By The Times/Ledger
Allen-Beville House
29 Center Drive, Douglaston
Benjamin P. Allen acquired property in Douglaston in 1847 and is thought to have erected this house shortly thereafter. The house, one of the few surviving 19th century buildings in Queens constructed as a farm dwelling, was designed in a transitional style; the basic form is Greek Revival, but the cornices on the main house and its porches display Italianate brackets.
Astoria Motion Picture and Television Center
35-11 35th Ave., Astoria
Erected from 1919 to 1920 as part of the Famous Players Lasky Studio, later Paramount Pictures, this building contains a number of early technological innovations for film making, including one of the four largest sound stages in the world. Used from 1942 through 1970 by the U.S. Army for its film making, it is now subleased by the Astoria Motion Picture and Television Foundation and is the focus of a revived New York film industry.
John Bowne House
37-01 Bowne St., Flushing * 359-0528
Built in 1661 with additions in 1680 and 1696 by religious leader John Bowne, the house is filled with his original furnishings of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. The kitchen wing is the oldest surviving structure in Queens and is one of the oldest in New York City. The house is on the national registry of historic places and is designated as a New York City landmark. Guided tours offered Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. Tours for groups offered weekdays by appointment. Closed mid-December through Jan. 1 and all federal holidays with the exception of July 4. Admission is $4, $3 seniors, $2 students and children.
Richard Cornell Graveyard
Adjacent to 1463 Gateway Blvd., Far Rockaway
Named for the first European settler in the Rockaways, this small graveyard was established early in the 18th century and was used by the Cornell Family into the 19th century.
First Reformed Church of Jamaica
153-10 Jamaica Ave., Jamaica
The bold massing and complex use of arched motif mark this red brick building as one of the finest early Romanesque Revival churches in New York.
Flushing High School
35-01 Union St., Flushing
Flushing High School, incorporated in 1875, is the oldest public secondary school in New York City. Its present home is an impressive collegiate Gothic structure designed by the city's superintendent of school buildings, C.B.J. Snyder. Like Snyder's earlier Curtis High School on Staten Island, Flushing High School was given a campus setting. The choice of style and setting evokes the great Gothic colleges of Oxford and Cambridge.
Flushing Town Hall
137-35 Northern Blvd., Flushing * Tel. 463-7700, Fax 445-1920
This picturesque, Romanesque revival building has been the center of the civic, social and cultural life of the community as town hall, opera house and courthouse since its erection by a local carpenter in 1862. It was slated for demolition in 1976 but was reused as a restaurant and theater. The German-inspired design is striking in its use of round-arched forms for windows and doors, its entrance portico and its corbelled cornice. The building is a New York City and national landmark and is now used as a performing arts and visual center with three art galleries by Flushing Council on Culture and the Arts.
Fort Totten Battery
U.S. Government Reservation, Willets Point, Bayside.
This superbly constructed stone battery, built from 1862 to 1864 opposite Fort Schuyler in the Bronx, is part of the seacoast fortification system developed by Joseph P. Totten (1778-1864), an internationally famous military engineer.
Fort Totten Officers' Club
U.S. Government Reservation, Fort Totten Road, Bayside. This picturesque, crenellated frame building is one of the few surviving civil examples of the romantic Gothic Revival style in the city. The modest, one-story building (c. 1870) was enlarged in 1887.
Grace Episcopal Church and Graveyard
155-03 Jamaica Ave., Jamaica.
This handsome church with a tall spire was built of rough-cut sandstone from 1861 to 1862 based on designs by Dudley Field in the English Gothic tradition as was the chancel (1901-1902) by Cady, Berg and See. This is the third church on the site since 1734. Rufus King, a signer of the U.S. Constitution, was buried in the charming churchyard.
Arthur and Dorothy Dalton Hammerstein House
168-11 Powells Cove Blvd., Beechhurst
Although not as well known as his father, Oscar Hammerstein, or his nephew, Oscar Hammerstein II, Arthur Hammerstein was a successful theatrical producer who sponsored 26 Broadway shows, including works by Victor Herbert, George Gershwin and Jerome Kern. Following the success of the musical “Wildflower” in 1923 and his marriage to the actress and film star Dorothy Dalton, Hammerstein purchased a waterfront plot in Queens and erected this sprawling Neo-Tudor house, which was enlarged prior to 1930. The house is one of many mansions erected along the north shore of eastern Queens and adjacent sections of Long Island in the early decades of the 20th century.
