Greater Astoria Historial Society 35-20 Broadway, 4th Floor | L.I.C., NY 11106 718.278.0700 | www.astorialic.org Gallery Hours: Mondays & Wednesdays 2-5 PM Saturdays 12-5 PM Exhibits ~ Lectures ~ Documentaries ~ Books Walking Tours ~ Historical Research Unique & Creative Content For more information visit us on the web at www.astorialic.org This image adapted from an invitation to the Long Island City Athletics 33rd Annual Masque Ball, 1909. 28 MAY 2014 I LIC COURIER I www.queenscourier.com legends Robert Leslie Smith (1880- 1960) continues memories of LIC as a boy. This was typed in 1959, a year before his death. Modern street names are in brackets. Borden Avenue, from the ferry up to Jackson Avenue, was the earliest business district of Hunters Point. Some of the first lawyers had offices there. The shopping center was on Vernon Avenue, between Borden Avenue and Third Street now 51st Ave. Walking northward was Schwalenberg’s Hotel, Brodie’s Hardware & Plumbing Supply Store. On the next corner was Schweikart’s Men’s Furnishing Store and New’s Grocery Store. Walking up Jackson Avenue, real estate broker George W. Clay built the first office building with an elevator; and north of the corner of Borden Avenue on the-other side of Jackson Avenue was Dillon’s Department Store, which later became Borough Hall and tax office. In the block above Dillon’s Department Store was a blacksmith shop where several of the old Hunters Point residents used to congregate and indulge in conversation similar to those carried in country grocery stores. On the other side of Jackson Avenue, the Municipal Court for the First District of Queens, was located in a two-story frame building, the courtroom being on the upper floor which had probably been living quarters at one time. At the corner of Thomson and Jackson avenues, the old Queens County Court House, which still stands, had been erected in the mid-70s. In 1905 the interior of the building was destroyed by fire and the various courts had to be temporarily housed in either Hunters Point or Flushing. Across the street from the courthouse was the old city hall for LIC. On the other side of Jackson Avenue, opposite the Court House, stood a row of two-family frame dwellings and around the corner was a three-story brick building which was known as the “Priest’s House.” It probably housed priests for St. Mary’s Church. These buildings formed the nucleus for the early St. John’s Hospital. LEGENDS OF LIC BY GREATER ASTORIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY LEGENDS OF LIC When I was 7 years old, I heard a band coming up Middleburg Avenue 43rd Ave., followed by some of the young farmers on horseback, and as the procession turned into Old Bowery Bay Road Hazen St. and Hobart St. on its way to Thomson Avenue Queens Boulevard. Some of us youngsters followed the parade, which took us all the way to Broadway, Newtown Elmhurst and back down to Woodside, where the procession stopped at Eberhardt’s Hotel on Northern Boulevard, for refreshments. We hung around outside hoping to get a nickel for holding one of the horses, but my stay was too short, as my mother, who had been tracing the line of the parade all the way to Newtown and back, hustled me into our carriage and took me home, where I was confined to the yard for two weeks. Whether I would have followed the parade to Schwalenberg’s Park is a question I cannot answer.
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