EAST River Tower, 11-24 31st Avenue, is a new 20-story luxury building that towers over the competition in gentrifying Ravenswood, Queens, from this view from Carl Schurz Park on Manhattan’s east side in Yorkville. In this case, the competition is somewhat elderly. Directly beneath the tower is the former Sohmer Piano factory. I first encountered the building several years ago when it was still occupied by the Adirondack Chair Company and spoke with John Pupa, Vice President of Operations for Adirondack. He said that Adirondack no longer heated the building with coal but it still maintained its old Hewes and Phillips coal-burning oven, which he showed me and GAHS Director Bob Singleton, and took coal deliveries. From one of the upstairs rooms, now converted to a condo apartment, we had a good view of the river. A pair of chiseled signs at Vernon Boulevard and 31st Avenue proclaim the former names “Boulevard” and “Jamaica (Avenue).” However I do not have maps with these former names. In 1886, when the factory was constructed, those were no doubt briefly the names; Jamaica Avenue later became Patterson Avenue and then 31st.
In the foreground is Roosevelt Island and the Renwick Lighthouse at its northern end. The gray gneiss rock 50-foot tall lighthouse (known officially as the Blackwell Island Light) was built by architect James Renwick Jr., who also built the island’s Smallpox Hospital, in 1872. It replaced a small fort built by Thomas Maxey, a patient in the nearby “Octagon” lunatic asylum, the remains of which formed the centerpiece of a new luxury housing project completed around 2005. The light operated until 1940, and thence the lighthouse was unmaintained and fell into ruin. It was subsequently stabilized and restored by 1998.
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10/29/25
8 comments
What do you say when someone throws a rock through your window?
“Gneiss isn’t nice.”
The pier at the river (if its still there), was known to myself and my friends as “Jamaica Dock’. Maybe others called it Pattersons Pier or nothing at all. It was not in the greatest shape as I remember.
Old street names–
There was once a pier in this area which was a terminal of the New York State Barge Canal system. It is possible that it may have been Tom remembers. It is long gone.
Yes, that I knew as I kid. Never could understand why 31 ave was called Jamaica ave (still dont), as it was no where near Jamaica but only learned of the name Patterson from your wonderful website
The pier at the foot of Jamaica Street was the Barge Canal Terminal. There was another pier, for the ferry to 93rd Street in Manhattan. It ran until 1936 when the Triborough Bridge (and Robert Moses) put it out of service. It was at the end of Fulton (an extension of Grand) and Mill (now 1st).
Street names often reflected where you went to if you took that street. From that ferry you could take Flushing or Newtown, which took you to those respective destinations. In the case of Jamaica, it appears to have been more honorific, as I can’t find anything showing that it went to Jamaica.
what do you say when you step onto Manhattan? “Oh, schist”!
What happens when you fall in Brooklyn? You Hoyt your Schermerhorn.