Hunters Point Historic District
45th Avenue between 21st and 23rd streets, Long Island City
Ferry Service between 34th Street in Manhattan and the Long Island Rail Road terminus in Long Island City led to the urbanization of this area, which adopted the name of the estate of a British sea captain, George Hunter. Ten of the city's best preserved Italianate row houses, faced with Westchester stone, a material harder than brownstone, were built along 45th Avenue in the early 1870s. Examples of French Second Empire, Neo-Greco and Queen Anne styles popular from 1870 to 1890 can also be seen.
King Manor Museum
150-03 Jamaica Ave., Jamaica * 206-0545
The 29-room house was the home from 1805 to 1827 of Rufus King, a signer of the U.S. Constitution, one of New York's first two senators and the United States' first ambassador to Great Britain. Georgian in style, with a federal entrance door, it was effectively preserved through its maintenance as a museum by the King Manor Association. It is among the oldest historic house museums in the country. The interior displays fine architectural detail of the Georgian and federal periods, reflecting successive phases of construction. Subsequent changes include Greek Revival and Victorian decorative elements. Special programs and activities for both children and adults are available. Open March through December, noon to 4 p.m., weekends; 12:15 to 2 p.m. on the second and last Tuesday of each month. Tours in Spanish provided on weekends. Admisison is $2, $1 children under 12.
Kingsland Homestead Museum
143-35 37th Ave., Flushing.
Flushing's second-oldest house (circa 1774) reflects the English vernacular tradition. It was saved from demolition by the Kingsland Preservation Committee by relocation in 1968 to Weeping Beech Park, near the Bowne House headquarters of the Queens Historical Society.
J. Kurtz and Sons Store
162-24 Jamaica Ave., Jamaica
The former J. Kurtz and Sons furniture store is one of the finest examples of art deco architecture in Queens and a building of great prominence on the commercial thoroughfare of Jamaica Avenue. One of its architects said the brick building, with its black and white glazed tile pylons, polychromatic terra cotta panels, and prominent vertical sign, was designed to be as “modern and colorful” as the contemporary furniture displayed inside.
Lewis H. Latimer House
34-41 137th St., Flushing
The renowned African-American inventor Lewis H. Latimer lived in this house – built in 1887 – from 1902 until his death.
Lawrence Family Graveyard
Corner 20th Road and 35 Street, Steinway
This small private cemetery is the resting place of many members of the distinguished Lawrence family. The first of 89 graves dates back to 1703, the last, 1956.
Lawrence Graveyard
Lawrence Memorial Park, 216th Street and 42nd Avenue, Bayside.
Part of the original patent granted by Governor Kieft of New Netherland to John and William Lawrence, this wooded area was for years a favorite picnic ground of the family. Used for family burials from 1832 to 1925.
Lent Homestead
78-03 19th Road, Steinway
The beauty of this simple Dutch colonial farmhouse lies in the contrast of rough stonework with wood shingles and in the vigorous lines of the steeply sloping roof with overhangs at the front and rear. Erected c. 1729 for Abraham Lent.
Louis Armstrong House
34-56 107th St., Corona * 478-8274
One of the world's most renowned jazz musicians and entertainers purchased this modest house in 1943 and occupied it until his death in 1971. Armstrong – “Satchmo,” as he was commonly known – gained world fame as a jazz trumpeter and band leader on stage (notably at the Savoy Ballroom and other Harlem night spots), in recordings and in Hollywood films. In 1983, Armstrong's wife, Lucille, willed the house and its contents to New York City for the creation of a museum and study center devoted to Armstrong's career and the history of jazz.
Marine Air Terminal
LaGuardia Airport
(Delano and Aldrich, 1939-1940). The art deco Marine Air Terminal evokes the glamor of early air travel. It was a principal feature of Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia's plan to build a major airport in New York City. North Beach Airport (as LaGuardia was originally called) was the largest single undertaking financed by the Works Progress Administration. The Marine Air Terminal was built for Pan American's luxurious Trans-Atlantic seaplanes known as clipper ships. The terminal is massed around a central circular core, with a rectangular entrance pavilion and two symmetrically disposed wings. Its exterior ornament includes a polychromatic terra-cotta frieze of flying fish. The interior consists of a small foyer and vestibule with stainless steel detail and a spectacular central rotunda encircled with James Brook's Flight, a 12-foot-high, 237 foot-long mural commissioned by the WPA. The mural, which was painted over in the 1950s, was restored in 1980.
