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Long Island City

LIC History

Geology and precolonial use

• Atlantic Costal Plain, an elevated seafloor.

Prior to European settlement, much of what are now Long Island City and Astoria consisted of tidal marsh, with several freshwater creeks and tidal estuaries running through the area. The water bodies and marshland facilitated numerous species of animals, aquatic species such as fish and shellfish, and vegetation. The East River shoreline including part of future Hunters Point consisted of a ledge or bluff of rocks, similar to the southern tip of Manhattan at that time. The point of highest elevation was a hill located near Newtown Creek, at the modern intersection of Vernon Boulevard and Borden Avenue.

The large area that would become the Town of Newtown, most of Queens west of present-day Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, was referred to as "Wandewenock" by local Native American groups, translated as "the fine land between the long streams". These streams were Flushing Creek in Flushing Meadows, and either the East River or Newtown Creek. Most of this area was occupied by forest, and inhabited by the Rockaway, Canarsee, and Mohawk Native American groups. Newtown Creek itself and the marshlands of Long Island City were known as "Mespachtes", "Mespacht", "Mispat", or "Mespat" (precursor to Maspeth), meaning "at the bad water place" or "overflowed". Meanwhile Dutch Kills Creek was called "Canapaukah" or "Kanapaukah".

In spite of the large amount of natural resources available, the marshland that formed much of Long Island City and Astoria is believed to have been uninhabited by Native Americans, with little evidence of formal settlements or permanent trails. Rather, the central settlement of the area was situated at the head of Newtown Creek, known as Mespat in what is now Maspeth. During Kieft's War in 1643, this village was destroyed.

• Vernon Boulevard (Vernon Avenue) causeway.

Initial European settlement

European settlement of what is now Long Island City began in 1637 during the Dutch colonial period. In 1640, English Reverend Francis Doughty was granted 13,332 acres (5,395 ha) of land at Mespat (Maspeth). This grant included all of the future Town of Newtown including Long Island City. Doughty had came to the Americas seeking freedom of religion. In 1643, several tracts of land were sold by the colonial government to settlers. 212 acres (86 ha) of land along the East River and Newtown Creek, which would later become Hunters Point, were purchased from the colonial government by Reverend Everardus Bogardus. Bogardus was the minister of the Dutch Reformed Church in New Amsterdam, now Manhattan. The area gained the name Dominie's Hook, as Bogardus was the dominie of New Netherland. The same year, land at the intersection of Newtown and Dutch Kills Creek was deeded to Richard Brutnell to become the Brutnell plantation. Meanwhile, land on the western shore of Dutch Kills was given to Dutch West India Company ship carpenter Tyman Jansen, while German settler Burger Jorissen acquired land along the Kill at what is now Queens Plaza. Jorissen established a farm and gristmill on his property, erecting a damn across the Kill and draining the swampland on the site. The name "Canapaukah", translating to "at the fenced-in water place", is said to be a reference to Jorissen's farm and mill.

In 1664, New Amsterdam was ceded to Great Britain, and the area became part of the British Province of New York. Long Island Staten Island were combined into a "shire" or county called Yorkshire, which was divided into three Ridings. Western Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island would become part of the West Riding of Yorkshire. At this time, the area of western Queens was given the name "New Towne", or the Town of Newtown. The Ridings were abolished in 1683, and Newtown became part of the newly-created Queens County

• Van Alst family, Dutch Kills, 1766.
  • In 1670, two farms including that owned by Tyman Jansen were acquired by Belgian Dutch sailor Joris Stevensen "de Caper van Alst" (the sailor from Aalst"), and his descendants would assume the surname "Van Alst".
  • Also beginning in 1670, a limited road system was created through the marshland, including a road crossing Dutch Kills along the current route of Queens Boulevard, and a road along the present Jackson Avenue. However, few roads leading to the rest of Long Island left the area isolated, and transport was conducted primarily through boats traversing Newtown Creek and the East River.
• American Revolution.
  • Circa 1776 at the start of the American Revolution, Long Island City was occupied by ten farms, most under 90 acres (36 ha) in size.
  • During the war, northwestern Queens was occupied by the British from 1776 to 1783. What is now Sunnyside served as a strategic position for the British forces, while their naval fleet traveled via Newtown Creek. The presence of troops in the area eliminated much of the forest of Queens.

After several transfers of ownership, in 1740 Dominie's Hook was inherited by William Bennet (or "Bennett"), and by 1780 was wholly-owned by his son Jacob Bennet. The area was given the name "Bennet's Hook" in 1800. In 1817, the land was inherited by Jacob Bennet's daughter Annetia and her husband, British Captain George Hunter, becoming the Hunter Farm. By 1825 the area gained the name "Hunters Point". The property included 30 acres (12 ha) of land purchased from the Van Alst farm. Hunters Point was often referred to as an island, due to the surrounding tidal marsh and creeks, and was frequently flooded. During the 1800s, numerous streets in Long Island City were given the names of prominent figures and families in the area, including Hunter and Van Alst.

As of the 1840s, much of the area of Long Island City was either undeveloped or used for agriculture, with three farmhouses and the Ryerson tavern making up the only structures. The three major farms in the area were owned by the Hunter, Van Alst, and Payntar families. In 1854, the New York and Flushing Railroad opened a terminal station at a dock in Hunters Point, and in 1861 the Long Island Rail Road established its terminal station in Hunters Point, both connecting passengers to ferries running across the East River towards Midtown Manhattan. This helped to catalyze development in the area, with the villages of Hunters Point, Dutch Kills, Laurel Hills, Blissville, and Ravenswood being established. The construction of the LIRR through Dutch Kills lead to the demolition of the Jorissen gristmill. Around this time, the remainder of the Van Alst Farm was sold in pieces, with a large portion being purchased by Union College.

As an independent city

Early 1900s map of Dutch Kills, from Greater Astoria Historical Society

Detail of map of LIC, from Greater Astoria Historical Society

Due to the urbanization of the area, in contrast to the rural character of the rest of Queens at the time, several proposals emerged to turn the area into a new separate township, or to join the City of Brooklyn. The coining of the name "Long Island City" is credited to Captain Levy Hayden, a dry dock or marine railway superintendent, in 1853. The name was further embraced by a local newspaper called the Long Island City Star, which released its first issue on October 20, 1865.

Long Island City, a city of its own, was created on May 4, 1870, from the merger of the Village of Astoria and the hamlets of Ravenswood, Hunters Point, Blissville, Sunnyside, Dutch Kills, Steinway, Bowery Bay and Middleton in the Town of Newtown. At the time of its incorporation, Long Island City had between 12,000 and 15,000 residents. Its charter provided for an elected mayor and a ten-member Board of Alderman with two representing each of the city's five wards. City ordinances could be passed by a majority vote of the Board of Aldermen and the mayor's signature.

• Urbanization. Pollution, lack of infrastructure. Marshland.

Long Island City held its first election on July 5, 1870. Residents elected A.D. Ditmars the first mayor; Ditmars ran as both a Democrat and a Republican. The first elected Board of Aldermen was H. Rudolph and Patrick Lonirgan (Ward 1); Francis McNena and William E. Bragaw (Ward 2); George Hunter and Mr. Williams (Third Ward); James R. Bennett and John Wegart (Ward Four); and E.M. Hartshort and William Carlin (Fifth Ward). The mayor and the aldermen were inaugurated on July 18, 1870.

