Jackson Heights, Queens: Garden Apartments, 37th Avenue and a Landmarked District

The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Jackson Heights Historic District on October 19, 1993, in its report LP-1831. The district begins at the southeast corner of the intersection of 78th Street and 34th Avenue, runs east to the western curbline of 88th Street and follows the northern curbline of Roosevelt Avenue — a metes-and-bounds line drawn lot by lot along curblines rather than a simple rectangle. Almost 600 buildings were designated, by a 1994 New York Times count. The State and National Register districts range more widely, from 93rd Street through 69th Street between Northern Boulevard and Roosevelt Avenue.

The first speculative buildings in the district were the rowhouses designed by Charles Peck and built in 1911 on 82nd and 83rd Streets, just north of Roosevelt Avenue. The rowhouses on 82nd Street have been demolished or altered for commercial purposes; those on 83rd Street are still standing.

The garden apartments followed. George H. Wells's Greystone Apartments, 35-15—35-55 80th Street, went up for the Queensboro Corporation in 1916-18. The Chateau, 34-01—34-47 80th Street and 34-02—34-48 81st Street, is twelve buildings, each blockfront composed of six. The Towers occupies the 80th Street block between Northern Boulevard and 34th Avenue, addressed 33-15—33-51 80th Street and 33-16—33-52 81st Street, block and lot 1253/1 — eight buildings of six stories in a Neo-Romanesque style, built 1923-25.

Laurel Court is at 33-01—33-21 82nd Street, Hayes Court at 33-53 82nd Street, Linden Court at 37-11—37-59 84th Street and 37-12—37-60 85th Street, Spanish Gardens at 37-15—37-57 83rd Street and 37-16—37-58 84th Street, Hawthorne Court at 35-13—35-55 76th Street, Cambridge Court at 37-13—37-57 85th Street and 37-14—37-58 86th Street, Laburnum Court at 37-15—37-31 79th Street, Elm Court at 34-27—34-49 79th Street and 34-28—34-50 80th Street, Hampton Court at 35-15—35-55 78th Street, Ivy Court at 34-01—34-09 83rd Street and 34-02—34-10 84th Street, Cedar Court at 83-01—83-09 35th Avenue, Dunolly Gardens at 78-02—78-20 34th Avenue, and Berkeley Hall — now Berkeley Gardens — at 77-02—77-12 35th Avenue, by Joshua Tabatchnik, 1936-37. The Queensboro Corporation's own headquarters, by Morrell Smith, 1928, was built at the southwest corner of 37th Avenue and 82nd Street.

Thomas J. Travers Park is on 34th Avenue between 77th and 78th Streets: park ID Q303, 1.92 acres, property type Playground, ZIP 11372, Community Board 3, Council Member Shekar Krishnan. The land was condemned in 1948 and the park was rebuilt in 2020. NYC Parks traces the site to Trains Meadow and the neighborhood's name to John C. Jackson (1809-1899).

Other city parkland here includes Rory Staunton Field, on 78th and 79th Streets between Northern Boulevard and 34th Avenue; Northern Playground, on Northern Boulevard between 93rd and 94th Streets; and Junction Playground, on 34th Avenue between 96th Street and Junction Boulevard.

Until the early 1920s there were no houses of worship in Jackson Heights; congregations held services in storefronts or at the Community Casino, no longer extant. The buildings that followed include the Jewish Center of Jackson Heights at 34-25 82nd Street, also given as 34-24 83rd Street, on 82nd Street between 34th Avenue and 35th Avenue; Young Israel of Jackson Heights at 86-15—86-29 37th Avenue; the First Church of Christ, Scientist at 86-01—86-17 35th Avenue; the Community United Methodist Church Complex at 81-02—81-10 35th Avenue, block 1281 lot 1; St. Mark's Episcopal Church at 81-01—81-11 34th Avenue; and the Saint Joan of Arc R.C. Church Complex, whose church is at 35-02 83rd Street, rectory at 82-00 35th Avenue, school at 35-07 82nd Street and convent at 35-24 83rd Street.

P.S. 69 is at 77-02 37th Avenue, also given as 37-01 77th Street and 37-02 78th Street, block and lot 1288/1. It dates from 1922-24 under New Building number 8511-1922 and is the work of C.B.J. Snyder, Superintendent of Buildings for the Board of Education from 1891 until his retirement in 1923. The Queens Borough Public Library's Jackson Heights branch is at 35-51 81st Street, block and lot 1281/48. Garden School is at 33-16 79th Street, and the school says its first high school class graduated in the spring of 1929. The US Post Office-Jackson Heights Station, at 78-02 37th Avenue, was built by Benjamin C. Flournoy in 1936-37 and added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 17, 1988 under reference number 88002504; the Jackson Heights Beautification Group runs an Annual Holiday Post Office Lighting there.

In 2000 the corner of 78th Street and 37th Avenue, where Julio Rivera was killed, was renamed in his memory. Queens Pride was founded by Daniel Dromm and Maritza Martinez, a Cuban-born LGBTQ rights activist; the first march was held on June 6, 1993, when around 1,000 people joined it, and Queens Pride has attracted crowds of over 40,000 people. The parade runs on 37th Avenue from 89th Street to 75th Street, with a festival at 75th Street and 37th Road. A street sign at 35th Avenue and 81st Street is stylized using letters with their values in Scrabble as a subscript, memorializing Alfred Mosher Butts's importance to the invention of the board game, which he made in 1931. Jackson Heights has also been called "the second (if unofficial) capital of the exile Tibetan world, after Dharamsala, India" — a description credited to Tenzin Dorjee in Himalaya, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies, volume 37 number 1, June 2017.

The 74th Street-Broadway complex stands at Roosevelt Avenue, 74th Street and Broadway. Its own Wikipedia article calls it the busiest subway station in Queens. The Jackson Heights bus terminal there opened on July 13, 2005, and the same article calls it one of the first green buildings in the MTA system.

The 82nd Street-Jackson Heights station is at the intersection of 82nd Street and Roosevelt Avenue, on the border of Jackson Heights and Elmhurst. The avenue is the boundary itself: its north side is Jackson Heights and its south side is Elmhurst, so 82-01 Roosevelt Avenue is a Jackson Heights address and 82-10 an Elmhurst one.

The IRT Flushing Line runs through the neighborhood, and the International Express trail passes through Jackson Heights along it.