New York State Supreme Court
25-10 Court Square, Long Island City
In 1870 the seat of Queens County was relocated from Jamaica to Long Island City. Shortly thereafter a new courthouse was erected. Following a fire in 1904, the building was rebuilt by the local architect Peter M. Coco.
New York Architectural Terra Cotta Company Building
42-10 Vernon Blvd., Long Island City
The firm, founded in 1886, was one of the leading manufacturers of ornamental terra cotta until it went bankrupt in 1928.
Benjamin T. Pike House
18-33 41st Street, Steinway (1858)
Pike, a manufacturer of scientific instruments, erected this magnificent Italiante stone villa.
Poppenhusen Institute
114-04 14th Road, College Point * 358-0067
Home of the first free kindergarten in the United States, Poppenhusen Institute was built as College Point's town hall and education center with money donated by Conrad Poppenhusen. Today the New York City and national landmark is a cultural center and a museum of local history. Tours, which can include slide presentations, are available of its old village jail cells and its native American and first free kindergarten exhibits.
Prospect Cemetery
159th Street at Beaver Road, Jamaica
This four-acre plot, c. 1680, is the oldest cemetery in Queens.
Queensborough Bridge
Between 11th Street and Bridge Plaza North and Bridge Plaza South and East 59th Street in Manhattan
The first to connect Queens and Manhattan, the bridge was instrumental in the development of Queens.
Queens County Farm Museum
Colonial Farmhouse Restoration Society of Bellerose, 73-50 Little Neck Pkwy., Floral Park * 347-3276
The museum, which reflects the agricultural history of New York City, features a landmark farmhouse that dates back to 1772, planting fields, an orchard, a farmyard and livestock on its 47 acres. It was formerly known as the Creedmoor Farmhouse and the ACOB Adriance Farmhouse. Guided tours of the restored farmhouse are available, as are quilting courses, craft courses, educational tours and workshops. Grounds open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., weekends; 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and by appointment. Farm house open weekends only.
RKO Keith's Theatre
135-29,45 Northern Blvd., Flushing
RKO Keith's originally opened as the Keith-Albee Theatre on Christmas Day 1928. World-renowned architect Thomas Lamb used the Mexican-Baroque style, featuring a breathtaking “atmospheric” auditorium with electric lights and projected drifting clouds. The interior was once designated a municipal landmark, but today only the ticket lobby and the grand foyer have landmark status. The theater, which once hosted stars such as Jack Benny, Bob Hope, Milton Berle, Roy Rogers and Burns and Allen, is now vacant and closed to the public.
Reformed Dutch Church of Newtown and Fellowship Hall
85-15 Broadway, Newtown
This wooden church building, built in 1831, displays a late use of the Georgian style. It is a prominent feature of the Newtown community.
Edward E. Sanford House
102-45 47th Ave., Newtown
This small two-story house (c. 1871) is one of the last intact 19th century frame houses in Queens. Designed in a vernacular Italianate style, the house is notable for its decorative porch, gable and fence.
Cornelius Van Wyck House
37-04 Douglaston Pkwy, Douglaston
Facing Little Neck Bay, this house combines an original Dutch colonial core of 1735 with a Georgian addition of 1770. The kitchen wing and other alterations are 20th century.
Weeping Beech Tree
Weeping Beech Park, 37th Avenue between Parsons Boulevard and Bowne Street, Flushing
This tree was planted in 1847 by Samuel Bowne Parsons, owner of a major nursery in Flushing. Intrigued by news of the existence of an exotic new variety of beech tree in Belgium, he acquired a tiny shoot that he planted near the Bowne House. His nursery furnished stock to both Central and Prospect parks. The tree was one of the city's two living landmarks until 1998, when it died and the Parks Department was forced to remove its dead limbs. The tree spawned several saplings, which are growing near their historic mother.
Adrian and Ann Wyckoff Onderdonk House
18-20 Flushing Ave., Ridgewood * 456-1776
Maintained by the Greater Ridgewood Historical Society, this 1709 farmhouse is home to a collection of colonial artifacts including bottles, china, clay pipes and ceramic beer bottle tops. Open noon to 4 p.m., Wednesday and Saturday; and by appointment. Admission is $2, free for children.
