Addisleigh Park, Historic Black Neighborhood in Queens, Gains Landmark Status by Alice Speri - NYTimes.com

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Welcome to the landmark district: a house at 178th Place and Linden Boulevard in Addisleigh Park, Queens.

The predominantly African-American neighborhood of Addisleigh Park, an enclave of brick and stucco house in southeast Queens and the former home of luminaries like Jackie Robinson, W.E.B. Du Bois and Ella Fitzgerald, is now a historic district, New York City’s 102nd.

The vote Tuesday by the Landmarks Preservation Commission protects a triangular swath containing 426 buildings, many of them Tudor and Colonial Revival homes, roughly bounded by Linden Boulevard, Dunkirk Street and 112th Avenue.

The area, part of the St. Albans neighborhood and developed between the 1910s and 1930s, was built as an exclusively white community, and restrictive covenants prohibited the sale of any of its properties to blacks.

In the 1940s, two lawsuits were filed against homeowners by their neighbors, who accused them of having sold their houses to African-Americans. In a 1947 case, a judge ruled in favor of the plaintiffs but noted that several African-Americans already lived in the neighborhood, including the singer and actress Lena Horne and the jazz musician Count Basie.

Map of Addisleigh Park Historic District

In 1948, though, the United States Supreme Court held that racially restrictive covenantsviolated the equal-protection clause of the 14th Amendment, and more and more blacks moved to the neighborhood.

In 1952, the magazine Our World called Addisleigh Park home to the “richest and most gifted” African-Americans in New York.

The jazz great Fats Waller, one of the first African-Americans in Addisleigh Park, lived there until his death in 1943. Other notable residents have included the jazz musicians John Coltrane and Milt Hinton, the Dodgers catcher Roy Campanella and the boxer Joe Louis.

Addisleigh Park’s history “illuminates African-Americans’ struggle for and achievement of the basic civil right of home ownership,” read the proposal to protect the site as a historic district.

Today, the neighborhood, now about 90 percent African-American, with an average household income of around $80,000, remains a distinct and relatively upscale pocket of residential Southeast Queens. Its asymmetrical houses with steeply pitched gables and wooden porches are sited back from the street and separated by spacious, well-landscaped lawns.

Upper East Siders Push to Landmark the Marx Brothers' Childhood Home by Gabriela Resto-Montero - DNAinfo.com

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Shortly before his death in 1977, Groucho Marx surprised the family living in his childhood home at 179 East 93rd St. with a visit.

Back in the early 1900s, Groucho and brothers Chico, Harpo, Zeppo and Gummo lived on the fourth floor of the four-story walk-up with five other relatives. As the story goes, after the aging star looked around his former home, he left without saying a word.

The house remained in remarkable shape over the years since Groucho lived there — except for the floor. Shortly after his visit, crews arrived at the home to replace the worn-out floor with brand new Italian tile. Although he never took credit for the floor, the so-called "Groucho Tiles" remain today.

Now, proponents of preserving the Marx Brothers' childhood home are pushing to include the block on East 93rd Street between Lexington and Third avenues, which they call "Marx Brothers Place," in the Carnegie Hill Historical District.

The effort has the support of Harpo's son, Bill Marx.

"Marx Brothers Place shall at last become the historical site of monumental proportions it so justly deserves, and then nobody ever again will have to request that it should be anything but just that, and finally the good folks of both Manhattan and Freedonia can then get some sleep," Marx said.

The East 93rd Street Beautification Association began working on landmarking the block in 2008 after developers tore down several brownstones to make room for condos on the street, said Susan Kathryn Hefti, co-chair of the association.


"It's remarkable," Hefti said of the building's preservation preservation.

"If Groucho walked through the door today the house would look the same except for the cornices [they were removed decades ago]," Hefti said.

Before Groucho's reported tile intervention on the fourth floor, Marx brother Harpo wrote about the role of the home in his 1961 autobiography, "Harpo Speaks!"

