28 JANUARY 27, 2022 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
A Ridgewood spot that was once a popular place of rest & refreshment
The Queens County Labor Lyceum, formerly Kreuscher’s Hotel, was a popular destination in Ridgewood during the early 20th century.
Ridgewood Times archives/Courtesy of Greater Ridgewood Historical Society
BY THE OLD TIMER
EDITORIAL@QNS.COM
@QNS
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
We’re turning the clock way
back this week to the year
1913, to a site in Ridgewood
that once was a popular hotel and beer
hall.
The Queens County Labor Lyceum
stood for many years at the corner
of Cypress Avenue and Cornelia
Street. In prior years, it was known
as Kreuscher’s Hotel. The building
had been in use as a hotel since its
construction some 50 years earlier.
On Feb. 24, 1860, Andrew Beck
purchased for $2,000 a wooded plot
of land slightly over a half-acre in size
where the hotel was built. The land formerly
belonged to the Wyckoff Family,
which at one point owned hundreds of
acres that would later be transformed
into residential communities.
Beck cleared a portion of the site
and built a saloon and hotel, which
opened later that same year. It was a
wooden, two-story structure with the
saloon and dining room on the main
fl oor and the hotel above. The dining
room seated 500; a stable for up to 40
horses was provided in a building on
nearby Cypress Hills Plank Road (the
original name of Cypress Avenue).
To light the premises, 100 kerosene
lamps were used, and in colder
weather, 14 coal stoves were used for
heating.
The location turned out to be excellent
for a hotel. Cypress Hills Cemetery,
which opened in 1849, generated
traffi c from Brooklyn along Myrtle
Avenue and Cypress Hills Plank Road.
Also, the Union Course Race Track
was located not too far away in what
would become Woodhaven.
Additional traffi c came from farmers
from eastern Queens and Long
Island who used roadways such as
Myrtle Avenue and the Brooklyn-
Jamaica Plank Road (present-day
Jamaica Avenue) while bringing
goods by horse and buggy to and from
Manhattan.
These farmers used Beck’s Hotel as
a much-needed rest stop.
On July 1, 1871, Andrew Beck sold
the hotel to George Frederick Stroebel
for $21,000. The name of the establishment
changed to Stroebel’s Hotel.
Strobel and his family would take up
residence at the hotel while continuing
to let rooms there to the public.
Stroebel was active in politics and
his hotel was used for several of the
county political club meetings. Also,
the picnic grounds in the rear of the
hotel were used by various societies.
After Strobel’s death in 1878,
his daughter, Rosy, married John
Kreuscher, who took over management
of the hotel. A few years later,
to settle the Stroebel family estate,
Kreuscher bought the hotel and its
property for more than $15,000 and
renamed the business Kreuscher’s
Hotel.
John Kreuscher died in about 1907,
and Rosy operated the hotel with the
help of her son, Frederick. Then, the
hotel gained a new standing in the
community.
In the spring of 1909, Father Wagner,
the pastor of St. Matthias Church, arranged
with the Kreuscher family to
have Mass celebrated in the hotel until
the new church on Catalpa Avenue
was ready later in the year. Previously,
Mass had been held at the Ridgewood
Pavilion on Cypress Avenue between
George and Summerfi eld Streets.
The arrangement between St. Matthias
and Kreuscher’s Hotel continued
until July 18, 1909, when the fi rst Mass
was celebrated at the new church.
Then in 1911, the hotel’s stable was
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