From the birthplace of religious freedom to a theater haunted by the ghost of a Civil War soldier, Queens celebrates its history through its landmarks.
City historians agree with Queens’ passion for its past. Forty-eight Queens Landmarks have been officially designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, along with three historic districts.

Landmark status is granted by a panel of non-salaried, Mayoral appointees who recognize the need to protect architectural designs, historic districts, and the true design, nature or use of a site for historic purposes. Landmark status can also be granted to preserve artistic quality.
Queens landmarks registered by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission are as follows:

102-47 47th Avenue House, designated as a landmark 2/10/87.

Adrian and Ann Wyckoff OnderDonk House, Flushing Ave., Ridgewood, (1820-1836) designated as a landmark 4/25/91.

Allan-Beville House, 29 Center Drive, designated as a landmark 1/11/77.

Louis Armstrong House. Satchmo’s digs preserved for prosperity. Tribune Photo By Ira Cohen

LOUIS ARMSTRONG HOUSE, 34-55 107th Street, Corona (Robert W. Johnson, 1910). 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 – or Satchmo, as he was commonly known – gained world fame as a jazz trumpeter and bandleader on-stage (notably at the Savoy Ballroom and other Harlem nightspots), in recordings and in Hollywood films. In 1983, Armstrong’s widow, 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.

BENEVOLENT AND PROTECTIVE ORDER OF ELKS, LODGE NO. 878, 82-10 Queens Blvd., designated 8/14/01.

The sign outside of Bowne House reads: “A National Shrine to Religious Freedom.” Tribune Photo By Jeremy Olshan

Bowne House, 37-01 Bowne St., (1661; additions 1680, 1696, and 1830), designated as a landmark 2/25/66.

Cornelius Van Wyck House, 37-04 Douglaston Pkwy., designated as a landmark 3/21/95.

Richard Cornell Graveyard, Caffrey Ave., Far Rockaway (18th to 19th centuries) designated as a landmark 8/18/70.

Creedmoor (Cornell)/ Jacob Adriance Farmhouse, QUEENS COUNTY FARM MUSEUM, 73-50 Little Neck Pkwy., Floral Park, (1772, additions C.1835 and later), designated as a landmark 11/9/76. The Adriance house is a rare example of a New York City farmhouse that is still set in a rural setting.

Fire Engine Company 289, Ladder Company 138, 97-28 43rd Ave.; Built 1912-14; Satterlee & Boyd, architects; designated a landmark 6/22/99. Landmarks Preservation Commission Summary: Built in 1912-14, Fire Engine Company 289, Ladder Company 138 is one of Corona’s most prominent public buildings. Designed by the architectural firm Satterlee & Boyd, the French Renaissance-style structure was erected as part of an ambitious campaign to bring professional fire service to Queens following the Consolidation of Greater New York. Part of the earliest group of station designs introduced during the automobile age, it features side-by-side apparatus bays specifically designed for motorized vehicles. Notable features include the use of tapestry brick, bronze and marble medallions, decorative ironwork, and a steeply pitched mansard roof clad in gray slate. Standing amidst single-family residences and small industrial buildings, Fire Engine Company 289, Ladder Company 138 is an outstanding example of early twentieth century civic architecture, symbolizing Greater New York’s commitment to the citizens of Corona.

First Reformed Church of Jamaica, 153-10 Jamaica Ave., Jamaica, (Sidney Young, 1858-90, addition Tuthill and Higgins, 1902), designated as a landmark 1/30/96. The bold massing and complex use of arched motifs make this one of the finest early Romanesque revival churches in New York.

Flushing High School, 35-01 Union St., (1912-1915), designated as a landmark 4/19/66. Incorporated in 1875, Flushing High School 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. The choice of style and setting evokes the great Gothic colleges of Oxford and Cambridge.

Flushing Town Hall, later Flushing municipal courthouse, now home of Flushing Council on Culture and the Arts, (137-35 Northern Blvd., Flushing, (1862) designated as a landmark 7/30/68.

The Officer’s Club at Fort Totten is landmarked, and currently home to the Bayside Historical Society.

Fort Totten Historic District, Bayside; designated a landmark June 29, 1999. Landmarks Preservation Commission Summary: Fort Totten occupies a 136-acre site in northeast Queens, north of Bayside, on a peninsula jutting into the Long Island Sound. The Fort Totten Historic District, incorporating much of the peninsula, includes over 100 buildings and smaller secondary structures built between the 1830s and the 1960s. The fort, originally called the Fort at Willets Point, was established in 1857 as a major component in the defense system of New York Harbor.

Fort Totten Battery, Officer’s Club, Fort Totten, Bayside, designated as landmarks 9/24/74. Between 1857 and 1863 the federal government purchased land in Queens for a fort that, along with Fort Schuyler in the Bronx, would protect the mouth of the East River.