In the 1880s, Mayor De Bevoise nearly bankrupted the Long Island City government by embezzlement, of which he was convicted. Many dissatisfied residents of Astoria circulated a petition to ask the New York State Legislature to allow it to secede from Long Island City and reincorporate as the Village of Astoria, as it existed prior to the incorporation of Long Island City, in 1884. The petition was ultimately dropped by the citizens.

The Common Council of Long Island City in 1873 adopted the coat of arms as "emblematical of the varied interest represented by Long Island City." It was designed by George H. Williams, of Ravenswood. The overall composition was inspired by New York City's coat of arms. The shield is rich in historic allusion, including Native American, Dutch, and English symbols. Long Island City continued to exist as an incorporated city until 1898, when Queens was annexed to New York City. The last mayor of Long Island City was an Irish-American named Patrick Jerome "Battle-Axe" Gleason.

Links

• [2]
• [3]
• [4]
• [5]
• [6], Dutch Kills Rezoning FEIS
• Historical Cities-New York City
• [7]
• Hidden Waters
• 300 Years of Long Island City, Seyfried
• West Queens Housing and High School (Long Island City High School), Astoria
• Hunters Point Arch Report, 1988
• Korea News Project, LIC
• LIC Rezoning, 2000
• Astoria Park Arch Assessment
• Sunnyside Yard Arch Assessment NYCT
• Skillmans

Newcomers High School

Newcomers High School
Location
28-01 41 Avenue Long Island City , New York 11101 United States
Coordinates	40°45′05″N 73°56′13″W
Information
Established	September 1995 (1995-09)
Principal	Lilliam Katcher
Grades	9–12
Enrollment	836 (2019–2020)
Website	newcomershs.schoolwires.net

Newcomers High School (High School 555) is a high school located in Long Island City, Queens, New York City, United States. It opened in 1995 with Lourdes Burrows as its principal; Orlando Sarmiento is the most recent principal, and was appointed in 2009. This school specializes in introducing new immigrants to American culture, and also teaching English to students. In 2009, it was rated as #6 out of U.S. News & World Report's list of top 500 high schools in the U.S.—making it the highest-ranked school out of 12 New York City public schools on the top 500 list.

Building

The building currently housing Newcomers High School and Academy of American Studies is located on 41st Avenue between 28th and 29th Streets in the Dutch Kills area of Long Island City. Constructed in 1904, the building originally housed William Cullen Bryant High School from its opening until 1930, and then Long Island City High School from 1930 until 1995. The original building fronting 41st Avenue is four-stories tall, with an additional basement and sub-basement for utilities. Its design was inspired by French Renaissance style including a red-brick and limestone façade with terracotta elements, and the building was constructed to be fireproof. It was built with capacity for approximately 1,000 students. Among the original features of the 1904 building was an observatory located on the roof.

At the rear to the north of the original building are two additional wings, constructed circa 1922. The western wing on 28th Street features a 1,000-seat auditorium on its ground floor, and a gymnasium on the second floor. The eastern wing on 29th Street is four-stories high, featuring a cafeteria, gymnasium, and additional classrooms. Both wings have brick and limestone exteriors matching the original building. The addition doubled the capacity of the school to 2,000 students. The three structures are connected by bridges, and collectively form a "U"-shape.

Transportation

The closest New York City Subway stations are the Queens Plaza station (E, ​M, and ​R trains) at Queens Plaza and Northern Boulevard, and the Queensboro Plaza station (7, <7>​​, N and ​W trains) at Queens Plaza and 27th Street. The 21st Street–Queensbridge station (F and <F> train) is located six blocks west on 41st Avenue. Numerous MTA Bus/New York City Bus routes operate in the vicinity of Queens Plaza.

School description

The school has 836 students as of the 2019–2020 school year. Of the students, 23% are Asian, 69% are Hispanic, 1% are Black, 5% are White, and 2% are Native American.

The school's athletic teams include boys basketball, girls basketball, boys handball, boys soccer, boys swimming, boys tennis, girls tennis, boys volleyball, girls volleyball, and co-ed cricket.

Extracurricular activities include chorus, concerts, GSA, hip-hop dance, human rights, international food festival, media/video, Model United Nations, multicultural show, new student orientation, orchestra, peer learning program, ping pong, SAT preparation, SAYA youth leadership program, science research club, stage production, student government, theater, tutoring, and yearbook program.

History

In March 1995, then-New York City Department of Education Chancellor Ramón C. Cortines proposed an experimental school called the Newcomers School: Academy for New Americans, to accommodate the increasing number of immigrant students in Queens. The new school would move into the 1904-built building on 41st Avenue. The existing tenant, Long Island City High School, was being relocated into a new, larger building in Astoria. The Newcomers School would also relieve overcrowding at nearby William Cullen Bryant High School in Woodside, and Newtown High School in Elmhurst, where the school's first students were recruited from. Newcomers High School opened in September 1995. In addition to relieving overcrowding at other city schools, Newcomers was part of a wave of new schools and programs in both New York City and the United States as a whole created to serve the needs recently-arrived immigrants. Enrollment was to be capped at 1,000 students. Incoming freshmen and sophomores would stay at the school for a year before transferring to a mainstream high school, while juniors and seniors would graduate at Newcomers. In November 1995, the school began an English and "acculturation" class for parents of students, to help them adjust to life in the U.S.

Upon opening, the school also faced opposition, coinciding with anti-immigrant and anit-illegal immigration sentiments of the time. Shortly after the school opened, the New York Civil Rights Coalition filed a complaint with the U.S. federal government that the school violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964, claiming the the rights of the students were being violated by being placed in an all-immigrant school instead of a mixed-enrollment school. The complaint was ultimately dismissed.

Links

• [8]
• Middle School, NYTimes

External links

• Official website
• NYC Department of Education: Newcomers High School

Queens Plaza Court Building / 28-11 Queens Plaza North

Departments of Education and Transportation Building
Former names	Queens Plaza Court Building Electric Building Pan American Building / PAA Building
General information
Architectural style	Italianate
Address	28-01–28-19 Queens Plaza North Long Island City, Queens
Current tenants	NYCDOE, NYCDOT
Year(s) built	1912
Renovated	1927, 1953
Owner	New York City
Design and construction
Architecture firm	Thompson & Frohling

28-11 Queens Plaza North, originally known as Queens Court Plaza or Queens Plaza Court, is an office building located at Queens Plaza North (Bridge Plaza North) and 29th Street in Long Island City, Queens. Currently city-owned, is is used as offices for the New York City Departments of Education and Transportation.

Completed in 1912, it was one of the first office buildings constructed along Queens Plaza, which would evolve into a financial and commercial district. The building originally housed the Queens Chamber of Commerce and Long Island City Savings Bank, then served as regional offices for Consolidated Edison beginning in 1920. It was expanded from its original four stories into nine stories in 1927. After being used as Army barracks during World War II, the building became the Queens offices of Pan Am. The City of New York began using the building in 1964, and purchased the building in 1974.

