Jackson Heights, Queens

From colonial times to the 1900s, the area now known as Jackson Heights was a vast marsh named Trains Meadow.[7] Urbanization at the turn of the century was creating a New York City housing shortage and urban sprawl. In 1909, Edward A. MacDougall's Queensboro Corporation bought 325 acres (132 ha) of undeveloped land and farms and christened them Jackson Heights after John C. Jackson, a descendant of one of the original Queens families and a respected Queens County entrepreneur.[8][9][10] Northern Boulevard, a major thoroughfare that bisects the neighborhood, was also originally named Jackson Avenue; that name is retained in a short stretch between Queens Plaza and Queens–Midtown Tunnel in Long Island City.[11] Though the land was not known for its elevation, the addition of the term "Heights" echoed the prestige of the neighborhood of Brooklyn Heights and indicated that Jackson Heights was meant to be an exclusive neighborhood.[9][10][12] At that time the area could most easily be reached by ferry from Manhattan or the Brooklyn Bridge;[12] more direct access came with the Queensboro Bridge in 1909,[13] followed by the elevated IRT Flushing Line—the present-day 7 train, just 20 minutes from Midtown Manhattan—in 1917,[14][15] and the Fifth Avenue Coach Company double-decker coaches in 1922.[13]

Jackson Heights was conceived as a planned development for middle- to upper-middle-income workers looking to escape an overcrowded Manhattan. Inspired by Sir Ebenezer Howard's garden city movement,[10][16][17] it was laid out by Edward MacDougall's Queensboro Corporation in 1916 and began attracting residents after the arrival of the Flushing Line in 1917. The Queensboro Corporation coined the name "garden apartment" to convey the concept of apartments built around private parks. Although land for churches was provided, the apartments were limited to White Anglo-Saxon Protestants,[14] excluding Jews, Blacks, and perhaps Greeks and Italians.[18]

Several Jackson Heights buildings were built by the Queensboro Corporation as part of a planned community a few blocks off of the Flushing Line between Northern Boulevard and 37th Avenue.[19] Targeted at the middle class,[20] these multi-story apartment buildings designed in the Colonial Revival and neo-Tudor styles were based on similar ones in Berlin.[21] They were to share garden spaces,[22] have ornate exteriors and features such as fireplaces, parquet floors, sun rooms, and built-in bathtubs with showers;[23] and be cooperatively owned.[22] In addition, the corporation divided the land into blocks and building lots, as well as installed streets, sidewalks, and power, water, and sewage lines.[24] The Laurel apartment building on 82nd Street at Northern Boulevard was the first of Jackson Heights's Queensboro Corporation buildings, completed in 1914 with a small courtyard. The Greystones on either side of 80th Street between 37th and 35th avenues were completed in 1918 with a design by architect George H. Wells. Leftover unused space was converted to parks, gardens, and recreational areas, including a golf course; much of this space, including the golf course, no longer exists.[25] This was followed by the 1919 construction of the Andrew J. Thomas–designed Linden Court, a 10-building complex between 84th Street, 85th Street, 37th Avenue, and Roosevelt Avenue.[26][27] The two sets of five buildings, separated by a gated garden with linden trees and two pathways, included parking spaces with single-story garages accessed via narrow driveways, the first Jackson Heights development to do so; gaps at regular intervals in the perimeter wall; a layout that provided light and ventilation to the apartments and fostered a sense of belonging to a community;[28] the area's first co-op;[29] and now-prevalent private gardens surrounded by the building blocks.[30]

The Hampton Gardens, the Château, and the Towers followed in the 1920s.[31] The Château and the Towers, both co-ops on 34th Avenue, had large, airy apartments and elevators.[26] Until 1922, elevators were required to have attendants and more modest buildings were constructed as walk-ups not exceeding five floors. The elegant Château cooperative apartment complex, with 12 buildings surrounding a shared garden, was built in the French Renaissance style and has slate mansard roofs pierced by dormer windows, and diaperwork brick walls.[32] At first purely decorative, the shared gardens in later developments included paved spaces where people could meet or sit.[33] The Queensboro Corporation started the Ivy Court, Cedar Court, and Spanish Gardens projects, all designed by Thomas, in 1924.[34]

