📍34-56 107th Street, Corona, Queens, NY 11368, USA
1943 – 1971“In March 1943, while I was away on the road, my wife Lucille put a down payment on a modest brick house at 34-56 107th Street in Corona, Queens, a working-class neighbourhood of Black, Italian and Latino families. I had told her I didn't need a house, but when I came home and the taxi pulled up, I told the driver he must have the wrong address. Lucille had made us a home, and I lived there for the rest of my life. I could have bought a mansion with servants and yardmen, but I wanted to stay among ordinary people. Corona was where I came back to after touring the world, and the neighbourhood kids would be waiting for me on the stoop; I'd play my trumpet for them, buy them ice cream and listen to their stories. Our neighbours, the Heraldo family, became close friends, and Selma Heraldo next door was like family. Lucille decorated the house with her own style, with a mirrored bathroom and a turquoise kitchen, and in my den I recorded hours of tapes, talking, playing and listening to records, and made collages of photographs and clippings on my tape boxes. After I passed in 1971, Lucille stayed in the house and left it to the city so it could become a museum. It opened to the public in 2003 as the Louis Armstrong House Museum, just as we left it, and it is now a National Historic Landmark. Across the street, Selma's Place and the Armstrong Center welcome visitors and young musicians, and children in Corona still learn about the man who played for them on his front step.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today