and playgrounds, and half “natural” with bridle paths and heavily wooded areas where you shouldn’t be too surprised to see pheasants and rabbits darting about. It was developed gradually in the early years of the 20th century, with NYC slowly acquiring territory from private owners and police department property. Kissena Lake was once fed by streams, some of which emanated from the Flushing River, but it was cut off by the Works Progress Administration in 1942 and placed in a concrete retainer. It is periodically cleaned of algae buildup and is stocked with fish that support herons, egrets, cormorants and even snapping turtles. “Kissena” is thought to be a Chippewa Indian term meaning “it is cold”; though the Chippewa lived in Michigan, 19th-century horticulturalist Samuel Parsons,… Read More

In Memoriam: the Koenig-Boker House

February 4, 2014, 8:00 am

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Way up in College Point, the dead-end Boker Court curves around a quartet of newish tract houses. As it turns out, Boker Court was laid out like that circa 1900 to angle around the Koenig-Boker Mansion, which formerly stood on the right side of the street. Only the dead-end Boker Court is left as a reminder of it. In the mid-1800s, Frederick Koenig, a German banker and a partner with Conrad Poppenhusen, built a large, wood-framed, hip-roofed mansion with a wraparound porch colonnade at where 120th Street north of 14th Avenue would be. After Koenig returned to Germany he sold it to another German businessman, Frank Boker. The short driveway to the mansion from 120th Street was named for him. The mansion became a hotel, the College Point Clubhouse, was divided into apartments, all the time falling into greater and greater decrepitude. At length, it was razed in 2004.   The old mansion… Read More

IDC Building: Cookies to International Design

February 7, 2014, 8:00 am

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The International Design Center of New York opened October 10th, 1985 in what was originally the Loose-Wiles Biscuit Company Building, constructed in 1908 at 47th Avenue and 30th Street -– known as the “thousand window bakery.” The original products were crackers marketed under the Sunshine Biscuits trademark distributed in tins depicting characters that are highly prized as collectibles today. Sunshine is now a division of Keebler and produces the popular Cheez-IT brand. Formerly, a huge Loose-Wiles Sunshine Biscuits neon sign occupied the roofline on the south and east sides, easily visible from trains emerging from East River tunnels into Sunnyside Yards. Packard Autos, Swingline Staples, Eveready Batteries and American Chicle, producers of Chiclets gum, were also located here on the edge of Sunnyside, manufacturing everyday products and employing thousands of New Yorkers. These manufacturers have mostly vanished from the area. Today, the IDC NY building is home to furniture showrooms and offices… Read More

The Mystery of Walnut Street

February 11, 2014, 8:00 am

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What’s the most unusual street in Queens? For me, it’s a one-block street near the southern limit of Forest Hills, running between 70th Drive and 71st Avenue just north of Union Turnpike and Forest Park. There’s a nearby stables, or at least there was until recently — I haven’t checked for awhile. As this 1915 Belcher Hyde atlas plate shows, Walnut Street is part of an old street grid that survived, despite having a newer one (the Forest Hills grid of alphabetized streets named alphabetically from Austin through Wanda — the names survive only through Olcott, with Sybilla lasting as well). The older grid featured a Northern Boulevard, well south and several miles shorter than its northern Queens namesake. As you can see here, it’s a pleasant tree-lined street that’s shaded on both sides. What sets apart Walnut Street from most other streets in Queens is not that it carries a name… rather, its… Read More

The House at the End of Queens Boulevard

February 14, 2014, 8:00 am

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Queens Boulevard is possibly the fastest and furious-est, most pedal-to-the-metal, grade-level road in Queens, other than an expressway. It roars from the tangle of elevated train tracks at the east end of the Queensboro Bridge through Sunnyside, Elmhurst, Rego Park, Forest Hills and Kew Gardens, finally petering to a close as a modest two-lane road at Jamaica Avenue after running ten lanes for much of its route and having acquired the nickname the “Boulevard of Death” for its pedestrian-unfriendliness. Before the arrival of the Queensboro in 1909, Queens Boulevard was a modest country road known as Thomson Avenue and then Hoffman Boulevard, and before the coming of the white man to Queens it was likely a trail used  by the original residents. The bridge brought new residents to the borough, and finally the overwhelming popularity of the auto spurred its widening and redevelopment in the Roaring Twenties, development which was also… Read More

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The Long Island 45: the Motor Parkway

