The first basketball court: Springfield College. Get into a conversation with a long time Queens resident and you’re likely to discover a subscriber of the Long Island Star- Journal, a daily paper that informed the community about local and world news until it folded in 1968. A banner across the Star-Journal masthead reminded readers that the newspaper’s name came from the merger of the Long Island Daily Star (1876) and the North Shore Daily Journal- The Flushing Journal (1841).
Welcome to February 1906!
The year was 1906. In Italy, Mount Vesuvius erupted, devastating the city of Naples. The Royal Mail Steamer Lusitania was launched in Glasgow, Scotland. At 787 feet, it was at the time the world’s largest ship. On April, 18, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake all but destroyed the port city of San Francisco killing some 3,000 persons. The world’s first feature film, The Story of the Kelly Gang, was released in Australia. Closer to home, New Yorker Theodore Roosevelt sat in the White House, and Upton Sinclair published his meatpacking industry expose, The Jungle, in Feb., 1906 was certainly a mosaic of human stories. Queens in February 1906, was a bustling community of rapidly disappearing farms and booming residential and industrial developments.
Typical bowling alley c. 1906. February 1906 brought progress and new opportunity for women in Queens. On February 5, the first female lawyer ever to appear in the Fifth Street Police Court argued the case of young John Sorrentino of Brooklyn, charged with stealing bicycles from a repair shop in Bayshore. The lawyer, whose name is lost to history, had little chance to display her courtroom flair as the suspect was quickly arrested on a warrant for burglary.
In Italy, Mount Vesuvius erupted in 1906. devastating the city of Naples. The great strides that Queens would witness in the 20th century came too late, however, for many locals, their lives tragically cut short by disease, industrial accidents and poor living conditions. Of the 58 deaths in Queens reported to the Board of Health in the first week of February, 23 were under the age of 15. Common causes of death included diphtheria, tuberculosis, Bright’s disease and accidents. A terrible accident tore apart a Steinway Street family on February 12, when four-year-old Gladys Berglind perished in a house fire while her mother was shopping. “Mother will not be gone long, so be careful dear,” were the last words Mrs. Berglind would say to the youngster, returning home 15 minutes later to find the child’s clothing on fire and the little girl burned beyond help. The coroner determined that young Gladys had been playing with matches in her mother’s absence.
In spite of the uncertainty, tragedy and trouble that tomorrow may bring, locals enjoyed themselves and partook in the simple pleasures of life. At Hettinger’s Broadway Hall, on Broadway and 7th Avenue, some locals tried their hand at bowling and the shooting gallery while others puffed away on cigars and sipped the choicest labels of wine and liquor. Bowling was a popular pastime in early 20th century Queens, with establishments such as Strack’s Casino, The Crescent and Henry J. Goette’s among the venues.
On February 13, music aficionados braved the winter cold of Schuetzen Park to hear a recital by performer Kathryn Shaw, who did not disappoint with her rendition of numbers including “Daffodils A–Blowing”, Wagner’s aria “Dich Theure Halle” and “April Girl”. Those not inclined to leave the comfort of home may have gathered around the improved Edison Phonograph. With gold molded records, the machine “brings cheer all the year” trumpeted advertisements in the Long Island Weekly Star.
Schuetzen Park was also a venue for the new sport of basketball, pitting local club teams such as the Knickerbocker Five and the Warwicks against squads from Flushing H.S. and DeWitt Clinton H.S. The matches were usually low scoring affairs and passing, not dribbling, was the primary means to move the ball. In some games, players still scored by shooting the ball into the peach basket that gave the sport its name.
Mischief and mayhem were another form of amusement for many area youngsters. The winter snow landed 11-year-old Jimmy Flanagan in hot water early on February 5, when Patrolman Kennedy arrested him for pelting passersby with snowballs on Vernon Avenue.
Wintry weather also proved the undoing of young pigeon thief Joseph Metcalf. Locals were treated to an early Hollywood–style police chase as Metcalf and two accomplices, carrying a sack of stolen birds, were chased by a pistol– wielding officer Maher of the Astoria station. After ignoring warnings to stop, the determined officer opened fire, hitting an overhanging icicle that struck Metcalf in the head. Thinking he had been shot, the young hoodlum fell to the ground and was soon arrested. He was held on $1,000 bail.
Basketball, bowling and police chases were not all that was new to 1906 Queens. New Yorkers of the 19th century would have struggled to recognize the bustling, rapidly developing panoply of industry, immigrant neighborhoods and suburban affluence, perhaps searching in vain for the pastoral serenity and small town charm of yesteryear. Progress brought with it stark juxtaposition.While horse drawn fire engines rushed to quench fires in the factories and shipping piers of Long Island City, editorial discussion in the Weekly Star turned to a proposed $100 million connecting railway to link Manhattan with the growing community across the East River. It would be another three years until the Queensboro Bridge spanned the distance and firmly connected Queens to 20th century America.
Queens has always been a melting pot of individual stories; stories of achievement, triumph and tragedy, stories of the richness of old world tradition meeting the dynamism of New York’s largest borough. They softly whisper and beckon to us like ghosts, their faces strangely familiar.
That’s the way it was in February 1906.
The Greater Astoria Historical Society is open to the public, Saturdays, noon until 5 p.m. and is located at the Quinn Funeral Home, 4th Floor, 35-20 Broadway in Long Island City. Additional hours include Wednesday 6 to 8 p.m. Visit our gift shop on line. For further information, call 718- 278- 0700 or, visit www.astorialic.org.
