The History of Astoria and Long Island City

Early Astoria History

Post Industrial LIC

LIC & the Film Industry

Modern Day Astoria

Long Island City lies in western Queens, across the East River from Manhattan. It is presently the largest community in Queens with over 250,000 residents. The history of Long Island City spans more than 360 years from its humble beginning as Dutch farmland in the 1640s to its growth into a residential and commercial hub. On the western shore of Queens, LIC borders the East River to the north and west (spanning the length of midtown Manhattan to Harlem), Newtown creek to the south, and 51st/Hobart Street to the east. Although it has always been an integral part of the history of New York City, Long Island City has its own unique past.

Chartered in 1870, Long Island City was the merging of the village of Astoria and several hamlets such as Steinway, Ravenswood, and Hunters Point. Long Island City existed independently from New York City for 28 years until it was incorporated by the City of New York in the consolidation of 1898.

Early Astoria History

In the beginning of the 1640s, the fertile farmland encouraged the Dutch to settle the area that is now Long Island City. The first part of Queens to be settled, this area continued as an agrarian community until the nineteenth century. In 1839, Steven Halsey, a fur merchant, founded a village at Hallets Cove and started the 92nd Street Ferry service to Manhattan. Hallets Cove became a recreational destination and resort for Manhattan's elite.

Halsey then petitioned the state legislature to rename the Hallets Cove area after the prominent John Jacob Astor, a personal friend of Halsey's and wealthy fur merchant. Halsey believed that if he named it after Astor, Astor would then contribute much needed money to the newly incorporated village. John Jacob Astor never came to the rural town. He only contributed a small sum of money. Still, the village trustees gave Astor's name to the village, naming it Astoria.

In the early 1800's, wealthy New Yorkers built large homes on 12th and 14th streets and on 27th Ave. Architecture from the original village still exists today, with many antebellum mansions, cottages, churches and cemeteries still standing.

Post Industrial LIC

During the late 1800's, there was an increase in the commercial and industrial life of New York City, bringing about an increase in European immigration and a greater demand for real estate in Astoria. This era marked the beginning of the German settlement of Astoria by German cabinet makers. Few families have done so much to transform a country village into a community as the German immigrant Henry Steinway, patriarch of the Steinway Piano factory. After building a piano factory in 1853, the Steinways erected both a sawmill and a foundry. They carved out streets and opened a streetcar line; they built what was known as Steinway Village, complete with Victorian row houses, a church and a school where German was taught as a second language. They also provided workers with one of the first free kindergartens in the United States.

The Steinways also donated the land for the site of P.S. 84Q; hence, the school is still known as "The Steinway Elementary School." The Steinways also formed an investment group to build the hugely successful amusement park, North Beach, which opened in 1886 and was full every weekend until the onset of the Prohibition in 1920's. North Beach is now the site of La Guardia Airport which began operations and was opened to commercial traffic one minute after midnight on December 2nd 1939. (La Guardia Airport (LGA) has been operated by The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey under a lease with the City of New York since June 1, 1947.)

The Long Island Rail Road terminal was built on Hunters Point in 1861, which helped the district become an industrial center during the Civil War. After the villages were consolidated into Long Island City, the new city government encouraged developing industry; gas plants, chemical and glass factories soon lined the East River waterfront.

The status of Astoria was changed in 1898, when it became part of greater New York City. Large farms and country estates were transformed into housing tracts for single family homes and apartment complexes. The largest gasworks in New York State and a railroad trestle for the Pennsylvania Railroad were constructed. By the end of the 19th century, the city had the highest concentration of industry in the United States.

In 1909, the biggest transformation began with the opening of the Queensboro Bridge, immediately changing the community from a remote suburb to a destination minutes from Manhattan. Continuing this expansion, the Second Avenue elevated train opened in 1917, connecting Long Island City even more closely to Manhattan. The Queensboro Bridge and the Second Avenue train proved only to be the beginning of the routes in and out of LIC. The Triboro Bridge, linking Manhattan, Bronx & Queens, was finished on July 11th, 1936. Today, LIC is connected with the rest of New York City by six tunnels and five bridges. The development of bridges, tunnels and roads helped make Long Island City an accessible and vital industrial area for New York City.

Astoria Pool opened with much fanfare on the fourth of July in the scorching summer of 1936 on the first day of the Olympic trials. It was the best of 10 pools that opened within a 10-week span in what was dubbed as the swimming pool year, It is still the city's largest pool (54,450 sq. ft.). Tens of thousands have enjoyed the warm water of Astoria Pool since its opening.

LIC and the Film Industry

Astoria has also been famous for filmmaking. At the turn of the century, most film production was taking place on the East Coast. Astoria, NY quickly became the primary location. The Astoria Studio, built by Famous Players-Lasky (soon to become Paramount) on a block on 36th Street, was opened on September 20, 1920.

