Early history From colonial times to the 1900s, the area now known as Jackson Heights was a vast marsh named Trains Meadow.
Northern Boulevard, a major east-west thoroughfare traversing Northern Queens and roughly bisecting Jackson Heights, was originally named Jackson Avenue; a short stretch of the boulevard retains that name at its western Terminus in
Long Island City. Though the land was not known for its elevation, after the land was filled to raise the terrain above the marshes of the Trains Meadow, Jackson Heights attained the highest elevation in the vicinity. 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. More direct access came with the
Queensboro Bridge in 1909, This was followed by the elevated
IRT Flushing Line—the present-day , just 20 minutes from
Midtown Manhattan—in 1917, and the
Fifth Avenue Coach Company double-decker coaches in 1922.
Development 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, Targeted at 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 Jackson Heights's Queensboro Corporation buildings, 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. Leftover unused space was converted to parks, gardens, and recreational areas, including a golf course; much of this 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 five buildings, 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 and fostered a sense of belonging to a community; the area's first
co-op; and now-prevalent private gardens surrounded by the building blocks. The Hampton Gardens, the Château, and the Towers followed in the 1920s. The Château and the Towers, both co-ops on 34th Avenue, had large, airy apartments and elevators. Until 1922, elevators were required to have attendants and more modest buildings were constructed as walk-ups not exceeding five floors. The elegant Château cooperative apartment complex, with 12 buildings surrounding a shared garden, was built in the
French Renaissance style and has slate mansard roofs pierced by dormer windows, and diaperwork brick walls. At first purely decorative, the shared gardens in later developments included paved spaces where people could meet or sit. The Queensboro Corporation started the Ivy Court, Cedar Court, and Spanish Gardens projects, all designed by Thomas, in 1924. The Queensboro Corporation advertised their apartments from 1922 on. During the Depression, two new buildings were built: Ravenna Court on 37th Avenue between 80th and 81st streets, built in 1929; and Georgian Court three blocks east, between 83rd and 84th streets, built in 1930. The Queensboro Corporation began to build on land that until then had been kept open for community use, including the tennis courts, community garden, and the former golf course—between 76th and 78th streets and 34th and 37th avenues—all of which were built upon during the 1940s and 1950s. Bordering St. Michaels Cemetery to the west, the airfield was also called the Grand Central Air Terminal and Grand Central Airport. Holmes Airport shut down in 1940, one year after
LaGuardia Airport opened.
Social and demographic shifts The neighborhood grew steadily from the 1920s to the 1950s, with construction slowing during the Depression and booming back again after World War II.
Holmes Airport operated from 1929 to 1940 on adjacent to the community. Later, its land became veterans' housing and the
Bulova watch factory site.
Ethnic tensions By 1930, artists from the Manhattan theater district, many of whom were homosexual, had moved into the area, forming the beginnings of the second largest LGBTQ community in New York outside of Manhattan. Jews were allowed to move in by the 1940s. In the 1950s, middle-class businessmen from Colombia, escaping violence and repression in Latin America, brought their financial capital and their families to the community. White residents' resistance to integration with African-Americans continued late into the decade, and Junction Boulevard came to be called the "Mason-Dixon Line", as it divided Jackson Heights from the black communities in East Elmhurst and Corona. The violence that ensued as a result of the growing Jackson Heights illegal drug trade is described in this excerpt from a 1978
New York magazine article titled "Gunfights in the Cocaine Corral": By the late 1980s, Jackson Heights had rising real-estate values and a moderate amount of crime compared to other city neighborhoods. Nevertheless, there were still high-profile crimes that reinforced perceptions of the neighborhood as dangerous. In 1990, Julio Rivera, a gay Puerto Rican man, was murdered in a hate crime. His death galvanized the LGBTQ community into protesting his death with a candlelight vigil, the formation of several LGBTQ activist groups, and the foundation of the
Queens Pride Parade. Two years later, journalist
Manuel de Dios Unanue was murdered after authoring articles in
El Diario La Prensa about the proliferation of Colombian cartels embedded within the business community along Roosevelt Avenue. Seeking to distance themselves from the portrayal of Jackson Heights as a crime-ridden neighborhood, some residents argued that de Dios had been murdered in Elmhurst, as the restaurant where he was attacked was on the south side of Roosevelt Avenue.
Revitalization and 21st century Community leaders responded to negative perceptions of Jackson Heights by seeking to have the neighborhood designated a historic district. In 1988, the Jackson Heights Beautification Group was formed; it organized walking tours as well as beautification activities and commissioned a neighborhood history. The designation, which set architectural guidelines for structures within the designated district, affected both existing buildings and planned new developments within the district. Starting in the 2000s, Jackson Heights has become once again a desirable destination for professionals and middle-class families. Some of these residents moved to Jackson Heights for the unique architecture of its buildings, while others move for its cultural diversity. == Land use ==