In his memoir, Harpo said he learned to tell time time from the tower clock then in place at the Ehret Brewery on East 93rd Street.

By 1910, the talented family had moved to Chicago and was already on the road to super stardom, the New York Times reported.


Eventually, the vaudevillian family made 14 films together as the Marx Brothers including the classics, "A Night at the Opera," "Duck Soup" and "A Day at the Races."


The neighborhood association will speak before the Landmarks Committee at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, July 19 at the Hunter College School of Social Work.

After Queens Historian Nancy Cataldi's Death, Her Classic Home Undergoes Makeover, Irking Residents by Nicholas Hirshon - NY Daily News

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This Richmond Hill house, which was home of late Queens historian Nancy Cataldi and carried unofficial 'Queensmark' (below) is being renovated because of damage, new owners say. Photos by: Theodorakis/News

Even a historic preservationist's home is not immune to the ravages of time and an impulse for the new.

Two years after Queens historian Nancy Cataldi died, the Victorian home that she lovingly restored has been drastically altered - its signature porch and stained glass windows removed.

The prominent Richmond Hill house was rotting so extensively due to an infestation by carpenter ants that the new owners said they had to replace key elements.

Locals sympathize with the incoming residents. But they also blame the city Landmarks Preservation Commission for not protecting Cataldi's home long ago as part of a historic district.

"We're losing too much," said Carl Ballenas, who co-authored a Richmond Hill history book with Cataldi in 2002. "We would have had this solved 10 years ago if we had a historic district."

A Landmarks Preservation Commission spokeswoman responded that even landmarked structures are routinely changed with the agency's approval.

The home was built on Washington Ave. in 1905 by noted architect Henry Haugaard for his brother John and sister-in-law Margaret, according to the book written by Ballenas and Cataldi.

Haugaard's design incorporated several columns, dormers with "temple-like" pediments and fluted corner pilasters, the book says.

The new homeowner, Donna Harricharan, defended her family's decision to renovate - citing an outdated kitchen and decaying walls that had to be fixed before they moved in.

Harricharan, 37, also said her clan couldn't afford to restore the facade in period style.

"If somebody wanted to just keep it as a museum, they should have done that," she said.

In 1996, the Queens Historical Society honored the stately home with a "Queensmark" plaque - short for Queens landmark - for historical and architectural merit.

But Queensmarks carry only honorific, not protective, status.

Cataldi, the longtime president of the Richmond Hill Historical Society, wanted her home also designated a city landmark - perhaps as part of a Richmond Hill historic district - to prevent major alterations or demolition.

But the Landmarks Preservation Commission rejected the district proposal in 2001 - declining to protect Cataldi's tree-lined block, now co-named 109th St. and Nancy Cataldi Way.

The commission's chairman, Robert Tierney, told the Richmond Hill Historical Society in 2008 that the commission was upholding its decision.

"They collectively saw fit to foot-drag and stonewall with this as the indirect result," said Ivan Mrakovcic, chairman of Community Board 9.

Cataldi lived in the house for 14 years, painting the exterior white with green trim and repairing the porch, Ballenas said.

"I'm very sad to see what's happening," he said. "It's just horrible."

Preservationists Push for Ozone Park Site Where Jack Kerouac Planned 'On the Road' to Be Landmark by Nicholas Hirshon - NY Daily News

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The Queens Historical Society will run a guided trolley trek past seven sites, including Kerouac's Cross Bay Blvd. apartment, on Sunday. Above, the apartment where Kerouac lived for 6 years. Ward for News

Preservationists are capitalizing on a tour of endangered Queens historic sites - inspired by a Daily News series - to push for landmarking of the Ozone Park walkup where Jack Kerouac planned his iconic 1957 novel "On the Road."

The Queens Historical Society will run a guided trolley trek past seven sites, including Kerouac's Cross Bay Blvd. apartment, on Sunday. The tour will be followed by an hour-long talk about the voice of the Beat Generation.

On display at the society's Flushing base at 143-35 37th Ave. - where the tour will depart at 1 p.m. - are rare artifacts and photos relating to Kerouac, alongside parts of The News' "History in Peril" series, which ran last year.

