Jamaica, Queens

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New Netherland series
Colonies:
New Amsterdam New Haarlem Noortwyck Beverwyck Wiltwyck Vlissingen Middelburgh Heemstede Rustdorp	Gravesende Breuckelen New Amersfoort Midwout New Utrecht Boswyck Swaanendael New Amstel Altena
Fortresses:
Fort Amsterdam Fort Nassau (North) Fort Orange Fort Nassau (South) Fort Goede Hoop	Fort Casimir Fort Altena Fort Wilhelmus Fort Beversreede Fort Nya Korsholm
The Patroon System Rensselaerwyck Colen Donck (Yonkers, New York)
Directors-General of New Netherland: Cornelius Jacobsen Mey (1620-1625) Willem Verhulst (1625-26) Peter Minuit (1626-33) Wouter van Twiller (1633-38) Willem Kieft (1638-47) Peter Stuyvesant (1647-64)
Influential people Adriaen van der Donck Kiliaen van Rensselaer Brant van Slichtenhorst Cornelis van Tienhoven

Major Mark Park

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. 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.^[1]

Jamaica is the location of most courthouses and other administrative buildings for the County of Queens; however, it is not the location of Queens Borough Hall and Queens Criminal Court, both of which are located in the adjacent neighborhood of Kew Gardens (Kew Gardens is a neighborhood once located in the larger town of Jamaica before Queens became part of New York City). 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, 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.)

1 History
2 Transportation
3 Education
- 3.1 Colleges and universities
- 3.2 Primary and secondary schools
4 Notable residents
5 References
6 External links
- 6.1 Maps and aerial photography

[edit] 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.^[2] 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 (Fulton Street), 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.

[edit] Transportation

Hillside Avenue.

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, while the Archer Avenue Line (E J Z) terminates at Jamaica Center–Parsons Boulevard.

Jamaica's bus network provides extensive service across eastern Queens, as well as to destinations as distant as Hicksville in Nassau County, the 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 is also connected to John F. Kennedy International Airport—one of the busiest international airports in the United States and the world—by AirTrain JFK, which runs between terminals at the airport and connects to central Jamaica at the LIRR station.

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,Queens, Richmond Hill, Laurelton, Rosedale, Brookville, Rochdale, Springfield Gardens, and South Flushing.

[edit] Education

[edit] 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)

[edit] Primary and secondary schools

[edit] Public schools

Jamaica's public schools are operated by the New York City Department of Education.

Public Elementary Schools in Jamaica include

P.S. 50 Talfourd Lawn Elementary School

Public high schools in Jamaica include:

[edit] Private schools

Private schools in Jamaica include:

Archbishop Molloy High School
The Mary Louis Academy, a private, Catholic, girls' high school run by the Sisters of St. Joseph

The local Catholic schools are administered by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn.

[edit] Libraries

Queens Borough Public Library operates the Central Library in Jamaica. The Baisley Park Branch and the South Jamaica Branch are also located in Jamaica.