Newsday from New York, New York • 18

A18 www.newsday.com 2008 FEBRUARY 'AVONNS NEWSDAY, The Neighborhoods of Queens From "The Neighborhoods of Queens," by Claudia Gryvatz Copquin, introduction by Kenneth T. Jackson; a joint publication of the Citizens Committee for New York City and Yale University Press. Reproduced by permission. BY CLAUDIA GRYVATZ COPQUIN Corona moves to a Latin beat. With its unique combination of Spanish-speaking, Italian and African American influences, this community knows something about diversity, and it celebrates it every year with popular summer festivals and closely held, unique traditions.

Corona was transformed from a rural community to the densely settled neighborhood it is today after the Long Island Rail Road arrived in 1854, opening a station on National Street, named after the National Race Course, which opened in the same year. The course, set along 97th and 105th Streets and 34th and 37th Avenues, was renamed Fashion Race Track. Back then, the neighborhood was called West Flushing, but it was renamed Corona in 1872 by music publisher Benjamin W. Hitchcock, who sold hundreds of lots for residential development, including two to the showman P.T. Barnum.

After that initial offering, development increased rapidly, especially once the elevated train (which is still in operation) was built in 1917 along Roosevelt Avenue. Corona was not only attractive as a residential area; it also became home to numerous factories. The stained-glass factory of Louis Comfort Tiffany, which still stands today, was built in 1893 on 97th Place between 43rd and 44th Avenues. Tiffany Studios produced decorative lights, ceramics, jewelry, and metal works, which were then displayed in a Manhattan showroom for some of New York's choosiest customers: the Rockefellers, the Astors, and Mark Twain, among others. Tiffany's fame faded during the Depression and his business went into bankruptcy.

These days, however, he is remembered as a brilliant artisan. In the early 1970s, Corona had a growing Hispanic population living alongside German, Italian, African American and Jewish families. Today, more than half of the residents in this north-central Queens neighborhood are Puerto Rican, Dominican, Peruvian, Colombian, or Mexican. While there is also an Asian population in the neighborhood, Hispanic influences including delicious Latin American cuisine are most apparent. Every summer, these cultures host numerous festivals attended by thousands: Ecuadorian Day Festival, Dominican Day Festival, and Latin Mix Festival are just some of those celebrated at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, a western portion of which sits in this neighborhood, next to 111th Street.

Small wonder that Queens na- A history of cultural diversity corona 718 699-5133 THE LEMON ICE KING OF OPEN CORONA ALL YEAR PAANY NEWSDAY PHOTO 2002 NELSON CHING The Lemon Ice King on 108th Street has been Corona's hot spot for cooling down with Italian ice since 1945. tive Paul Simon should hail "Aunt Lucille" and "Uncle "Rosie, the queen of Corona" in Louis" to neighborhood kids. Behis Latin-flavored "Me and Julio yond his playful side the faDown by the Schoolyard." mous musician enjoyed serenadAn institution here for almost ing the kids from his front stoop thirty years was the jazz legend Louis was a compelling role Louis Armstrong, who lived at model for 34-56 107th Street, off Northern young chilBoulevard. Armstrong moved to dren. He the modest, red-brick, two-story was an out- CORONA house with his wife, Lucille, in spoken 1943 and the couple, who had no symbol of QUEENS NASSAU children of their own, became BROOKLYN Northern Blvd.

34th Ave. Grand Elmhurst Ave. Ave: Central Roosevelt Parkway New York 8 Hall Science of Corona 4 Flushing Corona Ave. Corona Park Terrace on the -Corona Park Junction 57th Ave. 3 Expressway Ave Blvd.

Lefrak City Long Island the civil rights movement, made a goodwill tour to western Africa, and refused to patronize New York clubs from which he once had been excluded. Armstrong lived in Corona until his death in 1971; Lucille Armstrong stayed on until she passed away in 1983. Today, the house is a national historic landmark and a New York City landmark, as well as a museum, which opened to the public in 2003. Other museums include the New York Hall of Science, on 111th Street in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, the only hands-on science and technology center in New York City. Also in the park, straddling the Corona-Flushing border on Grand Central Parkway, is the Queens Museum of Art, which is housed in the New York City Building, the only surviving building erected for the 1939 World's Fair.

Offering artistic and educational programs and exhibitions that relate to the contemporary life of Queens residents and other New Yorkers, the Queens Museum of Art is best known for its Panorama of New York City, a architectural model that includes every building constructed before 1992 in all five boroughs 895,000 structures. While most of Corona is made up of one- and two-family homes, this neighborhood also houses Lefrak City, a massive rental apartment develop- 10 POO Queens Canca Introduction by F. Jackson "The Neighborhoods of Queens" is available from your favorite local or online bookseller. Books can also be ordered directly from Yale University LLC by calling 800-405-1619, or by logging on to yalebooks.com ment covering 40 acres of land. The complex made up of twenty towers, each eighteen stories high is located in the southwest corner of Corona, bordered by the Long Island Expressway and neighboring Rego Park.

Built between 1960 and 1968, the complex is itself a sprawling community. Swimming pools, tennis courts, playgrounds, indoor and outdoor parking, a post office, a public library, office buildings, shopping and other amenities make Lefrak City a lively, bustling center of exuberant, multicultural Corona..