The Queensboro Corporation advertised their apartments from 1922 on.[31] On August 28, 1922, the Queensboro Corporation paid $50 to radio station WEAF to broadcast a ten-minute sales pitch for apartments in Jackson Heights,[35] in what may have been the first "infomercial", opening with a few words about Nathaniel Hawthorne before promoting the corporation's Nathaniel Hawthorne apartments.[36] The ad wanted viewers to:

seek the recreation and the daily comfort of the home removed from the congested part of the city, right at the boundaries of God's great outdoors, and within a few minutes by subway from the business section of Manhattan ... The cry of the heart is for more living room, more chance to unfold, more opportunity to get near Mother Earth, to play, to romp, to plant and to dig ... Let me enjoin upon you as you value your health and your hopes and your home happiness, get away from the solid masses of brick ... where your children grow up starved for a run over a patch of grass and the sight of a tree ... [37]

Built in 1928, the English Gables line 82nd Street, the main shopping area of Jackson Heights's Hispanic community. There are two developments, English Gables I and II; they are meant to provide a gateway to the neighborhood for commercial traffic and for passengers from the 82nd Street–Jackson Heights station.[11] A year later, the Robert Morris Apartments, on 37th Avenue between 79th and 80th streets, were constructed. Named after Robert Morris, a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, the apartments have ample green spaces, original high ceilings, and fireplaces, and are relatively expensive.[11][38]

During the Depression, two new buildings were built: Ravenna Court on 37th Avenue between 80th and 81st streets, built in 1929; and Georgian Court three blocks east, between 83rd and 84th streets, built in 1930.[7] The Queensboro Corporation began to build on land that until then had been kept open for community use, including the tennis courts, community garden,[39] and the former golf course—between 76th and 78th streets and 34th and 37th avenues—all of which were built upon during the 1940s and 1950s.[31] The corporation also began erecting traditional six-story apartment buildings. Dunolly Gardens, the last garden apartment Thomas designed, was an exception, a modernistic group of six buildings completed in 1939.[40] The corner windows, considered innovative in the 1930s, gave the apartments a more spacious feel, and the landscaped interior courtyard is one of the historic district's largest.[41] After the 1940s, Jackson Heights's real estate was diversified, with more apartment buildings and cooperatives built with elevators; some new transportation infrastructure was also built.[31]

In 1929, Holmes Airport opened in the northern section of Jackson Heights that is also considered part of East Elmhurst.[42] Bordering St. Michaels Cemetery to the west, the airfield was also called the Grand Central Air Terminal and Grand Central Airport.[43] Holmes Airport shut down in 1940, one year after LaGuardia Airport opened.[44]

The neighborhood grew steadily from the 1920s to the 1950s, with construction slowing during the Depression and booming back again after World War II.[45] Holmes Airport operated from 1929 to 1940 on 220 acres (89 ha) adjacent to the community. Later, its land became veterans' housing and the Bulova watch factory site.[46]

By 1930, artists from the Manhattan theater district, many of whom were homosexual, had moved into the area, forming the beginnings of the second largest LGBTQ community in New York outside of Manhattan.[47][48] Jews were allowed to move in by the 1940s. In the 1950s, middle-class businessmen from Colombia, escaping violence and repression in Latin America, brought their financial capital and their families to the community.[9] Following the development of Long Island in the 1960s, Jackson Heights' white middle-class families began moving further out into the suburbs.[9] At the same time the neighborhood experienced an influx of ethnically diverse professionals from Latin America and the Indian subcontinent taking advantage of the 1965 Immigration Reform Act, which allowed them to arrange the immigration of their families.[9][49] White residents' resistance to integration with African-Americans continued late into the decade, and Junction Boulevard came to be called the "Mason-Dixon Line", as it divided Jackson Heights from the black communities in East Elmhurst and Corona.[47]

