A Visit to Sunnyside where KISS played their first show and America tried to build its first utopian “garden city”

This week, as part of my Every Neighborhood in New York project, I visited Sunnyside, Queens—where KISS played their first gig (sans makeup), Tony Danza and “The Hebrew Hercules” sparred in the Sunnyside Gardens Arena (now a Wendy’s), and America’s first “garden city,” an attempted utopia, took root in the 1920s.

The last two pictures here show an elevated view of Sunnyside in 1917 vs. today (courtesy Google Maps).

To read more about Sunnyside and other NYC neighborhoods, subscribe to my newsletter here.