Jamaica is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. Jamaica is bordered by Hollis, Queens Village, St. Albans, and Cambria Heights to the east; South Jamaica, Rochdale Village, John F. Kennedy International Airport, and Springfield Gardens to the south; Laurelton and Rosedale to the southeast; Richmond Hill, South Ozone Park, and Aqueduct Racetrack to the west and southwest; Briarwood to the northwest; and Kew Gardens Hills, Jamaica Hills, and Jamaica Estates to the north.
Jamaica may get its name from Yameco, a corruption of a word for "beaver" in the Lenape language spoken by the Native Americans who lived in the area at the time of first European contact. The liquid "y" sound of English is spelled with a "j" in Dutch, the language of the first people to write about the area; the English retained this Dutch spelling, but, after repeated reading and speaking of "Jamaica", slowly replaced the liquid sound with the hard "j" of the English pronunciation of the name today.Major Mark Park, accessed December 16, 2006
Jamaica was settled under Dutch rule in 1656. It was originally called . Under English rule, Jamaica became the center of the "Town of Jamaica"; the name is of Lenape origin and wholly unrelated to that of the country. It was the first county seat of Queens County, holding that title from 1683 to 1788, and was the first incorporated village on Long Island. When Queens was incorporated into the City of Greater New York in 1898, both the town of Jamaica and the village of Jamaica were dissolved, but the neighborhood of Jamaica regained its role as county seat.
Jamaica is the location of several government buildings such as Queens Civil Court, the civil branch of the Queens County Supreme Court, the Queens County Family Court and the Joseph P. Addabbo Federal Building, home to the Social Security Administration's Northeastern Program Service Center. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Northeast Regional Laboratory as well as the New York District Office are located in Jamaica. Jamaica Center, the area around Jamaica Avenue, is a major commercial center. The New York Racing Association, based at Aqueduct Racetrack in South Ozone Park, lists its official address as Jamaica. Central Jamaica once housed the Jamaica Racetrack, now the massive Rochdale Village housing development. John F. Kennedy International Airport and the hotels nearby are also located in Jamaica. The neighborhood is located in Queens Community District 12. It is patrolled by the New York City Police Department's 103rd and 113th Precincts.
History
Etymology
The neighborhood was named Yameco, a corruption of the word yamecah, meaning "beaver", in the language spoken by the Lenape, the Native Americans who lived in the area at the time of first European contact. The semivowel "y" sound of English is spelled with a "j" in Dutch, the language of the first people to write about the area; the English retained the Dutch spelling but replaced the semivowel sound with the affricate [dʒ] sound that the letter "j" usually represents in English.Major Mark Park, New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Accessed March 19, 2024. "Now the largest and most densely populated community in central Queens, the area derives its name from the Jameco ('beaver') Native Americans, who lived along the shores of what is now Jamaica Bay. In 1655, the first English settlers arrived in Jamaica from Massachusetts and eastern Long Island. Within a year, they secured a land grant from the Dutch Governor Peter Stuyvesant (1610-1672), who had named the area Rustdorp ('rest-town'). Rustdorp soon became the seat of Queens County." The name of the Caribbean island country Jamaica is unrelated, coming from the Taíno term Xaymaca, meaning "land of wood and water" or "land of springs"; the "x" spelling became a hard "j".
Precolonial and colonial periods Jamaica Avenue was an ancient trail for tribes from as far away as the Ohio River and the Great Lakes, coming to trade skins and furs for wampum.Community History , accessed December 16, 2006 It was in 1655 that the first settlers paid the Native Americans with two guns, a coat, and some powder and lead, for the land lying between the old trail and "Beaver Pond", now filled in. What is now Tuckerton Street north of Liberty Avenue runs through the site of the old pond, and Beaver Road was named for its western edge. Dutch Director-General Peter Stuyvesant dubbed the area ("rest-town") in granting the 1656 land patent.Jamaica History, Greater Jamaica Development Corporation. Accessed March 19, 2024. "Dutch Governor Peter Stuyvesant dubbed the area Rustdorp in granting the 1656 patent. The English, who took it over in 1664, renamed it 'jameco,' the Carnarsie word for beaver." Among its founding settlers was Robert Coe, who was appointed as the first magistrate by the Dutch government, serving until the English took over in 1664, making it a part of the county of Yorkshire.
In 1683, when the Crown divided the colony of New York into counties, Jamaica became the county seat of Queens County, one of the original counties of New York.
Colonial Jamaica had a band of 56 minutemen who played an active part in the Battle of Long Island, the outcome of which led to the occupation of the New York City area by British troops during most of the American Revolutionary War. Rufus King, a signer of the United States Constitution, relocated to Jamaica in 1805. He added to a modest 18th-century farmhouse, creating the manor which stands on the site today; King Manor was restored at the turn of the 21st century to its former glory, and houses King Manor Museum.History, King Manor. Accessed March 19, 2024.
Late 18th and 19th centuries By 1776, Jamaica had become a trading post for farmers and their produce. For more than a century, their horse-drawn carts plodded along Jamaica Avenue, then called King's Highway. The Jamaica Post Office opened September 25, 1794, and was the only post office in the present-day boroughs of Queens or Brooklyn before 1803. Union Hall Academy for boys and Union Hall Seminary for girls were chartered in 1787. The academy eventually attracted students from all over the United States and the West Indies.
