Louis Armstrong House

34-56 107th Street | North Corona | built 1910

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The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

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.

  1. 1910

    Architect Robert W. Johnson designs a modest two-family frame house in Corona

    Robert W. Johnson, an architect based on Grove Street in Corona, drew up the plans and builder Thomas Daly put the house up in 1910 for an estimated $3,500. It began as a flat-roofed, two-story frame dwelling 20 by 48 feet on a 40-by-100-foot lot, much like its neighbors; a garage followed in 1925. While the Armstrongs lived here the lower two stories were faced in brick, garden walls went up, and a shingled third story with a peaked roof appears to have been added.

    “Designed by architect R. W. Johnson of 60 Grove Street, Corona, and built by Thomas Daly in 1910…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1943

    Lucille Armstrong buys the Corona house and hands Louis the key to his new home

    Lucille Wilson, a dancer who married Louis Armstrong in 1942, bought and furnished the house the next year, saying Louis lived nowhere in particular and had no wish to. When he first came to see it he had the cab wait outside with his luggage still in it. Instead he fell for the place and lived here for 28 years; according to biographers Max Jones and John Chilton, he said the house was paid for and he would never move.

    “…he left his bags in the cab, and told the driver to wait for him. But to his surprise, he fell in love with the house…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1971

    July 6

    Louis Armstrong dies after nearly three decades with this house as his home base

    Despite touring the world with his All Stars and earning the nickname Ambassador Satch, Armstrong kept this Corona house as his base for close to thirty years. From the 1940s into the 1970s it often served as a gathering place for his band members. He stayed busy to the end, appearing regularly on television in 1970 and 1971 and recording an album for his seventieth birthday, and died peacefully in his sleep on July 6, 1971.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  4. 1980

    June 12

    A plaque in the bedroom honors Lucille Armstrong for her work for Queens children

    After Louis's death Lucille stayed active in Corona: from 1971 she was an honorary chairperson of the Louis Armstrong Memorial Project, a community nonprofit, and sat as an honorary board member of the Queens Child Guidance Center. A plaque dated June 12, 1980, kept in the couple's bedroom, recognizes her social concern and her dedication to bettering the lives of Queens children.

    “A plaque in the Armstrongs' bedroom reads: "to Lucille Armstrong In Recognition of her Social Concern and Dedication to Improving the Lives of Queens Children. June 12, 1980.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  5. 1983

    Lucille Armstrong dies and wills the house to New York City as a memorial to Louis

    Lucille lived in the house until her death in 1983 and left it, with its contents, to the City of New York for a museum and study center on her husband's career and the history of jazz. The eleventh clause of her will asked that, if the city accepted it, the property be kept forever as a landmark in respectful memory of Louis Armstrong.

    “It is my wish that if the City of New York accepts said property, that the same be maintained, in perpetuity, as a landmark…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  6. 1988

    December 13

    The Landmarks Preservation Commission designates the Louis Armstrong House a city landmark

    Three years after a November 12, 1985 hearing at which five witnesses spoke in favor, the commission made the house an individual landmark on December 13, 1988. Its report found the brick-covered frame house essentially unchanged since the Armstrongs' time and called Armstrong a jazz musician, singer, entertainer and film star of worldwide renown whose home base stayed in Queens despite his travels.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  7. 2024

    The Louis Armstrong House Museum wins the National Medal for Museum and Library Service

    The house is run by the nonprofit Louis Armstrong House Museum, with Queens College of the City University of New York helping administer it. The museum, which also offers concerts, education programs and an archive of Armstrong's writings and recordings, won the Institute of Museum and Library Services' 2024 National Medal, and in September 2025 it joined the city's Cultural Institutions Group.

    “The Louis Armstrong House Museum is a winner of the 2024 National Medal for Museums and Library Service…”

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 2 buildings with stories in North Corona