Hundreds of silent films were made on the six sound stages of Astoria Studio, including the three movies that D.W. Griffith made for Paramount in the mid-'20s, and portions of The Sheik, the Valentino movie that had women fainting in theaters. The Marx Brothers made The Cocoanuts and Animal Crackers there.

It was a bustling industry until the lure of Hollywood's reliable weather and the growth of Hollywood as the center of the film industry left Astoria, and the East Coast in general, empty and disused. Independent productions continued to use the studios during the 1930's. A young radio star named Bob Hope made his film debut there in The Big Broadcast of 1938. Soon after World War II began, the studios were converted into the U.S. Army Pictorial Center.

Renamed Kaufman Astoria Studios in 1982 for developer George Kaufman, who expanded and renovated the facility, the studio has housed many contemporary Astoria productions, including: The Cotton Club, Arthur, Presumed Innocent, Marvin's Room, Scent of a Woman, The Age of Innocence, The Verdict and Devil's Own. Veteran New York filmmakers Sidney Lumet and Woody Allen are regulars. Kaufman Astoria Studios has also been a successful center for television production. Two great shows made it their home -- 'Sesame Street,' which spent a quarter-century in Astoria, and 'The Cosby Show.' It is also the home of Lifetime Television. The new studios here now rank as the country's fourth largest.

Silver Cup Studios opened its first studio in 1983. After it took over the landmark Silvercup Bakery, it quickly established itself as the largest Independent full-service film and television production facility in the northeastern United States. Over four hundred commercials are produced at the facility each year including campaigns for Wendy's, Red Lobster, Old Navy and Victoria's Secret. Among the many feature films shot here include: Gangs of New York, Analyze That, Mr. Deeds, Meet the Parents, Big Daddy, Stuart Little II, Godfather III, When Harry Met Sally, Crocodile Dundee and Great Expectations.

Silver Cup is also currently home to television productions including; Hope & Faith, The Sopranos and until recently, Sex and the City. Many music videos have also been produced at the studio for artists as diverse as Billy Joel, Mariah Carey, Nine Inch Nails, the B-52's, REM, Janet Jackson, Bon Jovi, Hall & Oates, Kenny G. and Billy Idol.

The American Museum of the Moving Image now stands on the Old Paramount Lot, open to the public. It has a wonderful collection of posters, stills, sets and equipment, both from Astoria's golden age and from more recent times. It is dedicated to educating the community about the art, history, technique, and technology of film, television, and digital media, and to examining film's impact on culture and society.

Modern Day Astoria

During the 1920's to the 1940's, Astoria became home to a large number of Italian, Greek, and Irish immigrants. After a change in U.S. Immigration policies in the late 1960's, Astoria received its biggest immigration boom in modern times, mostly from Greece. Today, Astoria boasts the largest number of Greek nationals and emigrants outside of Greece.

During the 1980's to present, immigrants from Bangladesh, India, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, and Brazil have increasingly settled in Astoria. More museums and artists also moved into this neighborhood in the 1980's. One of the first being Isamu Noguchi. Born in 1904, Noguchi continued making sculpture until his death in 1988. His career of more than sixty years intersected some of the crucial persons and places of our time. He lived across the street from what is now his museum on Vernon Blvd; the present site of the museum was originally a photoengraving plant which he purchased to house his works. The Isamu Noguchi Museum officially opened its door's to the public in 1985.

During the mid 1990's, the population of Astoria and LIC had risen as housing demands in Manhattan spilled over to the other boroughs. New housing began to be built, many new businesses flourished, and property values increased. A wide variety of young professionals, artists, writers and musicians began to reside in Astoria during this "gentrification" era, as a viable economic alternative to living in Manhattan.

Today, Astoria is a multicultural haven for people from all corners of the earth. On a per capita basis, Long Island City and Astoria are some of the safest neighborhoods in all of New York City. The neighborhood's architecture reflects its rich past: a hodgepodge of prewar apartment buildings, renovated row houses, brick tenements, and two family houses combine the old with the new. Partly due to the strong immigrant influence, the presence of the film industry, and the recent surge of Manhattan expatriates, today's Astoria enjoys a variety of robust small businesses, ethnic dining, bargain shopping, and trendy nightlife.

We would like to thank The Greater Astoria Historical Society for providing most of the information and all of the photographs for this page, as well as the Facts About Astoria on our Home Page. We'd also would like to thank George Delis, Michael Halberian, The Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum, Silver Cup Studios, and The American Museum of the Moving Image for additional information about Astoria's history. For more information on the History of Astoria, please visit: www.astorialic.org

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