Bridge Plaza Description

The building is located on the north side of the Queensboro Bridge Plaza (Queens Plaza or Bridge Plaza), the Queens approaches to the Queensboro Bridge, between 28th and 29th Streets. Across 28th Street to the west is the Brewster Building. This area on the north side of the bridge plaza is also known as Dutch Kills. The original section of the building fronts Bridge Plaza North, with an addition on the east side of the site at 29th Street; together, the entire building forms an L-shape.

The building is nine-stories tall, designed in Italianate architectural style. The original 1912-built portion of the building is four-stories tall with a terracotta and limestone facade. Five additional stories were constructed in 1927, featuring a tan-brick exterior. Seven bays or columns of windows on the front (south) face are recessed into the building, topped by arched windows on the eighth floor. The main entrance at the center of the building is bracketed with neoclassical marble columns. The internal structure consists of a steel and concrete frame. The foundation of the original four-story building was designed to support additional floors above. Vaults are located underneath the west side of the building and the surrounding sidewalk. On the roof of the building is a large billboard sign, which currently features no advertising.

The addition on 29th Street, completed in 1953, extends northward and is seven-stories tall. It includes a parking garage inside.

Usage

The building currently contains offices for the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT), and the Department of Education (DOE). The DOE facilities include a Family Welcome Center, to assist new immigrants in enrolling in school.

The DOT facility includes the Traffic Management Center (TMC), co-operated with the New York State DOT and the NYPD, located in a small room on the ground floor. The center monitors traffic and controls traffic signals throughout the entire city, and receives data from roadside censors. Video feed from street cameras is viewed on numerous large monitors. The center was created in the 1960s, and upgraded in 2008 and 2011. The third floor contained the NYPD Traffic Enforcement Training center for training civilian (non-police) traffic agents, until the opening of the New York City Police Academy in College Point in 2015.

During its use as Consolidated Edison offices, the ninth floor of the building served as a cafeteria. Under Pan American Airways, the ninth floor was used as a ballroom and meeting space called the "Skyline Room" or "Skytop Roof". The upper floor was also used for meeting space following city takeover.

In the past, a bank branch was located at the southeast corner of the building, utilizing the ground floor and basement. The most recent tenant of this space was a Citibank branch which closed in July 1990, around the time the nearby One Court Square tower opened with its own Citibank branch.

YWCA

Bridge Plaza Nearby points of interest

In addition to the Brewster Building to the west, the former Corn Exchange Bank Building (now the Q4 Hotel) built in 1911 is located across the street to the east. The historic Chase Manhattan Bank Building is located two blocks to the east, adjacent to the modern Sven apartment tower. Dutch Kills Green park is located in front of the Chase Manhattan Bank Building in the median of Queens Plaza. Newcomers High School and the Academy of American Studies are located one block north at 41st Avenue.

Bridge Plaza Transportation

The elevated Queensboro Plaza subway station is located in the median of Queens Plaza, with entrances at 27th Street one block west. The underground Queens Plaza station is located two blocks east at Northern Boulevard and Jackson Avenue. The 21st Street–Queensbridge station is located to the west at 21st Street and 41st Avenue. Numerous MTA bus routes operate in the area, including the Q32, Q60, and Q101 operating across the Queensboro Bridge into Midtown Manhattan, and the Q102 to Roosevelt Island.

Bridge Plaza History

Early history

A 1913 illustration of the Queensboro Plaza station, showing the original four-story Queens Plaza Court Building and the Brewster Building.

The Queensboro Bridge between Long Island City and East Midtown, Manahttan was completed in 1909. During the project, the road feeding into the bridge, originally called Jane Street, was widened from 60 feet (18 m) to 150 feet (46 m) and converted into a tree-lined boulevard and park plaza known as the Queensboro Bridge Plaza. The 1,152 feet (351 m) plaza featured service roads on the north and south side leading into the bridge, with a wide landscaped park in the center. The opening of the bridge and the LIRR East River Tunnels into Manhattan immediately catalyzed activity and development in Long Island City. Shortly after the opening of the bridge, the Brewster Building was opened on Bridge Plaza North in 1910.

• Dutch Kills Creek.
• Payntar homestead.

On August 9, 1911, it was announced that the Queens Plaza Court Company purchased land along Bridge Plaza North across from the Brewster Building between Radde (28th) and Academy (29th) Streets, at the cost of approximately $175,000. The company planned to construct a "modern fireproof office building" on the site, which measured 200 feet (61 m) (along Bridge Plaza North) by 70 feet (21 m). The president of the company was W. Elmer Payntar, with part of the land purchased from the estate of father George H. Payntar. The Payntar family had significant holdings in the Dutch Kills area prior to the 20th Century. Another portion of the plot was purchased from the Queensboro Corporation.

The building was opened in 1912. The structure of the building was designed support up to eight additional floors, to be erected at a later date. In September 1912, the Queens Chamber of Commerce, founded in 1911, was relocated from Jamaica to the building. That same month, the Long Island City Savings Bank relocated into the building from their original offices at 21 Jackson Avenue in Hunters Point, anticipating more business at the Bridge Plaza. The Manhattan and Queens Traction Company and the New York Telephone Company (now Verizon) leased space in the building in 1913. In 1914 under Police Commissioner Arthur H. Woods, the NYPD established a headquarters for the detectives force of Queens in the building, including office space and a dormitory. With the construction of Queens Plaza Court and other nearby office and bank buildings, and the completion of the Queensboro Plaza station in 1917, Queens Plaza would become the financial hub of Long Island City, and a major financial, political, manufacturing, and transportation center within Queens.

In February 1919, the Queens Plaza Court Building was acquired by the City Real Estate Company. At the time it was referred to as "Long Island City's largest office building". In August 1919, the Long Island City Savings Bank planned to move their offices out of the building. The space would be occupied by the New York and Queens Electric Light and Power Company, a predecessor to and later subsidiary of Consolidated Edison, who planned to construct a fifth floor atop the building. The building also housed offices of the East River Gas Company, another Con Edison predecessor. For these reasons, the Queens Plaza Court Building would become known as the "Electric Building" or "Electrical Building". Long Island City Savings would relocate to a new building across 29th Street in 1920, with the bank branch in the Electric Building leased by the American Trust Company. The Queens Chamber of Commerce would leave the Electric Building in September 1925, and move into the nearby Crescent Plaza Building, to make room for the expanding operations of the Power Company. In 1927, five additional floors were constructed atop the Electric Building.

World War II and Pan Am takeover

In August 1944 during World War II, the Army Corps of Engineers opened a 500,000-square-foot (46,000 m²) Army Post Office on the site of the former Madison Square Garden Bowl, at 48th Street and Northern Boulevard along Sunnyside Yard. The facility would be used to send Christmas packages to soldiers deployed overseas, and was constructed from May to August over the course of 116 days. As part of the project, the Army's New York Port of Embarkation took over the Electric Building, and renovated it for use as barracks for the 2,000-to-4,000 soldiers working at the post office. The Power Company vacated the building, moving operations to its Astoria offices.

Following the war, in February 1946 New York State Assemblyman Alexander Del Giorno proposed that the state acquire the Electric Building, to use as hub for the state agency offices of Queens. By June of that year, the building had been ceded back to Con Edison, who were looking to sell the building. In November 1946, Pan American World Airways moved into the upper eight floors of the Electric Building, leasing the building for 20 years. The building would be used for the company's systems offices, training departments, and its New York City reservations unit. This was in addition to the company's main headquarters in the Chrysler Building in Manhattan, and a Central Receiving Depot on Van Dam Street near Sunnyside. The building would become known as the "Pan Am Building" or "PAA Building", while the company referred to it as the "Long Island City Building" or "Queens Plaza Building". The "Skyline Room" or "Skytop Roof" on the ninth floor was opened on February 21, 1947.

