STEINWAY Village in northwest Queens was a small company town that was instituted by William Steinway, son of German immigrant Henry, who had moved his operations to Astoria on the shores of the East River, where lumber could easily be brought to the factory via the East River. William Steinway constructed a street grid layout and built the factory that still stands, workers’ housing, a Protestant church, and additional factories and workspaces. It has been reviewed in a number of Forgotten NY tours in the area, most notably in 2017.
In the cover shot you see one of the area’s most unusual pair of homes, at 40-11 and 40-19 21st Avenue east of Steinway Street. They have slanted roofs and appear to have once been part of the same building.
In fact they are both “half houses” constructed during the Steinway era. They were two houses once separated by a center wall and owned by two families apiece, as shown in the above tax photos from 1940. Since the buildings appear intact in 1980s tax photos as well, the three-story brick building in the center was likely built in the 1990s. To make room, the east side of 40-11 was demolished as was the west side of 40-19, and the new building plopped in between!
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4/1/23