Richmond Hill, Queens: A National Register District, the El and Little Guyana

The Richmond Hill Historic District is a National Register of Historic Places listing, nomination number 100003430. It takes in 200 contributing buildings raised between 1890 and 1915 beside the former South Side Railroad line — now the Long Island Rail Road's Montauk Branch — and the Richmond Hill station at Hillside Avenue, and its outline is roughly a triangle. Its National Register cover sheet gives the district two ZIP codes, 11415 and 11418. Wikipedia's article on the district calls the dominant architecture the Shingle style, with many houses in an earlier style called the Stick style.

The district's northern tier follows 84th Avenue, the original Division Avenue, and that line is also the Kew Gardens boundary, so a house can stand inside the district and inside Kew Gardens' tabulation area at once. The nomination singles out a pair of houses by the builders Wade & Cullingford on that northern seam. The contributing houses are private single-family residences.

The architect Henry Edward Haugaard opened an office in the neighborhood in 1888, which the Landmarks Preservation Commission's designation report LP-2126 puts at Jamaica Plank Road and Lefferts Boulevard and the National Register nomination at Jamaica Avenue and Lefferts Boulevard. The two records disagree about the man as well: LP-2126 says he was born in 1867 in Brooklyn, while the nomination gives his dates as 1866–1939. LP-2126 records that the architectural legacy continued into the next generation with two of the Haugaard sons: William E. Haugaard became New York State Architect in 1928, and John T. Haugaard Jr. worked as Senior Housing Control Architect and Associate Architect for the State of New York.

Individual New York City landmark designations cover the Richmond Hill Republican Club at 86-15 Lefferts Boulevard, which LP-2126 calls an integral part of downtown Richmond Hill; Public School 66 at 85-11 102nd Street, which LP-2317 places in east central Queens, in the neighborhood of Richmond Hill; and the Eldridge House at 87-61 111th Street, covered by LP-2473. The Landmarks Preservation Commission has designated no historic district in Richmond Hill.

The Church of the Resurrection, a historic Episcopal church and rectory at 85-09 118th Street, was built in 1874 on land donated by the Man estate, just east of the historic district; the Richmond Hill article puts it on the neighborhood's northern edge. Its ZIP code is 11415, which is also Kew Gardens' code and one of the two the district's cover sheet carries. Holy Child Jesus stands at 111-11 86th Avenue. St. Benedict Joseph Labre Parish is at 94-40 118th Street. The Richmond Hill Historical Society is at 112-13 84th Avenue, inside the district. Wikipedia's list of the neighborhood's notable residents places Jack Kerouac here from 1950 to 1955.

The portion of the neighborhood south of Atlantic Avenue is also known as South Richmond Hill. Liberty Avenue, an 8-mile (13 km) west-east avenue in Brooklyn and Queens, runs through it. Wikipedia records that the avenue was co-named "Little Guyana Avenue" on May 29, 2021, and that the MTA put up a "Welcome to Little Guyana" sign in early 2024. 101st Avenue is known by the name Little Punjab; a second Wikipedia article gives the name as Punjab Avenue. Wikipedia also records the co-namings James J. Creegan Square and Felix Cuervo Corner.

LP-2126 describes the neighborhood's change of population — a population of mostly German and Irish descent gave way to an influx of Latin Americans — and adds that Richmond Hill remains a low-rise neighborhood of two-family houses and apartment buildings. A Community District 9 figure, covering Kew Gardens and Woodhaven along with Richmond Hill, puts the district at eleven bodegas for every supermarket.

Phil "Scooter" Rizzuto Park is at 125-02 Atlantic Avenue, filed by NYC Parks under two ZIP codes, 11418 and 11419. McConnell Park is NYC Parks property Q217, and the agency's history page for it says the park is located in Richmond Hill; Parks gives its extent as "94 Ave., Atlantic Ave. bet. Leffers Blvd. and 120 St." — the dataset's own spelling of Lefferts — and its acreage as 0.207 in Parks Properties against 0.21 on its own page. Parks files the park in council district 29, while Wikipedia gives the neighborhood's council districts as 28, 30 and 32. Standing at Atlantic Avenue and Lefferts Boulevard is the Morris Park World War Memorial, a stele with two tablets in bronze and Deer Island granite by the architect H. Adler, which Parks records as dedicated in 1923 and again in 1973, with a new plaque given by Lt. F. J. McConnell Post No. 229, V.F.W. Parks' monument record titles it the Morris Park World War Memorial; the agency's own McConnell history page calls it the Morris Park World War I Memorial.

The NYPD's 102nd Precinct station house is at 87-34 118th Street, and the command patrols Kew Gardens, Richmond Hill and Woodhaven. FDNY Engine Company 294 and Ladder Company 143 are at 101-02 Jamaica Avenue, and Squad 270 with Division 13 at 91-45 121st Street. The United States Post Office's Richmond Hill Station is at 122-01 Jamaica Avenue, the Queens Public Library's Richmond Hill branch at 118-14 Hillside Avenue, and Richmond Hill High School at 89-30 114th Street.

Between Myrtle Avenue and the Montauk Line railroad stands a former movie theatre at 117-09 Hillside Avenue, opened in 1929, which Wikipedia records has functioned since 1968 as a bingo hall. Its own article titles it RKO Keith's Theater, while the neighborhood's article and the historic district's article both call it RKO Keith's Richmond Hill Theater. Wikipedia also records that it is on the State Register only, the property owner having refused listing on the National Register.

The elevated BMT Jamaica Line runs above Jamaica Avenue through Richmond Hill, along with Woodhaven and the Cypress Hills section of Brooklyn. Its 121st Street station is at the intersection of 121st Street and Jamaica Avenue, in Richmond Hill and Kew Gardens. Its 111th Street station is in Richmond Hill and is served at all times by the J train. Its 104th Street station is on Jamaica Avenue between 102nd and 104th Streets, in Richmond Hill.

The Long Island Rail Road's Montauk Branch crosses the neighborhood on a viaduct, and the Richmond Hill station sits on it. The station opened in 1868 under the name Clarenceville Station, and that name was changed in 1871. Its location is given differently by different articles: the neighborhood's own article puts it on Hillside Avenue and Babbage Street; the station's article describes it at Myrtle Avenue, cutting diagonally from the intersection of Jamaica Avenue and Lefferts Boulevard through to Hillside Avenue; and the Clarenceville station article places it at Jamaica Avenue and Lefferts Boulevard. It is distinct from the Clarenceville station on the Atlantic Branch, which stood on Atlantic Avenue west of 111th Street in the Richmond Hill section of Queens.

The Van Wyck Expressway forms Richmond Hill's eastern edge, and the Jamaica–Van Wyck station stands on the expressway and carries Jamaica in its name. Lefferts Boulevard runs through the communities of Kew Gardens, Richmond Hill and South Ozone Park. Liberty Avenue runs west to east for 8 miles (13 km) across Brooklyn and Queens, and Jamaica Avenue is fronted by Richmond Hill and by Jamaica alike.