Jamaica Chamber of Commerce Building

89-31 161st Street | Jamaica | built 1929

Open on the map8 entries

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. 1901

    A large house stands on the future Chamber of Commerce lot

    The 1901 Atlas of the Borough of Queens shows a substantial dwelling on the site later used for the Chamber of Commerce Building. The same map shows the surrounding streets filled with detached frame houses and stables, mostly on lots 50 to 100 feet wide, while two- and three-story buildings clustered along Fulton Street.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1928

    June

    The Jamaica Chamber of Commerce buys land on 161st Street for a headquarters of its own

    Founded in 1919 as the Jamaica Board of Trade and renamed in 1927, the group had nearly 500 members when secretary Max C. Bunyan urged it to build a home that could pay for itself with rented offices. Under president Major Oscar Erlandsen, a building corporation offered members 5,000 preferred shares at $100 each, and in June 1928 it bought a large plot on the east side of 161st Street, once called Herriman Avenue.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1928

    August 27

    Ground is broken for the Chamber's ten-story headquarters

    George W. Conable, a Jamaica resident and Chamber member, filed plans in August 1928 for a ten-story building with stores on the ground floor, seven floors of rental offices and two floors for the Chamber's own offices, meeting and dining rooms. Work on the site started with a groundbreaking at the end of August, and construction got under way in October.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  4. 1928

    Architect George W. Conable, who drew up the Singer Building plans, designs the Chamber's tower

    Conable was born in Cortland, New York, in 1866 and earned an architecture degree from Cornell. In Ernest Flagg's office from 1905 he prepared the plans and working drawings for the Singer Building, and from 1908 to 1914 he designed churches with Hobart B. Upjohn. In Jamaica he designed the Central Queens YMCA before this headquarters. He died in 1933.

    “In 1905 he entered the office of Ernest Flagg where he was responsible for the preparation of the plans and working drawings of the Singer Building…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  5. 1929

    May 20

    The Chamber of Commerce Building is dedicated to local press praise

    The building opened with a dedication on May 20, 1929. The Long Island Daily Press called it a decided asset to the community that could compete in an architectural beauty contest. It rose as Jamaica was becoming a financial center for Long Island, with banks, trust companies and mortgage firms opening offices downtown.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  6. 1929

    A Georgian Revival tower rises to a temple on its roofline

    Conable based the design on 18th-century American and British models. A terra-cotta base with an entrance in the form of a triumphal arch, granite columns and the words Jamaica Chamber of Commerce in its frieze carries brick walls in Flemish bond, divided by cast-stone quoins. The center rises to a three-story pavilion ending in a pedimented temple with a cartouche; the year 1928 is carved beside the entrance.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  7. 1999

    The Chamber of Commerce moves its offices out of its building

    The building had been the Chamber's home since its 1929 dedication. After the Chamber moved its offices out in 1999, the building stayed in use as an office building.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  8. 2010

    October 26

    The Landmarks Preservation Commission designates the Chamber of Commerce Building

    At a September 2009 hearing, representatives of the Central Queens Historical Association, the New York Landmarks Conservancy and the Historic Districts Council spoke for designation, with no opposition. Letters of support came from Queens Borough President Helen Marshall, State Senator Shirley L. Huntley and Councilmember James F. Gennaro. The commission described the building as remarkably intact.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Further reading

Nearby

All 24 buildings with stories in Jamaica