On October 21, 1948, Pan Am debuted an automatic communications network developed by AT&T Long Lines, to improve ticket transactions between multiple airports. The central "nerve center" for the system was a telephone exchange in the Long Island City building. By September 1951, most of the Atlantic Division offices of Pan Am were relocated from LaGuardia Airport to the Long Island City building, with others moved to Idlewild Airport (now JFK Airport). In 1952, Pan American announced a project to create a seven-story addition to the back of the building, adding 50,000 square feet (4,600 m²) of space and an interior parking garage. The original structure would also be modernized, and the exterior facade would be cleaned.

City operations

In 1963, the City of New York began negotiating to lease space in the Pan Am Building for the Bureau of Buildings, Design and Construction of the Board of Education. In April 1963, Pan Am began vacating the Long Island City building, moving operations to their new corporate headquarters (now the MetLife Building) on 45th Street in Midtown Manhattan. In August 1963, it was announced that the city Department of Traffic would move into the Long Island City building, along with the Board of Education's design and construction division and division of maintenance and operation.

The city agencies moved into the building in February 1964. The Board of Education divisions relocated from 42-15 Crescent Street on the south side of Queens Plaza, taking up the second through sixth floors in the building. The Traffic Department, relocating from 100 Gold Street in Lower Manahttan, would occupy the seventh and eighth floors. In September 1964, the New York City Board of Estimate approved a ten-year lease of space in the Pan Am Building for both agencies.

On December 17, 1964, what is now the Traffic Management Center was opened as part of a new citywide computerized traffic monitoring system. The center included a UNIVAC 1004 card processor computer. In 1974, the building was purchased by the city for $5.25 million. It was determined to be less expensive to acquire the building outright rather than continue leasing it.

Leavitt Park

Leavitt Field

Flushing High School Field
Address	34-42 Leavitt Street Flushing, Queens, New York, 11354 United States
Coordinates	40°46′3″N 73°49′45″W
Owner	New York City Department of Education
Type	Multi-purpose
Surface	Turf
Construction
Renovated	2010
Tenants
Flushing High School
Type	Public park
Area	7.5 acres (3.0 ha)
Created	1912
Operated by	New York City Department of Parks and Recreation

Leavitt Park, also known as Leavitts Park or Levitts Park, is located at Leavitt Street and 32nd Avenue in Flushing, Queens. Formerly a public park site, most of the property is owned by the New York City Department of Education and used as the Leavitt Field athletic complex for the nearby Flushing High School. Small sections of the park continue to be operated by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, including the site of the Lewis H. Latimer House.

Leavitt Description

The turf baseball and football field of Leavitt Field.

Leavitt Park is located on an irregular five-sided site, bound to the east by Leavitt Street, to the north by 32nd Avenue, and to the west by 137th Street. The park is situated two blocks north of Northern Boulevard, where Flushing High School is located, and one block north of Queens Academy High School (former Public School 23) on 35th Avenue. The park is located just north of the major business and transportation hub of Downtown Flushing, also known as Flushing Chinatown. Nearly the entire property is used by the high school for the Leavitt Field athletic complex, which features two artificial turf fields. The largest and westernmost field contains a high school baseball field overlain with markings for football and soccer. The smaller eastern field is used for softball. At the south end of the park are handball courts, tennis courts, and a field house. The current layout of the complex was created from 1990 to 1991, when the fields were converted from dirt and grass to artificial turf. The turf fields were renovated in 2010.

Prior to the creation of the current design, the western baseball/football field was originally circumscribed by a cinder running track, in a similar layout to other high school fields in the city. Handball courts and a girl's hockey field occupied the northeast corner of the park, where the softball field currently lies. Eight tennis courts occupied the southern corner of the complex.

Leavitt Field is one of two athletic complexes used by the high school. The other, Flushing Memorial Field, is located farther east at 149th Street and Bayside Avenue.

Lewis H. Latimer House

At the south end of the site is the current location of the Lewis H. Latimer House. The house is currently operated by the Parks Department and the Historic House Trust of New York City. It is named after African American inventor Lewis Howard Latimer, who resided in the house from 1902 until his death in 1928. The house was originally located at 137-53 Holly Avenue, just west of Kissena Boulevard near Kissena Corridor Park West. The house was relocated to Leavitt Park in 1988 to prevent its demolition. The house was designated a New York City Landmark in 1995, and later restored into a museum.

Leavitt History

Early history

An 1873 map of Flushing, showing Leavitt Park labeled as "The Park", and adjacent lands owned by Rufus W. Leavitt.

Prior to modern development, the site of Leavitt Park was part of the large undeveloped meadow north of Downtown Flushing. The land consisted of marshland fed by springs, with a brook flowing north through the site towards Mill Creek in College Point, eventually reaching the Flushing River. The brook initially drained the Flushing Town Pond, located at Main Street and Northern Boulevard, until the pond was filled circa 1843. The underground springs, however, continued to feed the marshland. The tract later became a part of the estate of Rufus W. Leavitt. Leavitt Street was originally known as Spring Lane, due to the presence of the springs that fed the marshland and provided water to Flushing residents.

In 1863, the Flushing Skating Pond Association was formed, purchasing or renting a section of the Leavitt estate for use as an ice skating pond. The pond was created by erecting dikes to collect water from the springs. The association operated for five years. In the 1870s, the land was given to the Town of Flushing by businessman Conrad Poppenhusen, to be developed into a public park. When Queens was consolidated into the City of New York in 1898, the property came under city ownership. Landscape architect Samuel Parsons drafted plans for the future park, including curved walkways lined with trees and shrubs. The gift by Poppenhusen contained a deed restriction, which would cede the land back to the Poppenhusen estate if it was not used as a park. However, the official documents giving the land to Flushing were later lost, putting its legal status in doubt.

After the land was ceded to Flushing, the park was partially developed with proper paths, but eventually reverted back to marshland. During winter months the Leavitt Park site was again used as an ice skating pond, by flooding the marshland. During summer months, the Walter L. Main Circus would perform on the site. In August 1902, bacteriologist Dr. William A. Payne of the New York City Department of Health identified the site of the skating pond on Leavitt Avenue (Leavitt Street) as a major breeding ground for mosquitos. Dr. Payne recommended draining and filling the pond site, and the rest of the meadows between Flushing and Whitestone, suggesting the use of tidal gates to prevent the marshland from returning. In 1903, the skating pond was planned to be closed in order to drain the site to eliminate the mosquito breeding grounds. At the time, George W. Saxe claimed to be the owner of the land. Saxe was a carriage builder who operated a carriage and harness shop at Broadway (Northern Boulevard) and Union Street.