Friends Meeting House, 137-16 Northern Blvd., Flushing (1694; additions 1716-19) designated as a landmark 8/18/70. The eastern third of the house is the city’s oldest structure in continuous use for religious purposes.

GRACE EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND GRAVEYARD, 155-03 Jamaica Ave., Jamaica (Dudley Fields, 1861-62; chancel, Cady, Berg & See, 1901-02; graveyard. c 1734- ). Grace Church was founded in 1702 as the official church of the British colonial government. The congregation has worshiped at this site on the main street of Jamaica since 1734. The present church, a rough-cut brownstone Early English Gothic-inspired structure with a tall spite, is the third at this location. The early 20th-century chancel complements the design of the original building. Among those buried in the graveyard are Rufus King, whose house still stands 200 yards away to the west.

Arthur Hammerstein House, 168-11 Powells Cove Blvd., Beechurst, (Dwight James Baum, 1924 and pre-1930), designated as a landmark 12/13/88. Arthur Hammerstein was a successful theatrical producer who sponsored twenty Broadway shows. Following the success of the musical Wildflower in 1923, and his marriage to the actress and film star Dorothy Dalton, Hammerstein purchased a water-front lot in Queens and erected this sprawling neo-tudor house, which was enlarged prior to 1930. The building is currently vacant, and in poor condition, but permits have been issued to restore it.

HUNTER’S POINT HISTORIC DISTRICT. This district, extending along blockfronts, is an unusual example of 19th-century middle-class row-house construction in Queens. The urbanization of Hunter’s Point followed the 1861 inauguration of ferry service between 34th Street in Manhattan and the nearby Long Island Rail Road terminus. Development began in the historic district in the early 1870s and continued until 1890.

JACKSON HEIGHTS HISTORIC DISTRICT. The Jackson Heights Historic District celebrates the innovative garden apartment and garden home development undertaken by the Queensboro Corporation on the former farm fields of north central Queens, primarily in the 1910s and 1920s.

King MANOR Interior, 151-01 Jamaica Ave., designated as a landmark 3/13/76.

King Mansion, also known as the Rufus King House, 151-01 Jamaica Ave., (1733-55: additions 1806, 1810, and 1830s), designated as a landmark 4/19/66. Rufus King, Massachusetts delegate to the Continental Congress, anti-slavery advocate, and three term senator from New York purchased a modest gabled roof farmhouse and adjacent acreage in Jamaica in 1805.

Kingsland Homestead (original site), 40-25 155 St., Flushing, designated as a landmark 10/14/65.

Kingsland Homestead (current location), 143-35 37 Ave., designated as a landmark 4/19/66.

Former J. Kurtz & Sons Store Building, 162-24 Jamaica Ave., Jamaica, designated as a landmark 11/24/81. The 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.

La Casina, 90-33 160 St., Jamaica, (1933) designated as a landmark 1/30/96, now Jamaica Business Resource Center.

Lamppost 72, Maspeth, designated as a landmark 6/17/97, located on the south side of 53 Ave. Step street between 64 St. And 65 Place.

Lamppost 95, Rockaway Blvd., designated as a landmark 6/17/97, located near 150 St. By Baisley Pond Park.

The Latimer House on the move. The inventor’s abode was moved to preserve it as a historical landmark.

Latimer House, 34-41 137th St., Flushing, (1887-89), designated as a landmark 5/16/95. The renowned African American inventor Lewis H. Latimer lived in this house from 1902 until his death in 1928. Latimer was a specialist in electric lighting and invented the long lasting carbon filament, which made possible the production of affordable electric light bulbs.

LAWRENCE FAMILY GRAVEYARD, southeast corner of 20th Road and 35t Street, Steinway (1703-1975). This small prvate cemetery is the resting place of 89 members of the distinguished Lawrence family, including 12 high-ranking American military officers. Oliver Lawrence, who died in 1975, was the last family member buried at the site.

Loew’s Valencia Theater (now Tabernacle of Prayer for All People), 165-11 Jamaica Ave.; Built 1928; John Eberson, architect; designated a landmark on 2/23/99. Landmarks Preservation Commission Summary: Designed by theater architect John Eberson and opened in 1929, the 3554-seat Valencia was the first of five so-called “Wonder Theaters” built for the New York-based Loew’s chain of movie theaters to serve the major metropolitan population centers outside midtown Manhattan. Its romantic, brick and glazed terra-cotta facade was inspired by Spanish and Mexican architecture of the Baroque or “Churrigueresque” period, with detail including elaborate ornamental terra-cotta pilasters, cherub heads, half-shells, volutes, floral swags, curvilinear gables and decorative finials.

Lent Homestead, 78-03 19 Rd., (1729), designated as a landmark 3/15/66.

