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Historic Queens, Coney Staple Up For Landmark Status

php5xfEtVPM.jpg Get out your historic maps and preservation buttons Queens aficionados; the Landmark Preservation Committee voted to hold a public hearing on March 23rd regarding a plan to turn Addisleigh Park into a historic district. Addisleigh Park, an upper-middle-class neighborhood in St. Albans, was home to a cavalcade of notable African-Americans, including Jackie Robinson, W.E.B. DuBois, Ella Fitzgerald, John Coltrane, Fats Waller and Count Basie. This would be Queens ninth historic district, and fourth largest. The Committee also voted to hold hearings on three other buildings in Jamaica, Queens, all built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Despite all the Queens-love, there's still no movement on Jack Kerouac's historic Queens literary trail.

In other landmark preservation news, the LPC also voted to hold public hearings on giving the long-shuttered Coney Island Theatre landmark status. This would line-up nicely with Mayor Bloomberg's long-held desire to revitalize Coney Island as a vital tourist attraction. However, the current owners of the building, Kansas Fried Chicken king Horace Bullard and business partner Peter Sheffer, actually oppose landmark status because it would "restrict" redevelopment in the amusement district.

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  • Erik Baard

    The Queens Committee of Transportation Alternatives will be hosting a FREE bike ride of African American history in the borough this month, with a special focus on our borough's black music heritage. We'll be focusing on this neighborhood, especially since St. Albans was universally acclaimed to be the absolutely friendliest neighborhood on the 2009 Tour de Queens! You wouldn't believe the warm reception we enjoyed from families coming home from church and shopkeepers lining the streets and avenues. It really is a sweet little town of its own.

    To join the Transportation Alternatives Queens Committee email list or to see ride information when it's posted, please visit: http://groups.google.com/group/TAWQ?pli=1

    Hope to see you there!

  • bornbrednewyorker

    Who cares what Horace Bullard wants? He has let that building and his old Thunderbolt lot vacant for close to 30 years. He's also a tax cheat. If ever there was a cause for eminent domain, this is it.

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