Jamaica (New York City)

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Jamaica Avenue in Jamaica

Jamaica is a middle-class neighborhood in New York City , which is located southeast of Manhattan in the middle of the borough of Queens on Long Island . It consists of a large commercial and retail area along Jamaica Avenue, but also includes residential areas depending on how the boundaries are defined. The name has no connection with the Caribbean island state of Jamaica , but is derived from Jameco , the name for beaver in the language of the North American indigenous people who inhabited this area.

location

A generous definition of the area is the western limit on Van Wyck Expressway , the northern limit on Hillside Avenue, the eastern limit on Francis Lewis and Springfield Boulevard and the southern limit on Belt Parkway . With this definition, the area extends south to John F. Kennedy International Airport . Other definitions put the southern border much narrower, for example at Linden Avenue, which forms the southern border of postal districts 11433 and 11435 or even closer at Tuskegee Airmen Way.

The first closed settlement, Jamaica Village , stretched from the Van Wyck Expressway in the west to Farmers Boulevard in the east. Jamaica Avenue formed the northern boundary, which was later moved to Hillside Avenue. The southern border was Linden Avenue.

The center of the area is the business district along Jamaica Avenue and the one block south of Jamaica Station on Long Island Rail Road (LIRR), which is the third largest train station in New York City after Grand Central Terminal and Penn Station . It is an important hub for public transport on which the LIRR trains on the subway lines NYCS-bull-trans-E-Std.svg, NYCS-bull-trans-J-Std.svgand NYCS-bull-trans-Z-Std.svgthe New York City Subway , and on the AirTrain JFK can be switched.

history

Colonial times

Jamaica Avenue was an ancient trade route used by the Native Americans, who came from as far away as the Ohio River and the Great Lakes to trade pelts and furs for wampum . In 1655, the first settlers received the land between what is now Jamaica Avenue and Baisley Pond in exchange for two rifles , a coat and some lead and gunpowder . In 1656 Peter Stuyvesant granted a group of English settlers the right to build a village halfway between Hempstead and Nieuw Amersfoort, today's Flatlands in Brooklyn. The Dutch called it Rustdorp , which means peaceful quiet village in German , but the English called the village Jameco , the word for beaver in the Algonquin language of the sedentary Lenni Lenape . The term was related to the nearby pond, later known as Beaver Pond .

The English conquered Nieuw Amsterdam in 1664, whereby the village came into English possession and was added to the newly founded county of York . The county was in 1683 Counties divided. Jamaica became the administrative seat of the newly formed County Queens.

War of Independence

In colonial Jamaica there was a group of 56 Minutemen who were actively involved in the Battle of Long Island during the American Revolutionary War . The battle was lost for the Colonies and the New York City area was occupied by British forces during most of the Revolutionary War. Rufus King , one of the founding fathers of the United States , moved to Jamaica in 1805 and built a mansion on the lands he had acquired , which has been preserved and can be viewed as the King Manor Museum .

Beginnings of the Republic

By the end of the 18th century, Jamaica became a market for agricultural products. The trade route through the settlement was expanded to the King's Highway and horse-drawn vehicles could be used. 1794 the post office opened in Jamaica , which was to remain the only one in what is now the boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn until 1803 . In 1787 the first schools were founded: the Union Hall Academy for boys and the Union Hall Seminary for girls.

In 1809 the Brooklyn, Jamaica and Flatbush Turnpike Company was founded, which turned the King's Highway, today's Jamaica Avenue, into a toll road . 1814 was founded with Jamaica Village, the first village on Long Island, which was connected to Brooklyn from 1832 with stagecoach courses . In 1834 the first railway line on Long Island reached Jamaica. It was owned by the Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad Company , which took over the Turnpike Company toll road. The railroad followed Atlantic Avenue , connecting Jamaica with downtown Brooklyn . Operation was carried out by LIRR from the start. In 1851 the company sold the toll road to the Jamaica and Brooklyn Plank Road Company , which turned the road into a boardwalk . The Jamaica and Brooklyn Road Company took over the operator of the boardwalk and opened a horse-drawn tram in October 1887 , which switched to electrical operation just a year later.

St. John's University was founded in 1870 and is the second largest Catholic university in the USA after DePaul University .

On January 1, 1898, Queens became part of New York City and Jamaica became the administrative seat of the borough.

20th century

In 1913, LIRR's Jamaica station was completed at its current location, and in 1918 the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Corporation (BRT) opened the first metro connection to Manhattan with the Jamaica route . The line was run as an elevated railway over Jamaica Avenue and is used by the trains of the lines and . In 1936, the Queens Boulevard route of the Independent Subway System followed , which is now used by the trains on the line . In 1988, the elevated railways at Jamaica Station were demolished and relocated underground, the project was known as the Archer Avenue route . NYCS-bull-trans-J-Std.svgNYCS-bull-trans-Z-Std.svgNYCS-bull-trans-E-Std.svg

Web links

Commons : Jamaica, Queens  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Name That Neighborhood: Why is Jamaica in Queens? In: he Bowery Boys: New York City History. September 16, 2008 (English).;
  2. ↑ Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska: Where Does Jamaica Begin and End? Map Your Neighborhood's Boundries. In: dnainfo.com. August 12, 2015 (English).;
  3. ^ Jamaica, Queens, New York, USA. In: Google Maps.
  4. ↑ Jamaica.map In: Wikimedia Commons
  5. ^ Construction of Regional Office and Laboratory, Site Specific, Jamaica Site, Queen County: Environmental Impact Statement . 1996 ( google.cz [accessed March 30, 2020]).
  6. ^ A b History of Jamaica Avenue. Richmond Hill Historical Society, accessed March 30, 2020 .
  7. ^ Jamaica and Brooklyn Road Company . In: Poor's Manual of Railroads . HV & HW Poor, 1890 ( google.cz [accessed March 30, 2020]).
  8. ↑ a b Jamaica 2 . In: Webster's New geographical dictionary . Springfield, Mass., G. & C. Merriam Co, 1972, pp. 563 ( archive.org [accessed March 31, 2020]).
  9. ^ HW Schultze-Altenwalde: Illustrated guide through New York and the surrounding area . 2012, ISBN 978-3-95507-364-0 , pp. 108 ( google.cz [accessed March 31, 2020]).

Coordinates: 40 ° 42 ′  N , 73 ° 47 ′  W