Louis Armstrong House Museum
The modest Corona house Louis and Lucille Armstrong lived in for nearly thirty years, preserved exactly as they left it, with a new exhibition center across the street.
- What it costs
- Modest admission for the guided house tour. Some concerts and garden events are free — check the calendar.
- Best in
- Any season
- Where
- 34-56 107th Street, Corona, NY 11368
- Official site
- louisarmstronghouse.org
He could have lived anywhere
That's the thing that lands when you walk in. By the 1940s Armstrong was one of the most famous people on earth, and he and Lucille bought a modest brick row house in a working-class Queens neighborhood and stayed for the rest of their lives.
He knew the neighborhood kids. He sat on the stoop. The house is on an ordinary street and looks it from outside.
It's preserved exactly
The interior is as Lucille decorated it — the famous turquoise kitchen, the silver-and-gold wallpapered bathroom, Armstrong's den with his reel-to-reel tape decks.
He recorded hundreds of hours of tape at home, of conversations, of himself, of the radio, and decorated the boxes with collage. Those tapes are the core of the archive.
Visits are guided tours only and the groups are small, because the house is small.
The Armstrong Center
The newer building across the street holds the archive — the largest collection devoted to any jazz musician anywhere — with exhibition space and a small performance venue.
The museum runs concerts, including free ones in the garden in summer. Those are worth planning around: live jazz in the back garden of Louis Armstrong's house is a specific and hard-to-beat experience.
Getting there
The 7 to 103rd Street–Corona Plaza, then a ten-minute walk north. About 30 minutes from Grand Central.
It's a fifteen-minute walk from Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, so the two combine well.
Getting around once you're there
The **historic house is a 1910s row house with stairs** and limited step-free access — contact the museum ahead. The newer Armstrong Center across the street is fully accessible. 103rd Street station is not accessible.