Wikipedia

User:JimWae/History of Queens, New York

< User:JimWae

Queens County was established in 1683 as one of the original 12 counties of New York State, and was supposedly named for the Queen consort, Catherine of Braganza (1638-1705), the Portuguese princess who married King Charles II of England in 1662.[1][2] The Borough of Queens was formed in 1898 as one of the Five Boroughs which form the City of New York. Originally, Queens County included the adjacent area now comprising Nassau County. The boundaries of the Borough of Queens and the County of Queens have been identical since Nassau County was split off and created in 1899.

The written History of Queens begins with European colonization by both Dutch and English settlers, as a part of the New Netherlands colony. The first settlements occurred in 1635, with colonization at Maspeth in 1642,[3] and Vlissingen (now Flushing) in 1643.[4] Other early settlements included Newtown (now Elmhurst) and Jamaica. However, these towns were mostly inhabited by English settlers from New England via eastern Long Island (Suffolk County) subject to Dutch law. After the capture of the colony by the English and its renaming as New York in 1664, the area (and all of Long Island) became known as Yorkshire.

Queens was an original county of New York State, one of twelve created on November 1, 1683.[5] On October 7, 1691, all counties in the Colony of New York were redefined. Queens gained North Brother Island, South Brother Island, and Huletts Island (today known as Rikers Island).[6] On December 3, 1768, Queens gained other islands in Long Island Sound that were not already assigned to a county but that did not abut on Westchester County (today’s Bronx County).[7]

Queens played a minor role in the American Revolution, as compared to Brooklyn where the Battle of Long Island was largely fought. Queens, like the rest of Long Island, fell under British occupation after the Battle of Long Island in 1776 and remained occupied throughout most of the rest of the war. Under the Quartering Act, British soldiers used, as barracks, the public inns and uninhabited buildings belonging to Queens residents, against the will of many of the local people. The quartering of soldiers in private homes, except in times of war, was banned by the Third Amendment to the United States Constitution. Nathan Hale was captured by the British on the shore of Flushing Bay in Queens before being executed in Manhattan.

From 1683 until 1784, Queens County consisted of five towns: Flushing, Hempstead, Jamaica, Newtown, and Oyster Bay. On April 6, 1784, a sixth town, the Town of North Hempstead, was formed through secession by the northern portions of the Town of Hempstead.[8][9]

The seat of the county government was located first in Jamaica,[10] but the courthouse was torn down by the British during the American Revolution in order to use the materials to build barracks.[11] After the war, various buildings in Jamaica temporarily served as courthouse and jail until a new building was erected about 1787 (and later completed) in an area near Mineola (now in Nassau County) known then as Clowesville.[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] The 1850 census was the first in which the population of the three western towns exceeded that of the three eastern towns that are now part of Nassau County. Concerns were raised about the condition and distance of the old courthouse, and several sites were in contention for the construction of a new one. In 1870, Long Island City was incorporated as a city, consisting of what had been the Village of Astoria and some unincorporated areas in the Town of Newtown. Around 1874, the seat of county government was moved to Long Island City from Mineola.[23][24][25]

On March 1, 1860, the eastern border between Queens County (later Nassau County) and Suffolk County was redefined with no discernible change.[26] On June 8, 1881, North Brother Island was transferred to New York County.[27] On May 8, 1884, Rikers Island was transferred to New York County.[28] In 1885, Lloyd Neck, which was part of the Town of Oyster Bay and was earlier known as Queens Village, seceded from Queens and became part of the Town of Huntington in Suffolk County.[29][30] On April 16, 1964, South Brother Island was transferred to Bronx County.[31]

Borough of Queens

edit

The New York City Borough of Queens was authorized on May 4, 1897, by a vote of the New York State Legislature after an 1894 referendum on consolidation.[32] The eastern 280 square miles of Queens that became Nassau County was partitioned on January 1, 1899.[33]

Queens Borough was established on 1898-01-01.[34][35][36] Long Island City, the towns of Newtown, Flushing, and Jamaica, and the Rockaway Peninsula portion of the Town of Hempstead were merged to form the new borough, dissolving all former municipal governments (Long Island City, the county government, all towns, and all villages) within the new borough. The areas of Queens County that were not part of the consolidation plan,[37][38][39][40][41][42][43] consisting of the towns of North Hempstead and Oyster Bay, and the major remaining portion of the Town of Hempstead, remained part of Queens County until they seceded to form the new Nassau County on January 1, 1899, whereupon the boundaries of Queens County and the Borough of Queens became coterminous. With consolidation, Jamaica once again became the county seat, though county offices now extend to nearby Kew Gardens also.[44][45]