February 18, 2014, 8:00 am

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Motor Parkway overpass, 73rd Avenue at 199th Street, Fresh Meadows While making your way through the southeastern part of Fresh Meadows as you get close to Cunningham Park, you may spot the occasional white-painted overpass crossing the street. They’re not old railroad trestles or park paths… instead, they mark one of America’s very first parkways designed for automobile traffic. In 1904, the auto age had arrived in Long Island and industrialist heir William Kissam Vanderbilt helped ring it in with a road race that became known as the Vanderbilt Cup Race. It was one of the very first auto races and attracted drivers from the world over. The Cup Race was run in Nassau County on Jericho Turnpike, Bethpage Turnpike and Hempstead Turnpike–all now busy highways but in those days they were farm-to-market, unpaved roads.   Pit stop on the Motor Parkway The race attracted thousands of spectators every year despite dangerous conditions that produced occasional… Read More

The Man Who Made the Boxes

February 21, 2014, 8:00 am

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Center: Joseph Cornell House, Utopia Parkway Auburndale produced an unlikely innovator in the art world in the mid-20th century: shadow box and collage artist Joseph Cornell (1903-1972), who over four decades lived in a small frame house on Utopia Parkway south of Crocheron Avenue. Cornell and his family moved to Bayside from Nyack, NY after the death of his father in 1917, and after a few years, moved again to Utopia Parkway. Beginning in the mid-1930s, Cornell made wooden boxes about one to two feet high and filled them with found objects: photos of birds, buttons, corks, newspaper clippings, jars, photographs, toys, theatrical poster fragments and other relics he found in junk shops and flea markets. His art was played out, it seems, from a desire to break away from his Queens life. He would create hommages to places he’d never been, movie stars like Jennifer Jones and Lauren Bacall and 19th-Century… Read More

The Blanchard Building, Hunters Point

February 25, 2014, 8:00 am

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The many-windowed Blanchard Building, its U changed to a V by stonecarvers under orders to make the “U” the Roman “V” to impart majesty and permanency, stands sentinel on Borden Avenue near 21st Street, the old Van Alst Avenue. Its upper floors look out on the noxious and noisome Newtown Creek. It’s one of the brick hulks around town that I ceaselessly admire, whether they are factories or warehouses (as almost all of them once were) or converted into residential apartments. In this part of Hunters Point, that fate is still largely unlikely, as the residential fever that has taken over the west side of the neighborhood near the East River hasn’t reached its business side. The Blanchard looks across the street at a Fresh Direct depot on Borden, one of the handful of main streets allowed to keep its name after many were given numbers in the early 20th… Read More

Fresh Meadows: History Amid the Housing

February 28, 2014, 8:00 am

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The name “Fresh Meadows” derives from the same Dutch source that gave us “Flushing.” The latter is an English version of Vlissingen, a Dutch town whose name means “salt meadow valley.” After Flushing, originated in the 1640s, had been established for a while, colonists started to move to its southern reaches (but not as far as Rustdorp, the next town south, today’s Jamaica.) They found the area suffused with meadows and swamps fed by fresh, or salt-free, water springs, and so named it Fresh Meadows. The same etymology applies to Fresh Pond Road in Ridgewood: when European colonists arrived, they found non-saline ponds and named a road for the largest one. What had previously been part of the Fresh Meadows Country Club was purchased by the NY Life Insurance Company and the complex was finished in 1949. It was called by architecture critic Lewis Mumford “perhaps the most positive and exhilarating example of community… Read More

The Voelker-Orth Mansion Museum, Flushing

March 4, 2014, 8:00 am

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Chalk one up for the good guys! A Victorian-era residence, the kind that have long been displaced in Flushing by boring, monolithic apartments and blond brick two-family homes (you know the type… concrete driveways and prominent water meters) has been preserved as a museum. One of the rare survivors, a small, two-story house painted pink and white, at 149-19 38th Avenue, just south of Northern Boulevard,  has not only been allowed to stand but has been restored to full Victorian-era glory. It begins with its resident for 69 years, Betty Voelker-Orth, who was born in the house in 1926 and lived there until 1995, when she died from complications from an automobile accident. In her will, Mrs. Voelker-Orth, an English literature teacher, nature lover and birdwatcher, left her house to the Queens Historical Society, the Queens Botanical Society and the Audubon Society with the proviso that it be converted into a museum, bird sanctuary… Read More