Trylon Theater in Forest Hills Patch - A 1939 World's Fair Legacy Never Ceases

The 1939 Trylon Theater as boasted in 1941 in The Theatre Catalog

The Trylon Theater after its 60-year run in Dec 1999. A time when the facade's most significant Art Deco features with international ties remained intact.

The TRYLON THEATER is your Rego-Forest Preservation Council Chairman's latest installation in the Local History column for Forest Hills Patch. 

This theater at 98-81 Queens Blvd, Forest Hills had cultural, architectural, and historical significance to the 1939 – 1940 World's Fair, which was held in Flushing Meadows Park, and categorized by the 700-ft spire Trylon (pyramid) and 180-ft Perisphere (globe) monuments. It was the “Theater of Tomorrow,” since the theme of the 1939 World’s Fair was the “World of Tomorrow,” where exhibits emphasized technological improvements. Social and cultural change led to new waves of immigrants. The marquee once boasted The Wizard of Oz and Gone With The Wind. 

With the exception of its closure in 1999, and the jackhammering of significant Art Deco features in 2005 despite a community preservation movement and political controversy, you can read an excerpt of its intriguing 60-year chapter of what defined a neighborhood theater with international ties. Please share your memories: http://foresthills.patch.com/articles/trylon-theatre 

Thankfully hosted on the 1939 New York World's Fair (Reaction Grid) website, you can read more about the Committee To Save The Trylon Theater (which led to the creation of Rego-Forest Preservation Council in late 2006): http://www.1939nyworldsfair.com/worlds_fair/trylon_theater.htm In short, when former councilmember, Melinda Katz, did NOT support landmarking sites in Forest Hills, the Landmarks Preservation Commission backed off from the Trylon Theater. Sometimes public officials forget why they were elected.

Art Deco glory! The Trylon Theater entrance pavilion after closure in Dec 1999. It features a Trylon Monument on the mosaic ticket booth with a central 3D mirror-image on the terrazzo floor, which is then accompanied by Art Deco chevrons in mosaic tiles.

Art Deco travesty in 2005: Hard to believe that this was all that remained of the above image, consisting of the priceless ticket booth and entrance pavilion, as a demolition crew was told to destroy this artifact.

2005: Bad enough the lobby was gutted, but the back-lit mosaic Trylon fountain wasn't even spared.

The World of Tomorrow-themed cloth mural for the Trylon Theater, a "Theater of Tomorrow." Sadly, this work of art alongside the proscenium wasn't preserved when the building underwent a conversion.

After viewing these photos and reading its history, the question on most people's minds becomes.........

 Wouldn't it have been much easier to work together to preserve and creatively reuse the Trylon Theater's historic Art Deco features, while undergoing conversion to a cultural center in 2005?

Introducing "Local History" Column in Forest Hills Patch - Debuting Eddie's Sweet Shop

Youngsters sitting at the counter of Witt's Ice Cream, which would later be known as Eddie's Sweet Shop. Could it be Owner William Witt?

As a native Forest Hills resident, NYC preservationist, and writer, I take pride in my new weekly column with a popular hyper-publication, Forest Hills Patch. Introducing... Local History. Enjoy my first feature, "Eddie's Sweet Shop." As we celebrate the 119th anniversary of the sundae, treat yourself in what's NYC's earliest intact ice cream parlor, at 105-29 Metropolitan Ave, Forest Hills:

http://foresthills.patch.com/articles/eddies-sweet-shop

If you are curious about the history of any landmarks, worthy sites & sections, long-forgotten sites, or historic notables of Forest Hills or Rego Park, please send your suggestions to unlockthevault@hotmail.com, and I will consider coverage. It is a pleasure to serve our community!

