The borough of Queens suffers from a criminal paucity of designated landmarks, a situation, I have learned over time, that has much to do with Manhattan-centric bigotry, neglect and rotten, back-room Queens politics.
The borough stands to gain a precious tally in the win column on Tuesday, Jan. 15, when the Landmarks Preservation Committee holds a public hearing in which it will hear out the case for preserving Congregation Tifereth Isreal, a temple at 109-20 54TH Avenue, Queens. Built in 1911 in Corona, it very much resembled the kind of synagogues one finds on the Lower East Side, as Queens Crap noted. (I am indebted to QC for the picture.) It's a sweet little thing, in my opinion, and deserved to get the nod.
The meeting will also consider the calendaring of proposal to extend the Noho Historic District. Right now, the district basically covers a narrow area bordered on the south by Houston, on the north by Wanamaker Place (E. 9th), on the west by Mercer and on the east by Lafayette, with a little jag over to the Bowery for a few blocks.
There's also a little historic district called Noho East—basically a bunch of building on and around Bleecker between Lafayette and Bowery. Who knew?
I'm not *absolutely* sure it's still there as I haven't set foot in my hometown of Corona for over a year, but around the corner from this shul, on 53rd Avenue, is a disused synagogue building of red brick. Legend has it Madonna lived there for a while in the late '70s/very early '80s with her then-band, the Breakfast Club.
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