The first nuclear weapons were gravity bombs, such as this “Fat Man” weapon dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. They were very large and could only be delivered by heavy bomber aircraft.
Photos public domain 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 March 1954!
As the chill winter winds gave way to the gentle breezes and new life that mark the passage into spring, America in 1954 was about to enter an uncertain, tumultuous period in its history. Frightening new technology cast a pall of com plete destruction over the entire planet. Previously marginalized groups struggled for their voices to be heard, and young Americans growing into adulthood often rebelled to establish an identity distinct from their parents.
Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin decried Communist influence in all corners of American society. In the South Pacific, fallout from a March 1 hydrogen bomb test badly burned crew members of a Japanese tuna fishing boat, one of whom later died, becoming the first victim of the destructive new weapon. In Vietnam, French paratroopers, aided by the United States, battled determined Viet Minh revolutionaries in the lush green hills around Dien Bien Phu. Across our country, Red–hunting Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin decried Communist influence in all corners of American society. Meanwhile, in our nation’s capitol, Congressional debate was interrupted by gunfire on March 1 as Puerto Rican nationalists opened fire on the House of Representatives, with Congressmember James Delaney of Queens shouting to the guards to “lock the doors” as the chamber erupted in chaos.
Closer to home, Communists, national liberation movements and doomsday atomic weapons were not all that preoccupied Queens of March, 1954. Out of control youth seemed to run wild in the streets, schools and apartment blocs of the borough. In Elmhurst, two youngsters playing hookey from school on St. Patrick’s Day tested their Irish luck at the Museum of Natural History, stealing poison darts from an exhibit on the Indians of the Peruvian rain forest. The boys later turned themselves in to the local police station, along with their haul of arrows tipped with the lethal poison curare, which paralyzes the respiratory system, heart and brain of its target.
Not to be outdone in the juvenile arms race, on March 17 a car stealing zip gun gang which prowled the streets of Bayside faced justice in Ridgewood Felony Court for assaulting another youth at gunpoint. Bail was set at $10,000 for the ringleader. The gangster who manufactured the crude firearm used in the attack was also tried and held on bail. In the face of such daily mayhem, the March 9 Long Island Star Journal echoed a common plea from local police: “Give us a chance to use our kind of medicine…a kick in the pants!”
With local police busy locking up these wayward teens, the Fire Department turned its sights on business establishments in Sunnyside and Laurel Hill suspected of jeopardizing safety by violating fire codes. The inspections were prompted by a conflagration, which leveled a building on 48th Street in Laurel Hill on March 20 as well as complaints from partygoers about overcrowded nightclubs throughout the city stoking fears of a fatal blaze. Citing his personal memories of the Diamond Candy Factory fire in Brooklyn in 1915, which claimed 15 lives, and the Cocoanut
Grove blaze in Boston, which left 492 dead, Fire Commissioner Edward Cavanagh threatened to close more than 100 businesses.
These same streets and neighborhoods of Queens also produced civic-minded individuals that left their mark on the country and the world. Father Joseph Newell of Corona brought his ministry to the countryside of Japan, a nation defeated and impoverished by years of war. The 36 year old priest attended to the needs of locals, distributed Christmas presents to needy youngsters and delivered Catholic mass in Japanese for his flock near the city of Yokohama.
Back stateside, in 1954 Queens lost a little piece of its history to the relentless march of time. On March 28, the 18–room Clark mansion on Kissena Boulevard in Flushing was completely destroyed in a two-alarm blaze. Originally named “Evergreen Lawn”, the mansion and its surrounding estate were built in 1815 by Preserved Fish, so named after surviving a harrowing birth at sea during a heavy storm. A garage on the estate, which was slated for redevelopment into cooperative apartments, housed an antique car collection belonging to the house’s last owner, one Henry Austin Clark.
Even the passage of time, however, does not bury beautiful, vivid memories of people, places and experiences long past. In March, Mrs. Margaret Lyons of 37th Street in Long Island City celebrated her 80th birthday in the house in which she was born in 1874. The sprightly grandmother recalled winter days when families hung their laundry outside, the laundry water stained with the color of clothing leaving behind a frozen rainbow on the pavement where it was dumped. The Queens resident wistfully related shopping trips to Manhattan – two trolley rides and a ferry trip each way – before bridges spanned the East River, and stories of neighbors getting together to help build houses for newcomers to the neighborhood. “I often tell my children,” she said, reflecting on days past, “how I wish Blissville could come back for only one day to let them see what it was like – the rolling green hills and farms, the goats, chickens and pigs that everyone kept, and the dancing and games outdoors in the summertime.”
That’s the way it was March, 1954!
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.
