After having previously walked Jamaica Avenue from its beginnings in Brooklyn out to Lefferts Boulevard and then along its easternmost stretch (now known as Jericho Turnpike at the insistence of the local community board, which forced a name change in 2005, I thought I would more or less complete the route from downtown Jamaica out to Queens Village.

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The street name has nothing to do with the Caribbean island country. The avenue, the neighborhood and the bay are instead named for the Jameco Indians, an Algonquian tribe that occupied the center and southern sections of what is today’s Queens County, for hundreds of years before the colonial era.

The Jameco name was Algonquian for beaver, which had been plentiful in the region; a remnant of this is Beaver Road, which ran beside the now-filled Beaver Pond south of the Long Island Rail Road. Native Americans used the trail, which connects to original trails that run from the East River to eastern Long Island, for trade with tribes spanning from the east coast to the midwest. After the Dutch settled the present day downtown area, known before 1664 as Rustdorp (“rest town”), Jamaica Avenue (as the Jamaica Plank Road) became a tolled highway for much of its length. The tolls were removed by the time of Queens’ consolidation with New York City in 1898.

{Recent scholarship suggests that Jamaica, Queens is indeed named for the Caribbean island; both were once under British control.]

Downtown Jamaica Avenue passes several buildings that went up during or just after the colonial period, and just north of Prospect Cemetery which was established in 1668, immediately following the end of Dutch rule.

King Manor, facing Jamaica Avenue in King Park between 150th and 153rd Streets, was the mansion belonging to Rufus King (1755-1827). King, always an ardent abolitionist, was a youthful representative at the Continental Congress from 1784-1786, a US Senator from New York in 1789, a Minister (Ambassador) to Great Britain from 1796-1803 (where he impressed the still-hostile Brits after the close of the Revolutionary War), a US Senator again from 1813 to 1825, and ran unsuccessfully for President as a Federalist against James Monroe in 1816. The mansion was first built in 1730, and King purchased the building in 1805; his son, John Alsop King, NYS Governor from 1857-1859, added Greek Revival additions. The King Manor Association has maintained the building since 1900, and it opened to the public in 1992.

The First Reformed Church of Jamaica, Jamaica Avenue and 153rd Street, has stood since 1859, with the congregation in existence since 1715. The original church was located at the present day Jamaica Avenue and 162nd Street, and moved to this location in 1833 and that church burned down in 1857. The First Reformed moved to Jamaica Estates and this building stood empty for much of the 1990s, after which it was reborn in 2008 as the Jamaica Performing Arts Center after a $22 million renovation. Architect Sidney Young was a member of the congregation.

Grace Episcopal Church, across the street, was similarly founded early on, in 1702 as a representative of the Church of England — the churchyard boasts several colonial era gravestones, including that of Rufus King. The present sharply steepled church was built in 1865. If you have a chance to go inside, there are some Depression-era murals painted by the Works Progress Administration.

Downtown

Now attaining the heart of downtown Jamaica, as Walt Whitman did in the 1850s. We will find a much different Jamaica than he did, however:

And so on to the village of Jamaica, which is composed mostly of one long street, which is nothing else than the turnpike. It is lined mostly by trees, which again have an inner lining of the same, sprinkled with shrubbery…. then there is Gov. John A. King’s residence unseeable from the road, through the impervious trees….

As you walk through the streets of Jamaica, every house seems either a store or a tavern. There are two newspapers, one by Mr. Brenton, otherwise “Dr. Franklin”, a good soul; and the Long Island Farmer. Jamaica has a large, old established Academy for Boys, “Union Hall,” and also an Academy for Girls … The infinitude of Jamaica stores and public houses allows an inference which is the truth, viz.: that farmers, travellers, marketmen, and other passengers on the turnpike through the vilage give it all its trade and retail business. It has no manufactories, and has not been what is called a “growing place” for many years, and probably will not be. –-Walt Whitman’s New York, New Amsterdam 1963

Detouring on 160th Street, you can see a contrast in the amazing awning of the Jamaica Business Resource Center at 90-33; La Casina, a nightclub/restaurant in a Streamlined Moderne style was built in 1933. A 1912 cornice is nearby, signifying the changes the Jazz Age wrought on building styles.

Jamaica Savings Bank, 161-02 Jamaica, is a NYC building on the NYC Register of Historic Places . The bank itself was founded by John Alsop King (see above) in 1866 and occupied property in this location since 1874, when a small frame building was constructed. The present Beaux-Arts structure (Hough and Deuell, architects) went up in 1898. The building is maked by pilasters (half-columns on a building exterior) and two ornamental balconies. The building’s future is uncertain as of June 2011; the bank moved across the street in 1964.

Next door at 161-04 is the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, built in 1898 (A.S. Macgregor, Architect), a NYC Landmark, originally the Jamaica Register Building. The Italian Renaissance building is a somewhat somber companion for the more exuberant Jamaica Savings Bank.

Many neighborhoods now have new street clocks construted in a classic style, but this one at Jamaica Avenue and Union Hall Street is the real McCoy. It originally stood at 161-11 Jamaica Avenue and was likely built around 1900. It was restored and moved to its present location in 1989, directly across the street from the former site of Gertz, one of Jamaica’s largest department stores. It too was declared a NYC Landmark in 1981 (and so can’t be legally removed).

