In 1893, Louis Comfort Tiffany and his business partner, Arthur Nash, founded the Stourbridge Glass Company in Corona next to the railroad tracks. In 1902, the name of the enterprise was changed to Tiffany Furnaces. His patented “favrile” (handmade) glass was created and manufactured here in this factory, 43rd Avenue and 97th Place, from 1901-1932.
Tiffany’s works reached the height of their popularity in the years leading up to WWI and the pieces are now much sought after works of art. Business slowly declined after the war, as tastes had changed with the passage of time. In 1928, Tiffany withdrew from the company, leaving Nash’s son to run the business alone under a different name. The Great Depression brought about the end of the company. However, the factory and furnace buildings on 97th Place remain standing and are used till recently. The Queens Museum, located in nearby Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, has a permanent Tiffany collection on display, as does the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan.
In March 2013, bulldozers were busy wrecking the old Tiffany buildings; a new school, PS 315, will rise in its place. Shards of Tiffany glass were found in the rubble, which will be included in a new sculpture in the school lobby.
3/29/13; rev. 6/14/13
12 comments
Memories of my home town
My guess is that a run of the mill apartment or office building will be going in its place.
Useful info. Lucky me I discovered your website accidentally, and I’m surprised why this twist of fate didn’t took place earlier!
I bookmarked it.
It’s going to be a NYC Public School. Why they couldn’t gut the interior and re-build the school within is beyond me – probably cheaper to just tear it down.
The union construction people would never allow it.
It’s going to be a school. It’s located on 43 Ave between a Firehouse ( E289 & TL138 ) and a police Pct. ( 110pct. ). It should be really safe for the kids as fire trucks and cop cars go flying by. Not to mention that it will take longer for them to respond to emergencies.
Once again, NYC allows the destruction of a structure that should be landmarked. I’m no preservationist, but I am a Queens native and Queens history buff who is well aware of the many homes and public buildings that have been demolished in the borough during the last century. The Tiffany Factory, if located in many other states, would have been saved, restored, repurposed, and landmarked 50 years ago. Queens is losing more and more high character buildings every year.
It’s a shame
It is strange how a 100+ year old building can be knocked down so quickly in an block that is still zones as M1. Yet I cannot make my 2 family house on the same square block commercial on the first floor.
Some 55 plus years ago I attended elementary school at PS19 at 99th and Roosevelt Ave. At lunch, some friends and I would sneak out to the “glass factory” to pick up “sandstone.” I guess it was leftover sand from castings that was fused and we could play with it like we were carving rock. It was found in trash bins on what may have been a loading dock. In the picture above it was at the back of the drive after passing under the arch, just behind where the truck is parked.
my friend Sue and I used to also grab some sandstone and make our own sculptures…. if you could call it that… we were under 10 yrs old when we did that. we lived just down the block from it. One of our Corona memories…
Arthur Nash was never a partner with Louis Tiffany. He simply managed the glassworks.
https://www.nytimes.com/1987/12/27/realestate/streetscapes-tiffany-studios-in-queens-a-remembrance-of-a-luminous-legend.html