Kerouac scholar Patrick Fenton, who will lecture Sunday about how the author's work was shaped by living in Ozone Park during the 1940s, slammed the city for not landmarking the site.

"They don't really know the history of Jack Kerouac in Queens," said Fenton, 68. "If they knew it, I think they'd run to his house to put a plaque up."

Fenton accused the city of anti-Queens bias by recently landmarking the childhood home of novelist Henry Miller as part of a historic district in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, before designating Kerouac's apartment.

Miller lived in the three-story brick building for less than a decade in the 1890s, leaving years before penning his signature works, "The Tropic of Cancer" and "The Tropic of Capricorn."

Kerouac, meanwhile, planned one of the most famous road trips in literary history at his mom's walkup in Ozone Park - and embarked on it from there in 1947.

Marisa Berman, the historical society's executive director, said the full slate of "History in Peril" tour stops merit landmarking "if a site with such a small connection to [Miller] is eligible."

A spokeswoman for the city Landmarks Preservation Commission - which is reviewing the Kerouac walkup - insisted the 29 rowhouses that compose the Williamsburg district were designated for architectural reasons.

"It most likely would have been included even if Henry Miller hadn't lived there," said spokeswoman Lisi de Bourbon.

Only five city landmarks were recognized solely for cultural significance - the designation that seems most fitting for the Kerouac home.

To get tickets for the tour, call the Queens Historical Society at (718) 939-0647.

nhirshon@nydailynews.com

Queens Preservationists Hoping for Reel Deal on RKO Keith's Movie Theater by Nicholas Hirshon - NY Daily News

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Preservationists who want to buy a shuttered Queens movie palace are hoping its debt-saddled owner will lower the $24 million asking price to cut his losses - or even donate the structure to them for a tax break.

Representatives of Brooklyn developer Shaya Boymelgreen insisted he "would not consider a sizable reduction" on the price tag nor making a donation of the historic RKO Keith's theater in Flushing.

But far-flung fans of the landmark movie house - who want to transform it into a multicultural performing arts center - think Boymelgreen may change his mind, given a host of publicized financial woes.

The Israeli business newspaper Globes reported Monday that Boymelgreen was nearing a debt-rescheduling deal with his firm's largest creditor, Mizrahi Tefahot Bank, because he can't afford an upcoming $2.4 million interest payment.

Globes also reported that Boymelgreen investors are expected to convert part of their bonds into shares, diluting Boymelgreen's 89.8% stake in the company.

Boymelgreen brass told Globes that a bondholders' agreement was pending, but wouldn't disclose details. Boymelgreen's daughter, Bassie Deitsch, who is the group's marketing director, refused to discuss the Globes story with the Daily News.

"He's got so many problems," said Flushing-raised comedian Ed Tracey, founder of the Friends of the RKO Keith's Flushing. "If you look at what he owes, it's almost better for him to donate it."

Jerry Rotondi, a preservationist who is advising Tracey, figured the cash-strapped Boymelgreen would drop the price for the theater, which opened in 1928 and closed in the late 1980s.

"I don't think he particularly cares who he sells it to as long as he gets the money," Rotondi said. "My gut feeling is right now - it's more than a gut feeling - is that it's overpriced."

ReMax broker Erez Daniel, who is representing the RKO Keith's with colleague Kwan Cheung, said the two have fielded calls from potential buyers hoping to turn the perennial eyesore into everything from a mall to a 200-unit condo to a movie theater.

Daniel questioned the legitimacy of Tracey's group, which plans to incorporate and earn nonprofit status. But Daniel said he remains "open-minded to all ideas."

"If the right person will be coming in and will be interested in restoring the theater, nothing would make us happier," he said.

Boymelgreen bought the theater from scandal-plagued landlord Tommy Huang in 2002.

