78th Street & 37th Avenue, Queens On July 2, 1990, Julio Rivera, a 29-year-old Jackson Heights resident, was attacked by three gang members in the playground of P.S. 69 because of his sexual orientation. He died from his wounds at Elmhurst Hospital, and his death sparked a surge in LGBTQ activism in Queens. While there had been many more hate crimes toward gay people in Queens over the previous few decades, the vigil for Rivera on August 18, 1990, was considered to be Queens’ first successful LGBTQ public demonstration. The vigil, organized by Rivera’s family and friends and a coalition of LGBTQ activists and organizations, led to other advocacy efforts, including the formation of Queens Gays and Lesbians United, the Lesbian and Gay Democratic Club of Queens, Queens Pride House and the organization of two more demonstrations to pressure then-Mayor David Dinkins to publicly acknowledge Rivera’s death. As a result of that advocacy, Rivera’s death became the first gay hate crime to be tried in New York State. Since 1993, this corner has been included on the route of the Queens Pride Parade, and in 2000, a street sign was installed in honor of Julio Rivera. Photo by Christopher D. Brazee/NYC LGBTQ Historic Sites Project.

Interiors, Queensboro Corporation Building, The Queensboro Corporation was a real estate company that was almost solely responsible for the growth and development of this area of northern Queens. The Corporation, formed by local North Queens businessmen in 1909, spent more than $4 million buying more than 350 plots of land between 1909 and 1914. They built residential tracks, apartment buildings, cooperative garden apartments, and were actively involved in advocating for the expansion of the subway through the neighborhood. The headquarters for the Queensboro Corporation was built on the corner of 82nd Street and 37th Avenue (which was then becoming one of the main commercial thoroughfares). This Neo-Tudor building was constructed prior to 1928 and was designed in a similar style to many of the residential and commercial buildings that the Corporation was developing nearby.

Hampton Court 35–16 to 35–56 79th Street and 35–15 to 35–55 78th Street Designed by George H. Wells 1921 Hampton Court is one of Jackson Heights’ earlier garden-apartment complexes. The 11 buildings occupy almost the entire block and enclose a garden at the center. Additionally, there was a garden at each end of the block originally. These buildings, like many of George H. Wells’s designs, are Neo-Georgian in style and are red brick laid in Flemish bond with white trim. The facades and entries differ between 78th and 79th Streets.

Linden Court 37–11 to 37–59 84th Street and 37–12 to 37–60 85th Street Designed by Andrew J. Thomas 1919 Linden Court, the earliest entire-block development in Jackson Heights, is made up of 10 four-story apartment buildings. The buildings are situated back-to-back and have a common interior landscaped yard. These apartments were the model for subsequent block-plan garden apartments in the neighborhood. Linden Court was also the first complex to have parking facilities, which are located in the light-court areas at the rear of the buildings. These Neo- Georgian style apartment buildings feature patterned brickwork, keystones, sun porches, and loggias.

Subway construction in the early 20th century benefitted the rising white middle class as they moved from congested tenement districts to new private houses or apartment buildings in upper Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn. This story is adapted from an exhibition at the Skyscraper Museum. The original version can be seen here.

Linden Court, 1920. Linden Court is a complex of 10 four-story apartment buildings constructed in 1919. The earliest entire-block development in Jackson Heights, the complex was developed by the Queensboro Corporation and designed by Andrew J. Thomas, an early advocate of garden apartments. Thomas's design allowed for abundant light and ventilation to each apartments. This was also the first complex in the area to have parking facilities. The Neo- Georgian style apartment buildings were a model for later development in the area and today are part of the Jackson Heights Historic District, designated 1993.

Elm Court, 1922. A neo-Georgian garden apartment, Elm Court was designed for the Queensboro Corporation by one of their regular architects, George H. Wells. Completed between 1921 and 1922, the complex includes eight four-story buildings and a large landscaped common garden.

Jackson Heights is an early-20th-century neighborhood in central Queens, composed of low-rise garden apartments and houses as well as institutional and commercial buildings. It was the first and remains the largest garden-apartment community in the United States— the product of both the early 20th-century model tenement and the Garden City movements. Starting in the late 19th century, poor living conditions in city slums resulted in reform efforts to improve urban housing. As a result, light, ventilation and open green space became key pieces in the design of new developments. This is particularly evident in Jackson Heights. Queens grew rapidly in the early 20th century, beginning with the opening of the Queensboro Bridge in 1909 and accelerated by the arrival of the elevated subway in 1917. These transportation routes established fast, direct connections between Jackson Heights and Manhattan and the thriving industrial area of Long Island City. Beginning in 1910 the Queensboro Corporation started developing former farmland into an idyllic residential alternative to crowded Manhat- tan. Development continued until 1950, by which time all of the vacant land in the area was built up. The Queensboro Corporation required that builders and developers not otherwise affiliated with the corporation adhere to strict design requirements. The picturesque residences were designed in Georgian, Tudor, Gothic, Italian Renaissance and Spanish Romanesque styles. Decorative brickwork, loggias and slate roofs are quintessential design elements found in the architecture. Institutional and commercial buildings were produced to match the residential. The continuity of design throughout Jackson Heights is its most defining feature, but the community is home to many other innovations, including some of the first purpose-built cooperatives in New York City for the middle class. The first passenger-operated elevator in the world debuted here in 1922. Most importantly, Jackson Heights was the first community in the United States where green space was provided as part of the architecture—a “garden city.” The development of Jackson Heights reversed many of the traditional architectural and planning concepts of the time. Entire city blocks were designed as a whole, as opposed to developing lots individually. Additionally, only 40% of each block was built up, leaving the remaining 60% for open green space. By contrast, it was commonplace in Manhattan to build as densely as 90% on a block, to reap as much profit as possible. In Jackson Heights, structures were typically built around the perimeter of a city block, and they enclosed landscaped gardens at the center, giving the buildings the name of “garden apartments.” Apartments had views of both the street and the interior courtyard, allowing light and breezes in and creating a sense of openness. Jackson Heights was designated as a New York City historic district in 1993, and an extension of those boundaries, which would meet those of the 1998 National Register Historic District, is currently being sought. This would include buildings that, due to the restrictions placed upon them by the Queensboro Corporation, possess the same quality design, materials and scale of the earliest buildings creating historic Jackson Heights.

