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The Voelker Orth Museum
is significant as one of the
few houses remaining from
Flushing’s early period of
suburban development,
the years around 1900. Its
exuberantly picturesque
design and large garden
are typical of buildings
of the late 19th century
and recall the period
when, due to expanding
transportation networks,
Flushing was transformed
from a rural area to a
suburban one.
Southern
Daniel and Abbie B. Eldridge
House
Built: around 1870
Address: 87-61 111th St.,
Jamaica
Clarenceville, as the area
was named, was promoted
in the early 1850s for its
beauty, convenient location
and accessibility by public
transportation, but little
development had taken place
when Daniel Eldridge, a clerk
in the city Water Department
and alleged member of the
Tweed Ring, bought six lots in
1867 and 1869.
First Reformed Church of
Jamaica
Built: 1858-59
Address: 153-10 Jamaica
Ave., Jamaica
The existing building was
the Dutch Reformed Church
of Jamaica’s third building
on the site. The Jamaica
Avenue facade consists
of a central peaked-roof
section flanked by two
square towers, one of
which is twice the size of
the other.
Grace Episcopal Church and
Graveyard
Built: 1702
Address: 155-15 Jamaica Ave.,
Jamaica
Designed by Cady, Berg
& See and added in 1901,
the chancel replicates
the style of the earlier
building. The surrounding
graveyard dates to the
early 18th century and
contains tombstones and
monuments of various
styles and materials.
Jamaica Chamber of
Commerce Building
Built: 1928-29
Address: 89-31 161st St.,
Jamaica
Founded in 1919 as the
Jamaica Board of Trade
to promote the area to
businesses and residential
developers, the chamber
by 1926 had grown to a
membership of nearly
500, when Secretary Max
C. Bunyan suggested the
organization would benefit
from having a building of its
own, part of which could be
rented out to support the
chamber’s work.
Jamaica High School
Built: 1925-27
Address: 167-01 Gothic Drive,
Jamaica
This large, classically
styled public high school
was designed by William
Gompert and opened in
1927 to accommodate the
rapidly expanding Jamaica
population.
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.
LANDMARKS
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: 1928
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
round-arched 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.
PS 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
fortress-like 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 smallscale
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-andloft
buildings.
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