The next time you are in New York, a great place to visit for half a day is the Louis Armstrong house.
In 1943 when Lucille Armstrong bought the house in Queens it was in a predominantly black neighbourhood, a relatively ordinary two-storied house in a relatively ordinary multi-ethnic area. Over the next few years Lucille renovated the house in her own style and that is really the house you see now.
The story is that Louis, on returning from touring in 1943, gave the cab driver the address at 36-56, 107th Street, Queens and was taken to the new house that he had never seen before. As I understand it, Lucille occasionally toured with Louis and the All Stars but often returned home early and lived there much more than Louis and certainly the house reflects her style of living much more than it does his.
We were fortunate enough to have a friend Welly Choy from here in New Zealand who had two daughters working in New York and he was able to give us detailed instructions on how to get to the house - and you really do need to have them. Many people in the area seem to have limited English. It is possible to find it just from the address, but that may take you a little longer, or take a cab - New York cab drivers are wonderfully helpful.
From Grand Central station we took the 7th line to 103rd Street station and walked the several blocks to the house which is now in a neighbourhood that seems to be almost exclusively Latino. The 7th line starts as underground but once off Manhatten it becomes a surface train.
Louis and Lucille lived in the house until Louis died in 1971 and Lucille continued to live there until she died in 1983. It took from then until October 2003 for the house to be opened to the public.The house is now run by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and Queens College.
We were shown around by an elderly black woman whose pride in the house and Louis's achievements was evident from the very beginning. No photographs of the inside of the house were allowed and the six people in the tour party were obviously the maximum that could be accommodated at one time.
Of most interest for jazz lovers is the study Louis used and which is really the only part of the house that doesn't reflect Lucille's taste in decoration. Her taste tended to run to gold taps and flock wallpaper which has dated as well as deteriorated somewhat over the years. The study is wood panelled and has many interesting details including reel-to-reel tape decks and a record collection, as well as many mementoes of his travels. I checked the record collection on display but I am not at all sure it really is what was there orginally.
Louis and Lucille obviously could have afforded to have moved to a more upmarket area over the years but chose to stay as they liked the neighbourhood - one in which Lucille especially seems to have felt at home. A lovely story is that when the Armstrong's did some outside alterations, they realised that this made their house look much grander than the surrounding houses and so offered to pay for similar work on the other houses if the owners wished.
The garage under the house has been converted into a shop and audio-visual centre and various souvenirs - from fridge magnets to compact discs - are available to buy. There was also a short film about the All Stars visit to Ghana which I felt really wasn't especially interesting.
Most of Louis's papers and memorabilia as well as his trumpets, photographs, tapes and papers now are housed in the archival centre on the campus of Queens College at the Benjamin S. Rosenthal Library that is also open to the public.
The remaining impressions I have of the house are that it was quite small and that for its day it boasted many very modern appliances (the kitchen must have been the very latest in the mid-1960s), but that it is much more a reflection of Lucille than Louis. Nevertheless, to have seen the house that Louis considered home for much of his career is a most fascinating glimpse into the life of the most famous jazzman of all.
For more information about the house and the Benjamin S. Rosenthal Library click here
© Roger Strong