Church of the Transfiguration and the Queens County Hotel, Maspeth

One of the most beautiful buildings in Queens, the Church of the Transfiguration Roman Catholic Church on Perry Avenue east of 64th Street was constructed in 1962, replacing an earlier church built in 1909 to serve the swelling population of Lithuanian immigrants.

A replica of a Lithuanian roadside shrine sits in the church’s front lawn, and the steeple also resembles such a shrine. Lithuanian folk art elements adorn the inside of the church. The Lithuanian phrase above the doors, Mano Namai Maldos Namai means “My house is a house of prayer.” Multiple masses are still celebrated in the Lithuanian language each weekend.

Around the corner at Remsen Place and Grand Avenue across from Mount Olivet Cemetery, Grand Florist occupies the ground floor of what was once the Queens County Hotel, built in 1851 to serve farmers from Long Island who were hauling wagon loads of produce to Brooklyn’s Wallabout Market. The hotel was one of many that sprang up on Grand Avenue, a farm to market road once known as the Brooklyn and Newtown Turnpike. It was a long trip by wagon, and the weary drivers and passengers would stay the night and take a meal, and not a few drinks.