107th Street in Corona: the brick house with its stoop, then the garden behind the fence, the trellis, the koi pond, the brick barbecue, a trumpet on a plinth and a record turning on the patio, the neighbours passing, the 7 train on the elevated a few blocks off, the works hung on the fence, the trellis and the house wall.
Louis and Lucille Armstrong moved into their home on 107th Street in Corona, Queens in 1943 and lived there for nearly 30 years, until Louis's death in 1971. The house is both a National Historic Landmark and a New York City landmark. Its archives opened to researchers in the 1990s and the house opened for guided tours in 2003. Across the street, the 14,000 square foot Louis Armstrong Center opened in 2023 with a 75 seat venue and a garden.
Source · Louis Armstrong House Museum ↗
The two storey brick house Louis and Lucille bought in 1943 on a block of houses like it, the stoop, the side garden Lucille planted with its trellis, koi pond and brick barbecue, wind chimes, utility poles, the elevated 7 train on the horizon. Mood: a queens afternoon. Everything is procedural geometry with painted surfaces; nothing is a scan or a photograph. The room is an interpretation, and it hangs the New Yorkers the census recorded at this place first.