Get out your historic maps and preservation buttons Queens aficionados; the Landmark Preservation Committee voted to hold a public hearing on March 23rd regarding a plan to turn Addisleigh Park into a historic district. Addisleigh Park, an upper-middle-class neighborhood in St. Albans, was home to a cavalcade of notable African-Americans, including Jackie Robinson, W.E.B. DuBois, Ella Fitzgerald, John Coltrane, Fats Waller and Count Basie. This would be Queens ninth historic district, and fourth largest. The Committee also voted to hold hearings on three other buildings in Jamaica, Queens, all built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Despite all the Queens-love, there's still no movement on Jack Kerouac's historic Queens literary trail.
In other landmark preservation news, the LPC also voted to hold public hearings on giving the long-shuttered Coney Island Theatre landmark status. This would line-up nicely with Mayor Bloomberg's long-held desire to revitalize Coney Island as a vital tourist attraction. However, the current owners of the building, Kansas Fried Chicken king Horace Bullard and business partner Peter Sheffer, actually oppose landmark status because it would "restrict" redevelopment in the amusement district.
