Astoria/Long Island City

Sohmer Piano Factory

Plus:

• Endangered zones: Queens

Virtually nothing remains of William Hallett’s original mid-1600s settlement along the cove that today bears his name, and it was only after Stephen Halsey incorporated a village in 1839 that streets began to radiate east and south. In Astoria Village, centered at the intersection of 21st Street, Astoria Boulevard and Newtown Road, the streets seem timeless, and are studded with weathered churches such as the copper-steepled, brownstone Dutch Reformed(27-26 12th St) and St. George’s Episcopal(14-22 27th Ave). Stop by the Mt. Carmel cemetery(21st St at 26th Ave), the resting place of many Irish immigrants who escaped the famine of the 1840s. Then walk along 12th and 14th Streets between 27th Avenue and Astoria Park for some of Queens’ most eclectic architecture: quaint, colorful workers’ cottages, antebellum mansions and Greek Revival residences.

Backtrack to Astoria Boulevard and walk west via Main Avenue, which becomes Vernon Boulevard; you’ll encounter an imposing six-story brick building with a prominent clock tower on the corner of 31st Avenue. This is the former Sohmer Piano factory, currently the Adirondack Chair factory, constructed in 1886. The Landmarks Commission has declined to give it landmark status; as a result, preservationists worry that this exemplar of the city’s 19th-century industrial architecture (the exterior cast-iron staircases are original) may disappear from the skyline.

The next stop is all the way down Vernon Boulevard to Hunter’s Point. (The walk takes about half an hour and goes by the Isamu Noguchi Museum, under the Queensboro Bridge and past the ruins of the epic New York Architectural Terra Cotta Works, slated to be restored as part of the upcoming Silver Studios development.) Proceed a block to Borden Avenue and turn right; you’ll have a chance to sample some Italian-style seafood—and peruse an unheralded trove of bygone treasures.

Water Taxi Beach may have operated a short distance away this summer, but the Waterfront Crabhouse (2-03 Borden Ave at 2nd St, 718-729-4862) preceded it by nearly 125 years. This building was erected in 1881 by entrepreneur Tony Miller as a lavish hotel, and it attracted a clientele that included Presidents Grover Cleveland and Theodore Roosevelt, architect Stanford White and entertainer Lillian Russell. (The hotel’s prominence came from its location near the former terminal of the Long Island Rail Road.) Miller’s hotel lost momentum after the his death in 1897; Prohibition dealt a final blow, and the establishment closed. The space subsequently served as a warehouse, among other things. Anthony Mazzarella opened the current eatery in 1978, and his spot is packed with subway signs, board games, ancient advertisements, old bottles and walls of framed pictures,  including photos of the Crabhouse’s building in the golden age of Tony Miller. It’s a memorabilia hound’s dream tavern.

Subway: N, W to Astoria Blvd. Bus: Q103 to Vernon Blvd.