Jamaica Estates, Queens

Jamaica Estates World War II Memorial

Jamaica Estates Historical Plaque

Jamaica Estates is an upper middle class neighborhood located in the New York City borough of Queens. Within Queens Community District 8, Jamaica Estates is served by Queens Community Board 8.^[1] It is bounded by Union Turnpike to the north, Hillside Avenue to the south, Utopia Parkway and Homelawn Street to the west, and 188th Street to the east. The main road through the neighborhood is Midland Parkway.

Character

The area is characterized by million-dollar homes and a multitude of trees. Midland Parkway, a four-lane boulevard with a wide, landscaped median strip whose renovation was completed in 2007, is the area's main artery. The neighborhood consists of mostly upper-middle-class residents. Most houses are single-family detached homes in the Tudor, Craftsman, Cape Cod, or Mediterranean styles.^[2]

Out of 14,000 residents, 45% are foreign-born. In the 2000 United States Census, 43% of residents were white, Bangladeshis comprise 11% of residents, while Filipinos make up 10%, Haitians 7%, Guyanese 5%, and Russians 4%. A population of over 1,000 Bukharan Jews live in the area.^[2]

History

Jamaica Estates was created in 1907 by the Jamaica Estates Corporation, which developed the hilly terminal moraine's 503 acres (2.04 km²), while preserving many of the trees that had occupied the site.^[3] The company was founded by Ernestus Gulick and Felix Isman, both of Philadelphia.^[4]

Jamaica Estates now has significant Modern Orthodox Jewish American^[5] and South Asian American populations.^[6] The latter has been particularly affected by the wave of mortgage foreclosures that began in 2008.^[7] The only apartments and multi-family housing lie near the southern border within a few blocks from and along Hillside Avenue. The shopping corridors are along Hillside Avenue and Union Turnpike.

In 2007, following the damage of the roof of the Historic Gatehouse in Hurricane Isabel, the restoration and beautification of the Gatehouse and Malls was completed.^[8]

The Jamaica Estates Association, founded in 1929, continues as an active, vital civic organization representing the community. An Historical Plaque was unveiled April 23, 2010, on the Midland Mall by The Aquinas Honor Society of the Immaculate Conception School and by the sponsor of the plaque, Senator Frank Padavan.^[9]

Education

Fresh Anointing International Church

The New York City Department of Education operates public schools:

• Holliswood School (PS 178) in School District 26, at 189th Street
• Abigail Adams School (PS 131) in School District 29 in Jamaica Hills

Private schools include:

• The Mary Louis Academy, an all-girls Catholic college-prep school, is located on the corner of Edgerton Boulevard and Wexford Terrace.
• Immaculate Conception School is on the corner of Midland Parkway and Dalny Road.
• The Summit School has their High School campus on 188th Street and Grand Central Parkeay.
• Yeshiva University High School for Girls is just east of the Estates in Holliswood
• United Nations International School Queens Campus, for students in grades K-8, is located on Croydon Road; intended for the children of UN diplomats and employees, enrollment is now open to everyone.^[10] The school first opened in Lake Success, but relocated in 1950 to Parkway Village.^[11]
• From its 1975 founding to around 1980, The Japanese School of New York was located in Jamaica Estates, at 187-30 Grand Central Parkway.^[12][13]

Transportation

The New York City Subway's IND Queens Boulevard Line serves the station at the line's Jamaica – 179th Street terminal station (E F trains), as well as the penultimate 169th Street local station (F train). The neighborhood is also served by the Q1, Q2, Q3, Q17, Q30, Q31, Q36, Q46 local bus lines. Numerous express buses (QM1, QM5, QM6, QM7, QM8, X68) to Manhattan also stop on Union Turnpike.

In contrast to much of Queens, most streets in Jamaica Estates do not conform to the rectangular street grid and follow topographic lines, the most notable example being Midland Parkway. Many of the named streets have etymologies originating from Languages of the United Kingdom, such as Aberdeen, Avon, Hovenden, Barrington, Chelsea, and Chevy Chase Street. However, unlike Forest Hills Gardens, which is a similarly wealthy Queens neighborhood with an atypical Queens street layout, the street numbering system does conform to the rest of Queens, employing the "dash" found in the Philadelphia grid street numbering system familiar throughout all other parts of the borough.

Notable residents

• Margaret Bergmann Lambert, German high jump champion of the 1930s (as Gretel Bergmann), later United States champion in high jump (1937 and 1938) and shotput (1938).
• Frank D. O'Connor (1909-1992), attorney and judge^[14]
• Joseph "Run" Simmons, the "Run" of Run-D.M.C., lived in the area for some time before moving to New Jersey.
• Bob Saffer, songwriter, wrote the campaign songs for presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. He composed songs sung by Nat King Cole, Gene Autry, Frankie Lymon, and other renowned artists, but he was most proud of "Stand Up for the Flag of America," written at the time of the Iran hostage crisis in 1979.^[15]
• Lennie Tristano, blind bebop pianist and teacher, lived on Palo Alto Street in Holliswood. He has been credited as the first to record "free jazz."^[16]
• Donald Trump, businessman and 45th President-elect of the United States, grew up on Midland Parkway.^[17][18]

In popular culture

In the film Coming to America, Cleo McDowell (John Amos) lived in Queens at 24-32 Derby Avenue, a fictitious address that does not exist in Queens.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jamaica, Queens.

• Jamaica Estates Association Webpage
• Images of America Jamaica Estates, Arcadia Publishing, ISBN 0-252-06921-8
• Real Estate Information Website For All of Jamaica Estates, Queens NY

Neighborhoods in the New York City borough of Queens
Addisleigh Park Arverne Astoria Auburndale Bayside Bayswater Beechhurst Belle Harbor Bellerose Boulevard Gardens Breezy Point Briarwood Broad Channel Broadway-Flushing Cambria Heights Chinatown College Point Corona Douglaston East Elmhurst Edgemere Elmhurst Far Rockaway Floral Park Flushing Forest Hills Fresh Meadows Fresh Pond Glendale Glen Oaks Hammels Hollis Howard Beach Jackson Heights Jamaica Jamaica Estates Jamaica Hills Kew Gardens Kew Gardens Hills Koreatown Laurelton LeFrak City Little Neck Locust Manor Long Island City Maspeth Middle Village Neponsit North Shore Towers Ozone Park Pomonok Queensboro Hill Queensbridge Queens Village Rego Park Richmond Hill Ridgewood Rochdale Village Rockaway Rockaway Beach Rockaway Park Rosedale Roxbury St. Albans Seaside South Jamaica Springfield Gardens Sunnyside The Hole Whitestone Willets Point Woodhaven Woodside Wyckoff Heights
Community boards: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Coordinates: 40°43′4.15″N 73°46′27.44″W / 40.7178194°N 73.7742889°W / 40.7178194; -73.7742889