Greater Astoria Historical Society is dedicated to preserving our past and using it to promote our future through walking tours, lectures, educational programming, community events, research, & more.
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Join us! The Greater Astoria Historical Society (GAHS) is a non-profit cultural and historical organization located in Astoria, Queens, New York, dedicated to preserving the past and promoting the future of the neighborhoods that are part of historic Long Island City, including; the Village of Astoria, Blissville, Bowery Bay, Dutch Kills, Hunters Point, Ravenswood, Steinway Village and Sunnyside.
Operating as usual
Museum of Illusions Polka (Aired on ABC 2-22-2019) Featuring Astoria's own Natalia "The Saw Lady" Peruz!
https://vimeo.com/318512850
This is "Museum of Illusions Polka (Air 2-22-2019)" by Barry Mitchell on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.
“...what we become depends on what our fathers teach us at odd moments.” Umberto Eco #fathersday #fathers #dad #dog #love #kindness #astorialic #aatoriahistory
“...what we become depends on what our fathers teach us at odd moments.” Umberto Eco #fathersday #fathers #dad #dog #love #kindness #astorialic #aatoriahistory
The LIC Scavenger Hunt has started!
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1pCivUid7tEAESn2aiDvQbzp52ZcTZ5aZXsL43q1y_hU/edit#slide=id.p1
LIC ART HUNT A self guided scavenger hunt of the public artwork of LIC Launching June 14, 2021!
Astoria’s Big Bang: the 1885 Hell Gate Planned Detonation followed the Little Bang of 1876.
FLOOD ROCK SHATTERED INTO COUNTLESS FRAGMENTS. A GIRL'S HAND UNLOCKING THE MIGHTY FORCE. THE GRAND SPECTACLE WHICH A CITY TURNED OUT TO SEE—A SOLID WALL OF WATER HANGING TREMBLING IN MID-AIR—A SHOCK WHICH WAS FELT FOR MILES IN EVERY DIRECTION—THE SUCCESSFUL CONCLUSION OF NINE YEARS OF WORK.
-NY Times headline
In 1851, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers led by General John Newton began to clear obstacles from Hell Gate, a strait in New York City's East River, with explosives.
The operation would last 70 years. On September 24, 1876, the Corps used 50,000 pounds of explosives to blast the rocks, which was followed by further blasting.
The process was started by excavating under Hallets Reef from Astoria. Cornish miners assisted by steam drills dug galleries under the reef, which were then interconnected. They later drilled holes for explosives. A patent was issued for the detonating device.
After the explosion the rock debris was dredged and dropped in a deep part of the river, this was not repeated at the later Flood rock explosion.
The day before the much larger 1885 explosion Commissioner Thomas S. Brennan said the proper precautions will be taken on Blackwell’s island, and that should the effect of the explosion be greater than anticipated and jar or damage any of the institutions the inmates would not suffer or be alarmed.
The lunatics will be taken from the asylum, as well as the inmates of the other institutions, except the prisoners in the penitentiary. Here as a measure of common precaution the cell doors will be left open.
All homes on the Astoria waterfront within 1,000 feet of Flood Rock were evacuated and promises were made that those streets would be cordoned off and the possessions of the evacuees well protected.
An estimated 10,000 persons on the Astoria shore at 10 AM, in sight of Flood Rock, would certainly be within bounds. Many put the number much higher. It grew there after, for the next hour, as fast as well as possible by horse car, by vehicles, and by walking.
General Abbot held the keyboard in both hands and kept the key away from contact with his body or his clothes, while Mary Newton, the 11-year-old daughter of General John Newton, the explosion supervisor, watched every motion with the upmost eagerness, her eyes dancing with impatience. She had experience, having pressed the key at the age of two for the smaller, 1876 explosion.
Finally, at about 10:55 in the morning, General Abbot nodded to the child, who stepped up to the instrument and, after the merest moment of hesitation, touched the key. There was a single instance of breathless silence.
Then there came a sudden jar of the solid rock underneath the feet of the little group of spectators, and, with a choked crash and muffled roar, the great volume of seething and foaming water spraying into the air.
All eyes turned toward Flood Rock until the first commotion had ceased, and then the officers rushed up to congratulate General Newton, and at once turned to shower compliments upon the little girl, who seemed a very well poised little girl indeed.
She only smiled brightly in response to the pleasantries, and turned to her father, who kissed her tenderly, remarking as a great tidal wave rolled in upon the beach, “There, just see what you’ve done!”
General Newton’s neck bore a scratch from the snapping of a wire attached to one of the cameras. The wire struck him, making a slight cut. “I am the only person injured,” he said, laughing, as the boat bore him away.
Telegraphic signs conveyed information of the explosion at the instant of its occurrence to the observers at Bayshore, Patchogue, Piersall’s, and West Point.
