Bland Houses

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James A. Bland Houses has five, 10-story buildings with 399 apartments. Completed May 8, 1952, the 6.19-acre Queens development is bordered by the Long Island Rail Road, Roosevelt Avenue and Prince and Lawrence Streets.

Bland Houses is named after James Alan Bland (1854-1911), an American composer of popular songs. Bland was born in 1854 in Flushing, N.Y., the son of free Americans. While attending Howard University he became enthralled with the banjo and learned to play it by himself. Later he worked in minstrel shows throughout Europe and the United States becoming the highest paid minstrel singer in the country. Bland performed for Queen Victoria and the Prince of Wales at Buckingham Palace and President Grover Cleveland and Gen. Robert E. Lee in Washington. He died of tuberculosis in 1911.

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