Leo F. Kearns Funeral Home

[doptg id=”213″]

Address: 103-33 Lefferts Boulevard
Neighborhood: Richmond Hill
Architect:  Meissner, A. F.
Year: 1952
Current Status: Extant
Award:  Bronze Plaque for Commercial
Typology:  Commercial Building

This is the first of four awards that Leo. F. Kearns would win for their facilities. A. F. Meissner was primarily a church architect and the Kearns family new him from local Catholic circles. But here he did something completely different with a Frank Lloyd-esque one story structure using a variety of materials to create a design unlike anything else in Queens or even NYC. The apocryphal story is that one of the Kearns brothers suggested this basic design to him when an earlier three-story Colonial Revival design was too cost prohibitive. Meisser’s design for the second Kearns branch also followed this lead. The Richmond Hill branch won a second award in 1964 for an alteration by Raymond Irrera to add an elevator enclosure. The addition is almost completely indistinguishable from the original structure. Today the Kearns family still own the building and use it for their popular funeral business.

 

Leo F. Kearns Funeral Home

Search