Saving Boro's 7 Wonders: Landmark Effort to Preserve News' 'History in Peril' Sites by Nicholas Hirshon - NY Daily News

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A Flushing museum is unveiling an exhibit and launching a series of tours and lectures on Sunday to push the city to landmark significant Queens sites profiled last year in the Daily News' History in Peril series.

The display at the Queens Historical Society at 143-35 37th Ave. will serve as the starting point for a 1 p.m. bus ride past seven structures from the series, followed by a cautionary tale about two lost icons from the 1939 World's Fair.

None of the seven structures - such as the former homes of writer Jack Kerouac, baseball icon Jackie Robinson and Malcolm X - have been designated landmarks, leaving them at risk of major alterations or even demolition.

"It's bringing to light a lot of places that have either been forgotten or people didn't know existed," said Danielle Hilkin, the society's outreach coordinator.

Lisi de Bourbon, a spokeswoman for the city Landmarks Preservation Commission, promised to alert the panel's 11 members about the exhibit, tours and lectures.

The exhibit, which will run through September. will be accompanied by three tours, held the last Sundays of April, May and June.

The post-tour talk on May 31 will focus on Kerouac, who lived in Ozone Park in the 1940s, while the June 28 edition will highlight Woodhaven Lanes, a shuttered bowling alley in Glendale.

The exhibit features rare memorabilia like a bookshelf from a library where Kerouac planned his "On the Road" trip.

Also on display will be mementos from the 1939 and 1964 World's Fairs, both held in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.

The 1939 collection includes pins depicting the iconic 610-foot-tall Trylon and 180-foot-wide Perisphere - which were demolished after the fair closed and will be the focus of Sunday's lecture by historian Pierre Montiel.

"People should realize Queens has a history," Montiel said. "If you keep tearing it all down, you won't really have a history."

The most prominent remaining structure from the 1939 fair is the New York City Building - also not landmarked - an early headquarters for the United Nations.

Other tour sites include the Ridgewood Theatre, which opened in 1916 and was the nation's longest continuously operating movie house until it closed in March 2008.

To RSVP for the tours, call the Queens Historical Society at (718) 939-0647, extension 17.

Richmond Hill Preservationist Cataldi Dead at 55 by Nicholas Hirshon - NY Daily News

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Nancy Cataldi, an outspoken preservationist who launched unrelenting efforts to save Richmond Hill's quaint downtown and Victorian homes, died last week at her home in Queens. She was 55.

The cause was a brain aneurysm and hemorrhage, said her half-brother, Michael.

Through nearly a decade as president of the Richmond Hill Historical Society, Cataldi fought to maintain the charm of a neighborhood that was founded in 1867 and boasts elegant houses and churches.

In 2002, she capped a successful campaign to landmark the classical Richmond Hill Republican Club on Lefferts Blvd., which was built in 1908 and hosted Theodore Roosevelt, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan.

"If it had not been designated [a city landmark], it's an absolute that it would have been demolished," said Ivan Mrakovcic, who preceded Cataldi as the historical society's president.

Cataldi also led an ongoing push to turn Richmond Hill into a historic district, which would bar major renovations without city approval. Preservationists fear the movement may suffer without Cataldi in charge.

"No one wants to say, 'I can do a better job,' because no one could," said Carl Ballenas, a historian at the historical society.

Cataldi also ran events celebrating the history of Maple Grove Cemetery in Kew Gardens, and curated the recently opened Italian-American Museum in Little Italy.

A photographer by trade, she worked for the New York Rangers hockey club in the 1980s and freelanced for major newspapers and magazines in recent years. She also volunteered for a Queens-based no-kill animal shelter, Bobbi and the Strays.

In August, Cataldi admitted she was devastated by changes to Richmond Hill - like the removal of marquee lettering from a 1929 RKO Keith's movie theater on Hillside Ave.

She also disturbed by the closing of a neighboring ice cream parlor named Jahn's and the destruction of a 1887 funeral home on Lefferts Blvd. where the society had housed its archives. "Everything historical down there is gone, almost," Cataldi lamented.

