By Rebecca henely
After more than a decade of preparation, Corona’s Louis Armstrong House Museum is gearing up to start construction on a new visitor’s center, which will be located across the street from the jazz legend’s home and will house an extensive collection as well as hosting numerous concerts and events for visitors.
“It’s going to create a real destination site here in Queens,” said Deslyn Dyer, assistant director at the museum.
The museum, at 34-56 107th St., was the home of the New Orleans-born jazz musician and his wife, Lucille, from 1943 until his death in 1971 at age 69. The house was left to the city by Lucille Armstrong, and for an $8 adult pass, visitors can see the home and the Japanese garden outside the house as it looked when the Armstrongs lived in it.
“It’s a unique site that’s been completely preserved,” Dyer said.
The Louis Armstrong House receives 12,000 visitors a year, many of whom come from all over the world, and when an event becomes too crowded, the museum has had to turn visitors away.
“Louie’s home is a beautiful space, but it’s a small space,” Dyer said.
To increase the museum’s capacity as well as to transfer the museum’s enormous archive of artifacts currently housed at Queens College in Flushing, the decision was made more than a decade ago to build a visitor’s center in the empty lot across from the house, Dyer said.
After acquiring the property and raising $15 million through federal and state sources in the ensuing years, the museum is hoping to break ground on the project later this year and open the expanded house in 2013. Since the museum is technically a part of Queens College, the project will be administered through the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York.
Dyer said the new building will be a green structure and is planned to receive Gold Certification — the second-highest rating possible — under the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program. It will contain a jazz room that can be set up like a jazz club of yesteryear and used for performances, but it will also be able to accommodate lectures and other group events, house the thousands of items in the museum’s archives and provide a space for the staff of the museum.
“We will all be in one location,” Dyer said.
She said the visitor’s center will help the museum promote Armstrong’s legacy.
“It’s already a fun and exciting and unique experience that New York City offers,” Dyer said.
Reach reporter Rebecca Henely by e-mail at rhenely@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4564.
