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| Poppenhusen Institute entry hall |
7/10/2011
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| Poppenhusen Institute |
On
the northern fringe of Queens lies a neighborhood under siege. Called College Point after a college
that closed over one hundred and fifty years ago, this neighborhood
was once a small town of Victorian homes, summer resorts and German beer
gardens, yet much of the remnants of that past are being slowly demolished
today in favor of low cost, high density apartment buildings. In the heart of this vanishing town
lies an ancient community center with the esoteric name of the Poppenhusen Institute.
A
sign on the front proudly declares it the site of the first free kindergarten
in the United States (began July 1st, 1870), but despite its
official Landmark status the institute is not really set up for visitors and
was difficult to get into. We’ve
found that historic buildings occasionally get noted as museums even if they
are not set up as such, and this appears to be the case with the Poppenhusen
Institute. However, it was on our
list and I was unable to determine its museum-y qualities online, so Paul and I
combed their facebook site for times when they were open and we ended up crashing their summer
fundraiser. When we got there, the
flea market and bake sale were up and running and the Beatles cover band was in
full swing. We didn’t know anyone
at this neighborhood party, but we’ve gone far stranger places in the pursuit
of our goal (see our post on the retirement home in Riverdale), so Paul entered
the raffle and we gamely set about exploring the building.
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| Jail cells in the Poppenhusen Institute |
The
Institute is named for the German-American industrialist Conrad Poppenhusen,
who built a factory here to manufacture hard rubber goods, transforming College
Point from a sleepy farming community into a factory town. Poppenhusen built the institute in 1868
to serve the community that grew up around the factory, and in addition to the
kindergarten, this building also served as the local bank, the first library in
College Point, a courtroom and the Sheriffs Office. Paul and I stumbled upon two jail cells in the basement,
left over from its law and order days.
Upstairs
there were classrooms for the institute’s karate and dance classes, a large ballroom and a
limited exhibit on local Native Americans, complete with a grass hut and a manikin
dressed in a loincloth. For me,
the most touching part of the museum was a series of poster boards in the back,
with pictures of the historic buildings that College Point has lost to
development. Faded black and
white photographs of buildings were surrounded with notes of the battles that had
been waged to save them and the descriptions of what has been lost. It felt like looking at photos of lost
friends whose lives had been tragically cut short by the rapid pace of high-density
development.
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| Joe Beresheim's Butcher Shop. A note reads: "This building still stands." |
The
Poppenhusen Institute itself was almost demolished in 1983, but the community
rallied to save it and on this occasion they won. Its nice to know
that some pieces of the old College Point will be around a little longer.
Pauline:
2 out of 10. Historic community center, but not much to see and limited
hours.
Paul:
4 out of 10. A noble last stand against the destruction of a neighborhood.
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| Sewing class at the Poppenhusen Institutue |
O my goodness, precious pictures of museums. http://ow.ly/O08ct
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