Her funeral is set for 10 a.m. tomorrow at Holy Child Jesus Church on 86th Ave. in Richmond Hill.

Community Characters - David M. Quintana by Michael Lanza - Queens Tribune, September 25th Issue

David M. Quintana
Ozone Park
South Queens Blogger, Preservationist and Political Activist

“Most people are very apathetic at best, but somebody’s gotta get out there and speak up. I’m not afraid to speak up.”

When David M. Quintana started his blog a year and a half ago, it was just a simple way for him to replace an e-mail list he used to distribute information in his neighborhood. But more than 80,000 hits later, he’s become one of the most recognizable faces of South Queens. His blog, Lost in the Ozone, is one of the most prolific in the borough and a hot destination for South Queens community advocates.

Community Character:

Quintana has focused much of his energy on raising awareness about the preservation of Ridgewood Reservoir, Jamaica Bay and other parks around the borough.

“At one point in the city budget, parks was 1.5 percent of the total city budget,” Quintana said. “Now it’s under one percent.”

Quintana isn’t shy about criticizing officials responsible for the parks either. He said efforts to preserve and maintain natural havens in the borough over the last few years have been inadequate.

He pointed to a community forum held where he said that although 90 percent of the attendees opposed changes at Ridgewood Reservoir, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation went ahead with proposals to change the historic park anyway.

“It seems as though the parks department has trouble with letting people know the truth,” he said. “I think they had a pre conceived agenda going in and they hoped that the public would conform to that with some suggestions. They saw that the public wasn’t but went ahead with their plan anyway.”

As a member of Community Board 10 and South Queens’ unofficial blogger, he’s no stranger to confronting authorities when he sees conflict with the community’s interests.

The stalwart progressive has set his sites on State Sen. Serphin Maltese (R- Glendale), who he said no longer represents the community, but the political interests of the senate’s Republican majority.

He’s also confronting Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s development and education agendas.

“Overdevelopment has been terrible,” he said. “The public is being spun by the City Hall. These people aren’t telling the truth.”

Press Release From NYC Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. - THOMPSON & KENNEDY: PARKS DEPARTMENT SHOULD PRESERVE, NOT DESTROY, RIDGEWOOD RESERVOIR

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 29, 2008

Contact: Mike Loughran

THOMPSON & KENNEDY: PARKS DEPARTMENT SHOULD PRESERVE, NOT DESTROY, RIDGEWOOD RESERVOIR

New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. and environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. today called on the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation to reconsider plans to replace nearly half of the Ridgewood Reservoir on the Brooklyn-Queens border with sports fields.

In an opinion piece published in The New York Times, the two warned against destroying “this extraordinary natural habitat.”

“This plan flies in the face of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s widely hailed environmental blueprint, which bemoans the loss of the city’s natural areas,” the wrote. “The Parks Department’s own scientific consultants have warned against disturbing the reservoir, an area they call ‘highly significant for the biodiversity of New York City and the region.”

Thompson is New York City’s 42^nd Comptroller. Kennedy is a lawyer for Riverkeeper, an environmental group.

The 50-acre reservoir, which sits on the border of Brooklyn and Queens, was built in 1858 to provide drinking water to Brooklyn residents. It was converted as a back-up reservoir in 1959 and taken offline in 1989. Since then, trees, plants, turtles, fish, frogs and more than 137 bird species, including eight rare ones identified on the National Audubon Society’s “Watch List,” thrive on the land.

However, the Parks Department is considering a $50 million “renovation” project that would replace a large swath of Ridgewood wilderness with sports facilities athletic fields. The agency claims the project is necessary to help combat child obesity.

“This is an important objective, but money…could be better spent improving Highland Park, immediately next to Ridgewood Reservoir,” the two wrote. “Highland Park has plenty of ball fields to serve its neighborhood, but they are in such deplorable condition that few people use them.”

Additionally, the two recommended that the trail surrounding the perimeter of the reservoir should be upgraded with benches and rest areas as well as signage calling attention to its unique flora and fauna, and asked that the Parks Department to open areas of the reservoir for guided nature walks.