By the mid-1970s, Roosevelt Avenue had become the neighborhood's commercial center and also gained national attention as a place for organized crime. A 1993 New York Times article detailed how wire transfer services in Jackson Heights inadvertently enabled Colombian cartels to repatriate, and in the process launder, millions of dollars in drug money to South America alongside customers who used the service to transfer legally earned money.[50] The violence that ensued as a result of the growing Jackson Heights illegal drug trade is described in this excerpt from a 1978 New York magazine article titled "Gunfights in the Cocaine Corral":

Over the past three years, in this nice, quiet neighborhood, 27 people have been killed and dozens have been injured.... The violence spreads to surround neighborhoods as cops and prosecutors fight a losing battle. Double and triple homicides go unsolved.[51]

By the late 1980s, Jackson Heights had rising real-estate values and a moderate amount of crime compared to other city neighborhoods.[52] Nevertheless, there were still high-profile crimes that reinforced perceptions of the neighborhood as dangerous. In 1990, Julio Rivera, a gay Puerto Rican man, was murdered in a hate crime. His death galvanized the LGBTQ community into protesting his death with a candlelight vigil, the formation of several LGBTQ activist groups, and the foundation of the Queens Pride Parade.[53] Two years later, journalist Manuel de Dios Unanue was murdered after authoring articles in El Diario La Prensa about the proliferation of Colombian cartels embedded within the business community along Roosevelt Avenue.[54] Seeking to distance themselves from the portrayal of Jackson Heights as a crime-ridden neighborhood, some residents argued that de Dios had been murdered in Elmhurst, as the restaurant where he was attacked was on the south side of Roosevelt Avenue.[47]

Following the reduction of crime in New York City during the late 1990s, the market for illicit substances that fed the Colombian cocaine industry in Jackson Heights eventually decreased, leading to a reduction in cartels in the neighborhood.[55][56]

Community leaders responded to negative perceptions of Jackson Heights by seeking to have the neighborhood designated a historic district. In 1988, the Jackson Heights Beautification Group was formed; it organized walking tours as well as beautification activities and commissioned a neighborhood history.[10] Five years later, part of Jackson Heights was made a New York City historic district.[57] The designation, which set architectural guidelines for structures within the designated district, affected both existing buildings and planned new developments within the district.[58]

Starting in the 2000s, Jackson Heights has become once again a desirable destination for professionals and middle-class families. Some of these residents moved to Jackson Heights for the unique architecture of its buildings, while others move for its cultural diversity.[17][59]

Jackson Heights Historic District
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district
NYC Landmark No. 1831
Residential street in Jackson Heights
District position on New York City map
Location	Bounded by Roosevelt Ave., Broadway, Leverich St., 70 St., Northern Blvd., and Junction Blvd., Queens, NYC
Coordinates	40°45′5″N 73°53′13″W
Area	300 acres (120 ha)
Architectural style	Late 19th and 20th Century Revivals
NRHP reference No.	99000059[60]
NYCL No.	1831
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	January 27, 1999
Designated NYCL	October 19, 1993

Most of the original neighborhood, comprising the garden city apartment buildings, was made a National Register Historic District and a New York State Historic Register District. The Jackson Heights New York State and National Register Districts range from 93rd Street through 69th Street between Northern Boulevard and Roosevelt Avenue. Some property fronting on Northern Boulevard and Roosevelt Avenue, as well as some "cut-outs", are not inside the Register Districts. The national historic district called the Jackson Heights Historic District, includes 2,203 contributing buildings, 19 contributing sites, and three contributing objects. Among the landmarked buildings, over 200 original Queensboro Corporation apartment buildings still exist in Jackson Heights.[61] It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.[60]

Almost 600 buildings in the neighborhood[58]—a rectangle stretching roughly from 76th to 88th Streets and from Roosevelt Avenue almost up to Northern Boulevard—were designated as a New York City Historic District by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission on October 19, 1993.[57][62] It comprises large apartment buildings with private communal gardens, as well as many groupings of private homes and many stores on the streets surrounding Roosevelt Avenue.[63][64] Unlike the State and National Districts, the local designation comes with aesthetic protections.

