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A little about Astoria

With its wide array of ethnic restaurants, bars and dance venues, Astoria attracts fun-seekers from all around New York City. However, the Northwestern Queens neighborhood is largely residential with many one- and two-family homes, parks and sizable Greek, Italian, Middle Eastern, Southeast Asian and even hipster populations. Several blocks of Steinway Street are known as "Little Egypt" with Arabic signs for cafés, bookstores, barbershops and hookah joints. Astoria has the biggest Greek community outside of Athens, and 36th and 37th avenues feature Brazilian and Bangladeshi stores.

The history of Astoria

The area now known as Astoria was originally called Hallet's Cove, after its first landowner William Hallet, who settled there in 1659 with his wife, Elizabeth Fones. Beginning 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). Hallet's Cove, founded in 1839 by fur merchant Stephen A. Halsey, was a noted recreational destination and resort for Manhattan's wealthy Astoria also figured prominently in early American filmmaking as one of its initial centers, a heritage preserved today by the Museum of the Moving Image and Kaufman Astoria Studios.