Newtown High School, ca. 1931. 90th Street, east side, from 48th to 50th Avenues, looking south from the former and showing the Newtown High School.

During World War II, Walentyna Stocker (1913-2020) was the primary secretary and translator for the Prime Minister of the Polish Government-in-Exile. Walentyna (pronounced “Valentina” in English) translated reports from the Polish Underground State into English which first revealed Nazi atrocities–including the existence of concentration camps in German-occupied Poland–to the United Nations. Walentyna’s translations revealed the humanitarian crisis occurring in Europe to the Allies, putting her at the center of Polish intelligence during the War. Walentyna also kept the Polish resistance alive from abroad, organizing and broadcasting Dawn, a secret radio station to Poland. Her service didn’t end after the War – she joined the Women’s Auxiliary Service in the rank of Second Lieutenant in the Polish Army. In this role, she worked with concentration camp survivors and prisoners-of-war, and was present at the Nuremberg Trials. She was recognized in 2011 with the Medal of Merit for Polish Culture by Poland’s Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and received the Jan Karski Eagle Award in 2016. Her life will be honored with a state funeral in Poland in 2021. A coalition of local activists seeks to honor her life by securing landmark status of her chosen and adopted home of Elmhurst, Queens. Walentyna’s husband Aleksander was a Polish author and reporter. He was living in Paris when Germany invaded Poland, and promptly joined the Polish Army there. When the Nazis captured France, Aleksander concealed his Polish identity and played the role of a Frenchman, as it was known among soldiers that Nazi treatment of Polish partisans was especially brutal. He passed as a French prisoner-of-war and was kept as a slave by a German family until his escape to England in 1942. While Walentyna and Aleksander were in France and later England during the same time, they didn’t meet until they each moved to Buffalo, New York after the War. They married only five months after meeting, and left Buffalo for New York City in 1955. They made their home in Elmhurst (88-28 43rd Avenue) by 1960, and their house was known as the nucleus of the Polish émigré elite in the United States. Walentyna remained here until her death at 107 years old in April 2020. Support the designation the Walentyna Janta-Połczyński house!

A collection of schools across New York City.

You may or may not have ever enjoyed Durkee's Famous Sauce, but founded in 1857, Eugene Durkee's company was once famous for its marinades and food products.

E.R. Durkee & Company ca.1922 Eugene R. Durkee founded his company in 1851, and by 1857 his original "secret recipe" dressing for salads and meats had won numerous awards for excellence. The company went on to create sauces and gravy mixes, to import olives, and to package and sell shredded coconut. In 1906 the government turned to E.W. Durkee (Eugene's son) to write federal standards for spices and extracts. This factory at Elmhurst, Long Island (Queens), joined the existing Brooklyn plant in 1917. Durkee's reputation for being a good employer is evident in the several years of documentation by Byron Company photographs, which include playful group portraits, gardens on the factory grounds, and staff dining rooms. Durkee Famous Foods was absorbed by the Gladden Company in 1980 and then transferred to the Consumer Products Division of the SCM Corporation.

St. Marks Church, February 1924. The African Church, as it was originally known, was established in 1828. Four former slaves founded the congregation and purchased land on Union (now Corona Avenue) to erect a church. The property would come to include the mid 19th century church building, a parsonage, and a cemetery. The church served the local community until 1929 when the land was sold and a new church building erected on 95th Street and 32nd Avenue in East Elmhurst. In 1930 the graves were removed to a plot in Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Maspeth. Following the razing of the church and the removal of the bodies, a warehouse was constructed on the lot. In 2011 construction crews demolishing that warehouse structure dug up an iron casket of a woman buried in the 1850s. Construction was halted and the partial remains of 15 more individuals were discovered. Despite the findings and the communities wish to preserve the plot for its historical significance, the planned structure, a four-story brick building, was completed in 2014.

Newtown High School 48-01 90th Street, Elmhurst, Queens 1920 Founded in 1897, Newtown High School has been serving the Elmhurst community for more than 115 years. Designed in 1917 by C.B.J. Snyder in the Flemish Renaissance Revival style, construction was delayed until 1920 on this building that features a monumental centrally-placed 169-foot tower topped by a cupola and turrets, along with stepped gables. Snyder’s choice of the Flemish Renaissance Revival style may be a nod to New York City’s early days as a Dutch colony. Notable alumni include Estee Lauder (cosmetics company founder) and Gene Simmons (member of “KISS”). Newtown was designated a New York City Landmark in 2003.

“43rd Avenue, east of Junction Boulevard, showing at the right the Tiffany Studios. October 1928.” The Tiffany factory, built in 1893 as the Stourbridge Glass Company, produced the company’s signature favrile glassware here between 1901-32. The former factory was demolished in 2013; its site is now home to P.S. 315.

Burroughs Family Burial Ground, 1923. This small private family burial ground once sat on the back of a lot that faced the commons area of the village of Newtown. The graveyard was cut in half in 1930 with the mapping of Alstyne Avenue. In 1932 when a survey of the plot was undertaken, 16 grave markers were recorded dating from 1793 to 1871. Today the streets nearby are lined with homes. It is unclear if the graves were moved, covered over, or, are somehow still extant in someone's backyard.

Newtown High School, 1927. Designed by Superintendent of School Buildings C.B.J. Snyder, the new school’s first wing was completed in 1921, after construction was delayed by World War I and a fire that destroyed early blueprints. Snyder’s Flemish Renaissance Revival design — itself a nod to Newtown’s Dutch heritage — included a 169-foot mansard roofed tower, with stepped gables, turrets, and a cupola. The building, now serving more than 2,700 students, was designated a New York City Landmark in June 2003.

In 1828, one year after the abolition of slavery in New York State, newly freed African Americans formed a religious community and congregation of their own. The United African Society, later known as the African Methodist Episcopal Church, established a church and burial ground at this site. St. Marks A.M.E Church started as a small church surrounded by a cemetery which would later be replaced by a new building thanks to the efforts made by the congregation and contributions from other local churches. Construction began in 1908, but only the shell of the building would be completed due to a lack of funds. In 1911, the Queens Building Department deemed it unsafe and ordered posts to be set up in the basement to hold up the weight of the floor. This prompted renewed efforts to raise money, and by the end of the year, the church was completed and dedicated. Little is known about what happened to this building, but in 1928 the congregation moved to a new location in North Corona and attempted to move their deceased, but the City of New York declined the request and only twenty remains were successfully transferred. While there are no physical markers that remain of this burial ground, documentation has determined that there are 310 interments, the majority of which remain beneath the earth today. Nearly forgotten, vast public interest of this site was awakened after Martha Peterson was found in an iron coffin in 2011. Ms. Peterson’s life — and death — was the subject of a special television program that aired on PBS in 2018. Though small plot of land has survived as a touchstone to one of the earliest freed African American communities in the region and its history is nearly as old as freed African American society in New York State itself. Photo courtesy of the Queens Library.