In addition to the Jackson Heights Historic District, the Lent Homestead and Cemetery and Jackson Heights post office are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[60]

The main retail thoroughfare is 37th Avenue from 72nd Street to Junction Boulevard, with more retail on 73rd, 74th, and 82nd streets between 37th and Roosevelt avenues.[65] Stores and restaurants on and near 74th Street tend to cater to the large population from the Indian subcontinent in the neighborhood, with sari and jewelry stores, Indian and Bengali music and movie retailers and many restaurants.[66] 37th Avenue contains a wide mix of retailers, including many grocery stores, and 82nd Street contains many national chain stores located in Tudor-style buildings in the Jackson Heights Historic District.[11] South American retailers and eateries, predominantly from Colombia and Peru dominate Northern Boulevard from 80th Street east to the border of neighboring Corona at Junction Boulevard. Roosevelt Avenue is also lined with various mainly Hispanic retail stores.

Street vendor in Jackson Heights

Along Roosevelt Avenue from 74th to 108th Streets, street food from all over the world is made and sold at food carts "currently dominated by the Mexican community".[67] Typical cart food includes Bengali fuchka (phuchka), Middle Eastern lamb over rice, Nepalese momo, Colombian chuzos and arepas, Greek souvlaki, Ecuadorian ceviche, Thai steamed chicken over rice, and Mexican elotes (corn on a cob), tacos, homemade tamales filled with meats, cheese, fruits or even chilies, fruit batidos or aguas frescas (smoothies), and South American sweet churros.[68][69]

In a 2017 episode of his show Parts Unknown, American chef Anthony Bourdain visited several Queens eateries, profiling Evelia Coyotzi, who sells tamales in a street cart on Junction Boulevard, the border between Jackson Heights and Corona. Bourdain learned about Coyotzi, a Mexican immigrant who spoke no English, through the Street Vendor Project, which advocates for New York City street vendors.[70][71][72]

Eagle Theater

Most housing units in Jackson Heights are apartments in multi-unit buildings, many of which are five or six stories. Many of these buildings are co-ops, some are rentals, and a few are condominiums. There are also a number of one- to three-family houses, most of which are attached row houses.[19] 34th and 35th avenues, as well as most side streets between 37th Avenue and Northern Boulevard, are residential. A section of 90th Street between 30th Avenue and Northern Boulevard was privately developed separately from the Queensboro Corporation. The structures on that stretch of 90th Street are mostly Tudor buildings.[11]

There were five historic movie theaters in Jackson Heights, which have all been either repurposed or closed.[11] The Art Deco Earle Theater, opened in 1936 on 37th Road between 73rd and 74th streets, was a neighborhood movie theater before becoming a porn theater and then, with the name changed to "Eagle", a Bollywood theater before a strike in the Bollywood industry caused the theater to close permanently in 2009;[11] it is now a food court selling cuisine of the Indian subcontinent.[73] The Fair Theatre, in the area that overlaps with East Elmhurst, opened in 1939 at Astoria Boulevard and 90th Street, became a porn theater.[11] The Polk Theater, on 37th (formerly Polk) Avenue and 93rd Street, opened in 1938 and closed in 2006; it also was a porn theater during its later years, before it was demolished in 2008.[11][74] The Colony Theater, on 82nd Street north of Roosevelt Avenue, opened in 1935 and closed in 1991. The Jackson, later an Indian-owned theater called the Jackson Heights Cinema, on 82nd Street south of Roosevelt Avenue, was demolished in March 2017.[75] The Boulevard Theater, on Northern Boulevard and 83rd Street, is now a Latin-American restaurant of the same name.

The Jackson Heights Garden City Society is a historical society, whose founders include local historians, the Queens Borough Historian and local activists. They created and oversee the Jackson Heights Garden City Trail and publish a walking guidebook to Jackson Heights. They also collect artifacts of the community. Periodically, the Society testifies before the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission on issues of concern to the community.

The 82nd Street Partnership is responsible for the business improvement of the area.[91]

In addition, Colombian broadcaster RCN TV has its US-American headquarters in the neighborhood, reflecting the sizable Colombian population in the area.

There is a year-round greenmarket every Sunday morning at Travers Park, as well as various family-oriented spring and summer concerts.

