Free computer access is available at all the libraries. The Lefrak City Community Library has:
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International Language Collections at the Community Library include:
Special Interest/Noteworthy Collections at the Lefrak City Community Library include:
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Child Care / Preschools | ||
Kathy’s Day Care Home Inc. #1 97-30 57 Avenue Apartment 1J Corona NY , 11368 phone: (718) 592-5116 | Kathy’s Day Care Home Inc. #2 98-23 Horace Harding Expressway Apartment 1F Corona NY , 11368 phone: (718) 699-1373 | Sesame Sprout Inc. 96-08 57 Avenue Corona NY , 11368 phone: (718) 271-2294 |
Happy Dragon Learning Center 98-25 Horace Harding Expressway Corona NY , 11368 phone: (718) 271-5637 | International Children’s School 57-27 Penrod Avenue Corona NY , 11368 phone: (718) 271-1000 | Montessori School of New York International 55-30 Junction Blvd. Elmhurst NY , 11373 phone: (718) 857-3341 |
Community Board | ||
Community Board District #4 46-11 104th Street Corona NY , 11368 phone: (718) 760-3141 fax: (718) 760-5971 |
Community Organizations & Services | ||
Lefrak City Tenant’s Association 97-11 Horace Harding Expressway Corona NY , 11368 phone: (718) 347-2267 | Lefrak City Management Office 9705 Horace Harding Expressway Corona NY , 11368-4157 phone: (718) 271-5000 | Lefrak Organization, Inc. 97-77 Queens Blvd. Rego Park NY , 11368 phone: (718) 459-9021 |
Lefrak City Merchants Association P.O. Box 730634 Corona NY , 11373 phone: (718) 271-4309 | Lefrak City Youth & Adult Activities Association Inc. (LCYAAA, Inc.) P. O. Box 730523 Corona NY , 11368 phone: (866) 862-5544 | Lefrak City Jewish Center 98-15 Horace Harding Expressway Corona NY , 11368 phone: (718) 271-9621 |
The Islamic Center-Masjid AlFalah 42-12 National Street Corona NY , 11368 phone: (718) 476-7968 | Baptist Church Eternal Love 54-07 99 Street Corona NY , 11368 phone: (718) 271-1482 | Trinity Baptist Chapel 97-22 57th Avenue Corona NY , 11368 phone: (718) 271-3398 |
Powerhouse Fitness GYM Center 58-04 99th Street Corona NY , 11368 phone: (718) 592-4040 |
Fire Department | ||
Fire Company of Queens Engine 324 108-01 Horace Harding Expressway Corona NY , 11368 |
Local Hospitals | ||
Lefrak City Medical Center 98-15 Horace Harding Expressway Lefrak City NY , 11368 phone: (718) 699-8500 |
Local Newspapers | ||
Whatzup! – In & Around Lefrak City/Monthly Newsletter | Lefrak City Living :A Community of All Nations Living a Little Better/Community Newspaper | Corona Times |
Parks and Playgrounds | ||
Flushing Meadows/Corona Park Grand Central Parkway & Van Wyck Expressway | Linden Park - Park of the Americas 104 Street & 41 Avenue | Horace Harding Playground 62nd Drive between 97 Place & 98th Street |
Playground for All Children Corona Avenue & Saultell Avenue & 111th Street | Lost Battalion Hall 93-29 Queens Boulevard Rego Park NY , 11374 phone: (718) 263-1163/4121 |
Police Department | ||
Post Office | ||
Corona/Elmhurst Branch 5901 Junction Blvd Elmhurst NY , 11373-9997 phone: (718) 271-8630 or (800) 275-8777 |
Private / Parochial Schools | ||
Queens Occupational Training Center HS (P721Q) 57-12 94 Street Elmhurst NY , 11373 phone: (718) 760-1083 |
Public Elementary Schools | ||
PS 220 Edward Mandel School (PreK-5) 62-10 108 street Forest Hills NY , 11375 phone: (718) 592-3030 |
Public High Schools | ||
High School for Arts & Business YABC (Q550) 105-25 Horace Harding Expressway Corona NY , 11368 phone: (718) 271-8383 |
Public Intermediate / Junior High Schools | ||
JHS 157 Stephen A Halsey School (6-9) 64th Avenue and 102nd Street Rego Park NY , 11374 phone: 718) 830-4910 |
Senior Centers | ||
Lefrak Senior Citizens Center 96-08 57th Avenue Corona NY , 11368 phone: (718) 271-1222 | IPR HE Corona Senior Center 108-74 Roosevelt Avenue Corona NY , 11368 phone: (718) 639-2000 | Newtown Italian Senior Center 83-20 Queens Blvd. Elmhurst NY , 11373 phone: (718) 335-7272 |
Raices Corona Senior Center 102-47 43rd Avenue Corona NY , 11368 phone: (718) 458-7259 | Castle Senior Living (residential) 108-25 Horace Harding Expressway Forest Hills NY , 11368 phone: (718) 760-4600 | Madison York Assisted Living Community 112-14 Corona Ave. Flushing NY , 11368 phone: (718) 699-4100 |
Elected Officials | |
