Credit: MPC Properties, LLC®

October of 1993 the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously to designate a section of Jackson Heights as a historic district, ending a struggle that begun in the 1980s. This move by the Landmarks Preservation Commission was designed to protect the area’s buildings from a potential change to it’s original character. Over 200 buildings and private homes lay within the designated district borders, between Roosevelt and 34th Avenues, from 76th to 88th Street

Historic District Borders
Credit: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

English Garden Homes in Jackson Heights
Credit: John Roleke

The commission’s unanimous vote, and the ratification by the city council proved to be a huge win for the group of residents who fought for landmark status in Jackson Heights dating back to 1980.

• The 1980 campaign began when Community Board 3 asked the commission to consider landmarking a portion of Jackson Heights. However, due to large hurdles such as former borough president Donald Manes, who used his seat on the Board of Estimate to block landmark designations in Queens.
• The tide will eventually shift by the late 1980s when Manes committed suicide and when changes to the city charter were made giving the city council to ratify landmark designations, and in 1988 the Jackson Heights Beautification Group launched a campaign to promote the landmark designation.
• The push by the Jackson Heights Beautification Group, which is comprised of primarily white business owners and professionals, lead to the eventual restoration of the old Jackson Heights with the creation of the Historic District, which many residents have labeled “White Jackson Heights”

What does the Landmark Designation mean for Jackson Heights?

Credit: NYC Landmark Preservation Commission

• Landmark Designations impose severe restrictions on property owners. The exteriors of landmarked buildings cannot be altered without the commission’s approval, and landlords must obtain permits from the commission to make minor changes. Adding a porch, removing a stoop, building a garage, or other major alterations require a commission hearing.
• These restrictions include the specific size, type, and color of material that can be used  to alter signage, awnings, light fixtures, and security gates.

• Click Here: For a full list Landmark Restrictions in Jackson Heights.

There were many questions as to “who” the Historic District in Jackson Heights belonged to.

Credlt: Yolian Cerquera

• Many residents claim that the landmarking of Jackson Heights was simply to protect Edward MacDougall’s idea of “White” Jackson Heights.
  • Multilingual signage, street vending, and loud hawking of goods (primarily immigrant ran businesses) have been the center of criticism for residents to support the landmarking of Jackson Heights.
    • Whites in Jackson Heights claim that “Nobody learns English anymore” and “It looks like a foreign country.”
  • To make matters worse, in an interview with Jeffrey Saunders, the chairman of the Jackson Heights Beautification Group’s architecture committee, he claims that the storefront regulations are important to “civilize the streets.”
  • In addition, a New York Times article documents an encounter between Saunders and a hawker shouting to passers-by in Spanish, with Saunders saying to him “This is not the way it is done in Jackson Heights”
  • Saunders also goes on to say that some negative changes in Jackson Heights “cheapens, degrades, and coarsen the community.”
    • He then blatantly compares Main Street in Flushing, Broadway in Elmhurst, and 
      

      Bollywood Music Store in Little India
      Credit: Yolian Cerquera

      Roosevelt Avenue at 74th Street (Little India) to the qualities underlined above.

      • These communities that he referred to are all largely immigrant-populated areas.
    • Despite being close to one another, there is very little interaction between White, Indian, Chinese, and Latino residents.
      • They live in different communities.
      • When sharing a church, the worship at different times rather that worshiping together.
      • They do, however, live in peace with one another and stay out of each other’s way for the most part.