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Celebrating 10 Years of the Queens Memory Project

To celebrate our 10 year anniversary, we're revisiting highlights collected from different neighborhoods as part of the Queens Memory project. We began collecting oral history interviews and photos in the summer of 2010. Later that year, a grant from the Metro Library Council launched the project as a partnership between Queens Public Library and Queens College, CUNY. Since then we've recorded hundreds of oral history interviews and collected photographs from Queens residents from 23 countries of origin, living in 50 neighborhoods.

By

Queens Memory

1

44-17 Greenpoint Avenue

44-17 Greenpoint Avenue

Sisters in Sunnyside - Leonore and Norma Lanzillotti in front of The Bliss Theater on Greenpoint Avenue between 44th and 45th Street. Follow this link to hear Leonore Lanzillotti talk about growing up in Sunnyside in the 1940s and '50s.

2

5Pointz

5Pointz

5Pointz in Long Island City - A view of the famous graffiti building from Crane Street, on July 5, 2013. Photo by Erwin Ma

3

47-46 Vernon Boulevard

47-46 Vernon Boulevard

48th Ave & Vernon Blvd in Long Island City - Taken around 1990, this photo of older low-rise brick buildings in the foreground, and a high rise residential building under construction in the distance, illustrates the development of Long Island City from abandoned factories and artist enclave to upscale housing. Photo by Frank Carrado Click here to listen to artist Karen Fitzgerald talk about Queens’ influence on her as an artist and how Long Island City has changed since she moved in there 1980s.

4

4-01 44th Drive

4-01 44th Drive

View of Manhattan from Long Island City - Taken around 1980, the view across the river includes the UN building, the Empire State Building, FDR Drive, and the Chrysler Building. Photo by Frank Carrado Click here to listen to artist Anthony Mavilia talk about how he ended up working in Long Island City and the arts community there.

5

15002 Goethals Avenue

15002 Goethals Avenue

Natalio Tabaco and His Children in Parkway Village - Parkway Village was originally built in 1947 to house United Nations staff when the U.N. was located at Lake Success (Queens), and before it moved to its present location in Manhattan. Image from the Tabaco Family Photographs. Follow this link to hear Joey Tabaco discuss how his father came to work for the newly established United Nations, and ended up moving the family to Queens, NY.

6

Broad Channel Station

Broad Channel Station

Broad Channel - Railroad workers standing on the tracks near the Broad Channel Railroad Station around 1920. Image donated by Patricia Rosendale on Community History Night for Broad Channel, Howard Beach and the Rockaways.

7

16-22 Channel Road

16-22 Channel Road

The North Channel Yacht Club - North Channel Yacht club members around 1973, the man holding the American flag is James A. Robertson, Patricia Rosendale's father. Image donated by Patricia Rosendale on Community History Night for Broad Channel, Howard Beach and the Rockaways.

8

1 E 14th Road

1 E 14th Road

Back Houses on East 14th Road in Broad Channel - George Barr and Tom Harnisher bought this "back house" together in the 1970's. Back houses are gathering spots for friends and family that are built on the water. Their family homes are further inland. These structures still stand, but need to be repaired after Hurricane Sandy. Photo donated by Jeffery Dady

9

65 West 16th Road

65 West 16th Road

Swans in the 16th Road Canal - This painting by Jeffrey Dady depicts the marshes along the bank of the 16th Road Canal in Broad Channel, which flows out to Jamaica Bay. This home still stands after Hurricane Sandy, but the trailer is gone. Jeffrey Dady painted this in 2007 from a photo he took in the 1990's.

10

4101 Broadway

4101 Broadway

Dumitru Radu on Broadway at 41st Street in Queens. Follow this link to hear Romanian American Dumitru Radu talk about buying his family's home on 57th Street in Woodside in the 1950s, and how the community has changed since then.

11

38-49 48th Street

38-49 48th Street

Beekeeping in Queens - Anna Thea Bridge has been interested in bees almost as long as she can remember. But only when beekeeping was legalized in New York City in 2010 did she install two hives on the roof of her house in Sunnyside Gardens. Follow this link to hear Anna Thea Bridge interviewed by Sabine Heinlein.

12

39-80 46th Street

39-80 46th Street

Baseball in Sunnyside Gardens - Brothers Stephen Kappel (left) and Lawrence Kappel (right) in the alley on 46th with their baseball gear in Sunnyside Gardens. Photo from the Kappel Family Photographs Collection

13

93-05 168th Street

93-05 168th Street

Queens Hip Hop - DJ Devine, DJ Casino (Bernard Fields), and DJ Kendo DJ'ing with all their equipment at the "Armory Reunion" in Jamaica, 1979. Follow this link to hear Bernard Fields talk about the early days of hip-hop and his childhood in Queens.

14

45-57 Bowne Street

45-57 Bowne Street

Ratha Yatra - Hindu devotees make their way through the streets during a Ratha Yatra, or "Chariot Festival". The procession marks the end of the annual nine-day festival called Sri Ganesh Chaturthi, held to celebrate the elephant-headed Hindu deity, Ganesh, the primary god worshiped at The Hindu Temple Society of North America (also called The Ganesh Temple). At the center of the procession is a shrine housing a sculpture of Ganesh; Devotees make offerings of fruit and flowers that the priests riding atop the 16-foot long silver carriage, called a Ratha, bless and send back into the crowd to be shared. Follow this link to hear Dr. Uma Mysorekar discusses her personal history with the temple and the changing relationship with the surrounding community in Flushing since it opened in 1977.

15

45-57 Bowne Street

45-57 Bowne Street

Sri Ganesh Chaturthi - Music and dancing during a Ratha Yatra, or "Chariot Festival". This procession marks the end of the annual nine-day festival called Sri Ganesh Chaturthi, held to celebrate the elephant-headed Hindu deity, Ganesh, the primary god worshiped at The Hindu Temple Society of North America (also called the Ganesh Temple). At the center of the procession is a large shrine housing a sculpture of Ganesh. Devotees believe that the energy created by their week of chanting, offerings and the festivities in the streets replenish the powers of the holy statue and ready it for another year of worship in the temple. Follow this link to hear Dr. Uma Mysorekar discusses her personal history with the temple and the changing relationship with the surrounding community in Flushing since it opened in 1977.

16

6088 Myrtle Avenue

6088 Myrtle Avenue

Arlene Hoffman (center) in a photograph taken in 1944, with her friends Patricia Hoey & Alinar Furrer in Ridgewood. Follow this link to hear Arlene Hoffman, who ran "Arlene's School of Dance" in Ridgewood Queens for 51 years, share her earliest memories of Ridgewood, and talk about her experience growing up in the neighborhood.

17

6088 Myrtle Avenue

6088 Myrtle Avenue

Arlene Hoffman ran "Arlene's School of Dance" in Ridgewood Queens for 51 years! Follow this link to hear Arlene Hoffman share her earliest memories of Ridgewood, and talk about her experience growing up in the neighborhood.

18

92-33 Myrtle Avenue

92-33 Myrtle Avenue

Aaron Gorman grew up in Richmond Hill where he played on a sandlot team during his high school years with a young Phil Rizzuto, who went on to play with the Yankees (1941-1956). This posed image was taken on a rooftop during the time he played on the team. Follow this link to hear Aaron Gorman's tales about baseball, growing up in Richmond Hill & Flushing, Jewish life in Queens, and unknowingly working on the Manhattan Project.

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