Richmond Hill, Queens
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.[1] The neighborhood is split between Queens Community Board 9 and 10.[2]
Main commercial streets in the neighborhood include Jamaica Avenue, Atlantic Avenue and Liberty Avenue.
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[edit] History
The hill referred to as Richmond Hill is a moraine created by debris and rocks collected while glaciers advanced 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 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.
[edit] 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 sat an old time ice cream parlor, Jahn's. It closed in late 2007. Not far away is Lefferts Boulevard which, with Liberty Avenue, define the central core of Richmond Hill.
[edit] Diversity
Originally, many German, Italian and Irish families had lived in Richmond Hill. Now Richmond Hill has many Punjabis, Trinidadians, Surinamese, Hispanics, Guyanese, other West Indians, South Asians, Indian, Pakistani American and some Europeans living in the community. Today a minor Jewish population live along a larger group of Sikhs, Christians, Hindus, Muslims. Richmond Hill has many Guyanese people and is often thought of as "Little Guyana".[3]
[edit] Libraries
[edit] Parks
[edit] Schools
Richmond Hill residents are zoned to schools in the New York City Department of Education. There are various of student opportunities in the Elementary and Middle schools in Richmond Hill.
Zoned elementary schools include:
- P.S. 51
- P.S. 161 Arthur R. Ashe Junior School
- P.S. 54 Hillside Avenue School
- P.S. 55 The Maure School
- P.S. 56 Harry Eichler School
- P.S. 62 Chester Park School
- P.S. 66 Oxford School
- P.S. 90 Horace Mann School
Residents are zoned to M.S. 137 America's School of Heroes.
Richmond Hill High School is located in the neighborhood.
Private schools include:
- Bethlehem Christian Academy
- Hebrew Academy-West Queens
- Holy Child Jesus School
- Islamic Elementary School
- Our Lady of the Cenacle
- St Benedict Joseph Labre
- Theatre Street School
[edit] References
- ^ Map of Queens neighborhoods.
- ^ Queens Community Boards, New York City. Accessed September 3, 2007.
- ^ O'Grady, Jim. " NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: RICHMOND HILL; Making Guyana More Accessible, Two Sisters Start an Airline", The New York Times, January 13, 2002. Accessed September 30, 2007. "Many of them live in Richmond Hill. Just as Chinese-Americans energized downtown Flushing, the Guyanese have revived a once-moribund shopping strip on Liberty Avenue between the Van Wyck Expressway and Lefferts Boulevard, now known as Little Guyana."
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- 1873 Map of Richmond Hill, Queens
- 2000 Census data for ZIP code 11418
- 2000 Census data for ZIP code 11419
- Friends of the Richmond Hill Library
- New York City Transit
- NYPD 102nd Precinct
- Noteworthy people of Richmond Hill
- Richmond Hill Block Association
- Richmond Hill Historical Society
- Richmond Hill Local News
- Queens Historical Society
- Toxic Targeting Toxics Map of Richmond Hill 2004