NYC Council Hon. Francisco Moya FMoya@council.nyc.gov | |
District Office 82-11 37th Avenue, Suite 607 Jackson Heights NY, 11372 phone: 718-651-1917 fax: 718-565-5937 | Manhattan Office 250 Broadway, Suite 1768 New York NY, 10007 phone: (212) 788-6862 fax: (212) 442-2725 |
NYS Assembly Hon. Jeffrion L. Aubry AubryJ@nyassembly.gov | |
District Office 98-09 Northern Blvd. Corona NY , 11368 phone: (718) 457-3615 fax: (718) 457-3640 | Albany Office LOB, Room 646 Albany NY, 12248 phone: (518) 455-4561 fax: (518) 455-4565 |
NYS Senate Hon. José Peralta JPeralta@nysenate.gov | |
District Office 32-37 Junction Boulevard East Elmhurst NY , 11369 phone: (718) 205-3881 fax: (718) 205-4145 | Albany Office Room 415, Legislative Office Building Albany NY , 12247 phone: (518) 455-2529 fax: (518) 426-6909 |
US Congress Hon. Joseph Crowley | |
District Office 82-11 37th Avenue, Suite 402 Astoria NY , 11372 phone: (718) 779-1400 fax: (718) 505-0156 | Legislative Office 1035 Longworth House Office Building Washington DC, 20515 phone: (202) 225-3965 fax: (202) 225-1909 |
Boro President Hon. Melinda Katz Info@queensbp.org | |
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Mayor Hon. Bill de Blasio | |
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Lefrak City was originally a 42-acre swampy and marginal land west of Horace Harding Boulevard in Corona. Since 1916 this land was unrestricted and it was overlooked by real estate developers of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s as a poor investment. The land was too soft and marshy for building large buildings. Earlier, it had been the scene of hundreds of Quonset huts for returning World War II veterans and their families--before many of them marched off to Long Island’s suburbs. Before that, the land was a fill dump which was called Mary’s Dump. In 1954, Samuel J. Lefrak, who was one of the world’s major builders and one of the largest landlords in the New York City metropolitan area, went to the City Planning Commission to have it re-zoned for business and residence districts. With an initial investment of more than $6 million, Lefrak purchased the vacant property from the estate of Lord William Waldorf Astor of England. Without any aid from federal, state or city funds, he then took a risk to invest $150 million into the project from 1961 until its completion in 1966. The architect was Jack Brown; Frank Stein was the renting manager. It was billed as “The City of Tomorrow”, as a city within a city to fill the acute housing shortage in New York City.
Soon after the construction a total of 5,000 apartments ranging from studios to three-bedroom units, with a new population of 25,000, were brought into the area, whose 20 18-story balconied buildings were surrounded by retail stores, supermarkets, restaurants, a public library, a bank, a post office, and two office buildings. Each apartment was built with nine-foot-high ceilings, an electric kitchen under-the-window air-conditioner sleeves, and a terrace for “total facilities for total living.” Inspired by the Olympic five-ring logo, the complex includes five intersecting residential sections, each section consisting of four buildings that form an x-pattern. Very uniquely, the buildings within each section are named for countries or cities that are located in the same part of the world. For example, section one is dedicated to Europe, with its buildings named London, Copenhagen, Paris, and Roma on their regimented bricks.
Lefrak City, the towering apartment complex, runs between the Long Island Expressway and 57th Avenue and stretches from Junction Blvd. to 99th Street. It borders Elmhurst, Corona and Rego Park. The official address of Lefrak City is 97-05 Horace Harding Blvd, Corona. The population of Lefrak City has varied over the years. In the beginning, the complex drew middle-class tenants and a large number of Jewish immigrants who had first settled in the South Bronx, the Lower East Side, and Brooklyn. Some of them were United Nations staff and diplomats. Lefrak City even housed many international exhibitors during the New York World Fair in 1964 and 1965. Following allegations by the Justice Department that black applicants were discriminated against in the early 1970s, the Lefrak Organization, which owns the property, agreed to help black tenants move into the complex.