IRT Flushing Line elevated tracks above Roosevelt Avenue, 1927. The Flushing Line’s Elmhurst segment opened in 1917. At right, storefronts advertise printing (no. 80-19), dresses, cigars, and groceries. At far left, a Chevrolet dealership on the Jackson Heights side of the tracks.

The Chateau Apartments were built in 1922 and designed by Andrew Thomas, a local Queens architect. Developed by the Queensboro Corporation, the Chateau consists of 12 U-shaped buildings (six each fronting 80th and 81st Street). The style is a neo-French Renaissance with slate mansard roofing with dormers and brick chimneys with decorative tops. The construction of the building included large areas of gardens in the interior, shared by all of the buildings and front gardens on the street-facing sides. The building has been extremely well preserved. As it nears its centennial, all doors are still original and most of the wood sash and casement windows remain.

View from the garden of The Chateau looking towards Elm Court, ca. 1923.

The Queensboro Corporation was the real estate company responsible for giving the Jackson Heights neighborhood its name. The marshy area had previously been called "Trains Meadow," and, led by Edward A. MacDougall and a group of New York investors, it was developed to become a neighborhood for the middle-class and upper middle-class who were looking to escape the overcrowding of Manhattan. The corporation had purchased about 350 acres of undeveloped land and farms by 1915, and MacDougall erected the infrastructure necessary to maintain a rising middle-class who would soon move in. The Flushing Line reached Trains Meadow, now christened "Jackson Heights," in 1917. The "heights" in the name does not denote any elevation change, but instead was meant to make the area seem exclusive.

The Towers 33–15 to 33–51 80th Street and 33–16 to 33–52 81st Street Designed by Andrew J. Thomas 1924 The Towers are composed of eight freestanding U-shape buildings, four on 80th Street and four on 81st Street. The buildings are placed back-to-back and enclose an interior garden that is accessed by gated entrances located between the buildings. The yellow-brick apartment design is inspired by Italian Romanesque and Renaissance architecture; highlights include red-tile roofs, arcaded sixth-story loggias and tower belvederes.

The Towers, Jackson Heights, 1925. The Towers were built between 1923 and 1925 by the Queensboro Corporation and designed by Andrew J. Thomas. Thomas was a popular architect for the Corporation because he was very successful in minimizing construction costs. He drew inspiration for his designs from Spanish farmhouses and Italian villas. The Towers are built in Neo-Romanesque style, and was one of the first major development projects in Jackson Heights. The rest of the neighborhood sprung up around the building, mimicking its style and design. The complex has a private garden, and statues of stone griffins flanking the gates. There are 114 large apartments inside the building.

English Garden Homes 33–18 to 33–44 83rd Street Designed by Alfred H. Eccles 1928 Along 83rd Street there are 13 English Garden homes, each three stories high. The houses in the middle have slate mansard roofs, while those on the ends have front facing gabled roofs with side-facing dormers. All of these structures have continuous brick bandcourses under the second-story windows and feature cast-stone window boxes with brick brackets under the first-floor windows.

The Chateau Apartments 34–05 to 34–47 80th Street and 34–06 to 34–48 81st Street Designed by Andrew J. Thomas 1924 The Chateau apartments are 12 freestanding U-shape buildings placed back-to-back just as The Towers apartments are arranged. These buildings were designed in the French Renaissance style and feature slate mansard roofs with dormer windows and finials, Flemish bond brick facing with diamond patterning, and chimneys with decorative tops.

Cambridge Court, 1923. Completed in 1922 to the plans of architect George H. Wells, Cambridge Court is a massive through-block apartment complex. Like many of the apartments constructed in Jackson Heights at the time, this one has a common landscaped garden in the middle of the rows of buildings. Wells worked for the Queensboro Corporation on the development of Jackson Heights, creating at least five such garden apartment complexes. Cambridge Court was the last of his apartment designs for the neighborhood.

Built in 1928-1929 in a neo-Romanesque style, the large residential building occupies a large block end plot.