Greater Astoria Historical Society

All the Queens Houses: the highly idiosyncratic housing styles of Queens
2021-11-17 19:00 - 20:30 UTC
The highly idiosyncratic housing styles of Queens!
The borough of Queens has long been celebrated as the melting pot of America. Over a million foreign-born residents call it home, yet its houses are relatively unknown. This first comprehensive publication features over two-hundred images of highly idiosyncratic residential structures that characterize the global building aesthetic of Queens.
Between 2013 and 2020, Spanish-born architect and artist Rafael Herrin-Ferri made these buildings the subject of a seven-year block-by-block photo survey project.
Frontal, New Objective-style house portraits are accompanied by interpretive texts revealing a colorful history of alterations and architectural references, while full-page detail shots and street perspectives reflect the “World’s Borough” from a personal and pedestrian point of view.
Hosted by: Steve Vazquez, founder of Queenscapes – Trustee Astoria Historical Society
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Prospect Park with Forgotten NY
2021-11-11 18:30 - 21:00
Prospect Park with Forgotten NY
Prospect Park is hardly Forgotten:
millions use it to relax, play ball, stroll, take in the sun.
But there are plenty of nooks and crannies in the park that is unknown to all but the connoisseurs.

Come with Kevin Walsh and Forgotten NY in association with the Greater Astoria Historical Society which answers questions few have raised such as:
What does the Maryland Monument commemorate?
Where is New York City’s only public compost toilet?
What is a camera obscura and what building in the park has a direct connection to the Gowanus Canal?
Find out these and other fun park facts on Thursday, November 11 at 7 PM!
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A Halloween Tour of the Cemetary Belt
2021-10-25 19:00 - 20:30
A Halloween Tour of the Cemetary Belt

Only the brave should join us on a virtual tour of the Queens Cemetery Belt.

Thomas Wolfe wrote, “Only the Dead Know Brooklyn,” but he must not have spent much time in Queens. This tour will take you to the Cemetery Belt – the great burial grounds of more than five million people, including everyone from Mae West to confederate soldiers.

We’ll also visit Machpelah Cemetery, the final resting place (or is it?) of Harry Houdini, do some spelunking to get into Bayside’s old Lawrence Cemetery, see the acid-washed faces of the angels of Calvary Cemetery, and visit Louis Armstrong at Flushing Cemetery.

The tour will be led by Heather Quinlan, board member of the Greater Astoria Historical Society, who is currently directing the documentary “This Is a Cemetery,” about a paved-over cemetery in Staten Island.

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Civil Rights on Long Island
2021-10-18 19:00 - 20:30
Civil Rights on Long Island
Long Island has been in the corridors of almost all major turning points of American history, but Long Island has been overlooked as a battleground of the civil rights movement.

Christopher Verga is a local historian and American history lecturer at Suffolk County Community College. Christopher utilized images from local historical societies, private collections, and the African American Museum of Nassau County to create a narrative of civil rights challenges and triumphs. These photographed defining moments have become a testament to the future of an increasingly diverse suburb.
Since early colonization by the English settlers in the 17th century, the shadow of slavery has bequeathed a racial caste system that has directly or indirectly been enforced. During World War II, every member of society was asked to participate in ending tyranny within European and Asian borders. Homeward-bound black soldiers expected a societal change in race relations; instead, they found the same racial barriers they experienced prior to the war. They were refused homes in developments such as Levittown, denied mortgages, and had their children face limited educational opportunities. Collective efforts from organizations such as Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) employed civil disobedience as a tactic to fracture racial barriers.
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Open House NY - A Virtural Tour of the Steinway Mansion
2021-10-17 11:00 - 12:00
Open House NY – A Virtural Tour of the Steinway Mansion
Home to renowned piano manufacturer William Steinway and his family, this grand Italianate villa overlooking Bowery Bay was the center of a thriving model community and commercial district and the birthplace of urban development ideas that influence the city today.

Home to renowned piano manufacturer William Steinway and his family, this grand Italianate villa overlooking Bowery Bay was the center of a thriving model community and commercial district and the birthplace of urban development ideas that influence the city today.
Steinway moved his piano factory to Queens from Manhattan in 1870 and built a town for local workers, including an amusement park, a library (which became the Queens Public Library), and electrified trolley lines (which formed the basis for the MTA’s bus lines). Steinway headed the commission that planned the NYC subway in the 1890s, and through his Steinway Hall, a premier concert venue helped establish musical education standards for conservatories around the world. The mansion was one of the first buildings designated as a landmark following the passage of NYC’s landmarks law in 1966.
On this virtual tour, see the mansion’s interior rooms and dramatic halls, and learn about its past and future.
The tour will be led by Bob Singleton, Executive Director of the Greater Astoria Historial Society, see bio below.
BIO
Bob Singleton is the Executive Director of the Greater Astoria Historical Society which covers Long Island City, New York’s third city.
For more information go to Open House New York’s

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Historic Houses of Queens
2021-09-13 19:00 - 20:30
Historic Houses of Queens
Queens, New York, boasts a rich history that includes dozens of poorly publicized but historically impressive houses.

A mix of farmsteads, mansions, seaside escapes, and architecturally significant community dwellings, these homes were owned by America’s forefathers, nouveau riche industrialists, Wall Street tycoons, and prominent African American entertainers from the Jazz Age. Rufus King, a senator and the youngest signer of the US Constitution, operated a large family farm in Jamaica, while piano manufacturer extraordinaire William Steinway lived in a 27-room, granite and bluestone Italianate villa in Astoria. Local musicians include Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, James Brown, Ella Fitzgerald, and Lena Horne. Through more than 200 photographs, Historic Houses of Queens explores the borough’s most notable residences—their architecture, owners, surrounding neighborhoods, peculiarities, and even their fates as some vanished due to financial problems or fires.
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City Island
2021-09-09 19:00 - 20:30
City Island
City Island is chock full of antique shops, art galleries, and seafood restaurants, most of them arrayed along City Island Avenue.

Located on a spit of an island in Eastchester Bay in the extreme northeast Bronx, City Island is a transplanted New England fishing village seemingly beamed into the New York Metropolitan area. City Island was privately owned, first by the Pell family and then by the Palmer family, from 1654 until it became a part of the town of Pelham, in Westchester County, in 1819. The island became a part of New York City in 1895. City Island Avenue is a street grid is arranged much like a fish skeleton, with City Island Avenue the spine and the 24 streets intersecting it as the bones, making exploration on foot easy.

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LIC Gantry Lecture
2021-08-18 19:00 - 20:30
LIC Gantry Lecture
The Backstory of the Long Island City Gantries with Bob Singleton, Exec Dir Greater Astoria Historical Society

Before the Hell Gate Bridge opened in 1917, New York’s topography, which gave it extraordinary water access, also made Long Island (including Queens and Brooklyn) inaccessible to the national rail grid.
Join Bob Singleton for the story of Long Island City’s gantries with lift bridges, which accepted cargo-laden rail cars that were shuttled around New York’s harbor and waterways on car floats, and knit the harbor’s rail network together.
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