Marine Air Terminal and interior, LaGuardia Airport, (Aldrich, 1939-40), designated as a landmark 11/25/80. The art deco structure evokes the glamour of early air travel. It was a principal feature of Mayor Fiorello La Guardia’s plan to build a major airport in New York City.

Moore Jackson Cemetery, 31-30 to 31-36 54 St., designated as a landmark 3/18/97.

Newtown High School 48-01 90 Street, Elmhurst, designated as a landmark 6/24/03. One of Elmhurst’s most prominent buildings, Newtown High School is a reminder of the long history of public education in the City of New York. The building is a result of several building campaigns, which began with th construction of a small wooden school house in 1866. The school’s first expansion took place in 1898-1900, when a much larger brick buildong, designes by the architectural firm Borin and Tilton, was added to the site. In 1917-18, C.B.J. Snyder desgined an impressive Flemish Renaissance Revival-style addition to the school which featured steeped gables and a dramatic 169-foot, centrally placed tower topped by a cupola and turrets.

Terra Cotta Building, L.I.C., your grandmother’s flower pots were made here. Tribune Photo By Ira Cohen

New York Architectural League Terra Cotta Works Building, 42-10 to 42-16 Vernon Blvd., Long Island City (1892) designated as a landmark 8/25/82. A leading manufacturer of ornamental terra cotta in the years after it was founded, in 1886, by 1924 it was bankrupt.

NEW YORK STATE SUPREME COURT, QUEENS COUNTY; LONG ISLAND CITY BRANCH, 25-10 Court Sq., Long Island City (George Hathorne 1872-76; reconstruction, Peter M. Coco, 1904-08). In 1870, the seat of Queens County was moved from Jamaica to Long Island City; shortly thereafter a new courthouse was erected. Following a disastrous fire in 1904, the building was rebuilt and enlarged in a Beaux-Arts manner by the local architect Peter M. Coco. A parking garage was built at the rear of the courthouse in 1988-90 (Skidmore, Owins & Merrill, architect), replacing two jail structures.

Paramount Studios Main Building, originally famous Players-Lasky Studio, now Kaufman’s Astoria Motion Picture and Television center, 35-11 35 Ave., Astoria (Fleischman Construction, 1919-21) designated as a landmark 3/14/78.

PROSPECT CEMETERY, 150th Street, Jamaica (c. 168- ). This tour-acre plot is the oldest cemetery in Queens. Established before 1668, the cemetery is the final resting place of many Revolutionary War veterans as well as members of such prominent Queens families as the Sutphins, Van Wycks and Merricks. A small Romaneseque Revival chapel was erected in 1857 by Nicholas Ludlum in memory of his three daughters.

Poppenhusen Branch, Queens Borough Public Library, 121-123 14th Ave. (aka 121-127 14th Avenue, and 13-16 College Point Blvd.); built 1904; Heins & LaFarge, architects; designated a landmark on May 30, 2000. Opened on Oct. 5, 1904, the Poppenhusen Branch is one of five remaining Carnegie branch libraries of the Queens Borough Public Library system. It is one of the sixty-seven built in New York City when Andrew Carnegie donated $5.2 million in 1901 to establish a citywide branch library system. The library, with its characteristic corner site, exuberant Classical Revival style, projecting arched center entrance marked by a broken pediment and decorative stone banding, and flight of stairs leading to an interior brightly lit by large windows, clearly illustrates the characteristics of the freestanding Carnegie library.

Poppenhusen Institute, 114-04, 14 Rd., College Point, (Mundell and Teckrittz, 1968), designated as a landmark 8/18/70.

Queensboro Bridge, Crescent St., Long island City (Lindenthal and Hornbostel, 1909), designated as a landmark 11/20/73. Crosses the East River between 11 St. and Bridge Plaza North and Bridge Plaza South, Queens, and East 59 Street. As the third bridge to span the East River and the first to connect Queens and Manhattan it was a potent influence on the development of Queens.

Reformed Church of Newton and Fellowship Hall, 85-15 Broadway, designated as a landmark 7/19/66.

REMSEN CEMETERY, adjacent to 69-43 Trotting Course Lane, Newtown (c. 1790-). The Remsens, among the earliest settlers of Queens, may have established this private cemetery in the mid-18th century, although the earliest extant gravestone dates from 1790. The main focus of the small plot is a World War I memorial with a flagpole and two statues of doughboys.

Ridgewood Savings Bank, Forest Hills Branch, 107-55 Queens Blvd.; built 1939-40; Halsey, McCormack & Helmer, architects; designated a landmark May 30, 2000. The Forest Hills Branch building of the Ridgewood Savings Bank was constructed in 1939-40 to serve the residents of this rapidly expanding Queens neighborhood. The Ridgewood Savings Bank was founded in 1921 in Ridgewood as a mutual savings bank which had no stockholders and distributed all profits to its depositors. The bank managers chose the Forest Hills location for the bank’s first branch office because of its growing population and newly-opened subway stop.

