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 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. Northern Boulevard, a major thoroughfare that bisects the neighborhood, was also originally named Jackson Avenue; the name of this road is still retained in a short stretch between Queens Plaza and Queens-Midtown Tunnel in Long Island City. Though the land was not especially 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. At that time the area could most easily be reached via a ferry from Manhattan or the Brooklyn Bridge; more direct access came with the Queensboro Bridge in 1909, followed by the elevated IRT Flushing Line-the present-day 7 train, just 20 minutes from Midtown Manhattan-in 1917, and the Fifth Avenue Coach Company double-decker coaches in 1922.
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 themselves were limited to White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, excluding Jews, Blacks, and perhaps Greeks and Italians.
Several of the buildings in Jackson Heights were built by the Queensboro Corporation as part of a planned community located a few blocks off of the Flushing Line between Northern Boulevard and 37th Avenue. Targeted toward 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 the Queensboro Corporation buildings in Jackson Heights, 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. There was leftover unused space, which was converted to parks, gardens, and recreational areas, including a golf course; much of this leftover 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 5 buildings each, 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, as well as fostered a sense of belonging to a community; the area’s first co-op; and now-prevalent private gardens surrounded by the building blocks.
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