Corona, Queens

School on 34th Avenue in central Corona

Corona is a neighborhood in the borough of Queens in New York City. It is bordered by Flushing to the east, Jackson Heights to the west, Forest Hills and Rego Park to the south, Elmhurst to the southwest, and East Elmhurst to the north. Corona has a multicultural population with a Latino majority, and is the site of historic African American and Italian American communities. After World War II, the majority of the neighborhood's residents were mostly Italian, German, Irish and of other European ancestries. Corona also has a significant Chinese population.[1]

Corona is bordered on the east by Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, one of the largest parks in New York City and the site of the 1939 and 1964 World's Fairs. Located within the park are Citi Field, which replaced Shea Stadium as home of the New York Mets baseball team in 2009, and the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, where the US Open in tennis is held annually. In North Corona is the northern section of the historic Corona neighborhood, created in 1978 with the formation of the city's Community Boards and Community Districts, and the need for coterminous borders. Corona's main thoroughfares include Corona Avenue, Roosevelt Avenue, Northern Boulevard, Junction Boulevard, and 108th Street. The neighborhood is part of Queens Community Board 4, while the northernmost part is included in Community Board 3.[2] Corona's ZIP code is 11368. Corona, with East Elmhurst, are often referred to as one combined area, Corona–East Elmhurst.

History

The intersection of Corona Avenue, 108th Street, and 52nd Avenue
Firehouse in Corona

The area was originally known as West Flushing, but real estate developer Thomas Waite Howard, who became the first postmaster in 1872,[3] petitioned to have the post office name changed to Corona in 1870, suggesting that it was the "crown of Queens County."[4] Another theory is that the name Corona derives from the crown used as an emblem by the Crown Building Company, which is alleged to have developed the area; the Italian immigrants who moved into the new housing stock referred to the neighborhood by the Italian or Spanish word for "crown", or "corona". Either way, the name is a foreign translation of the word "crown."

Corona was a late 19th-century residential development in the northeastern corner of the old Town of Newtown. Real estate speculators from New York started the community in 1854, the same year that the New York and Flushing Railroad began service to the area largely to serve a newly opened race course. It was at the Fashion Race Course in 1858 that the first games of baseball to charge admission took place. The games, which took place between the All Stars of Brooklyn and the All Stars of New York, are commonly believed to be the first all star baseball games and in essence the birthplace of professional baseball. A trophy baseball from this tournament recently sold for nearly half a million US dollars.[5][6]

During the second half of the 1940s through the 1960s, many legendary African American musicians, civil rights leaders and athletes moved to the neighborhood. In the last half of the 20th century, Corona saw dramatic ethnic successions. In the 1950s, what was predominantly an Italian American and African American neighborhood began to give way to an influx of Dominicans. In the late 1990s, Corona saw a new wave of immigrants from Latin America. The area north of Roosevelt Avenue contained the heart of the historic African American community. The intersection of 108th Street and Corona Avenue is the historic center of the Italian American community, sometimes referred to as Corona Heights. The majority Hispanic community now consists of Dominicans, Colombians, Ecuadorians, Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Bolivians, Peruvians, Mexicans, Venezuelans, and Chileans. There are also Asian Americans (Chinese, Indians, Koreans, Filipinos, and Japanese) as well as Italian Americans and African Americans.[7]

Structures

Our Lady of Sorrows, 37th Avenue
Brazilian Adventist Church

Corona has several private schools including School of the Transfiguration. Public schools include the High School for Arts and Business and P.S. 92.

There are many churches representing diverse denominations. Antioch Baptist Church at 103rd Street and Northern Boulevard is a prominent African American congregation dating to 1936 with a membership of 700.[8] Our Lady of Sorrows Roman Catholic Church at 104th Street and 37th Avenue was built in 1899 largely out of red brick with a nearby convent of the same period.[9] Today it conducts most of its masses in Spanish[10] and attracts large weekend crowds. The Congregation Tifereth Israel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.[11]

