Glimpses of the Past

This home, as it stands today, belonged to the Rehberg family from as early as 1940 to 1993.

By Brian M. Rafferty

You can tell a lot about a family by looking through their photo albums. They are the gateways to a world filled with birthday parties, vacations, weddings – all the happy events of life.

Sometimes, those pictured get filed, sometimes they get lost. These fall into the latter category.

This is the family of Charles Rehberg. As best as we can tell, Charles lived with his family Jackson Heights in the late 1930 and early 1940s, the era from which these pictures were taken.

Most of the photos we found came from J.G. Weber’s Pharmacy, located at 83-19 Northern Blvd. in Jackson Heights. The site is now home to Vazquez Grocery, where you can buy an MTA MetroCard, and the phone number has changed. It doesn’t even have the old Havermayer exchange, and its phone number is now being used by a Mexican restaurant in Woodside.

Charles Rehberg, founder of the Queens Chess Club, is shown at his college graduation.

That is, of course, the same story for some of the other locations where the Rehbergs brought their pictures. Jackson Heights Camera, which used to stand at 79-21 37th Ave., is now Wok’s Chinese Restaurant, Delvin’s Camera Shop & Photo Studio at 83-23 37th Ave. is now Liz Discount Fabric and Gluck’s Pharmacy at 101-24 Astoria Ave. (now Blvd.) in East Elmhurst is now Healthy Glo Inc. Beauty and Fitness.

The pictures we found are from a family picnic, a trip to Fort Ticonderoga, trips to Astoria Park and its pool – all scenes of a happy family from years gone by.

Where is Charles now? He sold his house, at 25-28 84th St. In 1993 to Elvira Penaherrera, his next-door neighbor, who later sold it to a man named Rodrigo Bolivar. We know he was instrumental in establishing the Queens Chess Club in 1939, which still operates every Friday night at the Margaret Tietz Nursing Center in Jamaica. But where Charles and the family are today, we don’t know.

If you do, drop us a note at news@queenstribune.com, we’d love to follow up.

We don’t know if these were friends or extended Rehberg family members enjoying the day in Astoria Park.