Broadway & Steinway Streets, Late 1800s (Greater Astoria Historical Society)
Living and growing up in New York City, you can easily forget the rich cultural history that each of the different neighborhoods. In Astoria, for example, the bustling hookah bars and bazaars run by many Egyptian immigrants that line Steinway Street were once factories and stores inhabited by German and Greek factory workers and merchants. Let’s take a look at how the neighborhood of Astoria has evolved from uninhabited farmland, to a German factory worker enclave, to a Greek and Muslim paradise.
Way back when the Lenape Native Americans still populated the island of Manhattan, the Dutch who settled the island began to look for farmland to cultivate. William Hallet, a fur trader, and his wife were the first people to settle on farmland in what is now Long Island City and Astoria. Around 1800, wealthy merchants who wanted to leave the business of the city began to build their mansions along 12th and 14thstreet in a still relatively unoccupied Astoria. Finally in 1839, Steven Halsey (you guessed it, another fur trader) names the area Hallet’s Cove after its first resident. The name was short lived, as Hasley, looking to invest much needed money into the village’s infrastructure and foundation, petitioned to have the area named after long-time business associate, John Jacob Astor. While Astor never actually visited the area, he did contribute about two thousand dollars to fund the village, and the area’s name was changed to its current title of Astoria.
12th Street Mansion in Astoria Village (now Old Astoria), 1970 (Greater Astoria Historical Society
Life for the wealthy remained relatively consistent and peaceful, until around 1853, when Henry Steinway, an immigrant from Germany, built his famous Steinway piano factory in Astoria. Being one of the few industries located outside of Manhattan, the factory attracted many workers to move to the area. Steinway hired many newly immigrated Germans, and, soon, German stores, churches, and schools lined the streets of Astoria, transforming Astoria the area into a little Klinedeutscheland reminiscent of the one found on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Steinway Village of Astoria started to take its shape.
By 1898, Astoria became officially incorporated into the City of New York and the borough of Queens. With business booming and the area developing, city developers started to build tunnels and bridges to serve the travelling population. The Queensboro Bridge, made famous by F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby was finally completed in 1909, after years of delay and dispute, connecting Manhattan to Astoria and neighboring Long Island City. Similarly, the Interboro Rapid Transit Corporation, who owned part of the city’s subway lines at the time, completed the Flushing-Corona Line, connecting Midtown Manhattan to Long Island City and Astoria, and allowed for massive growth in the population of Astoria. With thousands of Italian, German, and Greek factory workers begin to move to residential Astoria to take up factory jobs in industrial Long Island City. To offset the massive demand to transport brought on uspon the rapid industrialization of Long Island City, the famous Hell Gate Bridge was built in 1916, to link the New York and Pennsylvania Railroads to the New Haven Railroad, and the rest of the North American Main Lines. Such an immense growth in transportation and industrialization made Astoria one of the most desirable and prosperous neighborhoods of New York during the late 1800s and early 1900s.
View of Hell Gate Bridge, Early 1900 (Greater Astoria Historical Society)
Despite it’s the neighborhood’s local popularity, Astoria was still little known outside of New York. When the Kaufman Astoria Studio opened in 1920, a great portion of the film industry was shifted from Hollywood to New York City, putting Astoria in the national spotlight. Two of the most notable films to be made at the studios were the Marx Brothers’ The Cocoanuts and Animal Crackers, followed decades later by hosting the sets of Sesame Street, Law & Order, and the Cosby Show.
Continuing with a pattern of change and growth, the next change in immigration occurred in 1965 when the Immigration and Nationality Act, or better known as the Hart-Celler Act of 1965, reduced the restriction of immigration the United Statees, allowing for a new flood of mostly Greek and Italian immigrants to settle in Astoria. These new immigrants replaced the aging German factory worker group, who decided to leave the city after accumulating a modest amount of wealth and status. By 1980, almost one-third of Greeks living in New York resided in Astoria.
Continuing the cycle of immigration booms and busts, by the 1990s, as property values increased, and the industrialization of Long Island City began to recede, the Greek and Italian populations, whose children have grown up, gone to college, and no longer wish to take up the family business, departed from Astoria, leaving room for new waves of immigrants, including Egyptians, Ecuadorians, Brazilians, Arabs, Bangladeshis, and Indians to move in. Much of what was previously Greek and German Steinway Street transformed into a Muslim haven, complete with Egyptian hookah lounges, grocery stores, and mosques.
In present day Astoria, growth and prosperity of over 200 years in the neighborhood has allowed it to become one of the safest in New York. Modest property values (compared to those in Manhattan and downtown Brooklyn) have attracted an influx of young urban professionals to add to the mix of what is now a predominantly Muslim Neighborhood.
Broadway & Steinway Streets, 2010 (Greater Astoria Historical Society)
Now that you’ve learned so much about the history of Astoria, take some time to explore its demographics, some cool places to hangout at, and some of the surprises unbeknown to even some of the residents of Astoria. It’ll make you a more cultured and well-rounded person, and you might be surprised at what you find out!
