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About Jamaica
Jamaica is a neighborhood in the borough of Queens in New York City. It was
settled as a town by the English under Dutch rule in 1656 in New Netherland. The
neighborhood is part of Queens Community Board 12.
It is one of the major predominantly African American neighborhoods in the
borough of Queens. It has a substantial concentration of West Indian immigrants,
Indians, Arabs, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans as well as many long-established
African American families.
The neighborhood of Jamaica is completely unrelated to the Caribbean nation of
Jamaica (although Jamaican immigrants do live in the area); the name similarity
is a coincidence. The English, who took it over in 1664, named the area "Jameco,"
for the Jameco (or Yamecah) Native Americans, who resided on the northern shores
of Jamaica Bay, and whose name means "beaver" in Algonquian languages.
Jamaica is the location of several government buildings including Queens Civil
Court and the civil branch of the Queens County Supreme Court. Jamaica Center,
the area around Jamaica Avenue and 165th Street, is a major commercial center,
as well as the home of the Central Library of the Queens Borough Public Library.
Some locals group adjoining neighborhoods into an unofficial Greater Jamaica,
including St. Albans, Hollis, Queens Village, Howard Beach and Ozone Park. The
New York Racing Association, based at Aqueduct Racetrack in South Ozone Park,
lists its official address as Jamaica. (Central Jamaica once housed NYRA's
Jamaica Racetrack, now the massive Rochdale Village housing development.)
History
Jamaica Avenue was an ancient trail for tribes from as far away as the Ohio
River and the Great Lakes, coming to trade skins and furs for wampum. It
was in 1655 that the first settlers paid the Native Americans with two guns, a
coat, and some powder and lead, for the land lying between the old trail and
"Beaver Pond," later, Baisley Pond. Dutch Director-General Peter Stuyvesant
dubbed the area "Rustdorp" in granting the 1656 patent. The English, who took it
over in 1664, and renamed it "Jameco," for the Jameco (or Yamecah) Native
Americans.
Jamaica became part of the county of Yorkshire, and, in 1683, when the province
was divided into counties, it became part of Queens County, one of the original
counties of New York.
Colonial Jamaica had a band of 56 Minutemen that played an active part in the
Battle of Long Island, the outcome of which led to the occupation of the New
York City area by British troops during most of the American Revolutionary War.
In Jamaica, "George Washington slept here" is indeed true — in 1790, in William
Warner's tavern. Rufus King, a signer of the United States Constitution,
relocated here in 1805. He added to a modest 18th-century farmhouse, creating
the manor which stands on the site today. King Manor has recently been restored
to its former glory, and now houses King Manor Museum.
By 1776, Jamaica had become a trading post for farmers and their produce. For
more than a century, their horse-drawn carts plodded along Jamaica Avenue, then
called King's Highway. The public school system started in 1813, funded for $125
and a year later, Jamaica Village was incorporated. By 1834, the Brooklyn and
Jamaica Railroad company had completed a line to Jamaica.
In 1850, Jamaica Avenue became a plank road, complete with toll gate. In 1866,
tracks were laid for a horsecar line, and 20 years later it was electrified, the
first in the state. On January 1, 1898, Queens became part of the City of New
York, and Jamaica became the county seat.
The Jamaica station of the Long Island Rail Road was completed in 1913, and the
BMT Jamaica Line arrived in 1918. The 1920s and 1930s saw the building of the
Valencia Theatre (now restored by the Tabernacle of Prayer), the "futuristic"
Kurtz furniture Store and the Roxanne Building.
Infrastructure & Economic Development
For years the area of Jamaica had been under government neglect for economic
development. In the 1980's, the crack epidemic ruled the streets of Jamaica.
However since then, the government reaction towards fighting crime in the area
as well as the significantly dropping crime rate itself has provided a safe
haven to potential entrepreneurs who plan to invest in the area. The real estate
boom in New York City has greatly affected the residents of Jamaica Queens also.
Real estate prices in the area have sky-rocketed and the rate of constructing
new 1-3 family homes is ever increasing to fill the demand. The Greater Jamaica
Development Corporation(GJDC) has taken huge steps toward reviving the economy
of Jamaica. RadioShack and Old Navy have recently opened along Jamaica Avenue. A
new $75 million deal with Home Depot clears the way for creation of new branch.
Retail and commercial development is being extended along Sutphin Boulevard from
Jamaica Ave. with recently approved rezoning methods of existing blocks in
downtown Jamaica. Sutphin Boulevard has received a massive proposal to convert
the area into an airport village with a mixture of hotels, restaurants and
highrises surrounding the AirTrain station which was built in 2003. The AirTrain
links JFK airport to downtown Jamaica which is attracting many investors.
Transportation
Jamaica Station is a central transfer point on the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR),
which is headquartered in a building adjoining the station; all but one of the
commuter railroad's lines (the Port Washington Branch) run through Jamaica.
The New York City Subway's IND Queens Boulevard Line (E F) terminates at 179th
Street, at the foot of Jamaica Estates, a neighborhood of mansions east of
Jamaica's central business district. The Archer Avenue Line, which opened in
1988, (E J Z) terminates at Jamaica Center–Parsons Boulevard. Jamaica Center is
not just a transit hub; it is also the name of a business and government center
that includes a federal office building, and a shopping mall and theater
multiplex (One Jamaica Center), and is adjacent to various other businesses and
agencies, such as the main forensic laboratory facility for the New York City
Police Department.
Jamaica's bus network provides extensive service across eastern Queens, as well
as to destinations as distant as Hicksville in Nassau County, Q44 serves to
western Bronx, the Rockaways, and Midtown Manhattan. Nearly all bus lines
serving Jamaica terminate there; most do so at the 165th Street Bus Terminal or
the Jamaica Center subway station.
Jamaica, a large, sprawling neighborhood, is also home to John F. Kennedy
International Airport—one of the busiest international airports in the United
States and the world— public transportation passengers are connected to airline
terminals by AirTrain JFK, which operates as both an airport terminal circulator
and rail connection to central Jamaica at the integrated LIRR and bilevel subway
station located at Sutphin Blvd and Archer Avenue.
Major streets include Archer Avenue, Hillside Avenue, Jamaica Avenue, Liberty
Avenue, Merrick Boulevard, Parsons Boulevard, Guy R. Brewer Boulevard (formerly
known as New York Boulevard), and Sutphin Boulevard, as well as the Van Wyck
Expressway (I-678) and the Grand Central Parkway.
Neighboring areas are Jamaica Estates, Jamaica Hills, Hillcrest, St. Albans,
Hollis, Queens Village, South Ozone Park, Kew Gardens, Richmond Hill, Laurelton,
Rosedale, Brookville, Rochdale, Springfield Gardens, and South Flushing.
Jamaica Avenue
Jamaica Avenue is one of Jamaica's main thoroughfares, and of course the
neighborhood's namesake. Jamaica Avenue actually begins in Brooklyn, near the
boundary of the East New York neighborhood. Jamaica Avenue enters Jamaica east
of the Van Wyck Expressway, and it brings the traveler to the Social Security
Administration Building, courthouses and the main branch of the Queens Public
Library. and many discount stores offering a variety of goods. The 200-year-old
King Manor Museum includes a park.
Education
Colleges and universities
Several colleges and universities make their home in Jamaica proper or in its
close vicinity, most notably:
* York College, a Senior College of the City University of New York
* St. John's University (Queens Campus), A private, Roman Catholic University
founded by the Vincentian Fathers (Lazarists)