The spectators on the various steamboats look wonderingly on the scene of desolation and thought there was just as much rock as it was before the explosion. Some of them had evidently expected that the rock would disappear. Soon as steamboats glided away, leaving the rowboat crews at their labors. Then the crowds on shore began to dwindle. The great event was over. There was nothing more to see.
New York Times excerpt, October 11, 1885
The blast has been described as “the largest planned explosion before testing began for the atomic bomb”, although the detonation at the Battle of Messines in 1917 was larger. Some of the rubble from the detonation was used in 1890 to fill the gap between Great Mill Rock and Little Mill Rock, merging the two islands into a single island, Mill Rock.
- Wikipedia
Charles Graham, The Last of Flood Rock—Scene of the Hell Gate Explosion, Viewed from 87th Street, NY, 1885, Wood engraving on paper. The Clark Art Institute, 1955.4277.
Check out the LIC Art Hunt! Prizes! Fame! Glory!
https://youtu.be/lFxV7kdRlyA
Check out the LIC Art Hunt! Prizes! Fame! Glory!
https://youtu.be/lFxV7kdRlyA
https://www.longislandcityqueens.com/experience-lic/events/lic-springs-to-summer/
Long Island City Partnership’s signature community celebration returns for its 8th annual year—but with a twist! This year LIC Springs to Summer! will be a series of events, promotions, and performances throughout Long Island City from your favorite LIC businesses …
LIC Partnership annual celebration of Summer: activities, art, food, it's all there. https://www.longislandcityqueens.com/
LIC Partnership annual celebration of Summer: activities, art, food, it's all there. https://www.longislandcityqueens.com/
Double-deck railway coach patented by Manhattanite in 1890
The illustration shows a car not exceeding in height the usual drawing room coaches, or at the most only slightly so, so that the bridges and tunnels of the regular railway lines can present no obstacle to it passage, but the construction is such as to provide two floors or tiers of seats, thereby largely increasing the carrying capacity of the car.
This is effected mainly by the manner in which the space at present occupied by the car ventilator is made available, the sides of the car roof being carried up to the full height of the usual ventilator section while the latter is inverted, its side shutters opening into the body of the car, as shown in the cross sectional view.
Further vertical space is also afforded by depressing the floor of the car body between the end trucks, as shown in the longitudinal view, in which the side is broken away.
Such depression of the floor however, is not deemed indispensable, for it will be seen that the central aisle of the car is of full height, permitting ready access to the side seats of the main floor therefrom, while the side galleries above, each accommodating only a single row of chairs, do not extend to the full width of the seats on either side of the aisle below.
The car is of the ordinary construction at the ends, except that it has a comfortable smoking and lookout room in the upper part, which adds greatly to the convenience of passengers.
The ventilator was arranged to permit the ready flowing off of water during rain without obstruction to the thorough ventilation of the car at all times.
The car forms the subject of a patent which has been granted to Mr. Orlando Harriman, of 43 Wall Street, New York City.
Scientific American excerpt and illustrations, June 7, 1890
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🙃🙂 🙂🙃
Photos: LIRR Double decker construction interior 1/1943 Archive: Steamtown National Historic Site
LIRR's double-deck MUs featured �a unique up-down seating configuration.�#200 Class T62 aisle view 7/06/1932
Archive: Bill Mangahas
The future of Long Island City with Elizabeth Lusskin, President, Long Island City Partnership
https://podcasts.schnepsmedia.com/2021/05/25/elizabeth-lusskin-long-island-city/
Long Island City is one of NYC’s most exciting neighborhoods, with a nightlife scene, restaurants, museums, art galleries, office space as well as a hub of
NYC in 1911. Amazing!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ1OgQL9_Cw
Upscaled with neural networks 1911 New York footage taken by the Swedish company Svenska Biografteatern on a trip to America: You can reach me here:💌 https:...
The story of Frank Carrado, Honorary Mayor of LIC
https://digital-editions.schnepsmedia.com/BM052021/page_22.html
Owners of Krave It in Bayside set to open new location in Astoria A Bayside-based pizza and sandwich joint is expanding 22 MAY 2 0 2 1 Photo courtesy of Krave It west
“Life doesn’t come with a manual, it comes with a mother.” Unknown. #mother #love# #mothersday #mom #family #gift #astorialic
“Life doesn’t come with a manual, it comes with a mother.” Unknown. #mother #love# #mothersday #mom #family #gift #astorialic
This free guided video tour produced by The Greater Astoria Historical Society will follow guest host Vintage Queens’ Jade Oliver as she gives a tour of some of the most notable historical areas of Astoria to “sitesee” over the decades, in period-appropriate clothing specific to each site. Enhancing the tour will be images from the GAHS archives, including a postcard from each location, as she “jumps” back and forth between history and today!
