HOW the mighty have fallen! The former United National Bank of Long Island at 101st Avenue and 95th Street is now used as a 99-cent store. Amazingly, it has retained most of its original architectural elements including its huge arched windows, chamfered (slanted) corner doorway and Ionic columns at the entrance. UNBLI, through a series of mergers, became the Bank of New York Mellon.
Here’s a look at the building in 1940 when it was still a bank. Both the bank, and the building just west of it on the left, are prime examples of reusing existing architecture. I’m glad the bank building is still there, at least. The two story building on the left, also with arched windows, is the former Woodhaven Volunteer Exempt Fireman’s Association building and heavily altered, it’s now home to an archery range, Pro Line Archery Lanes! A fireman known as “exempt” was a member of a volunteer fire company for five years; a number of other exceptions and corollaries to this rule further explained the term “exempt.”
Other unusual features here are the light fixture suspended from a wire above the street; this was common in Queens in the 1940s, and they held on in places like Los Angeles until recently. If you look at a map, 95th Street curves against the overall grid; it’s the original path of Woodhaven Avenue which was straightened to become Woodhaven Boulevard.
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7/27/23
3 comments
How degrading
Degrading indeed, but thankfully, at least, not razed…
Wow that just looks silly. And I thought a movie theater turned into a 99c store was strange….