#Newsflash | Take a Guided Tour of a Historic Queens Neighborhood on Sunday
BY QEDC It's In Queens
Spend an afternoon at the houses of Jackie Robinson, Ella Fitzgerald, and Lena Horne.
Professional guide Joseph Landon of JoJo’s Ventures leads a walking tour of Addisleigh Park on Sunday, July 30, at 11 am.
Addisleigh Park?
It’s an unsung Queens gem. Tucked away on the western side of St. Albans, this historic district (as per NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission) was once known as “Black Hollywood East” because so many prominent African-American athletes and entertainers lived there. In addition to the previously mentioned celebrities, James Brown, Billie Holiday, and Brooklyn Dodgers catcher Roy Campanella owned homes there. We could go on and on. Count Basie, Joe Louis, Brooke Benton, Mercer Ellington, Jean Baptiste “Illinois” Jacquet, Charles “Cootie” Williams, Fats Waller, Milt “The Judge” Hinton, Civil Rights leader Percy Ellis Sutton, and Lester Young.
See it all with Landon, a native New Yorker and history buff who worked in the tourism/hospitality business for more than 20 years before launching Jojo’s Ventures.
Ticket prices run from $7.18 to $12.51 online. The group will meet in front of the Godfather of Soul’s former home (above) at 175-19 Linden Blvd. before beginning the excursion.
In addition to all the star power, Addisleigh Park features an eclectic mix of single-family homes in such architectural revival styles as Tudor, Mediterranean, and Neo-Classical. Many of the dwellings are three-stories high, and they’re set back about 20 feet from the sidewalks on large lots as per the Garden City urban planning style.
The leafy residential area also has a fascinating backstory. After the Long Island Rail Road opened a station in St. Albans in 1898, developers quickly turned farmland into a suburb. It was lovely, but it had a dark side: covenants prohibited white homeowners from selling to non-whites.
Quiet transactions took place, and it’s believed that pianist Fats Waller was the first African American to buy property there in the 1930s. During the 1940s, the NYS Supreme Court upheld covenants in two lawsuits related to neighbors suing neighbors for selling their homes to African Americans. In 1948, the US Supreme Court ruled that racially restrictive covenants violated the 14th Amendment’s equal-protection clause.
Images: Rob MacKay