From 1905 to 1908 the Long Island Rail Road in Queens was electrified. Transportation to and from Manhattan, previously by ferry or via bridges in Brooklyn, opened up when the Queensboro Bridge was finished in 1909, and with railway tunnels under the East River in 1910. From 1915 onward, much of Queens was connected to the New York City subway system.[46][47] With the 1915 construction of the Steinway Tunnel carrying the IRT Flushing Line between Queens and Manhattan, and the emergent expansion of the use of the automobile, the population of Queens more than doubled in the 1920s, from 469,042 in 1920 to 1,079,129 in 1930.[48] Queens was the site of the 1939 New York World's Fair and the 1964 New York World's Fair.

See also: History of New York City, List of former municipalities in New York City, and List of streetcar lines in Queens


Queens County Courthouse
Main article: Government of New York City

Since New York City's consolidation in 1898, Queens has been governed by the New York City Charter that provides for a strong mayor-council system. The centralized New York City government is responsible for public education, correctional institutions, libraries, public safety, recreational facilities, sanitation, water supply, and welfare services in Queens.

The office of Borough President was created in the consolidation of 1898 to balance centralization with local authority. Each borough president had a powerful administrative role derived from having a vote on the New York City Board of Estimate, which was responsible for creating and approving the city's budget and proposals for land use. In 1989 the Supreme Court of the United States declared the Board of Estimate unconstitutional on the grounds that Brooklyn, the most populous borough, had no greater effective representation on the Board than Staten Island, the least populous borough, a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause pursuant to the high court's 1964 "one man, one vote" decision.[49]

Since 1990 the Borough President has acted as an advocate for the borough at the mayoral agencies, the City Council, the New York state government, and corporations. Queens' Borough President is Helen Marshall, elected as a Democrat in 2001 and re-elected in 2005.


Population growth

edit
Population of Queens County[50] [51][52]
Census
Year		 Queens
(old)		 Nassau
portion		 Queens
(new)		 %
increase
1698 3,565
1771 10,980
1790 16,014 9,855 6,159 -
1800 16,916 10,274 6,642 7.8%
1810 19,336 11,892 7,444 12.1%
1820 21,519 13,273 8,246 10.8%
1830 22,460 13,411 9,049 9.7%
1840 30,324 15,844 14,480 60.0%
1850 36,833 18,240 18,593 28.4%
1860 57,391 24,488 32,903 77.0%
1870 73,803 28,335 45,468 38.2%
1880 90,574 34,015 56,559 24.4%
1890 128,059 41,009 87,050 53.9%
1900 152,999 75.8%
1910 284,041 85.6%
1920 469,042 65.1%
1930 1,079,129 130.1%
1940 1,297,634 20.2%
1950 1,550,849 19.5%
1960 1,809,578 16.7%
1970 1,986,473 9.8%
1980 1,891,325 – 4.8%
1990 1,951,598 3.2%
2000 2,229,379 14.2%

According to a Census Bureau estimate, the population increased to 2,241,600 in 2005.



edit
 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Queens, New York City.