Acquisition of park site

Beginning in 1905, local residents led by the Flushing Association campaigned for the city to take proper ownership of the Leavitt Park site and develop it as a proper park. As there was no formal deed for the land, other parties began making claims to the property including members of the Leavitt and Poppenhusen families. Prior to this, the land had been considered of minimal value due to its marshland characteristics. In 1912, the site was officially deeded to the city via condemnation, and assigned to the New York City Parks Department. The site measured over 7 acres (2.8 ha), and was appraised at around $15,000. At this time, the site was variously referred to as Leavitt Avenue Park, Leavitt Street Park, and Flushing Common. Prior to the city taking possession of the park, a sewer had been constructed through the site, to drain the park and receive sewage from the local neighborhood. This open sewer or ditch was considered an eyesore and health hazard by the community, and was replaced with an enclosed wooden sewer following city takeover. In addition, the land was also used as a public garbage dump, in part to fill the marshland.

In May 1914, a request was made by students from Flushing High School for the creation of a baseball diamond at Leavitt Park. In response, in June 1914 then-Queens Parks Commissioner John E. Weier announced plans to develop playgrounds, and baseball and football fields on the park site. By 1916, the site had been filled using an estimated 20,000 cubic yards (15,000 m³) of excavated earth and ashes. Much of the fill came from the construction of new schools in the Flushing area, including the construction of the new Flushing High School building on Northern Boulevard. At this time, a cinder running track and a baseball diamond were completed, used by the high school. When Flushing Memorial Field was completed in the 1920s, it became the preferred venue for the high school.

Beginning in 1925, local Flushing civic groups lobbied the city government to develop Leavitt Park into a proper park. These groups included the Women's Civic Club of Flushing, the Flushing United Association, and the Flushing YMCA.

In 1926, Leavitt Park was described in a Parks Department report as "a sunken field...a marshy, ugly sight which provides a fine breeding place for mosquitoes and other pests." At this time, the site contained a rudimentary baseball field and football goal posts. A formal plan for developing the park featured a proper baseball field and tennis courts, a field house, park paths, improved drainage, a children's playground, and an artificial pond to be used for skating in the winter. Additional landfilling would be required to raise the grade of the park.

Creation of athletic complex

By 1929, the local civic groups advocating for the park's improvement, dissatisfied with the work from the Parks Department, instead began campaigning for the site to be turned over to the New York City Board of Education, and be developed into an athletic complex for Flushing High School.

In July 1930, it was proposed to rename the park "Poppenhusen Park" by the Poppenhusen Institute in College Point, as an acknowledgement of the donation of the land by Conrad Poppenhusen.

That year, the New York City Board of Estimate transferred the park site to the Board of Education, with the intent of creating a proper athletic complex for Flushing High School.

and in 1933, then-Queens Borough President George U. Harvey announced plans to develop the park into Leavitt Field, a proper athletic field for Flushing High School. At this time, "thousands of cubic yards" of earth had been deposited to fill the marshland. This included dirt excavated from the construction of the IND Queens Boulevard subway line. The project would construct a baseball field and football field, a running track, playing courts including tennis and handball courts, a hockey field, and a field house. It was also proposed to erect playgrounds or a recreational park on the site, to be used by the local community and by the nearby Public School 23.

Around January 1936, construction proceeded on the facility, with funding from the Works Progress Administration. The work included installing sidewalks and trees around the perimeter of the site. However, by July 1936, work on the park was halted as WPA funding dried up. However, work periodically stopped due to lack of WPA funds.

Work resumed on the project in 1937. But by 1939, the athletic field project remained unfinished, and Leavitt Park was described as "a muddy vacant field...upon which not even grass takes root". Plans for the athletic field reemerged after World War II. Leavitt Park was also one of five sites proposed for the creation of a housing project in Flushing in 1948. This project eventually became the James A. Bland Houses at Roosevelt Avenue and College Point Boulevard.

Later use

Proposed to return to Parks Dept, 1966.

Latimer House.

• The Leavitt Park site was selected, as it was across the street from the NYCHA Latimer Gardens Houses, also named after Latimer. The project would cost approximately $50,000. $25,000 would come from a LaGuardia Airport impact fund paid for by the Port Authority, while another $25,000 would be donated by Latimer's former employer General Electric, with an additional $10,000 from the developers of the Holly Avenue site. The move was opposed by the Flushing High School Athletic Department.
• On December 13, 1988, the house was physically towed from its Holly Avenue location to Leavitt Park, traveling 5 to 10 miles per hour (8.0 to 16.1 km/h) through Flushing. The trip required telephone and power lines along the streets to be cut and street trees to be trimmed to accommodate the width of the house.

The Leavitt Field athletic complex was renovated beginning in 1990, reopening in September 1991. Upon opening, it was called "the second largest synthetic field in the City."

Latimer House landmark, 1995.

Leavitt Links

• "need for Leavitt Park is more urgent than for Kissena."
• Bayside Memorial Field
• Bayside HS Field
• Bayside HS Field
• Bayside HS Field
• Bayside HS Field
• CP Little League Fields
• CP Little League Fields
• WPA Halts High School Field Work, April 1936., Pt 2
• Softball Marathon
• "Myrtle Avenue Park"
• Flushing Dump, Myrtle Avenue / College Point Causeway
• New Park for Flushing; Poppenhusen Tract, 1911
• New Park for Flushing, 1909
• Flushing HS Wells Plot Extension, 1931 Does Flushing High Need More Ground?, December 1931
• Prominent African Americans Call Queens Home

• Infantile Paralysis due to Open Sewer
  • Long Island Farmer, 1916
  • Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 1916

• Incinerator Opposite Park, Bklyn Eagle, 1917

• New Memorial Field, QChron, 2003

• Latimer House Opening Is Delayed, 2000

External links

• Media related to Leavitt Park at Wikimedia Commons

LaGuardia Community College

Campus

On March 24, 1970, the NYC Board of Higher Education approved the former Ford Instrument Company building on Long Island City's Thomson Avenue as the location for the College. At this time, Joseph Shenker was named president of the proposed college. Renovations to the five-story, former factory began the same year. This building would serve as the Main building of the new college—renamed Shenker Hall in 2008 in honor of the College’s founding president.

The Ford Instrument Building was intended to be a temporary home for the college. On September 22, 1972, the school received from the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, for payment of $1, a 5.2-acre (21,000 m²) site in Astoria that had formerly been the U.S. Army Pictorial Center, with the intention of moving the college to a campus on the new site. Originally the Famous Players-Lasky film studio, the complex consisted of 15 buildings. However, in 1974 during the city's fiscal crisis the site had to be sold off, as the expense of maintaining it in the interim was too high. The Army Pictorial Center would later become Kaufman Astoria Studios.

The current campus including Shenker Hall is located at the east end of Long Island City near Sunnyside. The area is physically separated from the rest of Long Island City by the Long Island Rail Road's Sunnyside Yard. The campus runs between Thomson Avenue to the north and 47th Avenue to the south, extending east from 28th Street near the Queensboro Bridge approach to Van Dam Street. The buildings of the campus consist of former Long Island City factories and warehouses converted for school use.

The closest New York City Subway station to the campus is the 33rd Street–Rawson Street station on the IRT Flushing Line.

