Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning (former Queens Register)
161-04 Jamaica Avenue | also 161-06 Jamaica Avenue | Jamaica | built 1898
Open on the map3 entries
The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1898
Queens builds its Office of the Register in a neo-Italian Renaissance stone design
The building went up in 1898, the year Greater New York was incorporated, and Queens architect A. S. Macgregor, who filed its new-building application, may have designed it. The landmark commission called it the finest neo-Italian Renaissance building in Queens, noting the deeply rusticated ground floor against the smooth upper stories, a round-arched doorway between rusticated columns, and seven arched second-floor windows.
- 1974
The old Register is designated a landmark as the new Jamaica Arts Center
By the time of designation the former Office of the Register had become The Register/Jamaica Arts Center, which the commission saw as a key piece of Jamaica's redevelopment. Its first two floors held an art gallery, York College was to use the third floor for classrooms, and the rear extension's top floors were planned for arts groups and the Greater Jamaica Development Corporation.
“…the first two floors are used as an art gallery; York College is to use the third for classroom space…”
- 2025
Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning serves more than 53,000 people a year from the old Register
Founded in 1972 to help revive downtown Jamaica's business district, the center runs two art galleries, studios for art, music and animation, and a 99-seat proscenium theater in the building. It also runs a 400-seat theater in the former First Reformed Church, and it is one of 39 members of the city's Cultural Institutions Group.
“…as of 2025, it serves more than 53,000 people annually via two art galleries, along with art, music, and animation studios, a 99-seat proscenium theater…”
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Jamaica Center for Arts & LearningWikipedia
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