“Ridgewood Reservoir offers visitors a rare chance to lose themselves in a forest, to hear bird song, to touch wilderness and to sense the divine,” they concluded. “The city shouldn’t let that slip away.”

In Our Opinion...The Evolution of Zoning: Has It Stopped? - Editorial Queens Ledger

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Last week in front of Queens Borough Hall there were complaints about zoning laws that have affected neighborhoods and dcommunities throughout Queens. Many of the residents, community leaders and people on hand for the rally were frustrated. They felt the city and its developers trampled over their space while converting many of their quiet residences into business centers.

The Queens Civic Congress fronted by President Corey Bearak and rally coordinator, Henry Euler, blamed the overwhelming amount of developers that often avoid taking community civics and members into consideration before turning residential areas into the city's hands.

One person we spoke revealed this to be the case. The elderly gentleman told us that the government stopped paying attention to the people who know "what's really going on." Said person (who didn't want his name revealed) went along to say he has lived in his respected Queens neighborhood for 50 years and has not been able to gain the respect he needs to enforce zoning changes.

"It's not right," is how he described the situation.

During the rally, vice president of the QCC, Harbachan Singh, brought up the history of zoning throughout New York. The groundbreaking Zoning Resolution of 1916 in particular is what he shed light on. "Thank our forefathers for coming up with this," he said

This legislation established height and setback controls and designated residential districts that excluded what were seen as incompatible uses. It created soaring towers that epitomized the city's business districts and established the familiar context of three- to six-story residential buildings found in much of the city.

The new ordinance became a model for urban communities throughout American as other cities found that New York's problems of zoning were not unique. Mainly it separated the city for the less urban areas on the outskirts. These implemented ideals stayed in effect for a while.

It was only in 1961 that a new Zoning Resolution was set. It was more in-depth - coordinating use and bulk regulations, incorporated parking requirements and emphasized the creation of open space.

It also introduced incentive zoning by adding a bonus of extra floor space to encourage developers of office buildings and apartment towers to incorporate public plazas into their projects. Throughout New York, the 1961 zoning act dramatically reduced achievable housing densities, largely at the edges of the city.

According to the New York City Department of City Planning website: "Time passes, land uses change and zoning policy accommodates, anticipates and guides those changes. In a certain sense, zoning is never final; it is renewed constantly in response to new ideas- and to new challenges."

Many have raised such new "challenges." Now it is time for the city's response. Isn't it about time a new zoning act gets passed to add nuances to the ever-changing communities throughout the city?

Queens Civics Rally to Reform Zoning by Henrick A. Karoliszyn - Queens Ledger

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Last week in front of Queens Borough Hall there were complaints about zoning laws that have affected neighborhoods and communities throughout Queens. Many of the residents, community leaders and people on hand for the rally were frustrated. They felt the city and its developers trampled over their space while converting many of their quiet residences into business centers.



more videos...

The Queens Civic Congress fronted by President Corey Bearak and rally coordinator, Henry Euler, blamed the overwhelming amount of developers that often avoid taking community civics and members into consideration before turning residential areas into the city's hands.

One person we spoke revealed this to be the case. The elderly gentleman told us that the government stopped paying attention to the people who know "what's really going on." Said person (who didn't want his name revealed) went along to say he has lived in his respected Queens neighborhood for 50 years and has not been able to gain the respect he needs to enforce zoning changes.

"It's not right," is how he described the situation.

During the rally, vice president of the QCC, Harbachan Singh, brought up the history of zoning throughout New York. The groundbreaking Zoning Resolution of 1916 in particular is what he shed light on. "Thank our forefathers for coming up with this," he said

This legislation established height and setback controls and designated residential districts that excluded what were seen as incompatible uses. It created soaring towers that epitomized the city's business districts and established the familiar context of three- to six-story residential buildings found in much of the city.

The new ordinance became a model for urban communities throughout American as other cities found that New York's problems of zoning were not unique. Mainly it separated the city for the less urban areas on the outskirts. These implemented ideals stayed in effect for a while.

