Jackson Heights
Jackson Heights is a neighborhood in the northwestern part of the borough of Queens in New York City. Jackson Heights is neighbored by North Corona to the east, Elmhurst to the south, Woodside to the west, and today northern Astoria to the northwest, and East Elmhurst to the north and northeast. Jackson Heights has an ethnically diverse community, with half the population having been foreign-born since the 2000s. The New York Times has called it "the most culturally diverse neighborhood in New York, if not on the planet." According to the 2010 United States census, the neighborhood has a population of 108,152.
The site of Jackson Heights was a vast marsh named Trains Meadow until 1909 when Edward A. MacDougall's Queensboro Corporation bought of undeveloped land and farms. The Queensboro Corporation named the land Jackson Heights after Jackson Avenue, which was in turn named after John C. Jackson, a descendant of one of the original Queens families. He was a respected Queens entrepreneur. Jackson Avenue was the northern border of the ambitious Garden City development of the Queensboro Corporation. Further development arose through the development of transit and "garden apartments". "Garden homes" soon became prevalent in Jackson Heights. During the 1960s, Jackson Heights's white middle-class families began moving to the suburbs, and nonwhite residents began moving in.
Jackson Heights retains much of its residential character. It also has numerous commercial establishments clustered along 37th Avenue, as well as on several side streets served by subway stations. Most of the surviving garden city neighborhood is part of a national historic district called the Jackson Heights Historic District, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999. A smaller part of the original garden city neighborhood was placed in a New York City historic district of the same name in 1993.
Jackson Heights is in Queens Community District 3 and its ZIP Code is 11372. The zip code 11370 is co-named with East Elmhurst. It is patrolled by the New York City Police Department's 115th Precinct. Politically, Jackson Heights is represented by the New York City Council's 21st and 25th districts.
History
Early history
From colonial times to the 1900s, the area now known as Jackson Heights was a vast marsh named Trains Meadow. 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 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.Northern Boulevard, a main east–west road in the neighborhood, was also originally named Jackson Avenue; that name is retained in a short stretch in Long Island City. Though the land was not known for its elevation, after the land was filled to raise the terrain above the marshes of the Trains Meadow, Jackson Heights attained the highest elevation in the vicinity. 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. At that time the area could most easily be reached by ferry from Manhattan or the Brooklyn Bridge. More direct access came with the Queensboro Bridge in 1909, This was followed by the elevated IRT Flushing Line—the present-day, just 20 minutes from Midtown Manhattan—in 1917, and the Fifth Avenue Coach Company double-decker coaches in 1922.
Development
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, 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, excluding Jews, Blacks, and perhaps Greeks and Italians.Several Jackson Heights buildings were built by the Queensboro Corporation as part of a planned community a few blocks from the Flushing Line between Northern Boulevard and 37th Avenue, the main commercial corridor of the new development. Targeted at the middle class, these multi-story apartment buildings designed in the Colonial Revival and neo-Tudor styles were based on similar ones in Berlin. They were to share garden spaces, have ornate exteriors and features such as fireplaces, parquet floors, sun rooms, and built-in bathtubs with showers; and be cooperatively owned. In addition, the corporation divided the land into blocks and building lots, as well as installed streets, sidewalks, and power, water, and sewage lines.
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. 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. 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; the area's first co-op; and now-prevalent private gardens surrounded by the building blocks.
The Hampton Gardens, the Château, and the Towers followed in the 1920s. The Château and the Towers, both co-ops on 34th Avenue, had large, airy apartments and elevators. 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. At first purely decorative, the shared gardens in later developments included paved spaces where people could meet or sit. The Queensboro Corporation started the Ivy Court, Cedar Court, and Spanish Gardens projects, all designed by Thomas, in 1924.
The Queensboro Corporation advertised their apartments from 1922 on. 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, in what may have been the first "infomercial", opening with a few words about Nathaniel Hawthorne before promoting the corporation's Nathaniel Hawthorne apartments. The ad wanted viewers to:
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. 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.
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. The Queensboro Corporation began to build on land that until then had been kept open for community use, including the tennis courts, community garden, 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. 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. 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. 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.
In 1929, Holmes Airport opened in the northern section of Jackson Heights that is also considered part of East Elmhurst. Bordering St. Michaels Cemetery to the west, the airfield was also called the Grand Central Air Terminal and Grand Central Airport. Holmes Airport shut down in 1940, one year after LaGuardia Airport opened.