The Register/ Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, 161-04 Jamaica Ave., (A.S. Macgregot, 1898), designated as a landmark 11/12/74.

Richmond Hill Republican Club, Lefferts Blvd., Richmond hill, designated a landmark on 12/17/02 Landmarks Preservation Commission Summary: An integral part of downtown Richmond Hill, the Richmond Hill Republican Club has served as an important political club as well as a cornerstone of this Queens community. Esteemed speakers over the years have included Theodore Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.

RKO

RKO Keith’s Theatre in Flushing has a landmarked lobby. Tribune Photo By Ira Cohen

Keith’s Flushing Theater (Interior Lobby), 135-29 to 135-49 Northern Blvd., Flushing (Thomas Lamb, 1927-28), designated as a landmark 2/28/84. The ticket lobby, grand foyer, promenade, and lounges of the former theater, designed in a fanciful Mexican Baroque style, are a reminder of the grandeur of movie palaces in the 1920s. The space is currently vacant and closed to the public.

St. George’s (Episcopal) Church, Old Parish House and Graveyard, 38-02 Main St. (a.k.a. 135-33 39th Ave.), Flushing; built 1853-54, Wills & Dudley, architects; Chancel, 1894, J. King James, architect; Old Parish House, 1907-08, Charles C. Haight, architect; designated a landmark on 2/8/00. Prominently sited on Main Street in the heart of downtown Flushing, St. George’s (Episcopal) Church is a notable example of Gothic Revival design. Erected in 1853-54, this impressive stone building is the congregation’s third church building on the site since 1746.

Sidewalk Clock on 30-78 Steinway St., (1922) designated as a landmark 8/25/81.

Sidewalk Clock on 161-1 Jamaica Ave., (1900) designated as a landmark 8/25/81. Many of New York’s commercial streets were once graced by cast iron clocks generally erected as advertisements by local stores.

Steinway House, 18-33 41 St., designated as a landmark 2/15/67.

Stockholm Street Historic District, designated a landmark 11/28/00. The Stockholm Street Historic District, located in the western part of Ridgewood, is a one-block ensemble of brick rowhouses representing one of the most intact, harmonious, and architecturally-distinguished enclaves of working-class dwellings built in New York City during the early twentieth century. The historic district consists of thirty-six houses, one former stable, and two garages, lining both sides of a brink-paved street.

Suffolk Title And Guarantee Company Building (formerly), 90-04 161st St. (aka 90-02— 90-04 161st St., 160-02 — 160-10 90th Ave. and 90-01 — 90-03 160th St.); built 1929; Dennison & Hirons, architects; designated a landmark 3/6/01. Constructed in 1929, the (Former) Suffolk Title and Guarantee Company Building maintains a commanding presence near the business center of Jamaica. This eight-story structure was built at a time of tremendous business prosperity and building activity. The architects used the Art Deco style enhanced with colorful terra-cotta ornament to create a modern and distinctive headquarters for the Long Island-based firm, which was organized in 1925 to insure real estate titles, guarantee mortgages, and make loans. Echoing the dominant shapes of the prominent Art Deco skyscrapers of the period in this smaller building, the architects emphasized the verticality of the structure with continuous masonry piers and a variety of setbacks near the top.

TRANS WORLD AIRLINES FLIGHT CENTER AT NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, now TWA Terminal A. John F. Kennedy International Airport (Eero Saarinen & Associates, 1956-62). The TWA Terminal is one of the great masterpieces of expressionistic modern design and is a major work by Euro Saarinen (with codesigner Kevin Roche), United States. Built of carefully engineered concrete and glass, the distinctive winged form of the building reflects Sarrinen’s desire “to interpret the sensation of flying.” The terminal was among the first planned with the satellite gates, jetways and baggage carousels now common in airports. The cynamism of the design continues on the interior, where the terminal is massed with a powerful series of curved concrete forms on the walls, stairs, balconies and ceiling vault of the main hall, jetways and satellite gates.

Unisphere glistens on a clear Queens morning. Tribune Photo By David Lieberman

The Unisphere and surrounding reflecting pool, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, (Gilmore Clarke, landscape architect: United States Steel Company , engineering and fabrication 1963-64), designated as a landmark 7/19/94. The Unisphere symbolizing peace through understanding, was the centerpiece of the 1964-65 World’s fair. The monumental steel ball, stands in the center of a reflecting pool with fountains spraying water 20 feet into the air.

Flushing’s Weeping Beech Tree...prior to its demise, it sprouted several offspring to fill its void. Tribune Photo By Dee Richard

Weeping Beech Tree, 143-35 37 Ave., Flushing, designated as a landmark 4/19/66.