References

edit
  1. ^ Queens Almanac
  2. ^ NY.com
  3. ^ "A Virtual Tour of New Netherland".
  4. ^ Ellis, Edward Robb (1966). The Epic of New York City. Old Town Books. p. 54.
  5. ^ New York: Commissioners of Statutory Revision:Colonial Laws of New York from the year 1664 to the Revolution, including the Charters of the Duke of York, the Commissions and instructions to Colonial Governors, the Duke's Laws, the Laws of the Dongan and Leisler Assemblies, the Charters of Albany and New York, and the acts of the Colonial Legislatures from 1691 to 1775, inclusive. Report to the Assembly #107, 1894. five Volumes. Albany, New York; 1894 - 1896; Chapter 4; Section 1; Page 122.
  6. ^ New York: Commissioners of Statutory Revision:Colonial Laws of New York from the year 1664 to the Revolution, including the Charters of the Duke of York, the Commissions and instructions to Colonial Governors, the Duke's Laws, the Laws of the Dongan and Leisler Assemblies, the Charters of Albany and New York, and the acts of the Colonial Legislatures from 1691 to 1775, inclusive. Report to the Assembly #107, 1894. five Volumes. Albany, New York; 1894 - 1896; Chapter 17; Section 1; Page 268.
  7. ^ New York: Commissioners of Statutory Revision:Colonial Laws of New York from the year 1664 to the Revolution, including the Charters of the Duke of York, the Commissions and instructions to Colonial Governors, the Duke's Laws, the Laws of the Dongan and Leisler Assemblies, the Charters of Albany and New York, and the acts of the Colonial Legislatures from 1691 to 1775, inclusive. Report to the Assenbly #107, 1894. five volumes. Albany, New York; 1894 - 1896; Chapter 1376; Section 4; page 1063.
  8. ^ Walter Greenspan. "Geographic History of Queens County". Retrieved 2007-12-23.
  9. ^ J. H. French, LL.D. (1860). "Towns in Queens County, NY; From: Gazetteer of the State of New York". Retrieved 2007-12-28.
  10. ^ "Early Five Borough's History". Retrieved 2007-12-30. When Queens County was created the courts were transferred from Hempstead to Jamaica Village and a County Court was erected. When the building became too small for its purposes and the stone meeting house had been erected, the courts were held for some years in that edifice. Later a new courthouse was erected and used until the seat of justice was removed to North Hempstead.
  11. ^ "History of Queens County".
  12. ^ "Historical Essay: A Thumbnail View". Official History Page of the Queens Borough President's Office. Retrieved 2007-12-29. From the final withdrawal of the British in November, 1783, until the 1830s, Queens continued as an essentially Long Island area of farms and villages. The location of the county government in Mineola (in present-day Nassau County) underscores the island orientation of that era. Population grew hardly at all, increasing only from 5,791 in 1800 to 7,806 in 1830, suggesting that many younger sons moved away, seeking fortunes where land was not yet so fully taken up for farming. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |note= ignored (help) Jon A. Peterson and Vincent Seyfried, ed. (1983). A Research Guide to the History of the Borough of Queens and Its Neighborhood. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help) Peterson, Jon A., ed. (1987). A Research Guide to the History of the Borough of Queens, New York City. New York: Queens College, City University of New York. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  13. ^ "New York - Queens County - History". Retrieved 2007-12-29. "History of New York State 1523-1927". The Historical Society of the Courts of the State of New York. Sullivan, Dr. James (1927). History of New York State 1523-1927. New York, Chicago: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc.
  14. ^ "New York State History". Genealogy Inc. 1999. Retrieved 2007-12-28. Under the Reorganization Act of 7 March 1788, New York was divided into 120 towns (not townships), many of which were already in existence.
  15. ^ "State of New York; Local Government Handbook; 5th Edition" (PDF). January 2000. pp. Ch 4, p 13, Ch 5 p 2. The 1777 New York State Constitution, Article XXXVI, confirmed land grants and municipal charters granted by the English Crown prior to October 14, 1775. Chapter 64 of the Laws of 1788 organized the state into towns and cities...The basic composition of the counties was set in 1788 when the State Legislature divided all of the counties then existing into towns. Towns, of course, were of earlier origin, but in that year they acquired a new legal status as components of the counties.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  16. ^ "HISTORY MYSTERIES: Shelter Island Ferry/Mineola Building". Retrieved 2008-04-01. The building shown below "is one of the most important buildings in the history of Mineola," wrote Jack Hehman, president of the Mineola Historical Society. Built in 1787 and known as the "old brig," it was the first Queens County courthouse and later a home for the mentally ill. The building was at Jericho Turnpike and Herricks Road until 1910, when it burned to the ground.
