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About Richmond Hill
Richmond Hill is a neighborhood in central-southern Queens, New York City,
USA. It is bordered by Kew Gardens to the north, Woodhaven and Ozone Park to the
west, South Ozone Park to the South and South Jamaica to the east. The
neighborhood is split between Queens Community Board 9 and 10.
History
The hill referred to as Richmond Hill is a moraine created by the Wisconsin
glacier that formed Long Island. During one of the glacier's recessions, it left
behind a pile of soil, debris and rocks (termed glacial erratics) it had
collected while advancing down North America.
Richmond Hill is rich in history. The Battle of Long Island, one of the
bloodiest battles of the Revolutionary War, was fought in 1776 along the ridge
now in Forest Park, near what is now the present golf course clubhouse.
Protected by its thickly wooded area, American riflemen used guerrilla warfare
tactics to attack and defeat the Hessians.
Richmond Hill's name was inspired either by a suburban town near London,
England, or because of Edward Richmond, a landscape architect in the mid-1800s
who designed much of the neighborhood. In 1868, a successful banker named Albon
P. Man bought the Lefferts and Welling farms, and hired Richmond to lay out the
community. Over the next decade streets, schools, a church, and a railroad were
built, thus making the area one of the earliest residential communities on Long
Island. The area is well known for its large-frame single family houses, many of
which have been preserved since the turn of the twentieth-century. Many of the
Queen Anne Victorian homes of old Richmond Hill still stand in the area today.
The area first became developed in 1918, when the BMT Jamaica Avenue elevated
train line (today the J/Z lines of the New York City Subway) was extended in the
neighborhood.
Landmarks
The Triangle Hofbrau was a restaurant which was frequented by such stars as Mae
West in the 1920s and 1930's. It sat on the triangular piece of land bordered by
Hillside Avenue, Jamaica Avenue and Myrtle Avenue.
Near the northwest corner of Hillside Avenue and Myrtle Avenue sits an old time
ice cream parlor, Jahn's. Not far away is Lefferts Boulevard which, with the
other streets, defines the central core of Richmond Hill.
Diversity
Originally, many German, Italian and Irish families had lived in Richmond Hill.
Now Richmond Hill has many Trinidadian, Hispanics, Guyanese, other West Indians,
South Asians, and some Europeans living in the community. Today many Sikhs,
Christians, Hindus, Muslims, live alongside a minor Jewish population. Richmond
Hill has many Guyanese people and is often thought of as "Little Guyana".[2]
Along main roadways ethnic food from all over the globe is available to
residents and visitors.
Libraries
* Lefferts Branch
* Richmond Hill Branch
Parks
* Forest Park
* Jacob Riis Triangle
* Lt. Frank McConnell Memorial Park
* Smokey Oval