Union Hall Street today is one of the few streets in downtown Jamaica that has retained its old name (here on a Beers Atlas plate in 1873) to the present day. I had previously suspected that the name was retained because of the prevalence of trade unions in New York City, but I was incorrect … as the map indicates, it preserves the name of the Union Hall Academy, opened in 1792, that occupied property on the street close to the Long Island Rail Road, in 1873 running on the surface at the present day Archer Avenue.

This photo, from the Queensborough Public Library, shows former buildings of the Academy, which had by then moved to the locale shown on the atlas plate.

In 1791, the prestigious Union Hall Academy was built in Jamaica Township by residents of the three towns of Queens. An amount of $2,000 was pledged for the construction of the academy and it was an immediate educational success. Within four years after the original construction of the academy, it required expansion. At that time, in addition to a regular staff, there were five assistants to the principal as well as a library and research facilities. Some of the educators were well known such as Henry Onderdonk, the famous Long Island historian who taught at Union Hall between 1832 and 1865.

In 1841, a fire nearly destroyed the academy while Walt Whitman was on the staff. As early as 1816, it became so popular that a female school was added to the standard academy. However, the rise of the public school system provided too much competition for the fashionable educational establishment. Although other schools were being built such as the Maple Hall Institute, a private boarding school for boys, the Union Hall Academy was closed in 1873. — Kathleen Lonetto, Long Island Heritage

A Conway chain store facade has now erased the last traces of the formerly grand Gertz Department Store, which formerly occupied this building on the south side of Jamaica Avenue between Union Hall Street and Guy Brewer Boulevard. The store, established by Benjamin Gertz as a stationery store in 1918, lasted until 1981 when it was consolidated under the Stern’s banner and later, the Macy’s flagship banner. The Gertz Mall had opened in 1988.

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I made my one and only visit to Gertz in September 1968 — it was quite a road trip for our Bay Ridge family. We must have trundled out on the J train, a rarely plumbed line for western Brooklyners. My father was in search of a large furniture wall unit –successfully, since he kept it till he died in 2003. I recall that my first purchase of a Brooklyn Hagstrom map happened here. I also remember him repeatedly sending the steak back at a neighboring eatery. Too much pink.

It must have galled both Gertz and J. Kurtz & Sons that two retailers with such similar names were close neighbors. The joyfully Art Deco building at the corner of Brewer Blvd. and Jamaica Avenue went up in 1931 (architects Allmendinger & Schlendorf –easy for them to say). It was designated a NYC Landmark in 1981. Kurtz distinguished itself from Gertz by specializing in furniture. Jacob Kurtz had founded the company in 1870, and the furniture store occupied the building until 1978, coinidentally the same year the Jamaica el closed (it was rerouted under Archer Avenue in 1988).

Guy R. Brewer Boulevard, which runs from Jamaica Avenue south to Rockaway Boulevard at Kennedy Airport, is one of eastern Queens’ oldest roads. On mid-19th Century maps it shows up as New York Avenue, became New York Boulevard by the 1920s, and was renamed along its entire length for 5-term State Assemblyman Brewer in 1982.

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Advertised as “Jamaica’s Largest Playhouse,” the Merrick Theatre had its grand opening on January 15th, 1921, with a two-day engagement of Paramount’s “Conrad in Quest of His Youth,” starring Thomas Meighan. The feature movies were presented with live prologues with “concert soloists and scenic effects.” Music for the entire program, including short subjects and a newsreel, was played by a symphony-sized orchestra, supplemented by a “magnificent” pipe organ. The Merrick had a complete change of show every Monday, Thursday, and Saturday. Its next feature attraction was Paramount’s “Life of the Party,” with Roscoe (Fatty) Arbuckle. cinematreasures

More On: Coronavirus in NY

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Queens is getting the first three federally run coronavirus testing sites in the Big Apple, officials announced Wednesday, as complaints about long lines for swabs abound amid the city’s Omicron-fueled outbreak.

The trio of test sites are among the first to be deployed across the nation following President Biden’s speech Tuesday, during which he promised testing assistance to New York and other states hit hard by the recent surge in cases and testing demand.

“We’re grateful for the ongoing support the federal government has provided NYC during this pandemic to ensure we have the necessary resources to diagnose and treat this terrible virus,” said the chief of the city’s public hospital system, Mitch Katz.

“The impacts we’re seeing from the Omicron variant is further proof that we’re not out of the woods with COVID-19, but the additional testing capacity provided by President Biden and the CDC allows us to detect more of the infection and help New Yorkers heal and stop the spread,” he added.

The first site opened its doors Wednesday in Jackson Heights’ Travers Park.

Two more sites were set to open Thursday in Flushing’s Queens Valley Playground and East Elmhurst’s Helen Marshall Playground.

The sites are:

• Travers Park (opened Wednesday): 76-9 34th St., Queens, NY 11372; 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Queens Valley Playground (opens Thursday): corner of 137th Street and 77th Avenue, Flushing, NY 11367; 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Helen Marshall Playground (opens Thursday): 100th Street and 24th Avenue, East Elmhurst, NY 11369; 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.