The public school system was started in 1813 with funds of $125. Jamaica Village, the first village on Long Island, was incorporated in 1814 with its boundaries being from the present-day Van Wyck Expressway (on the west) and Jamaica Avenue (on the north, later Hillside Avenue) to Farmers Boulevard (on the east) and Linden Boulevard (on the south) in what is now St. Albans. By 1834, the Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad company had completed a line to Jamaica.
In 1850, the former Kings Highway (now Jamaica Avenue) became the Brooklyn and Jamaica Plank Road, complete with toll gate. In 1866, tracks were laid for a horsecar line, and 20 years later it was electrified, the first in the state. On January 1, 1898, Queens became part of the City of New York, and Jamaica became the county seat.
20th and 21st centuries
The present Jamaica station of the Long Island Rail Road was completed in 1913, and the BMT Jamaica Line arrived in 1918, followed by the IND Queens Boulevard Line in 1936 and the IND/BMT Archer Avenue lines in 1988, the latter of which replaced the eastern portion of the Jamaica Line that was torn down in 1977–85. The 1920s and 1930s saw the building of the Valencia Theatre (now restored by the Tabernacle of Prayer), the "futuristic" Kurtz furniture store, and the Roxanne Building. In the 1970s, it became the headquarters for the Islamic Society of North America. King Kullen opened in 1930, the first self-service supermarket in the country.
Foreclosures and the high level of unemployment of the 2000s and early 2010s induced many black people to move from Jamaica to the South,Bilefsky, Dan. "For New Life, Blacks in City Head to South." The New York Times. June 21, 2011. Retrieved on April 16, 2014. as part of the New Great Migration. On October 23, 2014, the neighborhood was the site of a terrorist hatchet attack on two New York City Police Department officers; the police later killed the attacker.
The First Reformed Church, Grace Episcopal Church Complex, Jamaica Chamber of Commerce Building, Jamaica Savings Bank, King Manor, J. Kurtz and Sons Store Building, La Casina, Office of the Register, Prospect Cemetery, St. Monica's Church, Sidewalk Clock at 161-11 Jamaica Avenue, New York, NY, Trans World Airlines Flight Center, and United States Post Office are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Demographics
Based on data from the 2020 United States census, the population of Jamaica was 60,993 an increase of 7,110 (13.2%) from the 53,751 counted in 2010. Covering an area of , the neighborhood had a population density of .Table PL-P5 NTA: Total Population and Persons Per Acre - New York City Neighborhood Tabulation Areas*, 2010, Population Division - New York City Department of City Planning, February 2012. Accessed June 16, 2016.
The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 3.3% (2,001) Non-Hispanic White, 17.4% (10,614) Black or African American, 0.9% (466) Native American, 34.9% (21,263) Asian, 5.7% (3,481) from other races, and 4.5% (2,775) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race were 34.2% (20,859) of the population.Table PL-P3A NTA: Total Population by Mutually Exclusive Race and Hispanic Origin - New York City Neighborhood Tabulation Areas*, 2010, Population Division - New York City Department of City Planning, March 29, 2011. Accessed June 14, 2016.
The entirety of Community Board 12, which mainly comprises Jamaica but also includes Hollis, had 232,911 inhabitants as of NYC Health's 2018 Community Health Profile, with an average life expectancy of 80.5 years. This is slightly lower than the median life expectancy of 81.2 for all New York City neighborhoods. Most inhabitants are youth and middle-aged adults: 22% are between ages 0 and 17; 27% between 25 and 44; and 27% between 45 and 64. The ratio of college-aged and elderly residents was lower, at 10% and 14% respectively.
In 2017, the median household income in Community Board 12 was $61,670. In 2018, an estimated 20% of Jamaica and Hollis residents lived in poverty, compared to 19% in all of Queens and 20% in all of New York City. One in eight residents (12%) were unemployed, compared to 8% in Queens and 9% in New York City. Rent burden, or the percentage of residents who have difficulty paying their rent, is 56% in Jamaica and Hollis, higher than the boroughwide and citywide rates of 53% and 51% respectively. Based on this calculation, , Jamaica and Hollis are considered to be high-income relative to the rest of the city and not gentrifying.
Demographic distribution
The borough of Queens is one of the most ethnically diverse counties in the world. Jamaica is a large neighborhood with a diverse population, predominantly African Americans, Caribbean/West Indians, Hispanics, and Asians/Asian Indians.
Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, Jamaica was mainly populated by Irish immigrants who settled around Downtown and Baisley Pond Park. In the 1950s, a long period of white flight began that lasted through the 1970s and 1980s with middle-income African Americans taking their place. Beginning in 1965 and through the 1970s, many West Indians immigrated to the United States, most of whom settled in New York City.
Many Salvadoran, Colombian, and Dominican immigrants moved in. These ethnic groups tended to stay more towards the Jamaica Avenue and South Jamaica areas. Decrease in crime attracted many families to Jamaica's safe havens; Hillside Avenue reflects this trend. Along 150th to 161st streets, much of the stores and restaurants typify South American and Caribbean cultures.