  17. ^ "THE MINEOLA ASYLUM.; WITNESSES WHO TESTIFIED THAT IT IS AND HAS BEEN A MODEL INSTITUTION". New York Times. 1882-08-29. Retrieved 2008-04-01. The investigation of the charges made against the Superintendent and keepers of the Mineola Asylum for the Insane, which was begun last Tuesday, was continued yesterday by the standing Committee on Insane Asylums of the Queens County Board of Supervisors-- Messrs. Whitney, Brinckerhoff, and Powell. The committee were shown through the asylum, which is the old building of the Queens County Court-house over 100 years old
  18. ^ David Roberts. "Nassau County Post Offices 1794-1879". Retrieved 2008-04-01. John L. Kay & Chester M. Smith, Jr. (1982). New York Postal History: The Post Offices & First Postmasters from 1775 to 1980. American Philatelic Society. There was only one post office established in present Nassau County when the Long Island post road to Sag Harbor was established September 25, 1794. It appears that the mail from New York went to Jamaica. This was the only post office in the present day Boroughs of Queens or Brooklyn before 1803. From Jamaica the mail went east along the Jericho Turnpike/Middle Country Road route and ended at Sag Harbor. The only post office on this route between Jamaica and Suffolk County was QUEENS established the same date as the others on this route 9/25/1794. This post office was officially Queens, but I have seen the area called "Queens Court House" and was located approximately in the Mineola-Westbury area. The courthouse was used until the 1870's when the county court was moved to Long Island City. Later it served as the Queens County Insane Asylum and still later as an early courthouse for the new Nassau County, during construction of the present "old" Nassau County Courthouse in Mineola. It was demolished shortly after 1900 ... after about 120 years of service of one type or the other.
  19. ^ "The Queens County Court-House Question A New Building to be Erected at Mineola". 1872-02-25. Retrieved 2008-04-01. For forty years the Supervisors of Queens County have been quarreling over a site for a Court-house. The incommodious building used
  20. ^ Rhoda Amon (Staff Writer). "Mineola: First Farmers, Then Lawyers". Newsday. Retrieved 2007-12-31.
  21. ^ "1873 map of North Hempstead". Retrieved 2007-12-31. bottom right by spur road off Jericho Tpk - location is now known as Garden City Park. Clowesville was the name of the nearest station on the LIRR, approximately at the location of the present Merillon Avenue station. The courthouse (photo at http://www.newsday.com/community/guide/lihistory/ny-hs2tmi01,0,3275994.photo ) was north of the station. {{cite web}}: External link in |quote= (help)
  22. ^ The former county courthouse was located northeast of the intersection of Jericho Turnpike (NY Route 25) and the aptly named County Courthouse Road in an unincorporated area of the Town of North Hempstead, variously referred to in the present day as Garden City Park or New Hyde Park. The site is now a shopping center anchored by a supermarket and is located in the New Hyde Park 11040 Zip Code. A stone marker located on the north side of Jericho Turnpike (NY Route 25), between Marcus Avenue and Herricks Road, identifies the site.
  23. ^ "A Queens Timeline". The Queens Tribune. Retrieved 2007-12-23. 1874 – Queens County Courthouse and seat of county government moved from Mineola (in present-day Nassau County) to Long Island City. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  24. ^ Rhoda Amon (Staff Writer). "Mineola: First Farmers, Then Lawyers". Newsday. Retrieved 2007-12-31. That was the year when the "Old Brig" courthouse was vacated after 90 years of housing lawbreakers. The county court moved from Mineola to Long Island City.
  25. ^ Geoffrey Mohan (Staff Writer) (2007). "Nassau's Difficult Birth; Eastern factions of Queens win the fight to separate after six decades of wrangling". Newsday. Retrieved 2007-12-31. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |note= ignored (help)
  26. ^ New York. Laws of New York; 1860, 83rd Session, Chapter 530, pages 1074—1076.
  27. ^ New York. Laws of New York; 1881, 104th Session, Chapter 478; Section 1, Page 649.
  28. ^ New York. Laws of New York; 1884, 107th Session, Chapter 262, page 328.
  29. ^ Beers' Atlas of Long Island (1873)
  30. ^ "LLOYD HARBOR – A BRIEF HISTORY". Incorporated Village of Lloyd Harbor, Suffolk County, NY. Retrieved 2009-04-09.
  31. ^ New York. Laws of New York; 1964, 187th Session, Chapter 578, page 1606.
  32. ^ New York. Laws of New York; 1897, 120th Session, Chapter 378; Section 2; Page 2.
  33. ^ New York. Laws of New York; 1899, 121th Session, Chapter 588; Section 1; Page 1336.
  34. ^ "Inventing Gotham". Retrieved 2007-12-28.
  35. ^ "Official Announcement of the Results of the Election". New York Times. 1894-12-15. Retrieved 2007-12-28. The area included a radius of twenty miles (32 km), with the city hall in New York as a center to circumscribe it
