#InTheLoop | Multi-Published Guidebook Writer Leads Three Walking Tours in Queens
BY QEDC It's In Queens
In the mood to travel? Take a walking tour of a Queens neighborhood. The guide will turn the leisurely stroll into a feast of history, hidden secrets, crazy stories, demographics, architecture, community life, and current trends…without delayed flights or noisy hotels.
Adrienne Onofri has been taking groups on explorations for more than 10 years. The long-time Elmhurst resident also wrote Walking Queens: 30 Tours for Discovering the Diverse Communities, Historic Places, and Natural Treasures of New York City’s Largest Borough in 2014.
Now, she’s joined forces with the Queens Historical Society to offer three two-hour tours on three upcoming Sundays. (Con Edison is the sponsor.) General admission for each one is $10, but seniors and students can join for $5 each. (Expect great food options on each trek.)
The first excursion is Long Island City (top) on April 16 from 11 am. Meet at the sidewalk clock inside a small park in front of One Court Square (Jackson Avenue and 44th Drive; E, G, 7 to Court Square).
As attendees dart through shadows created by new luxury high rises, Onofri will share details about this historic area whose past includes industry, waterfront activity, and warehouses juxtaposed with the vibrant residential-and-dining present.
The next one is College Point (middle) on April 30 at 11 am. In this case, the meeting spot is the benches in College Point Park directly across from 13-39 College Point Blvd. (No subway, but the Q65 Bus from Flushing/Main Street stops less than a block away.)
Then, it’s off to discover a little-known peninsula that was rural until German immigrant Conrad Poppenhusen built the Enterprise Rubber Works factory there in 1854. As business boomed, he drained the marshes, paved roads, planted trees, constructed a railroad station, installed sewers, and laid water and gas lines. College Point quickly became a de facto company town as his factory workers, most of whom were German, too, followed him.
Today it’s a hodgepodge of urban and suburban architecture with small hills and great views.
The final expedition is Jackson Heights (bottom) on May 21 at 11 am. This event begins with a bolt of history as the meeting place is Manuel de Dios Unanue Triangle on the south side of Roosevelt Avenue at 83rd Street. (Take the 7 train to 82nd Street.) The raised brick bed triangle honors a Cuban journalist who was murdered while dining at a local restaurant on March 11, 1992. De Dios Unanue worked at the Spanish-language daily newspaper El Diario–La Prensa, where he relentlessly covered Colombian drug cartels in Queens.
The tour then winds through one of the country’s first planned communities which is now among the most diverse zip codes in the world. Bangladeshis, Colombians, Ecuadorians, Indians, Nepalese, Pakistanis, Thailand natives, and Tibetans are a few of the sizeable ethnic groups that make their homes there.
Editor’s note: Onofri also wrote Walking Brooklyn: 30 Tours for Exploring Historical Legacies, Neighborhood Culture, Side Streets, and Waterways.
Images: Queens Historical Society