Thursday, June 30, 2016

Effort underway to preserve another Childs Restaurant


From DNA Info:

A push is underway to landmark a local building that's thought to have once housed a Childs restaurant — the second Queens building associated with the early dining chain to catch the attention of preservationists this month.

Filmmaker Lisa Hurwitz submitted a request Saturday to the Landmarks Preservation Commission to evaluate 59-37 Queens Blvd. for potential landmarking. The history of the property and its decorative terra cotta facade deserve to be preserved, she says in her petition.

Her request comes alongside another submitted this week by the Greater Astoria Historical Society, which asked LPC to landmark a similar-looking building in Astoria that's also believed to be a former Childs eatery.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

There are other locations in College Pt, Roosevelt Ave, Jericho Turnpike, and Fresh Pond Road. Go after them too!

Anonymous said...

Honestly. I don't see anything worth landmarking on that building. It's a quaint old building. Why does the government need to get involved. They are already into everything as it is.

Anonymous said...

Honestly. I don't see anything worth landmarking on that building. It's a quaint old building. Why does the government need to get involved. They are already into everything as it is.
---
Because people who live in Landmarked Districts or next to Landmarks value them and are trying to do everything they can for more Landmarks.

This might come as a shock to you, but there is more value than the dirt under our feet in communities. Talk to people that are into Landmarking.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for mentioning my application for the Woodside Childs landmark.

I would love for others to champion College Pt, Roosevelt Ave, Jericho Turnpike, and Fresh Pond Road...

It's more manageable if someone different submits each application and can handle press and community relations for each neighborhood...

Anonymous said...

Word on the street is Costa is borrowing a page from Jimmys playbook on the Elks quietly sending messages to selected people that everything is fine and everyone is working together. of course his messages don't seem to make a hell of a lot of sense but people are reading things into it that is not there.

Same with the store owner's charm offensive that seems to translate into wee don't hear the jackhammers so everything is ok.

Of course they will not touch the terra-cotta .... for now .... and everyone will declare a victory until the building is sold when the old lady dies and it will go the say of the Elks Building with a community once again painting itself into a hopeless corner.

Give it a year to two.

Anonymous said...

they are just trying to landmark the fascade of all of these places -- i do not believe this was ever a child's restaurant -

Anonymous said...

YES...dummy...this was a Child's restaurant.
There is another on the Coney Island Boardwalk.

Anonymous said...

Nice try but the landmarking will not happen. This is Queens.
The advice of its historical societies will not be heeded.
Development is our forte. Preservation takes a back seat.

Anonymous said...

Of course it will not be landmarked.

Everyone wants to make sure the merchant is not being hurt, no one wants to take responsibility of anything in their community, and everyone is too naive, or more likely lazy, to do anything about it.

The old timers believed all the garbage that their padrones told them and the newbies don't give a crap.

Anonymous said...

It would be nice to verify that all the locations with that terra-cotta designs or seahorse motifs actually were Childs Restaurants.

Queens Crapper said...

Of course they were. Here is the list of where they were all located.

Sarah said...

A list on Wikipedia is not “fact”. None of these Queens building misidentified as “Childs” have any historical source material. I have now catalogued over 200 locations using historical sources from menus, newspapers, court records, building permits, fire insurance maps and photos and NONE of the Queens buildings is mentioned once in any of the thousands of sources. Not once.