  36. ^ Holice, Deb & Pam. "The History of New York State". Retrieved 2007-12-28. Dr. James Sullivan (editor). The History of New York State. Book II, Chapter IV Part VIII. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  37. ^ "OF INTEREST TO POLITICIANS". The New York Times. 1894-09-13 (before vote). pp. p 9, 620 words. Retrieved 2007-12-28. The question of the Greater New-York, which is also to be submitted to the people at this coming election, involves the proposition to unite in one city the following cities, counties, and towns: New-York City, Long Island City, in Queens County; the County of Kings, (Brooklyn;) the County of Richmond, (S.I.;) the towns of Flushing, Newtown, Jamaica, in Queens County; the town of Westchester, in Westchester County, and all that portion of the towns of East Chester and Pelham which lies south of a straight line drawn from a point where the northerly line of the City of New-York meets the centre line of the Bronx River, to the middle of the channel between Hunter's and Glen Islands, in Long Island Sound, and that part of the town of Hempstead, in Queens County, which is westerly of a straight line drawn from the south-easterly point of the town of Flushing in a straight line to the Atlantic Ocean. {{cite news}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)
  38. ^ "Vote for Greater New York". The New York Times. 1894-10-16 (before election). Retrieved 2007-12-28. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  39. ^ "NEW-YORK'S PLACE IN DANGER; CONSOLIDATION DEFEATED, SHE MUST YIELD TO CHICAGO". The New York Times. 1894-11-04 (before election). Retrieved 2007-12-28. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |note= ignored (help)
  40. ^ "GREATER NEW-YORK IN DOUBT; THE CITY VOTE IS FOR IT AND BROOKLYN IS UNCERTAIN". New York Times. 1894-11-08 (before results of Queens vote known). Retrieved 2007-12-28. The increase in area and population that New-York will acquire if consolidation becomes a fact will become evident by a glance at the following table... Flushing... *Part of the town of Hempstead... Jamaica... Long Island City ... Newtown... The townships in Queens County that are to be included in the Greater New-York have not been heard from yet... {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |note= ignored (help)
  41. ^ "REPORT FAVORS CONSOLIDATION.; An Argument Against the Claims of the Resubmissionists". The New York Times. 1896-02-22. pp. Page 1, 5318 words. Retrieved 2007-12-28.
  42. ^ "THE EAST CITY LINE FIXED". The New York Times. 1899-02-12. pp. page 15, 1267 words. Retrieved 2007-12-28. {{cite news}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  43. ^ Geoffrey Mohan (Staff Writer) (2007). "Nassau's Difficult Birth; Eastern factions of Queens win the fight to separate after six decades of wrangling". Newsday. Retrieved 2007-12-31. North Hempstead, Oyster Bay and the rest of Hempstead were excluded from the vote.
  44. ^ "THE COMING GREATER CITY; BENEFITS TO LONG ISLAND AND VILLAGES UNDER ITS CONTROL". New York Times. 1896-06-07. p. 16. Retrieved 2007-12-23.
  45. ^ The borough's administrative and court buildings are presently located in Kew Gardens and downtown Jamaica respectively, two neighborhoods that were villages of the former Town of Jamaica.
  46. ^ Vincent F. Seyfried and Jon A. Peterson, History Department, Queens College/CUNY. "Historical Essay: A Thumbnail View". Official History Page of the Queens Borough President's Office. Retrieved 2007-12-31. Even more crucial to future development was the opening of the Queensboro Bridge in 1909. This span ended the isolation of the borough's road system at precisely the time when mass use of the automobile was getting underway in the United States.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  47. ^ Vincent F. Seyfried (2004). "A Walk Through Queens with David Hartman and Historian Barry Lewis". Educational Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 2007-12-29. The most momentous event in the history of Queens occurred in 1909 when the long planned Queensboro Bridge was finally opened. This ended the century old isolation of the county and dependence on ferries.
  48. ^ "US Census figures for Queens 1900-1990".
  49. ^ Cornell Law School Supreme Court Collection: Board of Estimate of City of New York v. Morris, accessed June 12, 2006.
  50. ^ Greene and Harrington (1932). American Population Before the Federal Census of 1790. New York.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link), as cited in: Rosenwaike, Ira (1972). Population History of New York City. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press. p. 12. ISBN 0815621558. (for 1698-1771)
  51. ^ "Place:Queens, New York, United States". Retrieved 2007-12-24. Forstall, Richard L. (1996). Population of the States and Counties of the United States: 1790 to 1990. Washington, DC: U.S. Bureau of the Census. ISBN 0-934213-48-8.
  52. ^ "Historical Census Browser 1790-1960". University of Virginia Library. Retrieved 2007-12-24.


Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:JimWae/History_of_Queens,_New_York&oldid=1168388181"