This warehouse was the roasting plant of the Eppens Smith Co. Coffee Plant. The company was first located on Wall Street among a variety of other merchants in the coffee and tea business. In fact, there was quite a population of dealers and roasters in the caffeine industry in the Financial District, filling their air with the aroma of roasted coffee. Eppens Smith was founded as Pupeke & Reif in 1855. The company had roasting facilities which occupied two addresses on Warren Street, both of which were destroyed by an explosion in 1900. After years of litigation, the company again found success and was able to open locations around the country. Forty years later, Pupeke & Reif, now called Eppens Smith Co., purchased a building formerly occupied by the United Drug Syndicate on Borden Avenue in the industrial neighborhood of Hunter's Point, Queens. Eppens Smith roasted coffee here until the 1950s, when they were purchased by Chock Full 'O Nuts.

Reconstruction of Steinway Tunnel, 1915. The Steinway Tunnel was originally built for trolleys and is named for William Steinway, one of the “sons” of the Steinway & Sons piano manufacturing company. Steinway advocated for its construction as part of a bigger plan to develop areas of Queens, especially Astoria where his plant was located. The plan also included extending his horsecar line (the Steinway & Hunter’s Point Railroad) into midtown Manhattan. At the time, Queens was not yet incorporated into New York City, and Long Island City—where the tunnel would be situated—was its own municipality. Groundbreaking on the tunnel began in 1892. The starting point was an 85-foot work shaft dug at 50th Avenue between Vernon and Jackson Avenues, where the Vernon-Jackson station on the 7 train is located today. Construction accidents, lawsuits, financial woes, and the constant flooding of the site by an underground spring caused the project to be shut down entirely in 1893. Tunnels originally built for trolleys had to be modified for subway trains, which meant tracks needed to be realigned and catenary wire removed. In June of 1915 the tunnel opened to IRT service, which at first was just a shuttle between Grand Central and Vernon Boulevard.

50th Avenue, east from 11th Street, showing the appearance of the thoroughfare at the time the Queens-Midtown Tunnel was being built. The houses on the right side of the photograph beyond the fifth one, counting from the right, were demolished and the site incorporated into the tunnel approach.

Vernon Avenue Bridge, 1930. While many of the other Newtown Creek crossings have been replaced over the years with new infrastructure in the same location, there is no longer a bridge where the Vernon Avenue Bridge once stood. The bridge opened in October 1905 and was used for trolley, automobile, and pedestrian traffic. It replaced an 1882 swing bridge. The bridge connected the main thoroughfares of two communities: Manhattan Avenue in Brooklyn and Vernon Boulevard in Long Island City. While early on the bridge saw heavy use (in 1918 it had 2,241,465 vehicular crossings and 168,630 trolley trips), eventually it became inadequate for the city's needs. It often broke down, was up for the passage of ships, and the constant traffic was hard on the roadways. In addition, it was rammed by a 10,000-ton ship carrying coal in 1949. In the mid-1950s the bridge was razed and replaced with the nearby Pulaski Bridge.

"51st Avenue, north side, east from Jackson Avenue, showing the types of buildings that prevailed in this section of Long Island City at the time when the Queens-Midtown Tunnel was cut through, 1938"

Did you know that the construction of the IRT Flushing line (known as the Corona Line until 1925) was the catalyst for real estate development that transformed the rural areas of Queens into vibrant neighborhoods?

Tunnel Under Construction in Long Island City,1916. The Hunter’s Point station opened in February of 1916, and in this photograph workers are building the tracks that lead out of the Steinway Tunnel to the next station, Court Square. The building under construction to the left was known for a time as the Queens Subway Building, where the County Seat was located, as well as the Degnon Contracting Company, who controlled the freight terminal nearby. The building was later taken over by Paragon Oil, and is currently a storage facility.

Vernon Boulevard North at 50th Avenue, 1931. Banca Commerciale Italiana (on the corner at right) operated in New York City from 1928 until 1939. It served the Italian immigrant and first generation population of Long Island City, most of whom immigrated from one particular town called Nusco, in the south of Italy near Naples.

New York City Live Poultry Terminal, 1941. During the 1930s, the live poultry trade in New York City was the largest in the world and the prices set in New York were the benchmark for the sale of poultry nationally. The poultry market was also well known as one of the oldest mafia "rackets." From a 1910 case in which 87 poultry dealers plead guilty to running a poultry cartel to a 1953 investigation into a market inspector receiving graft from the dealers, the chicken business was rife with unethical, illegal, and dishonest dealings.