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Willets Point Farmhouse

Bayside, QueensGreek Revival architecture in New York CityHouses completed in 1829Houses in Queens, New YorkNew York City Designated Landmarks in Queens, New York

The Willets Point Farmhouse is a double farmhouse at Fort Totten within Bay Terrace in Queens, New York City. It was built in 1829 in the Greek Revival style for Charles Willets, who had recently acquired the land surrounding the house. In 1867, the Farmhouse was expanded and renovated in Gothic Revival style. It was subdivided in the 20th century by the U.S. Army in order to provide officer housing for Fort Totten, and in the subdivision process, much of the original detailing was lost.The building was abandoned by the Army in 1974 and the property was handed over to the City of New York. The farmhouse subsequently deteriorated and was vandalized despite the founding of the Fort Totten Historic District in 1999. In 2012, plans were made to renovate and stabilize the house, but as of 2018, it remains abandoned.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Willets Point Farmhouse (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Willets Point Farmhouse
Joe Michaels Mile, New York Queens County

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N 40.79 ° E -73.7813 °
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Joe Michaels Mile

Joe Michaels Mile
11359 New York, Queens County
New York, United States
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Sylvania Electric Products explosion

On the morning of July 2, 1956, three explosions involving scrap thorium occurred at the Sylvania Electric Products' Metallurgical Laboratory in Bayside, (now Bay Terrace) Queens, New York. Nine people were injured, some severely. One 28 year old employee, Oliver Blaber died on August 6, 1956. Workers described three fireballs.Sylvania was experimenting with large-scale production of thorium metal from thorium dioxide. Part of the process of shutting down this experiment was the reprocessing and burning of thorium metal powder sludges that went unprocessed during the experiment. It was during the incineration of this material that the explosion occurred. At the time the metallurgical properties of thorium were not well understood. The plant's medical director stated to the press at the time that the employee who died as a result, Oliver Blaber, had succumbed to "complications caused by third-degree burns". Blaber's son would later cite the death certificate, which listed "thorium poisoning". Victims of the explosions were treated at Flushing Hospital, where both Blaber's mother and wife worked. Blaber died a month after the incident, on August 6, 1956.Three hundred people – 225 employees, 50 firefighters, and 25 police officers – were tested for radiation. The role of radiation was downplayed, especially to assuage fears that a nuclear explosion had occurred. The debris from the explosion was ultimately disposed of in the ocean.