Senior Citizens marching in the 2018 Queens Pride Parade

In the 1920s, LGBT actors working in the 42nd Street theater scene decided to make their homes in Jackson Heights due to the lack of affordability of Manhattan neighborhoods and the easy accessibility of the 7 train. That was the beginning of what is now the second largest gay community in New York City.[92]

Until the 1990s, LGBT activities in Jackson Heights were usually held surreptitiously and at night due to a constant fear of backlash. As the neighborhood continued to grow, more spaces for the gay community were added. One of those was the Queens Center for Gay Seniors, which was created using grant money and is still the only senior center in Queens serving the LGBT community specifically.[93][94]

The LGBT community became a movement after the 1990 murder of Julio Rivera, a 29-year-old bartender who worked at the Magic Touch gay bar. Rivera was raised in the Bronx, but tried to avoid the violence of the streets there, and moved to Jackson Heights as a young adult. On the night of July 2, three men cornered Rivera in a schoolyard that was known as a gay cruising area and beat him with a hammer and beer bottle, and then stabbed him.[95] At the beginning of the case, the police department categorized the assault as drug-related, because Rivera had been a longtime cocaine user and they found traces of cocaine on his body. However, after Rivera's friends and relatives advocated for the case to be examined further, the NYPD concluded that Rivera's death had been an anti-gay crime, and the three men involved were charged with murder and manslaughter.[96][97]

If it wasn't for Julio the Queens LGBT movement would not have gotten as far as it has gotten. Julio did not die in vain. He changed people's lives.

— City Councilmember Daniel Dromm, 2015[98]

Julio Rivera

This was the first real standing for justice and honor for the LGBT community in Queens. The resulting activism led to the Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, a social services agency that helps monitor any type of criminal acts against the community citywide. Rivera's sister-in-law was elected as the AVP for the LGBT board. Union helped improve the relationship between the Police Department and Jackson Heights's LGBT community and helped with supervision against violence. In 2000, the corner of 78th Street and 37th Avenue, where Rivera was killed, was renamed in his memory[96][99][100] and a documentary, Julio of Jackson Heights, was made about his murder.[97][101]

Since the 1990s, the LGBTQ community in Jackson Heights has not only grown in number, but also expanded its diversity and cultures. The Inaugural Queens Lesbian and Gay Parade and Block Party Festival, organized by Daniel Dromm and Maritza Martinez, took place on June 6, 1993, in Jackson Heights, marking a watershed in LGBTQ history. Some 1,000 marchers participated, and thousands of spectators attended. More than a dozen LGBTQ organizations sponsored the event. In 1994 Dromm and activist Wayne Mahlke organized the Lesbian and Gay Democratic Club of Queens, "the only LGBT independent Democratic club in the Borough of Queens."[102] That same year, the Queens Pride Parade commemorated the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall riots. In 1995, Ed Sedarbaum established the SAGE/Queens Clubhouse, the first senior citizens program in Queens to provide outreach to LGBTQ elderly. In 1999, an estimated 40,000 people attend the Queens Pride Parade with some 70 community groups registered.[103]

Daniel Dromm and Jimmy Van Bramer were elected to the New York City Council on November 3, 2009, representing, respectively, the 25th and 26th districts in Queens.[104] Both City Council members are openly gay.[105]

On August 15, 2001, Edgar Garzon, a gay man, was murdered in an incident that the Queens district attorney characterized as a "possible hate crime." The murder quickly faded from public attention after the September 11 attacks a month later. In 2006, John L. McGhee was charged with Garzon's murder.[106]

On June 3, 2018, 25-year-old school teacher Brandon Soriano was attacked by two men following the 2018 Pride Parade in what has been deemed a hate crime.[107][108] Five days later, a Latina transgender woman was allegedly stabbed repeatedly a few blocks away.[109]

In 2020, the neighborhoods of Corona, East Elmhurst, Elmhurst, and Jackson Heights were most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City.[122] As of August 10, these communities, with a cumulative 303,494 residents, had recorded 12,954 COVID-19 cases and 1,178 deaths.[123] COVID-19 cases in ZIP Code 11372 were among the highest of any ZIP Code in New York City.[124]

New York City Department of Education operates public schools. Schools in Jackson Heights include P.S. 69 Jackson Heights School,[130] P.S. 149 Christa McAuliffe School,[131] P.S. 212,[132] P.S 222 FF Christopher A. Santora School,[133] I.S. 145 Joseph Pulitzer School,[134] P.S. 152, and I.S. 230.

