WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES SEPTEMBER 10, 2020 19
This Glendale hall had a rocky history steeped in local politics
BY THE OLD TIMER
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
Thousands of people a day pass by
storefronts in Queens and never
realize the ties these buildings
have with the neighborhood’s history.
Take, for instance, the address 65-02
Myrtle Ave. in Glendale. It’s currently
used by a carpet retailer, but this site
was once known as Unity Hall, a gathering
place for politics and leisurely
activities operated by one of the area’s
most prominent politicians in the early
20th century.
Unity Hall, which originally featured
grand white marble columns, was
built and opened in 1909 by the Unity
Democratic Building Association. It was
leased to the Unity Democratic Club led
by Alfred Denton, a local lawyer with
high political aspirations.
The hall featured a main entrance below
its columns on Myrtle Avenue and
a side entrance on what was then called
Fresh Pond Road, but is now known as
Cypress Hills Street. The ground fl oor
featured a saloon operated by local innkeeper
Minnie Peters; there was a gym,
a locker room and a bowling alley in the
hall’s basement and a meeting room on
the second fl oor.
Denton, a Glendale native, graduated
from New York Law School and
became an attorney. He was active in
the Democratic Party and, by 1909, was
a mutual judge for the third district for
a 10-year term.
At fi rst, Unity Hall got off to a horrifi c
fi nancial beginning, as the revenues it
generated weren’t enough to pay the
interest on the mortgage. Aft er falling
into foreclosure in December 1911, Judge
Denton purchased the hall for $17,500,
less than half of what it cost to build the
structure two years earlier.
But Judge Denton’s days on the bench,
as it happened, were numbered. In
1919, he began experiencing mental
problems and clashed with attorneys
practicing in his court. His relatives
had him committed to a mental hospital
in Suff olk County, where he died of a
stroke two years later at the age of 44.
Peters purchased Unity Hall in
1920, the same year Prohibition took
eff ect nationwide. Records indicated
she leased the building to three men
in April 1921, though it was unclear as
to what business they operated in the
former saloon.
By 1922, the saloon changed hands
again when the lease was transferred
to John and Marie Allgeier, who opened
a bicycle shop in its place.
The troubles continued at Unity Hall
in July 1924, when a two-alarm fi re
ignited in the structure and spread
to several adjacent storefronts on the
south side of Myrtle Avenue between
Unity Hall as it once stood on Myrtle Avenue near Cypress Hills Street in Glendale. File photo/Ridgewood Times
Bay Carpet now occupies the former Unity Hall in Glendale. Photo via Google Maps
present-day Cypress Hills Street and
65th Place, which was then known
as Epsilon Place. Firefighters from
Ridgewood, Maspeth and Brooklyn
responded to extinguish the inferno.
What was once Unity Hall was
rebuilt, and by 1960 was acquired
by the Catholic Kolping Society, a
charitable fraternal organization.
They leased the ground floor for
a tavern and held meetings in a
second-floor hall.
Taverns continued to operate at the
former hall until 1988, when another
two-alarm fire severely damaged the
entire structure. The building was
renovated and repaired and is now
occupied by Bay Carpet.
Reprinted from the April 30, 2015, issue
of the Ridgewood Times.
* * *
If you have any remembrances or old
photographs of “Our Neighborhood: The
Way It Was” that you would like to share
with our readers, please write to the Old
Timer, c/o Ridgewood Times, 38-15 Bell
Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361, or send an email
to editorial@ridgewoodtimes.com. Any
print photographs mailed to us will be
carefully returned to you upon request.
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