qcsb.independence.hall

When the Queens County Savings Bank main branch, at Main Street and 76th Avenue, was constructed in 1953, it was meant to be a replica of…

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… Independence Hall in Philadelphia. In fact, it has a Liberty Bell model in the lobby, minus the famed crack.

The Queens County Savings Bank at 75-44 Main Street was erected from 1952-1953 and opened February 15th, 1954. It was considered by locals to be the center of a then expanding village. In 1954, it won a building award by the Queens Chamber of Commerce as part of its annual competition.

The bank overlooks a triangle called Freedom Square, which features a flagpole dedicated to Theodore Herzl. A Hungarian Jew, Herzl (1860-1904) was the founder of modern Zionism. He supported the establishment of a Jewish national state and organized the first Zionist World Congress in 1897, serving as its president until his death. The city renamed Ames Street in Brownsville, Brooklyn, for Herzl in 1913.


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