Langston Hughes Community Library and Cultural Center in Corona, Queens, was nominated to the Census of Places that Matter because it houses the largest circulating Black Heritage reading collection in New York State. The facility was established as a result of local community efforts in the 1960s to form a community-controlled library and cultural center focusing on the history and needs of the African American community in the Corona neighborhood.

The library originally opened in 1969 in a former Woolworth’s store on Northern Boulevard. According to its Place Matters nomination, the original location provided the library with a storefront presence and also served “as a reminder of an earlier moment in history [when] this Woolworth’s was the site of a local civil rights struggle to break the color barrier for hiring in Queens.” Opening just two years after Langston Hughes’ death, the library was the first public institution named for the poet. The library’s Black Heritage Reference Center has grown over the years to more than 40,000 volumes of materials “written by, about, for, with and related to Black Culture.” In addition, the library has a special collection of works by and about its namesake, including Hughes’ own published works, analyses of his work, and even musical settings composed by Hughes. Continue Reading>>

Head outside for an invigorating walking tour this holiday season. Take in the last of John Kriskiewicz’s “Architecture of Aspiration” walking tours on Christmas Eve, and consider Tony Robins’ Christmas morning tour of Rockefeller Center — repeated on Sunday, December 27. Take (or send) your holiday guests on MAS Tuesday Downtown and Wednesday Grand Central Terminal tours — we’ll have two tour leaders at Grand Central Terminal between Christmas and the New Year.

Also, don’t forget to welcome in the New Year with Jack Eichenbaum’s tour of Flushing’s Koreatown on New Year’s Day. Happy Holidays!

New York’s Rue de la Paix: West 57th Street
Thursday, December 24, 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
The years between the First and Second World Wars marked the emergence of this elegant enclave of exclusive boutiques, art galleries, and department stores housed in Art Deco skyscrapers and classically inspired structures. Today, major designers and luxury multinationals dazzle with the latest architectural trends. Leader: John Kriskiewicz, architectural historian. Meet at the S.W. corner of 57th St. and Madison Ave. $15, $10 MAS members. Pay at tour. MAP. Continue Reading>>

Dating from 1697, the Queens County Farm Museum at 73-50 Little Neck Parkway in Queens, is the longest continuously farmed plot of land in all of New York State. Spanning 47 acres, the site is also home to the largest remaining parcel of working farmland in New York City.

The focal point of the farm museum is the “Jacob Adriance Farmhouse.” The oldest portion the house was built in 1772 and originally consisted of just three rooms. According to the 1976 landmark designation report, the design of this section of the house “reflects a mixture of Dutch colonial and New England influences common in old homes of Long Island where the two cultures met.” However, the house was altered through a sequence of additions as the property changed hands throughout the 19th century. Continue Reading>>

Ahead of the upcoming 2nd Annual Jane Jacobs Forum — which encourages New Yorkers to re-imagine their city with urban farms, MAS’ Tamara Coombs and forum panelist and greenhouse director at Gotham Greens Jennifer Nelkin, discussed the prospects of developing commercial-scale agriculture in New York City and how to grow fresh produce at the South Pole.

Join us at the Jane Jacobs Forum on November 3 to delve into the economic development and urban design implications of the fundamental question: Can New York, a city with a growing population and shrinking acreage, eventually grow enough food within its boundaries to become self-sufficient?

Moderator Neal Peirce of the Washington Post, will be joined by Ms. Nelkin and other expert panelists including, microbiology Professor Dickson Despommier of Columbia University, landscape designer Dan Albert of Weber Thompson architects in Seattle, Colin Cathcart of Kiss + Cathcart architects in Brooklyn, environmental studies Professor Nevin Cohen of The New School, and Ian Marvy executive director of Added Value in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

The Jane Jacobs Forum is sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation. Related to the forum is the exhibition Re-Imagining Cities: Urban Design After the Age of Oil — currently on display at MAS through Friday, December 4. Visit MAS.org/exhibitions for more details.

The Vander Ende-Onderdonk House, located in the Ridgewood section of Queens near the Brooklyn border, is the oldest Dutch Colonial stone house in New York City. It was nominated to the Census of Places that Matter for its connection to the 18th century history of Queens and for its story of neighborhood preservation advocacy.

