Louis Armstrong's House

Jazz legend Louis Armstrong and his fourth wife Lucille (a dancer he met at the Cotton Club) moved to Corona, Queens in 1943. There he lived for nearly thirty years, teaching the neighborhood kids to play trumpet and buying them ice cream. Lucille left the house to the city after her death, to be used as a museum. The garage where Louis kept his beloved Cadillac was turned into a giftshop and the basement game room into an exhibit hall. The rest of the three-story house was preserved as the Armstrongs had lived in it, filled with Chinese art and swinging retro-modern appliances. Many of the rooms feature built-in recordings of Louis speaking around his house. In one such recording, when asked about those upstart Beatles, Louis enthused "They're great! They've got a new beat there." In the upstairs den hangs a portrait of Louis painted by his friend Tony Bennett, affectionately signed "Benedetto."

Photography is not permitted on the residential floors (you can see photos of his kitchen at TheKitchn.com), but here's what I was otherwise able to get.








After his neighbors were evicted for nonpayment of rent, Louis had the house torn down and turned into this walled garden. The museum often puts on summer jazz concerts here.






The gold-plated Selmer trumpet given to Louis in 1933 by King George V of England.


"The property of Louis Armstrong."



Want more? Here's a great documentary of the man himself.


Satchmo.