Dorie Miller Residential Cooperative, built in 1952, comprises six buildings, containing 300 apartments, with 1,300 rooms in total. The cooperative is named after Doris "Dorie" Miller, a U.S. Naval hero at Pearl Harbor and the first African American recipient of the Navy Cross.[12] Among its original residents were jazz greats Nat Adderley & Jimmy Heath; Kenneth and Corien Drew, publishers of Queens' first African-American newspaper, The Corona East Elmhurst News, Thelma E. Harris founder of Aburi Press and prominent Queens Judge Henry A, Slaughter. Corona was also the childhood home of Marie Maynard Daly. A biochemist, Daly was the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in Chemistry. Daly studied the effects of cholesterol on the mechanics of the heart, the effects of sugars and other nutrients on the health of arteries, and the breakdown of the circulatory system as a result of advanced age or hypertension; this scientist subsequently studied how proteins are produced and organized in the cell and the composition and metabolism of components of the cell nucleus.

The Louis Armstrong House attracts visitors to the neighborhood and preserves the legacy of musician Louis Armstrong, one of Corona's most prominent historical residents. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976.[11]

Demographics

According to the 2010 Census, the total population of Corona was about 110,000.[13] Corona is overwhelmingly Hispanic with all other demographics (Asian, black, and non-Hispanic white) being definitively below the borough average.[14]

Historic archives

Corona/East Elmhurst also houses one of the most extensive collections of African American art and literature in the Langston Hughes Community Library and Cultural Center, which serves Queens with reference and circulating collections, totaling approximately 30,000 volumes of materials written about or relating to black culture. The Black Heritage Reference Center of Queens County includes books, periodicals, theses and dissertations, VHS videos, cassettes and CDs, photographs, posters, prints, paintings, and sculpture. Cultural arts programs are scheduled through the Center. Meeting space is available to community organizations by application. Special features of the Center include:

Transportation

The IRT Flushing Line (7 <7> trains) runs through the neighborhood with stops at Mets – Willets Point, 111th Street, 103rd Street – Corona Plaza, and Junction Boulevard.[15] The Q19, Q23, Q33, Q48, Q49, Q58, Q66, and Q72 buses also serve the neighborhood.[16]

Notable residents

Notable current and former residents of Corona include:

Lemon Ice King, an eatery in Corona

See also

Chinatowns:

Other articles:

