Long Island City Star Building
Few NYC neighborhoods have undergone as much change in the 21st century as Long Island City, especially in the Queens Plaza area, where a former industrial, light manufacturing and low-rise residential area has given way to high-rise glass-fronted apartment towers, none of which are “affordable” at least to me. In the early days of my website Forgotten New York in 1999-2005 I was able to chronicle the Queens Plaza are before change began to arrive. The “tip of the spear” was the sea-green (former) Citicorp Tower on Jackson Avenue, which now sits in a thicket of towers.
The Long Island Star building, housing the offices and press of the longtime newspaper The Long Island City Daily Star (founded 1867), stood at 28th Street and 42nd Road for decades until its demolition in 2008. The paper merged with Flushing’s North Shore Journal in the 1930s and soldiered on until 1968 as the Long Island Star Journal. The paper covered the opening of the first luxury apartments in Jackson Heights and the extension of the IRT Queensboro subway as far as Corona in 1917; published an interview with author Helen Keller, who lived in Queens in 1922; bannered the opening of North Beach Airport (now LaGuardia Airport) on the grounds of a former amusement park in 1930 and the opening of Idlewild, now Kennedy, Airport in 1948; and headlined the death of 29 passengers and injuries to 115 as two Long Island Rail Road trains crashed head-on in November 1950.
A verdigrised plaque of the Long Island Star’s founder, Thomas Todd (1835-1901), could be seen at the corner. Todd cemented the use of the name "Long Island City" years before the area officially incorporated as a city in 1870. Todd vanished mysteriously in 1901, and he was presumed dead; the case was never solved.
Star Tower LIC, a luxury 26-floor condominium building, was completed in 2019, referencing the long-gone newspaper in its name. According to its website,
“Residents of Star Tower enjoy an array of amenities, including a doorman, elevator access, private outdoor spaces, a bike room, children's playroom, community recreation facilities, concierge services, garage parking, a fully equipped gym, on-site laundry facilities, live-in superintendents, a media room, package room, and additional storage options. The building also features virtual doorman services and is designated as a smoke-free environment, enhancing the overall living experience for its residents.”
I’d love to know what happened to that Thomas Todd plaque!
Kevin Walsh is the webmaster of the award-winning website Forgotten NY, and the author of the books Forgotten New York (HarperCollins, 2006) and also, with the Greater Astoria Historical Society, Forgotten Queens (Arcadia, 2013).