A24
TIMESLEDGER, GUIDE TO QUEENS, SPRING/SUMMER 2022
Jamaica Savings Bank (current)
Built: 1939
Address: 146-21 Jamaica Ave.,
Jamaica
Architect Morrell Smith,
celebrated for his designs of
commercial bank buildings,
designed this branch of Jamaica
Savings Bank in 1939. Set on a
trapezoidal lot, the one-story
building faces an intersection
with an angled facade and
corner entrance.
Jamaica Savings Bank (former)
Built: 1897-98
Address: 161-02 Jamaica Ave.,
Jamaica
Designed by the firm of Hough
& Deuell, the building is an
example of the classically
inspired Beaux-Arts style,
executed in carved limestone
and wrought iron and is one of
only a few buildings in Queens
to embrace that aesthetic.
Sited on Jamaica Avenue, the
building is an urbane presence
on the neighborhood’s main
commercial thoroughfare.
J. Kurtz and Sons Store
Built: 1931
Address: 162-24 Jamaica Ave.,
Jamaica
The ground floor storefront on
Jamaica Avenue wraps around
the corner onto Guy Brewer
Boulevard. Corner windows
on the upper floors add an
additional modern design
element to the building.
King Manor Museum
Built: 1900
Address: 150-03 Jamaica Ave.,
Jamaica
The King Manor Association of L.I.
Inc. operates the historic house
as a museum to preserve and
interpret the home and legacy
of Rufus King. The only historic
house museum in southeast
Queens, King Manor serves a
largely minority and immigrant
community and engages its
audiences through historic
site tours, interactive exhibits,
lectures, public programs and
school and community outreach.
La Casina
Built: around 1933
Address: 90-33 160th St.,
Jamaica
The building is a former nightclub
built in the Modern style. It now
houses the Jamaica Business
Resource Center.
Loew’s Valencia
Theater
Built: 1929
Address: 165-11 Jamaica Ave.,
Jamaica
It currently houses the
Tabernacle of Prayer for
All People. Designed by
John Eberson, the former
theater was the first of five
atmospheric movie palaces
constructed by the Loew’s
Corp. outside Manhattan in the
1920s.
Prospect Cemetery
Built: around 1668
Address: 159th Street near York
College and the Long Island Rail
Road station, Jamaica
In the 19th century, the cemetery
expanded through the purchase
of individual lots. It contains
tombstones and monuments
of varying ages and styles and
the burials of Revolutionary War
veterans and early prominent
families from Long Island and
Queens.
Queens General Court House
Built: 1936-39
Address: 88-11 Sutphin Blvd.,
Jamaica
The Modern Classical
style was selected for this
building because it was
thought to express the
dignity and majesty of the
law. An example of the style,
the E-shaped, seven-story
building is faced with Alabama
limestone and articulated with
neo-Classical ornament.
Ralph Bunche House
Built: 1927
Address: 115-24 Grosvenor
Road, Kew Gardens
Dr. Ralph Bunche and his family
lived for more than 30 years
in a neo-Tudor style residence
built in 1927 and designed by
the architects Koch & Wagner.
Bunche had an illustrious career
in academia, international
service and diplomacy, which
included the 1950 Nobel Peace
Prize for his role in negotiating
armistice settlements between
Israel and its Arab neighbors.
The Register
Built: 1898
Address: 161-04 Jamaica Ave.,
Jamaica
It was built in the year Queens
was incorporated into Greater
New York. The building is faced
in limestone and has a tripartite
design of base, piano nobile, and
attic story.
Sidewalk Clock
Built: around 1900
Address: 161-11 Jamaica Ave.,
Jamaica
It is one of only two extant
sidewalk clocks in Queens.
The original manufacturer and
installer are unknown, and
the clock has been somewhat
altered with the insertion of
electric clock units and the
installation of neon signs.
St. Monica’s Church
Built: 1856
Address: 94-20 160th St.,
Jamaica
Typical Romanesque Revivalstyle
elements include roundarched
openings, turrets, a
heavy cornice at the top of
the campanile and corbelling.
The new building has a square
massing and a skin of brick piers
and metal panels.
Suffolk Tile and Guarantee Co.
Building
Built: 1929
Address: 90-04 161st St.,
Jamaica
The two-story base is clad in
brick and stone and the ground
floor window and entrance bays
are deeply recessed. The upper
floors are faced in brick and
articulated with projecting piers
and decorative spandrel panels.
Western
Astoria Park Pool and Play
Center
Built: 1934-36
Address: 19th Street between
22nd Drive and Hoyt Avenue
North, Astoria
Many architects, landscape
architects and engineers
were hired to create the pool
program and the hundreds
of other new construction
and rehabilitation projects
undertaken between 1934
and 1936 by the then-new city
Parks Department. Embedded
into what has now become
a wooded slope, the play
center complex was designed
to take advantage of its
surroundings.
Congregation Tifereth Israel
Built: 1911
Address: 109-18 54th Ave., Corona
The oldest active synagogue
in Corona, the Congregation
Tifereth Israel is a survivor of
the earliest Jewish synagogues
built in Queens. This synagogue,
whose full name is translated
as “Congregation Independent
Community, Glory of Israel,
People of Corona,” was built in
1911 to house a congregation
of Jews that had relocated to
Queens primarily from other
parts of the city.
Fire Engine Co. No. 258/Hook
and Ladder Co. No. 115
Built: 1902-04
Address: 10-40 47th Ave., Long
Island City
Designed by Bradford Lee
Gilbert, the Dutch Renaissance
Revival-style building was
erected as part of a campaign
to expand fire protection in
Queens and improve working
conditions for Queens
firefighters. Long Island City
was the first area in the
borough to have a professional
fire department and both
companies trace their origins to
an act by the state Legislature
in 1890.
Newtown High School
Built: 1920-21
Address: 48-01 90th St.,
Elmhurst
The school was the result of
several building campaigns,
which began with the
construction of a small, wooden
school house in 1866 to serve
children from the Village of
Newtown and surrounding
farms.
P.S. 66
Built: 1898
Address: 85-11 102nd St.,
Richmond Hill
The red brick building is
Victorian Eclectic in style.
Many of its features are
characteristic of the
Romanesque Revival style and
give the building a fortresslike
appearance, including
prominent round arches
highlighting window openings
and the main entrance, a flared
base and a distinctive, six-story
tower, which was restored in
2001.
Richmond Hill Republican Club
Built: 1908
Address: 86-15 Lefferts Blvd.,
Richmond Hill
Vacant since the mid-1980s, the
Richmond Hill Republican Club
is an example of a clubhouse
designed to serve the social,
political and recreational
needs of a local community
and a prototype of small-scale
Colonial Revival style civic
architecture.
Ridgewood Theater Building
Built: 1916
Address: 55-27 Myrtle Ave.,
Ridgewood
This theater showed movies for
more than 90 years, retaining its
original use through numerous
changes in the presentation
of movies and the interior
environment of the theater,
including the addition of sound
for “talkies” and in spite of
the competition provided by
television and other forms of
entertainment.
Sohmer & Co. Piano Factory
Building
Built: around 1886
Address: 31-01 Vernon Blvd.,
Long Island City
The original part of the building,
which included the clock tower,
was built as the piano factory for
Sohmer & Co. It was designed by
the firm Berger & Baylies, which
produced plans for commercial
and residential buildings
throughout New York City,
including several warehouses
and store-and-loft buildings.
LANDMARKS
Continued from Page 22