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Old Posted Apr 1, 2012, 8:51 PM
nygirl1 nygirl1 is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2005
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The best of Queens: Part 5 Elmhurst

Just a bit south of Jackson Heights is our next neighborhood

Elmhurst is a thriving neighborhood between north western Queens and Central Queens along Queens Boulevard. The Dutch arrived in Elmhurst during the middle of the 17th century. When the British took over the colony in the 1660’s most of the Dutch remained. The Dutch were an integral part of New York society that the British wanted to maintain business ties with. Elmhurst was established as Nieuwe Stad to maintain Dutch heritage but later changed to Newton which had become one of the largest settlements in the area at the time. In 1896 the village was renamed Elmhurst. After Queens was consolidated into Greater New York City the area became a fashionable district. Elmhurst was exclusively Jewish and Italian from the 1910’s through the 1930’s. It soon developed into one of the most ethnically diverse neighborhoods in New York City and by the 1980’s was home to residents representing over 100 types of nationalities. The area saw crime related with the crack epidemic in the 1980’s and while the crime wave which peaked at the end of the 20th century still exists it has drastically been reduced. Elmhurst is home to the city’s growing 4th Chinatown and the second in the borough. It continues to expand month by month and may one day in the not so far future, rival Flushing. The neighborhood is also home to the popular Queens Center and Queens Place Mall’s which sit in the gaunt shadows of the Lefrak City Housing Development in neighboring Corona.


















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