Due to country wide outages at Adobe Creative Cloud, there is a delay in this evening's broadcast, and our video will begin at 7 pm!
Oh the joys of technology! We will see you soon!
Well, this was a lot of fun! Bob Singleton-NewYork
WATCH Queens Conversations: Neighborhood Notes-Astoria Thursday, May 6th @ 3 PM on QPTV.org, Facebook, Spectrum 34/1995, RCN 82, and Verizon Fios 34
Greater Astoria Historical Society's "Legends of LIC" column in BORO Magazine: "The Best First Baseman: Wh**ey Ford"
https://digital-editions.schnepsmedia.com/BM042021/page_22.html
City begins $2.9 million transformation of Astoria’s Wh**ey Ford Field 22 APRI L 2 0 2 1 Photo courtesy of NYC Parks/Daniel Avila By Greater Astoria Historical Societ
This is the second edition of the podcast by Heather Quinlan on the 86 Mets.
https://soundcloud.com/heather-quinlan/86d-a-podcast-about-the-86-mets-film-that-didnt-get-made-episode-two-did-we-talk-about-py
Lenny Dykstra talks about being Nails, how the '86 Mets didn't party like the '90s Phillies, and how he had better drugs than Tony Gwynn. Dykstra ended up being one of the most open and approachable M
Happy Birthday to the Father of Astoria
This week we celebrate the birthday of a New York merchant who changed a community, Stephen Alling Halsey.
Stephen Alling Halsey was born in New York on April 7, 1798, the son of a carpenter and lumber dealer. The Halseys had come originally from England and then moved via Massachusetts and Southampton, L.I. and New Jersey to New York City. Stephen became involved in the fur business in New York with his older brother John and in the 1830's the two were in business together under the name of John C. Halsey & Co. at 185 Water Street. In 1834 Stephen Halsey purchased a residence in Flushing and in commuting back and forth to New York by steamboat daily, he could not help noticing the green Astoria peninsula at Hell Gate and how rural and attractive it looked despite its close proximity to the city. Within a year's time he gave up his Flushing residence and removed to Hell Gate.
How much of a village was already present in Astoria when Halsey settled there in 1835? We have no reliable information, for the census of 1830 and 1840 lists persons by townships only (Newtown) and gives no specific addresses. We do know that the ferry landing was a busy enough spot to account for a few houses and taverns; there were several farms and enough of a local population to encourage the founding of St. George's Protestant Episcopal Church in 1828.
Halsey, on settling at Astoria, conceived the idea of founding a new village complete with dwellings, stores, factories, schools churches, etc. Being by now a man of means, Halsey was able to indulge his whim and this soon turned into a consuming passion and lifelong commitment. He was fortunate in securing the help and cooperation of his elder brother, John C. Halsey who negotiated his first purchase, the Perrot Farm, on 4th Street and the Blackwell Farm up to 8th Street, embracing nearly all the land lying between Pot Cove and Hallett's Cove. Between 1835 and 1840 Halsey energetically developed his land into the nucleus of a village, laying out streets and erecting houses and stores. He applied for and secured permission from the Legislature to build new wharves at the ferry slip and bought out the rights to Hell Gate ferry itself in order to modernize and improve it.
The rise of Astoria as a population center induced Captain Peck of Flushing to stop his fast little steamer, the "Washington Irving" at Astoria several times a day on its run between Flushing and New York.
From: “300 Years of Long Island City History” by Vincent Seyfried
Happy Birthday to the Father of Astoria
This week we celebrate the birthday of a New York merchant who changed a community, Stephen Alling Halsey.
Stephen Alling Halsey was born in New York on April 7, 1798, the son of a carpenter and lumber dealer. The Halseys had come originally from England and then moved via Massachusetts and Southampton, L.I. and New Jersey to New York City. Stephen became involved in the fur business in New York with his older brother John and in the 1830's the two were in business together under the name of John C. Halsey & Co. at 185 Water Street. In 1834 Stephen Halsey purchased a residence in Flushing and in commuting back and forth to New York by steamboat daily, he could not help noticing the green Astoria peninsula at Hell Gate and how rural and attractive it looked despite its close proximity to the city. Within a year's time he gave up his Flushing residence and removed to Hell Gate.
How much of a village was already present in Astoria when Halsey settled there in 1835? We have no reliable information, for the census of 1830 and 1840 lists persons by townships only (Newtown) and gives no specific addresses. We do know that the ferry landing was a busy enough spot to account for a few houses and taverns; there were several farms and enough of a local population to encourage the founding of St. George's Protestant Episcopal Church in 1828.
