Page 26 - Queens 2019 Membership Directory and Resource Guide

QUEENS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
OUR HISTORY
20TH CENTURY
1912
JANUARY: Chamber holds its first annual dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria
Hotel in Manhattan, January 11. Addresses by Queens Borough President Maurice Connelly, Court of Special Sessions Chief Justice Isaac Franklin Russell and Tenement House Commissioner John Murphy.
SEPTEMBER:
Chamber moves to offices in the Electric Building (formerly
the Queens Plaza Court Building),
28-11 Queens Plaza North in Long Island City. A separate dining room is established as the Plaza Lunch Club, but is absorbed by the Chamber by the 1920s.
the design of a flag for the Borough of Queens.
DECEMBER:
Chamber publishes its first Bulletin, which by September 1915 evolves into Queens- Borough magazine.
1919
JANUARY: Chamber launches drive to decorate the Long Island Rail Road ferry terminal at Hunters Point to welcome back troops from World
War I.
JULY: Chamber luncheon honors crew members of the first trans-Atlantic flight, which left the Rocka- ways on May 8, 1919 and landed in Lisbon, Portugal, on May 27.
merce building; this name remains today.
SEPTEMBER: Cham- ber’s transit committee suggests construction of a transit station in the Sunnyside Yard to connect the Interboro and BMT els, the Long Island, New York, New Haven & Hartford, and New York, Westches- ter & Boston railroads.
1938
FEBRUARY: Chamber announces plans for
a pavilion at the New York World’s Fair.
1943
JANUARY: Chamber forms industrial Council to pool
the borough’s manu- facturing resources for defense.
1915
JUNE: Members of the Chamber’s transit committee officiate
at the opening of the Queensboro elevated line, June 22; Chamber Secretary Walter Willis purchases first ticket.
SEPTEMBER:
Chamber joins the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Chamber begins placing adver- tisements promoting Queens in trolley cars of New York & Queens County Railway.
1930
JANUARY: Chamber’s Aviation Committee recommends construc- tion of airports
along Flushing and Jamaica bays.
1921
SEPTEMBER:
Chamber accepts its first female member, Mrs. V. Koelbel, of the Model Brassiere Company, Elmhurst.
1949
JANUARY: In series
of meetings with
civic groups, Chamber proposes broad transit expansion program
in Queens.
1933
JANUARY: Chamber designated to represent National Recovery Administra- tion in Queens.
1913
APRIL: Chamber pub- lishes 144-page book, Queensborough, fea- turing information on industry and residenc- es in the borough. The Chamber issued new versions of this book in 1914, 1920
JUNE: At the request of Borough President Maurice Connolly, Queens Chamber of Commerce approves
1925
JUNE: Chamber moves to new offices on the top floor of the Crescent Plaza Build- ing, 24-16 Queens Pla- za South, Long Island City. Facilities include a conference room, dining room with daily luncheon service, and club room. Later the building is renamed the Chamber of Com-
1952
JANUARY: Former Chamber president James A. Lundy sworn in as Queens Borough President.
1917
JANUARY: Former president William Taft addresses Chamber’s sixth annual dinner
at Biltmore Hotel, January 20.
1936
OCTOBER: At Cham- ber fete, President Franklin D. Roosevelt breaks ground for the Queens-Midtown Tunnel.
24 2019 QUEENS BUSINESS DIRECTORY & RESOURCE GUIDE