Queens Historic Homes: A Journey Through Time

About This Tour

This walk visits six houses in Queens where people who shaped American history lived or worked. In Flushing you can see a house built around 1661 that sits at the center of an early fight for religious freedom, an eighteenth-century half-house moved to a park in 1968, a Queen Anne house moved in 1988 that is now a museum to an inventor whose parents had escaped slavery, and a family home with a Victorian garden and bird sanctuary. Farther west, in Corona, is the brick-covered house where Louis Armstrong lived for nearly thirty years. In East Elmhurst is the private home where Malcolm X and his family survived a firebombing in 1965. The houses show how ordinary architecture carries large stories: a steep colonial roof, fish-scale shingles, a veranda replaced by a brick addition, siding laid over an old brick front. Each stop gives the address, what to look for on the exterior, and the hours of any museum inside. You travel on foot only. The Flushing houses sit close together, while Corona and East Elmhurst are farther apart. Choose a short, medium or long walk, and pause and resume whenever you like. Several of these museums keep limited hours, so check the stop details before you set out. The East Elmhurst house is a private home, so please view it from the sidewalk and keep your voice low.

Tour Highlights

Tour Route & Stops