Halsey, on settling at Astoria, conceived the idea of founding a new village complete with dwellings, stores, factories, schools churches, etc. Being by now a man of means, Halsey was able to indulge his whim and this soon turned into a consuming passion and lifelong commitment. He was fortunate in securing the help and cooperation of his elder brother, John C. Halsey who negotiated his first purchase, the Perrot Farm, on 4th Street and the Blackwell Farm up to 8th Street, embracing nearly all the land lying between Pot Cove and Hallett's Cove. Between 1835 and 1840 Halsey energetically developed his land into the nucleus of a village, laying out streets and erecting houses and stores. He applied for and secured permission from the Legislature to build new wharves at the ferry slip and bought out the rights to Hell Gate ferry itself in order to modernize and improve it.
The rise of Astoria as a population center induced Captain Peck of Flushing to stop his fast little steamer, the "Washington Irving" at Astoria several times a day on its run between Flushing and New York.
From: “300 Years of Long Island City History” by Vincent Seyfried
44-02 23rd Street, Studio 219
Long Island City, NY
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The tallest building on Long Island hits a snag: What the Coronavirus Has Done to New Development The pandemic paused residential construction and stalled sales. Now developers in Long Island City and Greenpoint are scrambling to bounce back. Skyline Tower, at 3 Court Square W, the 67-story, 778-foot luxury condo building in Long Island City that looms over western Queens, was built to break records. It is the tallest building on Long Island, and the tallest in New York City outside Manhattan, topping out in 2019; the most ambitious, with sales projected to exceed $1 billion; and in February the developers claimed that it was the fastest selling, with contracts signed on a quarter of its 802 units, a massive supply for a single building. It represents the pinnacle of construction near Newtown Creek, a grimy tributary of the East River that connects the neighborhoods of Long Island City and Greenpoint, Brooklyn, two of the busiest real estate markets outside of Manhattan. Together, they have over 10,300 apartments in the works, almost 3,000 more than the mega-development Hudson Yards, according to Nancy Packes Data Services, a real estate consultancy and database provider. But even before the coronavirus gripped New York in March, the condo market there and across the city was softening. And as the sales and rental markets cautiously reopen, many of the surefire bets that fueled the last cycle of development are being thrown into question. Will buyers still pay top dollar for proximity to Manhattan offices they rarely use? Can developers sell tiny units in big buildings, many without outdoor space, now that building amenities are closed? With so many options on the market, what will a shrinking pool of qualified buyers and renters choose? There may be no better proving ground for which projects will succeed or fail in a post-Covid world than what is being built in these once largely industrial neighborhoods off Newtown Creek. The quarantine in March knocked
We missed the first couple of measures, but here’s “The Star-Spangled Banner” to wish you a Happy Memorial Day evening! (Other hymns & patriotic songs followed.) #MemorialDay Astoria, New York
Sunnyside Yard, 2020 Google Earth 3-D View
Video: 2020 Google Earth 3-D view of Con Edison’s Astoria plant at Lawrence Point
Astoria’s “fraternal twins,” the East River Arch Bridge over Hell Gate, which ran its first railroad trains in 1917, and the Triborough Bridge, which opened to vehicular and pedestrian traffic in 1936, bookend Astoria Park. They connect NYC’s largest borough to Randalls and Wards Island and the Bronx, and in Triborough’s case, to Manhattan as well.
World-renowned organ virtuoso JAMIE HITEL presented an Inaugural Recital at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, 23-25 Newtown Avenue, Astoria 11102, on Sunday, May 7 at 3 PM on the historic pipe organ, newly-restored by Meloni and Farrier Organ Builders. The program included selections from “L’Ascension” by Messiaen, and works by Bach, Buxtehude, Franck, Vaughan Williams, Widor and others.
And here's a clip from Natalia 'Saw Lady' Paruz - musical saw player beautiful performance
Missed Monday's performance? Here's an excerpt from Natalia 'Saw Lady' Paruz - musical saw player's presentation explaining how the bells are played.
Chartered in 1985, the Greater Astoria Historical Society is a non-profit organization supported by the Greater Astoria/Long Island City communities, dedicated to preserving our past and using it to promote our future. Our work to procure, preserve and present relates to the natural, civil, literary and ecclesiastical history of the United States and State of New York in general, and the Astoria/Long Island City, Queens, area in particular. From 1990-2018, the Society had an onsite museum of its permanent collection and rotating exhibits; since, programming for the public and to local organizations and schools has been held at various community venues, in addition to our many walking tours in all five boroughs of New York City. Due to the current global health crisis and for the foreseeable future, we are working to move programming to all-virtual.
Center for the Holographic Arts
New York 10004La Guardia and Wagner Archives
New YorkThe Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass
5-26 46th Avenue, QueensMount Vernon Hotel Museum & Garden
421 E 61st St, New YorkMotorista brasileiro em New York - TransBrazi
Crescent street, New York