The site of the Onderdonk house and farm was originally granted to Hendrick Barents Smidt by Dutch governor Peter Stuyvesant in the 1660s. However, the house that stands today was not built until after the Ende family acquired the land in 1709. According to the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission’s designation report, the house was originally constructed in the mid- to late-18th century. It was built facing Flushing Avenue, the colonial road connecting the Dutch town of Bushwick with the English town of Newtown. The frame addition to the house was constructed in the 1820s by Adrian Onderdonk, who purchased the farm shortly after his marriage to Ann Wyckoff, a member of the prominent Dutch-American Brooklyn family. Continue Reading>>

Just in time for the last few weeks of summer, Place Matters has identified 10 Great summertime spots, spanning all five boroughs. These summertime spots might not be the city’s most popular or most well-known summertime destinations, but they have demonstrated cultural significance, hold memories and anchor traditions for individuals and communities. We urge New Yorkers to visit these places, and take in the flavors, the history and the cultural traditions that help make New York such a special and livable city.

1. Jahn’s Ice Cream at 81-04 37th Avenue in Jackson Heights, Queens, offers chilled relief from summer heat. “This king of ice cream emporiums goes back to 1897 and earlier,” one nominator wrote. “It has always been a traditional gathering place for locals, singles, partners, groups and families.” Best known for their ‘Kitchen Sink’ sundae, this Jahn’s outpost is the last of several locations that once dotted the city.

2. For another famous Queens confection, head over to the Lemon Ice King of Corona at 5202 108th Street in Flushing. Continue Reading>>

Directly across the East River from the United Nations, Gantry Plaza State Park has stunning views of Manhattan, but it was nominated to the Census of Places that Matter for its main attraction: restored gantry cranes. Now dramatic industrial sculptures, these gantries were the nexus for providing goods and supplies to Long Island via the Long Island Rail Road tracks that used to run to the water’s edge. Built in the 1920s, the gantries hoisted rail cars from floats and barges onto land and vice versa, opening up the Long Island waterfront for industrial activity and inland for residential communities.

But the gantries are just one feature that pays homage to the Long Island City waterfront’s industrial past, which is quickly giving way to residential buildings. The Long Island City waterfront was originally a site for tanneries and other factories, including the Pepsico bottling plant in Hunters Point. The iconic ruby-red Pepsi Cola sign was dismantled late in 2008 to be re-situated further north in the newest section of Gantry Plaza State Park, which just opened July 1, 2009. Continue Reading>>

James Ames was like so many of our steadfast MAS members: he came to many events, he supported our advocacy work and he renewed his membership every year. Mr. Ames was an MAS member for well over thirty years and he remained a loyal member until his death in 2008.

MAS was honored to learn recently that Mr. Ames had left a bequest to MAS: a generous, unrestricted gift of $20,000. “Everything will go to the programs he enjoyed, from advocacy efforts to public activities,” says James S.J. Liao, MAS Vice-President for Finance and Administration.

Born in the Bronx in 1926, Ames was a lifelong New Yorker who remained an active and involved resident of the city for his entire life. He worked for over four decades for the City as an engineer for the Department of Environmental Protection. He lived in Jackson Heights, within a historic district, and was active in the Catholic Church there. Continue Reading>>

Your community board provides a range of services vital to your community’s welfare, from overseeing essential municipal services, to ensuring that you have a voice in local decision-making, to serving as a place-based provider of constituent services, but each and every one of our city’s community boards is currently facing a budget cut of $35,000.

In response to this, join all five of New York’s borough presidents, all 59 of New York’s community boards, and community advocates of all stripes next Tuesday, June 9, at 11:00 a.m., on the steps of City Hall, to call on the City Council for the restoration of community board budgets for the coming fiscal year. (This rally has been organized by the Manhattan Borough President’s Office.)

Community boards are the public’s interface with New York City’s enormous and complex government, and they are also government agencies’ conduit to the public. Meaning, for example, that when the Department of Health needs to update a community on the spread of the H1N1 virus, it asks the community board for help with outreach. Continue Reading>>

Bohemian Hall & Beer Garden at 29-19 24 Avenue in Astoria, Queens was nominated to the Census of Places that Matter for serving up Czech culture by the pitcher.

In 1906, the Sovak family, together with the Bohemian Citizens Benevolent Society (which had been founded in 1892), purchased three parcels of farmland along 24th Avenue in Astoria, Queens. Designed by Frank Chmelik, the modest, two-story Bohemian Hall was completed in 1911.

From the very beginning, a collection of lots that adjoin the Hall were used as an outdoor gathering space.  In the 1930s, this land was donated to the Society and it was officially put to use as a beer garden.  During the first half of the century, the courtyard at Bohemian Hall was just one of many European-style picnic parks. Continue Reading>>