MoMA PS1 22-25 Jackson Avenue 1892; addition: Andrew Berman Architect 2011 This Romanesque Revival structure, featuring variegated brick patterns and a plethora of arched windows, was built in 1892 as the First Ward School for the independent Long Island City. The bright red brick façade is enhanced by ornate terra cotta detailing, including floral motifs on the gables, which were supplied by the nearby New York Architectural Terra Cotta Company (see site #9). The school’s original 35 classrooms could accommodate up to 1,000 students, and its southwest corner once boasted a grand tower holding a clock and bell. After the school closed its doors in the early 1960s, the Institute of Art and Urban Resources took over the building for use as a gallery and studio space. The Institute ultimately evolved into the P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, which merged with the Museum of Modern Art in 2000 to become MoMA PS1. This affiliation has kept MoMA involved in contemporary developments in the art world, while providing this remarkable building with more visibility and responsible management. The success of the merger and the continuing vibrancy of the PS1 building are best represented by the cast concrete addition constructed in 2011 to serve as a new entrance and art display space for the growing museum.

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.

Public School 1, ca. 1939. 21st Street, at the northeast corner of 46th Road, showing Public School No. 1. The view is from Jackson Avenue (tracks) across a triangular area occupied by a gasoline station. 21st Street is on the left. The First Ward School was built in 1892 in a Romanesque Revival style rendered in red brick and terra cotta. The school which originally served the independent Long Island City had 35 classrooms. The school closed in 1963 due to underenrollment. Over the last century there were numerous alterations to the building: in 1904 a small addition and in the 1970s the clock and bell tower at the southwest corner was removed. The original MoMA P.S. 1 began in 1971 as the Institute for Art and Urban Resources Inc. In 1976 this organization, which aimed to use underutilized and abandoned spaces across New York City as exhibit spaces, opened their first major exhibit in the old school building. In 2000 the organization then called P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center merged with MoMA to create the current museum.

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.

Neptune Meter Company Factory, 1910.

"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.

"Survey photograph documenting conditions in Long Island City at the corner of Ely and Jackson Avenues. View of intersection shows pedestrians on the sidewalk, trolley tracks, storefronts, advertising for George Ehret's Extra Beer and the Sullivan's Cafe, 1913."

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.

Elevated structure of the Flushing Line at Ely Avenue, October 1, 1920. Camera view is looking south showing columns, street, sidewalk, billboard advertisements, apartment houses and a truck. At right is No. 2 Ely Avenue (as 23rd Street was then known), roughly at the site of the present-day Court Square Diner.

5Pointz was claimed as the "World's Premier Graffiti Mecca," attracting international artists and graffiti writers to cover the outside walls of the disused factory on the outskirts of Queens. Inside, hundreds of artists occupied studios that formed a collaborative community of makers. The same developer who made the growth of the space possible would ultimately call for its demise.

"Looking north toward the staircase to the 45th Road- Court House Square Station, 1920." Taken only seven years after the previous photograph of the same corner, the streetscape has drastically changed. In November of 1916 the 45th Road–Court House Square station of the Corona Line (now Flushing Line or 7 Train) opened as two track, two platform elevated station.

Jackson Ave., (background) south side showing overhead the elevated branch of the I.R.T. Subway on 23rd Street, 1936. This photograph was taken as part of the New Deal era Federal Art Project, which provided jobs for out of work artists, including photographers.