Current buildings

C Building

At the far west end of the campus is the C Building or Center III, located between 29th and 30th Street near the Queensboro Bridge approach. The ten-story former factory was constructed in 1912 as the Loose-Wiles Sunshine Biscuits Building. Due to its size and numerous windows, the building was dubbed the "largest factory in Long Island", "world's largest bakery", and the "Thousand Window Bakery". The building was designed by architect William Higginson, with a reinforced concrete frame, and a glazed white terra cotta facade produced by Atlantic Terra Cotta. A spur track from the nearby Long Island Rail Road fed into the rear of the building, allowing freight cars to load and unload inside the facility. The complex also included a two-level garage for the storage of delivery trucks. The biscuit factory was erected as part of the Degnon Terminal area of Long Island City, created by developer Michael Degnon. Degnon's firm was the contractor that excavated the Steinway Subway Tunnel to Midtown Manhattan. He also proposed and partially developed a major industrial port revolving around Flushing Bay, which later became Flushing Meadows–Corona Park.

By the 1970s, the building was used as the headquarters for Executone, a producer of telephone systems. It also served as a Gimbels warehouse. In 1975, LaGuardia Community College began leasing 20,000 square feet (1,900 m²) of space on the third floor the Executone Building, including seven classrooms and a lecture hall. In 1981, the college leased an additional 40,000 square feet (3,700 m²) of space on the building's seventh floor. In 1985, the Executone Building became part of a four-building complex known as the International Design Center New York (IDCNY). The complex included the adjacent Bucilla Building (Center II) and the former American Chicle Company factory (Center I). The name "Center III" originated from its use within the Design Center. Due to the 1987 stock market crash, Center III was never redesigned for IDCNY like the other two buildings. The entire Center III building was purchased by LaGuardia in 1998 for $52 million to create a West Campus. The college also purchased the adjacent garage (Center IV), the former Loose-Wiles truck garage. The purchase increased the size of the college campus by 70 percent, and would relieve space in the E Building.

In 2006 the college announced a series of projects to renovate the C Building. One of the projects completed circa 2010 renovated the interior of the building, creating new classrooms and office space. This involved removing a grain elevator used during the Sunshine Biscuit era. Other work involved constructing escalators in the building, overhauling passenger elevators, and converting three freight elevators into passenger elevators. In 2013, LaGuardia announced a project to install a new facade on the C Building, designed by Mitchell Giurgola Architects. An aluminum and terra cotta curtainwall would be installed atop the original terra cotta which was in disrepair, and new windows would also be installed. Both renovations improved the insulation and energy efficiency of the building. In addition, the two front entrances along Thomson Avenue were consolidated into a single main entrance. The project was completed in 2018.

The building features a large rooftop billboard sign which is illuminated at night. Over the years it has featured the names of its various tenants, including Loose-Wiles, Executone, and IDCNY. As part of the modern renovations to the C Building, the sign was fitted with branding for LaGuardia Community College.

B Building

The B Building or Center II is located between 30th Street and 30th Place, across from the C Building. The eight-story building was constructed in 1914 as the American Eveready Building within the Degnon Terminal, designed by Maynicke and Francke. The building occupies the northern half of the block between Thomson and 47th Avenues; the southern half was purchased by Eveready for a future expansion which was never built, and it is currently used as a parking lot. In 1929, the American Knit Goods company leased space in the building, beginning its use as a clothing and textile factory. By the 1940s, the plant was used by the Bernhard Ulmann Company and its subsidiary Bucilla Yarn.

The Bucilla Building became Center II of the International Design Center New York in 1985. As part of renovations for the design center created by I. M. Pei & Partners, the open-air courtyards at the center of the building and the adjacent American Chicle Building (Center I) were covered with skylights to create atriums, while indoor walls were taken down to create more open interiors. By 1998, the International Design Center was renamed the Queens Atrium Corporate Center, and three floors from Center II were leased to DeVry University.

In 2006, LaGuardia Community College received $55 million allocated by the New York State Legislature for the purchase of new school buildings. This was used to lease two floors in the Bucilla Building beginning in 2008. In November 2009, the college opened a Healthcare Career Center inside the B Building.

Four of the eight floors of the building are occupied by the Queens High School Complex of the New York City Department of Education. The complex houses three public high schools: Bard High School Early College Queens, the Academy of Finance and Enterprise, and the High School of Applied Communication.

Joseph Shenker Hall and E Building

Located at the east end of the campus are the adjacent Joseph Shenker Hall, a.k.a. the Main Building or M Building; and the E Building or East Building, formerly the Annex Building. The two buildings occupy a two-block-wide site between 31st Street and Van Dam Street, with a common courtyard in between the two buildings along the de-mapped 31st Place.

The M Building was constructed in 1920 as the White Motor Company truck factory and service station, part of the Degnon Terminal. It replaced the company's plant at Broadway and 57th Street in Midtown Manhattan. In 1941, the building was sold to the Ford Instrument Company, a subsidiary of Sperry Rand. The factory manufactured electronics for the United States Armed Forces' World War II efforts. Following the war, the factory produced missle guidance systems for the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, designed the controls and instrumentation for the USS Seawolf nuclear submarine, and created other computer systems such as aircraft navigation systems for the U.S. military.

The Ford Instrument building was purchased by CUNY for the college, then provisionally known as "Community College IX", in 1970. "Phase I" renovations were conducted in the building prior to the opening of the college in September 1971. At this time, the building included basic classrooms and offices, a 115-seat library, and a "Great Hall" at the south end of the building for assemblies inherited from Sperry Rand. Additional "Phase II" renovations were completed in 1976, which added new classrooms and a theater, an atrium or mall referred to as an "interior street", and converted the Great Hall into a gymnasium.

The E building was originally operated as the Equitable Paper Bag factory building. In 1954, the company claimed to manufacture the largest paper bag in the world, measuring 14 feet (4.3 m) long. The building was purchased by LaGuardia in 1984, with the college proposing a major project to renovate the building and connect it to the Main Building. The plans were drawn up by Danforth Toan of the Warner, Burns, Toan and Lund firm. Ground was broken for the project on November 16, 1989, and the new building complex was dedicated and opened on June 4, 1992. The project included the LaGuardia Performing Arts Center at the south end of the E Building, featuring an 800-seat proscenium theater, and the campus library at the north end. The basement of the complex contains the athletic facilities of the college. This includes a six-lane NCAA regulation swimming pool constructed in the 1992 project, a fitness center, and a gymnasium for multiple sports including basketball.

On August 14, 2008, the college dedicated the M Building as "Joseph Shenker Hall" in honor of founding president Joseph Shenker. Shenker would pass away in September of that year.

Middle College High School Campus

Main articles: Middle College High School at LaGuardia Community College and International High School (Queens)

At the far east end of the campus across from the M and E Buildings is the Middle College High School Campus, formerly the college's L Building, located at Van Dam Street and 47th Avenue. The building houses two public high schools affiliated with the college, Middle College High School and International High School. Prior to educational use, the building served as the factory for X-Acto hobby knives.

The building was purchased by the college in 1989. At this time, Middle College High School was moved into the building, with classrooms used by the high school during the day and by the college at night. In addition, an Early Child Care Learning Center for the children of college students was created in the building. On October 20, 1989, the building was dedicated as the Marie LaGuardia Building or L Building in honor the wife of Fiorello La Guardia, who in 1982 donated records and memorabilia that formed the basis of the La Guardia and Wagner Archives.

An 820-seat addition or annex was completed in October 2012, designed by Goshow Architects. This allowed International High School to move from the M Building into the Middle College Campus.

