H I S T O R Y

From The Peopling of New York City

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Jackson Heights wasn’t always a busy crossroads in New York. Like most of Queens, Jackson Heights remained a sparsely populated farmland in the 19th century, while Brooklyn and Manhattan grew into dense urban centers. It was not even found in a map of Queens before the 1900s because it did not exist until thereafter. It was the area that was known as Newton in Elmhurst. But the opening of the Queensboro Bridge in 1909 transformed the borough into a viable commuter suburb. A man by the name of Edward MacDougall bought a 325 parcel of land in the former township of Elmhurst.

Edward MacDougal^[1]

In the 1920s McDougall founded the Queensboro Corporation and recruited leading architects to begin converting Jackson Heights from farmland into a planned community of novel cooperative apartment buildings designed to let in plenty of light and air. Styles were borrowed from everywhere, Tudor, Spanish, Italianate, and Art Deco.^[2]

The co-ops, which often surrounded their own private gardens, were a new idea, pioneered by the Queensboro Corporation to lure upper middle class residents from Manhattan to a less congested paradise. MacDougall's vision for his garden apartments focused on the following principles: The full block would be developed (in contrast to the gradual development happening in most of Manhattan).

MacDougal's design

There would be a maximum of sunlight and ventilation, by including rooms that faced the outdoors and numerous windows into the design. Buildings would be set back slightly from lot lines to provide an opportunity for landscaping in front. The arrangement of the apartment buildings would create a private interior courtyard, that would be landscaped and serve as a communal garden, for the enjoyment of the block's inhabitants. It would be an area in which to socialize, play and relax and would pervade all of the apartments that surround it with greenery.

The individual apartment buildings of MacDougall's fifteen garden apartment blocks, were typically U-shaped and were separated or connected to each other, depending on the architect. Two architects, George H. Wells and Andrew J. Thomas, designed most of the apartments for MacDougall. Thomas' apartments were physically separated from each other and contained two apartments per floor,

Blue Prints

an apartment typically being three rooms deep and two rooms wide with a small hall separating it from the other apartment on the same floor.

Pre–World War II co-ops and homes built by the Queensboro Corporation in Jackson Heights have been land marked, and are now part of the Jackson Heights Historic District, which is the second largest historic district in Queens. The Jackson Heights Historic District has the largest density of sidewalk trees and greenery in New York City along its lush residential streets.Jackson Heights is among the first garden city communities built in the United States, as part of the international Garden city movement at the turn of the last century. There are more private parks (historically called gardens by the residents) within walking distance of each other than in any other city in America. The private gardens help make the historic part of the neighborhood highly desirable.

The Towers

Unlike many other co-ops, the Greystones do not have an interior garden. Built in 1917 and originally named simply the "Garden Apartments," the Greystones were the first of the famous Jackson Heights co-ops.

They Greystones

They were comprehensive full block developments. The Buildings were made of gray stone and had several long windows; they were also set back from the lot line permitting lawns and planting in the front of the building.Maximum of sunlight and ventilation were achieved by limiting room depth to two rooms on four sides of the block. They line 80th Street between 35th and 37th Avenues in Jackson Heights.

English Style Home on 71st street

In addition to Jackson Heights’ cooperative apartment buildings, in 1924 the Queensboro Corporation built two and one-family “English Garden” Homes. Most of these homes were “convertibles”. The outward appearance is of a one-family structure, but the upstairs could be rented out thanks to an interior door and staircase. Or the same family could use the whole building. To avoid repetition, Queensboro built the homes in groups of two and five, with variation in roofing and entrance, with lush hidden gardens behind the house and garage. The English homes are on 70th through 73rd streets between Northern Boulevard and 34th avenue.