The Louis Armstrong House Museum held a groundbreaking ceremony this week for its new $23 million Education Center, which will be located across the street from the museum at 34-56 107th St. in Corona, Queens.
Speakers included Louis Armstrong House Museum Executive Director Michael Cogswell, Queens College President Félix V. Matos Rodríguez, Queens Borough President Melinda Katz and other elected officials.
The new facility aims to broaden the public’s understanding of Armstrong’s life and legacy with a state-of-the-art exhibition gallery, 68-seat jazz club and museum store. The center will also house the materials in the Louis Armstrong Archives—currently housed at Queens College, which administers the museum—in a cutting-edge second-floor archival center.
The center is being designed by New York City-based Caples Jefferson Architects and will be completed in 2019.
Occupied by Armstrong and his wife Lucille, who purchased the home in 1943, the preserved house is a National Historic Landmark and a New York City Landmark that hosts visitors from all over the world. The exhibit “Fifty Years of What a Wonderful World” is on display at the museum through October and is free with museum admission.