In the 1980s, an increase of crime from drugs and gang violence led to the departure of Lefrak City’s white middle-class and left it teetering on the edge of collapse. It was not until the early 1990s that the coincidental arrival of Russian Jews and more African immigrants brought new life to the complex. This unlikely combination of newcomers, Jewish refugees from the former Soviet Union’s Central Asia Republics of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, and Muslim immigrants from Africa, has revitalized Lefrak City and stabilized its population. Toward the turn of the 21st Century, Lefrak City and its expanded adjacent vicinities have witnessed a new wave of Hispanic and Asian immigrants, mostly from countries such as Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru as well as China, India, Philippines, Pakistan, and Korea.
Lefrak City is a short walk away from the bustling mass transportation hub that brings together eight local bus lines as well as G, R and V trains. Triboro Coach Corp. operates Manhattan-bound express buses that stop at the complex. The Long Island Expressway intersects the Grand Central Parkway to the east, and Queens Blvd. and Woodhaven Blvd. meet two blocks from the complex. In addition to its indoor shopping center, the complex is within walking distance of the Queens Center Mall and the Rego Park shopping center. With courts for tennis, basketball, and volleyball, soccer fields, ice skating rinks, playgrounds, parking spaces and public garages, picnic and barbecue areas, jogging trails, and a vegetable garden for senior citizens, Lefrak City is a haven and a home for new immigrants, mainly from Latin America, Africa, Russia and Asia.
Through the years, Lefrak City has made a myriad of non-profit cultural, social, athletic, religious, and educational activities available to all residents: including an on-premises after-school program, computer-learning center, summer day camp, and youth employment program. Each summer the housing complex sponsors a barbecue for tenants during Family Day and hosts a popular youth basketball tournament. To serve the international flavor of its tenants Lefrak City also has a mosque, a synagogue, and a Baptist church, as well as other organizations that cultivate a strong sense of belonging. Today, Lefrak City, the largest privately financed apartment development in the United States is still attracting new residents from all over the city and the world.
More Information about the Lefrak City community is available from the following sources:
Books
Corona, Lefrak City, Borough of Queens, New York City, 1955-1987 Prepared by Robert Friedrich Long Island Division, QBPL 1989
Websites
http://queens.about.com/od/realestateandapartments/g/lefrak_city.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LeFrak_City,_Queens
http://www.queenstribune.com/archives/anniversaryarchive/anniversary99/been_doin/tb_an_doin02.html
With a “Please Open Before Christmas,” the library at Lefrak City, the Queens Borough Public Library’s fifty-fourth branch started serving its thousands of residents on Tuesday, December 13th, 1966. Mrs. Marie Bottomley was the librarian in charge of the branch. At the time, the library rented a special wing in one of the Lefrak buildings, at 98-27 Horace Harding Expressway, to house the 8,000 sq. ft. branch. It had a capacity for 35,000 volumes, seated 110 readers, and boasted a community room for library-related programs. The Bookmobile, giving weekly library service, made its last stop in the area on December 6th, 1966.
The new Lefrak City Community Library, with the state-of-the–art-facility was relocated within the Lefrak City housing complex again at 98-30 57th avenue between 99th Street and Junction Blvd. The new branch is more than two times larger than the previous building, which reopened its doors to customers on August 18, 2003 after the extensive renovations. The Borough President’s Office contributed $600,000 from its 2004 capital budget for continuing renovation to the building. Richard Lefrak, Sam Lefrak’s only son and the third president of the Lefrak Organization, donated $50,000 to cover work to the heating and ventilation systems, sidewalk repair and plumbing. Because of the new improvements, the library now features an enlarged children’s room, a stadium-seating story time room for kids, an easy-accessible teen area, redesigned circulation desk, an elevator near the library’s entrance for handicapped people, and user-friendly self-checkout machines. It also has a 120-seat auditorium which could be divided into smaller sections for programs, classes and meetings.
According to the American Cancer Society, approximately one of two American men and one of three American women will have some type of cancer at some point during their lifetime. Queens Library HealthLink seeks to increase access to cancer screening and cancer treatment among medically underserved communities in Queens. Queens Library HealthLink is a partnership between Queens Library, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Queens Cancer Center of Queens Hospital and the American Cancer Society.