Charter schools include the Pre-K–12 school Renaissance Charter School.[135]

Private schools in the neighborhood include Saint Joan of Arc School (Pre-K3 to 8 grade), Our Lady of Fatima School (Pre-K to 8 grade), and Monsignor McClancy Memorial High School, a school in East Elmhurst that turned co-ed by the end of the 2012 school year. Garden School, a private, nonprofit 501(c)(3) independent school in Jackson Heights, enrolls 300 students from grades Nursery–Grade 12.

82nd Street Academics, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) educational institution, is housed at the Community United Methodist Church of Jackson Heights. Since 2003, it has been a community-based Universal Pre-Kindergarten provider under contract with the New York Department of Education.[136][137]

The Queens Public Library's Jackson Heights branch is at 35–51 81st Street.[138]

The intersection of 75th Street and Roosevelt Avenue, under the elevated IRT Flushing Line (7 train)

The following New York City Subway stations serve Jackson Heights:[146]

• Jackson Heights–Roosevelt Avenue/74th Street (7​, E, ​F, <F>, and ​R trains)
• 82nd Street–Jackson Heights (7 train)
• 90th Street–Elmhurst Avenue (7 train)
• Junction Boulevard (7 train)

The following MTA Regional Bus Operations bus routes serve Jackson Heights:[147]

• Q29: to Glendale via Hampton Street
• Q32: to Pennsylvania Station in Midtown Manhattan via Roosevelt Avenue and 81st/82nd Streets
• Q33: to East Elmhurst via 82nd/83rd Streets
• Q47: to LaGuardia Marine Air Terminal or Glendale via 73rd/74th Streets
• Q49: to East Elmhurst via 35th Avenue and 89th/90th/92nd Streets
• Q53 SBS: to 61st Street–Woodside (7 and <7>​ trains)/Woodside LIRR or Rockaway Park–Beach 116th Street (A and ​S trains) via Roosevelt Avenue and Broadway
• Q66: to Queensboro Plaza (7, <7>​​, N and ​W trains) or Flushing–Main Street (7 and <7>​ trains) via Northern Boulevard
• Q70 SBS: to 61st Street–Woodside (7 and <7>​ trains)/Woodside LIRR or LaGuardia Airport Terminals B/C/D via Roosevelt Avenue, Broadway, and Brooklyn-Queens Expressway
• Q72: to 63rd Drive–Rego Park (R train) or LaGuardia Airport Terminals B/C/D via Junction Boulevard

The Jackson Heights–Roosevelt Avenue/74th Street station is a transportation hub where the subway's 7​, E, ​F, <F>, and ​R trains and the Q32, Q33, Q47, Q49. Q53 SBS and Q70 SBS buses converge.[147] The MTA spent over $100 million on renovations to the Jackson Heights bus terminal, which were completed in 2005.[148] It includes one of the first green buildings in the MTA system, the Victor A. Moore Bus Terminal, which is partially powered by solar panels built into the roof along the length of the sheds above the Flushing Line platforms.[148][49] The terminal, like the Victor Moore Arcade (which it replaced), is named after Jackson Heights resident Victor Moore, a Broadway and film actor from the era of silent film to the 1950s.[148]

Interstate 278 (Brooklyn Queens Expressway), New York State Route 25A (Northern Boulevard), and the Grand Central Parkway (in the East Elmhurst area) are major roads in the area. LaGuardia Airport, in East Elmhurst, is nearby.[147]

Eleven percent of roads in Jackson Heights have bike lanes, similar to the rate in the city overall.[76]^: 10 These lanes, part of the city's bikeway system, exist on 34th Avenue, as well as on 74th and 75th streets between 34th Avenue and 37th Road. There is also a short one-block bike lane connector on 37th Road between 74th and 75th streets.[149]