Where in the world can you dine where the residents speak a combined total of 138 languages and there is a melting pot of diverse food options to choose from? You don't have to go any further than Queens, New York. That’s right, Queens also holds the Guinness World Record for the most ethnically diverse urban area on the planet! With just the swipe of your MetroCard, you can make your way around Queens’s diverse neighborhoods with endless food options to choose from. Take in some history, and whether you’re in Astoria, Jackson Heights, Sunnyside, or Flushing, you’ll surely discover a new meal to try.

Vernon Boulevard, west side, at 43rd Road, showing the Bodine Castle, 1932. One of the many unique features of this castle was an underground tunnel from below the home out to the the East River waterfront, which can be seen just right of center. Before it was demolished the land surrounding the castle was used as a lumberyard evidenced in the details of this photograph.

The Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project (WPA/FAP), part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal to stimulate the economy and create jobs during the Great Depression, employed thousands of artists between 1935 and 1943 to create artworks for public spaces. This groundbreaking democratic experiment celebrated and supported American art and artists by providing a source of income, enhancing public buildings, and enriching the lives of Americans in the throes of the Great Depression. The Art Commission reviewed hundreds of Federal Art Project commissions during this period, including murals, sculpture and mosaics. A significant portion of the WPA/FAP commissions in our collection were installed in public health and hospital facilities. There is a noticeable shift in theme and tone depending on the location of murals. Murals in children's wards often focused on nursery rhymes and fanciful themes, while those in nurses' recreation rooms were "relaxing" and focused on familial scenes. Murals in doctors' recreation rooms focused on the history and progress of medicine, while those in psychiatric wards sought to provide therapy for mental distress.

"Located in the once-fashionable Ravenswood area, the Bodine Castle was typical of the modestly-scaled romantic villas that formerly surrounded New York." Constructed sometime in the mid to late 18th century by a supposedly exiled French nobleman, the eclectic building included a large square tower and turret on a large plot of land. Though considered for landmarking in 1966, just one year after the passage of the Landmarks Law, it was denied and was demolished the same year. It was replaced by expanded infrastructure for the Con Ed "Big Aliss" power plant.

Between 1954 and 1957, the Municipal Art Society surveyed historic buildings in all five boroughs to create a database of potential landmarks to preserve. Local residents and MAS staff compiled individual sheets devoted to about 200 buildings. Each sheet outlined the building’s date, location, and style and provided a description and a small photograph. This is the list of Queens buildings.

City Hospital Blackwell's Island ca. 1896 The City Hospital on Blackwell's Island was originally called Penitentiary Hospital due to its nature as the hospital for the inmates of Blackwell's Penitentiary. Built in 1832, its name changed to the City Hospital Blackwell's Island after a fire caused its reconstruction in 1861. The new building, designed by James Renwick Jr. and constructed by inmates, served both the prisoners and the city's poorer inhabitants. Its name changed once again to Charity Hospital in 1873 due to the nature of its work. This, in turn, caused Blackwell's Island to be renamed Welfare Island in 1921. To complete all this renaming, the island itself was redesignated Roosevelt Island in 1973. WIth many of the City Hospital's facilities growing obsolete, the City Hosptial was moved to Queens in the 1950s. The hospital building on Roosevelt Island was abandoned and left to ruin. Though it has fallen into disrepair, the Landmarks Preservation Committee granted it landmark status in 1975 for its important architectural details.

Bodine Castle With its rather gloomy, forbidding exterior implying Gothic origins, there is almost as much of the Romanesque in this "castle." It may be sensed primarily in the massing of the elements and in the round-arched windows and doors. In its final location, it would have been difficult to visualize the spacious grounds and lawns that must have once surrounded the house.

The nurses plunged her into an ice-cold bath, pulled her out sopping wet, and threw a sheer flannel slip over her head. Large black letters spelled “Lunatic Asylum, B.I., H. 6.” across the garment. Nellie Brown, the now-freezing woman, was relegated to Blackwell’s Island, Hall 6.

Over the years, more than a few New Yorkers have taken the phrase "A man's home is his castle" literally. This tour takes you through a few of the fortifications that New Yorkers have built for themselves.