An Elmhurst landmark will get some upgrades, but it needs help from the community first.
Constructed in the 1920s, the former Elks Lodge at 82-10 Queens Blvd. was designated a City landmark in 2001. According to Landmarks Preservation Commission documents, some of the features that earned the building its designation include a bronze elk statute at its entrance, ornate carvings around its entryway and its brick, limestone and granite façade.
Today, these designs are somewhat daunted by the current of traffic on Queens Boulevard and the crowd of neighboring buildings. Meanwhile, certain elements of the lodge are falling into disrepair; bricks have slipped out of the exterior walls and some balustrades are chipped or missing.
Nevertheless, it is a building busy with activity, and one of the several groups that use the Elks Lodge have found a way to restore it to its former state.
Last year, the New Life Community Development Corporation applied for a grant to restore the building with the State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.
“We thought, maybe they would throw us a bag of cement or a couple of shovels or something,” New Life CDC executive director Redd Sevilla said.
Instead, in December, Parks awarded New Life CDC a matching grant of $500,000 for the restoration.
It was “the miracle that happened on Queens Boulevard,” Sevilla said.
According to Parks spokesman Randy Simons, the grant constitutes a 75 percent reimbursement of the total project cost, up to $500,000. This means that a restoration costing $666,667 would achieve the full $500,000 reimbursement, with New Life CDC fronting the initial cost and ultimately paying the difference.
New Life CDC has until the end of 2015 to fundraise for the project.
7 comments:
An Elmhurst landmark will get some upgrades, but it needs help from the community first.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Lucky they are not in Astoria or Long Island City where the locals crow about the rights of 'private property' owners to mutilate community landmarks.
Lots of pride and respect there.
“We thought, maybe they would throw us a bag of cement or a couple of shovels or something,”
nice,very dry stinging comment
there must be a bunch of venture capitalist vultures and demented city officials and planners out there just salivating to get that space.
what's messed up and probably why the parks department decided to give them the cash is that it is only a few blocks from the pan am homeless hotel and a few blocks north is the shell of a former functioning hospital that's still not finished since it closed down years ago.
not a cool area to attract foreign investors or libertine artists.
Aesthetically sure beats the Chinese design crap that's going up all around it. Hello Kitty, would you like a moon cake?
Remind me why this is a landmark? An Elk statue? Are there any Elk Lodge members left?
Can't anything just be torn down anymore?
The building is an eyesore and wasted space. They should knock it down and build another Pan Am rican hotel for the homeless.
They need to put back the portrait of Archie Bunker the Koreans took down !
This lodge, its members and surrounding neighborhood were a HUGE influence on Norman Lear's script adaption of the UK's "Till Death Do Us Part"
There would be no hit TV show "All In The Family" and "Archie Bunkers Place" without the 3 key components above.
sorry to digress but
All In The Family is the greatest show ever.
in fact the best shows were all based in NY
honeymooners,
taxi,
seinfeld,
barney miller
any others I forgot?if its not too late to post about this article
It is a worthy landmark. It's beautiful. The elk is awesome and in terms of public art - what else is there along the entire length of Queens Blvd?
I have been inside and New List Community is doing great work on the restoration.
The real eyesores along Queens Blvd are all the empty apartments and pathetically bland architecture.
Post a Comment