It was only in 1961 that a new Zoning Resolution was set. It was more in-depth - coordinating use and bulk regulations, incorporated parking requirements and emphasized the creation of open space.

It also introduced incentive zoning by adding a bonus of extra floor space to encourage developers of office buildings and apartment towers to incorporate public plazas into their projects. Throughout New York, the 1961 zoning act dramatically reduced achievable housing densities, largely at the edges of the city.

According to the New York City Department of City Planning website: "Time passes, land uses change and zoning policy accommodates, anticipates and guides those changes. In a certain sense, zoning is never final; it is renewed constantly in response to new ideas- and to new challenges."

Many have raised such new "challenges." Now it is time for the city's response. Isn't it about time a new zoning act gets passed to add nuances to the ever-changing communities throughout the city?

Times Ledger - Boro Preservationists Learn Landmark Ropes by Alex Christodoulides - Times-Ledger

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Invoking the names of the fallen as cautionary tales - Ridgewood Reservoir, St. Savior's, the Klein Farm - community preservation activists met last week with old hands to find out how to landmark Queens' historic neighborhoods and buildings.

Left to Right - Kevin Wolfe - Douglaston & Little Neck Historical Society, Simeon Bankoff - Historic Districts Council, Frank E. Sanchis III - Municipal Arts Society, Councilperson Jessica Lappin, James Trent - Metropolitan Historic Structures Association

The community room at The Shops at Atlas Park was full of neighborhood activists as City Councilwoman Jessica Lappin (D-Manhattan), chairwoman of the City Council Landmarks Committee spoke at a historic preservation and landmarking workshop organized by the Queens Civic Congress.

"The designation process starts with people like you who are active in their communities," Lappin said. "The people who oppose something always come out, but the ones in support don't always come."

Left to Right Kevin Wolfe, Herb Reynolds - Sunnyside Gardens Preservation Alliance, Bankoff, Sanchis & Lappin

Frank Sanchis III, senior vice president of the Municipal Arts Society and a fellow panelist, mentioned the statistic that Queens ranks last in landmarked buildings in New York City and said it was the result of the building materials used.

"They're [the Landmarks Preservation Commission] looking for integrity and a sense of place" in designating a historic district, he said.

Left to Right Kevin Wolfe, Herb Reynolds & Simeon Bankoff

The meeting took place all of 12 hours before demolition began Feb. 27 in Maspeth on the 1847 St. Savior's building, in which developer Maspeth Development LLC bought the property in 2005 to build condos. Activist Christina Wilkinson announced at the workshop that the demolition permits for the church had been issued Feb. 25.

Corey Bearak - Queens Civic Association & North Bellerose Civic Association at Podium

The anxiety level climbed in the room after the announcement, and Fresh Meadows area activist Bob Harris told the panelists that the Klein Farm on 73rd Avenue was locked in a similar tug-of-war between developer Tommy Huang and local preservationists.

James Trent at Podium

Herb Reynolds, director of the Sunnyside Gardens Preservation Alliance, said that getting the Historic Districts Council on board was key to getting neighborhoods landmarked, but warned that the process could take years.

Sanchis said Manhattan and downtown Brooklyn get the lion's share of landmarks because their structures are masonry, which is harder to modify, whereas many Queens buildings are wooden.


"It's true that wooden buildings are easier to alter, but I've seen an astonishing number of masonry buildings get aluminum siding," Sanchis said, adding that reversible changes should not deter residents from seeking landmark status.

Resident Renee Levine asked what could be done in her Kew Gardens neighborhood, where reversible changes were taking over.

Audience of Activists

"One by one, the 100-year-old houses are being turned into garbage with gold this and concrete that and Home Depot doors," she said.


Wolfe offered her a simple plan of attack: "You have to get your ass in gear," he told Levine. "There have to be areas that are viable, and the blocks [proposed for landmarking] have to be contiguous. You need passion and you need people to help you out."