- Michael Perlman, Chairman of Rego-Forest Preservation Council 

Downed Trees Represent The Loss of History in Forest Hills: Michael Perlman's Interview with Forest Hills Patch

Local historian Michael Perlman stands with a monumental Weeping Willow that was destroyed during the tornado. Photo by Forest Hills Patch

Approximately a week after the September 16, 2010 macroburst, which tore through Forest Hills and sections of Rego Park within minutes, as well as other parts of Queens & Brooklyn, I was privileged to meet reporter Rob MacKay of Forest Hills Patch, a fairly new neighborhood publication. We surveyed the damage in Forest Hills' Cord Meyer section, and along Queens Blvd near MacDonald Park, which were 2 of the sections that were drastically affected. On the basis of my interview, which revolves around the historic "forest" factor in Forest Hills, Rego-Forest Preservation Council is proud yet sad to feature the 9/25 Forest Hills Patch article, Downed Trees Represent The Loss of History In Forest Hills:

http://foresthills.patch.com/articles/downed-trees-represent-loss-of-history-in-forest-hills


Hundred-year-old growth swept away in 'minutes'

The storm system that ripped through Brooklyn and Queens on Sept. 16 caused one death, vast property damage and left thousands without power. It also destroyed hundreds of trees in the Forest Hills area, including some that had predated the neighborhood's turn-of-the-century founding.

Commissioner Joseph Bruno, of the New York City Office of Emergency Management, said Queens lost 3,113 trees in total, with 4,000 more damaged.

"You took a major hit, there's no question, that's over 7,000 trees affected in a significant way," Bruno said at a town hall meeting.

"It was like a living horror film," said Michael Perlman, a third-generation resident who was walking in his neighborhood when the storm struck. "This tragedy took the 'forest' out of Forest Hills."

The city has not taken an official count yet, but Perlman, who chairs the Rego-Forest Preservation Council, thinks that more than 1,000 trees were destroyed in just Forest Hills. The majority were maples, oaks and elms, but the neighborhood lost weeping willows, cherry blossoms, apple blossoms and ginkoes, too. Many of the trees stood 100-feet high, and some were close to 150 years old, he said.

Perlman, who has walked around the streets with his camera to document the damage, noted that trees located on street corners more often perished than ones at mid-block that were protected by large apartment complexes. He was surprised to discover that so many of the younger, thinner trees survived, while the thick trunks of many mature ones were snapped apart and blown 30 to 40 feet away. "It's haunting that what took an entire life — almost a century — can be eliminated in a couple of minutes," he said. "It proves that we have to be thankful for what we have and what we had."

No streets in the community were without damage, but the Leslie Apartments in Forest Hills Gardens and MacDonald Park on Queens Boulevard and 70^th Road were hit particularly hard.

Other devastated areas include the portion bounded by 108^th Street and Yellowstone Boulevard from 68^th Street to Continental Avenue and what is known as "The Cord Meyer Section," which includes the vicinity of 110^th Street and Jewel Avenue. One apartment building near the intersection of Queens and Yellowstone boulevards was left with a barren sidewalk as all its trees fell down like dominoes.

According to Perlman, some of the felled trees predated the establishment of Forest Hills in 1906 and Forest Hills Gardens in 1909, and most uprooted trees were older than the apartment buildings that were constructed beside them between 1920 and the 1940's. The macroburst, as it has become known, came 50 years to the day after Hurricane Donna ravaged Forest Hills, destroying the West Side Tennis Club and causing a seven-day suspension of the 1960 U.S. Open tennis tournament final that was being played there.

Perlman, 28, said he hoped to live in Forest Hills for his entire life, and he has just begun an effort to re-green the neighborhood. Some of the trees can be resurrected through re-planting and pruning, he believes, and if that's not possible, he wants to plant new ones. He said he plans to reach out to arborists, neighbors, civic associations, building complexes, the Parks Department, and the community board.

"Nothing is impossible," he said. "It would be very inspirational for the neighborhood."

End of an era! The tree of all trees; 1 of 2 cherished Weeping Willow trees in front of the regal James Madison on 108th St is uprooted & mourned by residents & passersby. Photo by Forest Hills Patch

A prominent oak tree, likely dating to the 1920s, snaps & twists at the trunk, falling  into the lawn of The Continental Apartments. It was planted when the first Continental Apts was erected or perhaps pre-dated it, and then Cord Meyer Development built around several of its type on the block, when the replacement building was erected. Photo by Forest Hills Patch