Queens Writer Booking On Borough

Local history buffs enjoyed a special treat at the Flushing Library as Jason Antos (at right), author of Queens: Then & Now, gave a PowerPoint presentation using past and present images of neighborhoods throughout the borough. As shown from left, the author and historian is pictured with his stepfather, Sam Baker; his mother, Wendy Baker; and Gina Fazio, program manager for Queens Library. (photo: Bill Mitchell) For as long as he can remember, Jason Antos has had an interest in local history and it serves him well in fueling projects such as Queens: Then & Now, his latest book.

“I’ve always found that anything I would ever write about would be historically oriented,” Antos told a visitor to the Flushing Library.

October has been celebrated by the Queens Library as Storytelling Month and Antos’ participation in an Author Talk program on Oct. 14 was among the many special events at community libraries throughout the borough.

The cover of Jason Antos’ third and latest book, Queens: Then & Now, published by Arcadia Publishing. He was welcomed by Gina Fazio, program manager for the Flushing Library.

Utilizing a PowerPoint presentation, Antos gave the audience a taste of his new 96-page softcover, which is rich with “then and now” photos.

The 28-year-old now has three books under his writing belt. If it’s true that writers are well-advised to stick to subjects they know, Antos made an ideal choice by focusing on his own neighborhood for his first book, Whitestone.

Young historian writes

It might come as a surprise to learn that the historian behind the book was only 25 years old when he wrote it.

How it happened started with some holiday shopping.

Antos explained that in his desire to become a published author, he had started to look around at what kinds of books were getting into print.

While doing his Christmas shopping, he noticed that a bookseller on the Internet was offering a recently released book about College Point.

It moved him to contact the publisher, Arcadia Publishing, about a book on his own neighborhood in northeastern Queens.

Showed early interest

The decision on what sort of book to write may have developed after that bit of shopping on the Internet, but the signs of interest in history had displayed themselves much earlier.

Antos admits that as a youngster, he had possessed a curiosity about old sites.

“Even when I was a kid, I would meet somebody who would just start telling me about the history of the neighborhood,” he said, adding, “And I would listen, whether the conversation was on the street or in the grocery store.”

But early on, he added some firsthand experience, too.

Boy explorers

With his friends, Antos would engage in a popular boyhood activity— exploring old houses and other places they deemed worthy of investigation.

One such location was the former Cresthaven Country Club, which had operated as the CYO Day Camp for nearly 40 years before it closed in 1989.

Near the Throgs Neck Bridge, the Hammerstein House—originally a Neo-Tudor mansion built in the 1920s for musical producer Arthur Hammerstein and his actress wife, Dorothy Dalton—was another.

For a time, it had been Ripples on the Water, a catering hall that was used for a dance club on Monday nights during the height of the disco period

Today, the house on Powells Cove Boulevard is a landmarked structure within a gated community, Wildfire Estates.

Antos recalled, “It was Ripples and then it was abandoned,” which made it perfect for exploring.

“We would run around in there and it was like being in another world,” he said. “It made an impression on me.”

Not surprisingly, the Hammerstein House is given its share of attention in Whitestone.

The first book was followed by one about another subject with which the author was more than a little familiar— the former home of his favorite baseball team, the New York Mets.

A place he knew well

In Shea Stadium, he takes the reader through the origin of the nowdemolished facility, which opened in conjunction with the nearby 1964 New York World’s Fair, and how it served as home for some (such as the Mets, NFL Jets and even the Yankees, for a time) and played host to others (most notably, the Beatles).

To follow up on the book, a calendar has just been released. The cover of the calendar is the same as that of the book—a photo that has sparked just a little bit of controversy in some quarters. It shows the stadium’s namesake, attorney Bill Shea, on the field with a former Mets manager who is better known as the skipper of the Mets’ crosstown rival.

According to Antos, some have openly wondered why Joe Torre—a Mets player at the end of his career and the club’s manager years before his great success guiding the New York Yankees to championships— is the one pictured with Bill Shea on the cover of his book.

“I get a lot of static, with people thinking that I was trying to make a statement,” Antos revealed. “But the truth is, it was really the only picture that I could find of Bill Shea to put on the cover that they were allowing me to use for free.”

He added, “Some people wanted a lot of money, to put a photo on the cover”.

Thanks to the Long Island Division of the Queens Library, he was able to obtain use of the photo that would serve as the cover of his book and the new calendar for 2010.

For anyone who been along on the journey that the Mets have been on since they left the Polo Grounds in Upper Manhattan after two years of existence and came to Queens, there are many images to spark the memories.

Longtime fans will see pictures not only of favorite players, but of fellow travelers—such as the late Karl Ehrhardt, the fan from Queens who was better known as “The Sign Man of Shea.”

With an understanding that his would be the first book about Shea Stadium, Antos wanted to add all the right touches to the project.

Book about his borough

With his latest book, Antos has expanded his area of coverage to include his native borough, putting a spotlight on places that readers having only a casual interest in local history can appreciate. It’s likely to mean a discovery of structures long since vanished from the landscape and uses that ceased decades ago.

An introduction penned by the author provides the reader with a brief but enlightening history of Queens that sets the stage for the images to follow.

Some points that are noted:

• The effects of the glacier that created the territory due to become known as Queens and Greater Long Island.

• The discovery of evidence showing that prehistoric creatures existed in Queens.

• Identification of the borough’s Native American inhabitants and the location of early European settlements.

• How the first war between Dutch settlers and Native Americans in Queens occurred.

• How Queens County was established and the origin of its name.

• What occurred to cause the author to describe it as “the most important day in the borough’s history.”

A story in words and pictures

Over the pages that follow, Antos takes the reader on a guided tour that conveys a feeling of time travel, one page at a time.

It is divided into four chapters: Western Queens; Northern Queens; Central and Southern Queens; Eastern Queens and Beyond.

From its outset, the book makes an impact that figures to be in direct proportion to one’s familiarity with the borough in general and selected locations in particular.

In keeping with the “then and now” approach, what is described as “the oldest-known photograph of Woodside’ (taken in 1871-72) is coupled with a recent view of the same site.F

or those who know the various locations, there is much enjoyment to be had in seeing the differences, as a scene or structure of the unrecognizable is followed by a photo of something one might pass on a regular basis.

But visual evidence of the changes can startle as well as enlighten.

This was evident during Antos’ appearance at the Flushing Library, as he would project a vintage image, discuss its history and then show what the same site looks like today. At times, the audience indicated its dismay at what some might regard as progress.

From castle to garage

There was no better example than a look at Bodine Castle, which had been located on Vernon Boulevard in Long Island City. As described by Antos, “this beautiful villa designed in the Gothic Revival fashion was built in 1851 overlooking the Manhattan skyline.” Its owner, John Bodine, was an official with the Long Island Savings Bank.

When Antos followed the image of the castle with one that shows what stands in its place—a singlestory taxi-repair garage—built after the castle had been demolished by Con Edison in 1966, sounds of shock and sadness resonated within the room.

It is one of the many photographic comparisons of past and present that can be found within the pages of Queens: Then & Now.

What’s next

As for his next project, Jason Antos is currently working on Flushing: Then & Now, to be released by Arcadia Publishing in the late spring of 2010.