Astoria, Queens Pt. II

North of Astoria Boulevard is the second half of greater Astoria, sometimes called Ditmars and Steinway. This part is both more residential and more industrial than the southern half of Astoria and it's decidedly hemmed in by powerful psychological and physical barriers: the East River to the west and north, an enormous Con Edison facility and the Bowery Bay Water Pollution Control Plant on the industrial northern edge, and La Guardia Airport to the east.

The neighborhood itself is intact, though, and, like the rest of Astoria, it's a largely middle class district of immigrants and second-generation Americans. Greeks and many Arabs share the space with smatterings of everyone else.

Elevated rail and subway tracks run throughout:

Typical churches:

Though the local architecture is fairly new -- from the 1920s onward -- there is considerable evidence of the neighborhood's past. Piano manufacturer William Steinway based his operations there in the 1870s (hence the name of the street and district), and much of the early development followed the piano-making industry. You can still find piano workers' houses of that era, around 20th Avenue and 41st Street (Steinway's own mansion on the northern end of 41st Street is still there, too, but it didn't lend itself to successful photography):

To go even further back, a rare Dutch-style farmhouse from the 1720s survives on 19th Road, hiding amidst foliage and mid-20th century houses.

Other historical houses also remain:

And many not-so-historical houses:

And some new Monster homes:

The main commercial drags are Ditmars, Steinway and 31st Avenue. Ditmars, on the west side, can be especially dynamic and good for people-watching.

A few early 20th century apartment buildings:

One of the best drinking establishments in all of New York, if you ask a lot of people (this one included), is the Czech-run Bohemian Hall & Beer Garden on 24th Avenue.

And, the neighborhood's final, unseen barrier, if you follow Hazen Street north toward the water, is Riker's Island. Not only is access restricted to the bridge and island but, apparently, you can't even look at the island. After passing the sign below, I put my camera away so I could take a peek through a chain-linked fence in the parking lot. Though I crossed no barriers and took no pictures, I was set upon by the police and threatened with a visit to the station.

Astoria, Queens

Astoria is whole world of its own, a real neighborhood, even though it's really a sprawling collection of several neighborhoods. It excites and bustles like a large provincial capital -- not quite big city but featuring an exotic mix of people and buildings.

Astoria houses a very large and well-known Greek community, but it's also a world of Arabs (particularly Egyptians), Brazilians, Koreans, Bangladeshis, Latin Americans and Italians.

In Astoria's earlier days as a village and industrial suburb, ferries shuttled residents to 92nd Street in Manhattan from what today is Astoria Park. In 1936, Robert Moses' Triborough Bridge appeared on that site, connecting Queens to the Bronx and Manhattan via Wards and Randall's Islands.
For our purposes, we'll divide the neighborhood into two halves bisected by the Triborough Bridge and Grand Central Parkway/Astoria Boulevard: North (Ditmars and Steinway) and South (just plain Astoria, including the original village). We'll begin in the South, which is generally older and richer in its architecture. Neighborhood life centers around a number of colorful commercial streets: Broadway, 30th Avenue, 31st Avenue, 31st Street and Steinway, which is the center of local Egyptian life.

One of the neighborhood's biggest landmarks is the Kaufman Astoria Studios, an active movie studio -- opened in 1920 by Adolph Zuckor -- that's the largest in New York City.

Catholic churches here share ground with Greek Orthodox, Asian Protestant and simple Mosques.

There are also a few mysterious societies.

Residential architecture in this sprawling place is extremely varied. Most buildings date from the 1910s to the '50s, but a smattering of older homes remain and a number of new homes have sprouted in the cracks. Density-wise, the neighborhood has a few odd housing projects and high-rises, tons of attractive 1920s-era apartment buildings and endless expanses of attached or detached single-family homes, often in monotonous formation.

The DeWayt house from 1845 was centered in the original village of Astoria, on 27th Avenue at 12th Street. It's among a small number of surviving Victorian-era buildings.