![]() Part of the motivation for locating the Steinway factory in Queens was to keep the workers isolated from the ferment of labor organizing and radicalism occurring in other parts of New York, notably the Lower East Side. The family eventually established Steinway Village for their workers, a company town that provided school instruction in German as well as English. Later on, the Steinways built a sawmill and foundry, as well as a streetcar line. One such settler was Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg, patriarch of the Steinway family who founded the piano company Steinway & Sons in 1853, which today is a worldwide piano company. Economic development ĭuring the second half of the 19th century, economic and commercial growth brought increased immigration from German settlers, mostly furniture and cabinet makers. Astor, however, never actually set foot in Astoria. From Astor's summer home in Yorkville, Manhattan-on what is now East 87th Street near York Avenue-he could see across the East River the new Long Island village named in his honor. He only invested $500, but the name stayed nonetheless, as a bitter battle over naming the village finally was won by Astor's supporters and friends. The area was renamed for John Jacob Astor, then the wealthiest man in the United States with a net worth of more than $40 million, in order to persuade him to invest in the neighborhood. Halsey, was a noted recreational destination and resort for Manhattan's wealthy. Hallet's Cove, incorporated on April 12, 1839, and previously founded by fur merchant Stephen A. : 84īeginning in the early 19th century, affluent New Yorkers constructed large residences around 12th and 14th Streets, an area that later became known as Astoria Village (now Old Astoria). : 96 Hallet bought the land in 1664 from two native chiefs named Shawestcont and Erramorhar. The peninsula was bordered to the north by Hell Gate, to the west by the East River, and the south by Sunswick Creek. The area now known as Astoria was originally called Hallet's Cove (also spelled Hallett's Cove), after its first landowner William Hallet, (or Hallett) who settled there in 1652 with his wife, Elizabeth Fones, though they moved to Flushing after their farm was destroyed by Native Americans.
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