References

  1. ↑ Lawrence A. McGlinn, Department of Geography SUNY-New Paltz. "Beyond Chinatown: Dual immigration and the Chinese population of metropolitan New York City, 2000, pp. 114-115" (PDF). Middle States Geographer, 2002, 35: 110–119, Journal of the Middle States Division of the Association of American Geographers. Retrieved March 7, 2015.
  2. ↑ Queens Community Boards, New York City. Accessed September 3, 2007.
  3. ↑ "New-York and Suburban News." New York Times, June 25, 1872.
  4. ↑ Flushing. Antos, Jason D. pg 52. Arcadia Publishing, Jul 28, 2010.
  5. ↑ 1858 Fashion Course Game Trophy Baseball, Robert Edwards Auctions, 2005 http://www.robertedwardauctions.com/auction/2005/1.html Accessed August 5, 2013
  6. ↑ The 1858 Fashion Race Course Baseball Match, Baseball Almanac, http://www.baseball-almanac.com/treasure/autont2006b.shtml Accessed August 5, 2013
  7. ↑ 11368 Zip Code Detailed Profile, City-Data.com. Accessed April 18, 2008.
  8. ↑ "Antioch Baptist Church of Corona". Retrieved 21 October 2012.
  9. ↑ Willensky, Elliot (1988). AIA Guide to New York City, Third Edition. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. p. 748. ISBN 978-0-15-603600-9.
  10. ↑ "Our Lady of Sorrows Parish". Retrieved 21 October 2012.
  11. 1 2 National Park Service (2010-07-09). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  12. ↑ Doris "Dorie" Miller bio
  13. ↑ Table PL-P1 NTA: Total Population New York City Neighborhood Tabulation Areas, 2010 Archived October 17, 2013, at the Wayback Machine.
  14. ↑ "Queens County, New York QuickLinks". U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved 2013-02-16.
  15. ↑ "Subway Map" (PDF). Metropolitan Transportation Authority. November 2016. Retrieved 2016-11-07.
  16. ↑ "Queens Bus Map" (PDF). Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 Berman, Eleanor. "The jazz of Queens encompasses music royalty", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 1, 2006. Accessed October 1, 2009. "Mr. Knight shows the brick building that was the studio of Dizzie Gillespie, where other Corona residents like Cannonball Adderley used to come and jam....When the trolley tour proceeds, Mr. Knight points out the nearby Dorie Miller Houses, a co-op apartment complex in Corona where Clark Terry and Cannonball and Nat Adderley lived and where saxophonist Jimmy Heath still resides."
  18. ↑ the Louis Armstrong House & Archives Museum. Accessed September 17, 2007.
  19. ↑ Krebs, Albin. "Louis Armstrong, Jazz Trumpeter and Singer, Dies", The New York Times, July 7, 1971. Accessed October 1, 2009. "Louis Armstrong, the celebrated jazz trumpeter and singer, died in his sleep yesterday morning at his home in the Corona section of Queens."
  20. ↑ Staff. "Maurice Connolly of Queens is dead; Former Borough President, 54, ill since serving year in jail for sewer frauds. Was an attorney at 21. Resigned under fire in 1928 after having been political ruler for 17 years.", The New York Times, November 25, 1935. Accessed October 1, 2009.
  21. ↑ Staff. Marie Maynard Daly, Journal of Chemical Education. Accessed October 1, 2009. "One of three children, Marie Daly was born on April 16, 1921 in Corona, Queens, New York."
  22. ↑ Pace, Eric. "Peter T. Farrell, 91; Judge Who Presided At the Sutton Trial", The New York Times, November 10, 1992. Accessed October 11, 2009.
  23. ↑ Holloway, Lynette. "House of Satch Gets New Gig", The New York Times, February 10, 1996. Accessed October 1, 2009. "The Armstrongs embraced Corona, selected partly because of its proximity to other jazz musicians who lived nearby, including Dizzy Gillespie, Jimmy Heath said Phoebe Jacobs, executive vice president of the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation."
  24. ↑ Kool G Rap, Will C., 2008, Road to the Riches Remaster Liner Notes, p. 4.
  25. ↑ Severo, Richard. "Estée Lauder, Pursuer of Beauty And Cosmetics Titan, Dies at 97", The New York Times, April 26, 2004. Accessed October 1, 2009. "Josephine Esther Mentzer was born at home in Corona, Queens, on July 1, 1908, according to several biographies, although her family believes it may have been two years earlier."
  26. ↑ Goldstein, Richard. "Johnny LoBianco, 85, Referee In Controversial Duran Bout", The New York Times, July 21, 2001. Accessed October 1, 2009.
  27. ↑ Ciccone, Christopher; and Leigh, Wendy. "Life with My Sister Madonna", p. 56. Simon & Schuster, 2008. ISBN 1-4165-8762-4. Accessed October 1, 2009. "By the time we get to town, en route to Connecticut, Madonna is living in Corona, Queens, in a synagogue that has been converted into a studio, and playing drums in her boyfriend Dan Gilroy's band, the Breakfast Club."
  28. ↑ Monaghan, Terry. "Frankie Manning, the Ambassador and Master of Lindy Hop, Dies at 94", The New York Times, April 28, 2009. Accessed October 1, 2009. "He was 94 and lived in Corona, Queens."
  29. ↑ O' Keeffe, Michael. "Mets' Minaya a Ground Breaker", Daily News (New York), May 27, 1999. Accessed October 11, 2009. "Minaya was born in the Dominican Republic, raised in Corona, Queens, by parents who spoke only Spanish."
  30. ↑ Ravo, Nick. "Carlos D. Ramirez, 52, Publisher of El Diario", The New York Times, July 13, 1999. Accessed October 9, 2009.
  31. ↑ Martin Scorsese Biography: National Endowment for the Humanities http://www.neh.gov/about/awards/jefferson-lecture/martin-scorsese-biography Retrieved October 18, 2013
  32. ↑ Thomas, Robert McG., Jr. "Jim Valvano, Colorful College Basketball Coach, Is Dead at 47", The New York Times, April 29, 1993. Accessed October 11, 2009.

Coordinates: 40°44′06″N 73°51′54″W / 40.73497°N 73.86497°W / 40.73497; -73.86497

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