Former buildings

S Building

The former S Building, a.k.a. the Satellite Building or Satellite College (31-11 Thomson Avenue), is located on Thomson Avenue across to the north of the Main Building. It was originally known as the Sony Building. It was also the headquarters and warehouse for Stroheim & Romann, a fabric and interior design company.

LaGuardia began renting space in the building in 1973, occupying 71,000 square feet (6,600 m²) of space. It was the original home of Middle College High School when it opened in 1974. In 1984, the college began leasing the second and third floors of the building, in addition to the basement and first floor already in use. The building features a rooftop parking lot, which was used by the college. The college ceased use of the building in the 1990s, after the completion of the E & M Building complex and the acquisition of the L Building.

In 2008, the New York Public Library began leasing the building. The library renovated the building for use as its Library Services Center, opening in 2010 at the cost of $50 million. The center contains a 238-foot (73 m) automated book sorting machine in the building's basement, and a digital imaging center.

LaGuardia Links

• Queens 1910-1920, including Flushing Line extension and other extensions
• Ford Instrument / Sperry Rand
• Ford Instrument

St. Albans Park

St. Albans Park
Location within New York City Tdorante10/sandbox10 (New York) Tdorante10/sandbox10 (the United States)
Type	Public park
Location	Queens, New York, United States
Coordinates	40.692977°N 73.780249°W / 40.692977; -73.780249
Created	1936
Operated by	New York City Department of Parks and Recreation
Status	Open all year

St. Albans Park, also known as St. Albans Memorial Park, is a park occupying three blocks at the intersection of Merrick Boulevard and Sayres Avenue in St. Albans, Queens. The park is operated by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.

The park was originally the site of One Mile Pond, which fed into Baisley Pond farther south.

Description

St. Albans Park consists of three blocks of parkland located at three of the four corners of Merrick Boulevard and Sayres Avenue, one block north of Linden Boulevard.

The western block is located at the southwest corner of Merrick and Sayres, bound to the west by 169th Street. The block is occupied by a grass sports field featuring a little league-size baseball diamond at northeast corner of the plot, and cricket pitch in the center. The cricket pitch was added in 2005. A second baseball diamond was previously located at the southwest corner of the site.

The third block is at the northeast corner of Merrick and Sayres, with 172nd Street to the west and 111th Road to the north. This section of the park features two basketball courts with lights, handball courts, and two tennis courts.

History

The park was originally the site of One Mile Pond, a mill pond which was located along Cornell Creek (a.k.a. Jamaica Creek). At the south end of the pond on modern Merrick Boulevard was the mill powered by the creek. The creek continued south into Jamaica Pond (now Baisley Pond), a reservoir for the Brooklyn Waterworks, and eventually fed into Jamaica Bay at what is now John F. Kennedy International Airport. The pond was purchased by the Brooklyn Waterworks on May 2, 1861.

Creation of the Park

• Following the consolidation of the City of Brooklyn into New York City in 1898, the Brooklyn Waterworks' assets were turned over to New York City.
• The site of One Mile Pond was acquired by the Parks Department on July 29, 1914, along with Baisley Pond (then called "Baiseley's Lake"), in order to create One Mile Pond Park and Baiseley's Lake Park, respectively. At the time, One Mile Pond Park was 16 acres (6.5 ha) large and described as "heavily wooded, traversed by a small stream".

• Originally called One Mile Road Park or One Mile Pond Park.

In September 1931, the park was opened to the public following the clearing of vegetation and dead trees, and the installation of a playground and park paths.

In February 1932, the St. Albans Post of the American Legion proposed to the New York City Board of Aldermen to rename One Mile Pond Park to St. Albans Memorial Park. On April 19, 1932, the name change was approved by the Board of Aldermen. In May 1932, the St. Albans Posts of the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars groups along with other local civic organizations planned to erect a 24-foot (7.3 m) long gun in the park. At that time, the park would be rededicated as "St. Albans Memorial Park". The ceremony would take place on May 30, as a joint celebration of Memorial Day and the bicentennial of George Washington's birth. Following the placement of the gun, the local civic groups complained that real estate signs had been posted near the gun in what they believed to be part of the park. After campaigning for the signs to be removed, an investigation discovered that the land was actually private property.

• On July 21, 1934, Parks Commissioner Robert Moses announced plans for four open-air swimming pools to be located in Brooklyn and Queens, including one to be built in St. Albans Park.
• In 1936, the western block of the park was acquired via condemnation, adding 3 acres (1.2 ha) of land to the park.
• On July 17, 1937 the northeastern block of the park was opened, featuring "facilities for softball and basketball" along with playground equipment. On July 24, 1937, the playground at 174th Place was opened.
• In fall 1941, the western block of St. Albans Park was developed into a softball field with two diamonds and portable bleachers, with funding from the Works Progress Administration.

• Renovated park unveiled on August 21, 2017.

External links

• Media related to St. Albans Park at Wikimedia Commons

Rivington House

Rivington House (45 Rivington Street) is a building located at Rivington Street and Forsythe Street in the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was originally constructed as an elementary school known as Public School 20 in 1898, and then operated as a vocational school beginning in 1942. In the 1990s, the building was purchased by Village Nursing Home (later VillageCare) and was converted into a specialty nursing home for patients with HIV/AIDS.

The building gained media attention in 2015 when it was planned to lift the deed restriction on the building, allowing it to be transformed into a residential or commercial property. When the building was ultimately sold for $116 million, Mayor Bill de Blasio drew criticism for straying from his policy to increase affordable housing in the city. The building was eventually reclassified and sold to China Vanke Co., Adam America Real Estate, and Slate Property Group for residential development.

Rivington Design

The entrance to the building on Rivington Street.

The Rivington House is located on the south side of Rivington Street between Forsyth Street and Eldridge Street in the Lower East Side. Across Forsyth Street to the west is Sara Delano Roosevelt Park. The building was constructed from 1897 to 1898, designed by architect C. B. J. Snyder in Renaissance Revival or Romanesque Revival style. Snyder, at the time the city's Superintendent of School Buildings, designed numerous other schools throughout the city. The building is five stories tall, with a basement and a small sixth floor in the center of the building. Its exterior features several decorative elements, including large stone-framed windows, several of which are arched, stone belt courses in between stories, and terracotta moldings. It also features several decorative plaques, including two at the front entrance on Rivington Street representing the New York City government. The interior, meanwhile, contains cast-iron columns with decorative elements.

The building was originally "U"-shaped, which was a common quirk of Snyder-designed schools and other city schools to let in more natural light. The open-space was filled in during the 1990s renovations to the building. It also originally featured a yellow-brick facade, but was later altered with pink-red bricks.

The building was renovated from 1993 to 1994 into a nursing home for HIV/AIDS patients by the Perkins & Will and Davis Brody firms. The first floor features a lobby with reception and gift shop areas, a chapel, a meeting room, administrative space, and an intensive care unit with 17 beds. The remaining four floors each contain around 50 beds along with two nurses stations and dining areas. The fifth or penthouse floor contains additional recreation facilities. A ward for tuberculosis patients was also constructed. The basement contains utilities, kitchen facilities, and labs including a radiology suite. A loading dock was constructed as a southern extension of the original building on Forsyth Street.

