Original White Castle

In Sunnyside – 1940

This photograph comes from
“Tax Department Photographs, New York City Archives”
This was the very first White Castle in our community; it was located on Queens Blvd. between 50th and 51 Street. Located between the Tydol Gas Station and the Sunnyside Pool. Directly across the Blvd, from the White Castle was the Triborough Bus Company Garage. (During the summer evenings employees of White Castle and the Bus Company would climb the Pool fence and take a late night dip.) You can see the train trestle behind the restaurant, and right behind the train was the Sunnyside Movie House. White Castle was a great place to take your date before or after the movie, at that time the hamburgers were five cents each, or 6 for a quarter. It first opened on Saturday September 3rd, 1932. and closed on May 9th, 1943 due to World War 2 and meat rationing.