Nearby Points

• Adath Jeshurun of Jassy Synagogue
• Public School 91
• Lower East Side Tenement Museum
• Bowery BMT
• Grand Street IND Bridge
• 2nd Avenue IND

Rivington History

As a school building

Public School 20 was completed in 1898, opening on September 12, 1898. Upon opening, the school was also used as an evening recreation center for children. Alumni of the elementary school include Irving Caesar, George and Ira Gershwin, Harry Golden, Jacob Javitz, Paul Muni, and Edward G. Robinson. In 1934, construction began on Sara Delano Roosevelt Park across the street, which would provide boys and girls playgrounds for Public School 20 and the nearby Public School 91.

Public School 20 was closed in June 1942 due to low enrollment, with the nearby P.S. 91 expanding to replace it. Afterwards, the building became the Manhattan Trades Center and hosted special vocational programs for the New York City Board of Education. This began with a high school program to train radio operators which opened on October 7, 1942. The programs at the school contributed to the United States efforts during World War II, with graduates going on to become technicians and radio operators in the Armed Forces and the Merchant Marine. The school also featured programs to train disabled and vision impared individuals. Following the end of the war, the Board of Education created accelerated vocational and academic programs at the school for returning veterans.

In 1963, a new Public School 20 was opened at Stanton Street and Essex Street. By 1963, the building at Rivington Street was used as the New York City Adult Training Center. At this time, the school operated programs training unemployed people to work in occupations such as house painting, as well a programs to train orderlies and licensed practical nurses, through an initiative from the federal Manpower Development and Training Act.

As a nursing home

On April 18, 1989, then-New York City Mayor Ed Koch announced that the school would be redeveloped by the Village Nursing Home group into a facility called the Rivington House for patients suffering from HIV/AIDS. The nursing home would contain 230 beds, 80 of which would be reserved for patients from city hospitals. This was in response to the outbreak of the disease around this time, with the Lower East Side being one of the most affected neighborhoods in the city. Later plans called for 45 beds reserved for tuberculosis patients. At this time, the school building had gone unused for several years.

The building was sold by the city to Village Nursing Home and was reconstructed from 1993 to 1994, with funding from public bonds. The renovations were designed by the Perkins & Will and Davis Brody firms. The Davis Brody firm had several employees who had contracted AIDS. The nursing home opened in 1995 with 219 beds. Initially, the typical length of stay for patients was only 12 to 15 days with a 50 percent mortality rate. As treatment options for AIDS improved, by 1997 the length of patient stay increased and many were able to leave the facility and return home. In addition to in-patient care, the Rivington Hosue also offered outpatient services and job placement assistance for patients.

Closure and sale

Rivington House operated as a HIV/AIDS nursing home from 1995 until 2015. The lack of patients and the change in community care for people with HIV led VillageCare to announce in 2014 that they would be closing the facility in Manhattan. As local press reported at the time, “the need for a single-purpose skilled nursing facility like Rivington House that segregates AIDS patients is long past."

By 2015, Rivington House was non-performing and nearly vacant, and a nursing home operator in the region called The Allure Group purchased the building. Within the first year under new ownership, the building featured in the New York City press after an application was made to change the property's deed restrictions. Its restrictive deed prevented the property from being developed like many of the buildings in the same district, stating that the building had to be used for non-profit residential health care.

Following the required payment to the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, as determined by the city, the building's deed restriction was lifted, and The Allure Group sold the building for $116 million to a developer. While sales of this value are common in New York City, the media honed in on Mayor Bill de Blasio for moving away from his policy of providing affordable housing. Ricardo Morales, a deputy commissioner at the Citywide Department of Administrative Services was eventually relieved of his duties following the sale of Rivington House.

More information about the deal entered the media in 2016, when Mayor Bill de Blasio suggested he didn't know about the land deal, prior to signing off on the lifting of the deed restriction. The statement made by Bill de Blasio was questioned following the release of a report by the New York City Department of Investigation. The report suggested that while many city officials denied knowing about the details of the deal, they were in fact fully aware of what was taking place. The NY Post reported that Bill de Blasio's administration offered millions of dollars the month prior, in February 2016, to effectively undo the deal as it would reflect badly on the administration.

The report stated that both The Allure Group and the city wanted to reclassify the building, and both parties knew a $17 million fee was needed specifically to remove the deed restriction. The report also showed that the city understood any fees would result in the nursing home being flipped by The Allure Group, as the property was no longer viable in its current position. The New York Times and NY Post made similar remarks to the report, referring to a meeting on March 11, 2015. If a $16.15 million payment was required to lift the deed restriction it “could not afford to pay the cost to remove the deed restriction and retain the property as a nursing home,” and “would consider converting the property into a luxury apartment building and forgo the nursing home renovation.”

The city of New York opened an investigation into what had gone wrong with their management of the situation. However, the probe found no illegal conduct. The city announced they could not sue The Allure Group, as legally they had not done anything wrong and determined instead that there was a need to revamp its own internal policies and procedures. Despite the controversy caused by the sale and removing the deed restriction from Rivington House, the state legislators decided to reject a bill aimed at preventing similar sales from taking place in the future.

Rivington Sources

• [9]
• [10]
• [11] - NYTimes, How Epidemics Helped Shape the Modern Metropolis
• [12] DeBlasio Letter NYTimes
• https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/31/nyregion/nursing-homes-sale-to-condo-developer-raises-questions-for-city.html?searchResultPosition=112
• https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/25/nyregion/new-york-city-turns-over-files-on-building-sale-subpoenaed-by-comptroller.html?searchResultPosition=111
• https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/44611858/
• https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/492051296/
• https://www.nyclgbtsites.org/site/rivington-house/
• [13]
• http://www.thelodownny.com/leslog/tag/45-rivington-st
• [14] - "P.S. 20 Was Never Like This", Manahttan Trades Center
• [15]
• [16] - Wallace Watson
• [17] - Machinist Looks for Job He Can't See
• [18]

• https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/doi/reports/pdf/2016/2016-07-14-Pr22rivington.pdf
• https://www.gvshp.org/_gvshp/pdf/CB3%20votereso2017-06.pdf
• https://ny.curbed.com/2019/9/19/20872807/lower-east-side-rivington-house-sale
• https://www.crainsnewyork.com/health-care/rivington-house-could-be-treatment-site-coronavirus-patients
• https://books.google.com/books?id=MHvJAwAAQBAJ&pg=PR17&lpg=PR17&dq=Nicholas+A+Rango+Health+Care+Facility&source=bl&ots=3Tnp7DPcaO&sig=ACfU3U3rkqPZJUsgvbrgak-VJrswQtH1LA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjyld3Ky_noAhW8knIEHRqYAbo4ChDoATAGegQICxAB#v=onepage&q=Nicholas%20A%20Rango%20Health%20Care%20Facility&f=false - "Nicholas A Rango Health Care Facility"
• https://www.nytimes.com/1993/11/12/obituaries/dr-nicholas-a-rango-49-dies-built-new-york-s-aids-program.html
• https://archive.org/stream/Progress_Queens_Rivington_House_FOIL/2017-08-31%20Progress%20Queens%20-%20Rivington%20House%20NYCDCAS%20-%20FOIL%20Request%20Documents_Part%2001_djvu.txt
• http://junehart.blogspot.com/2009/05/sad-goodbye-to-rivington-house.html
• https://www.health.ny.gov/diseases/aids/providers/reports/docs/aids_institute_25-years.pdf - Nicholas A. Rango