Saranya Radhakrishnan
5/7/2014
Macaulay Honors: Peopling of NYC
Professor Constance Rosenblum
Jamaica Estates: New York City’s Countryside
Since I could remember, my home was never limited to the four walls of my red house. It extends to my neighbor’s backyard where I climbed their cherry blossom trees and across the street to the house where I played with my friends. Even as immigrants, my parents quickly made a place for themselves in Jamaica Estates.
However, this may speak more about the community than my family’s ability to adapt. We were first welcomed by a family who are a part of the Jamaica Estates Association. The Srivastavas were immigrants from India and initially lived in a small apartment in Flushing as a part of a joint family. With the addition of two daughters, Vijay and Sudha Srivastava decided to branch out from the family and find a place of their own. As Mrs. Srivastava claims, “The house came to us, we didn’t come to the house.” When they visited distant relatives who lived in Jamaica Estates, they were persuaded to look at properties in the neighborhood. They enjoyed the picturesque community and decided to become residents when their children felt comfortable as well. They also decided to look into how this gated community was formed.
Before Jamaica Estates developed at the turn of the 20th century, it was known to be a hilly area covered by glacial lakes and trees. Surrounding these forests were blooming villages that enjoyed the calm and breathtaking land. It was the perfect place to settle considering the feel of the countryside and the close commute to other major business locations. After the construction of the Queensborough Bridge in 1909, two wealthy businessmen took advantage of the situation and bought more than five hundred acres of wooded land. Ernestus Gulick and Felix Isman formed the Jamaica Estates Company and began constructing Tudor-style houses for wealthy individuals who were looking to escape the congested city.
However in the early 1920’s the Jamaica Estates Company declared bankruptcy and left their dreams unfinished. Fortunately, the two hundred and seventy five homeowners in the community wished to preserve its uniqueness. As a result, the Jamaica Estates Association was formed in 1928. The organization resolved to bide by the original building regulations which included only detached two-story houses with attics, no flat roofs and no house costing less than $6,000. Futhermore, the Jamaica Estates Association took an active role to better the community. In 1934, when the city assessed local property owners for the building of the Grand Central Parkway, the association joined a coalition that succeeded in having Grand Central declared as a major highway, paid for by the state and city.
The Srivastava family appreciated how the Jamaica Estates Association continues to meet the needs of the members of the community and decided to participate. It offers an elite security service that responds to emergency calls for members as well as patrol. Even though these services are optional, about eighteen hundred members pay a total of two hundred dollars worth of annual fees. This service was initiated when there was a spree of robberies, however, the security patrol has tremendously decreased the number of crimes in the neighborhood.
However, history records that the members of the organization have not always had mutual interests. Some new individuals of the community wished to expand and modernize their homes while many older residents believed that this would deplete the trees and take away from the unique character of the neighborhood.
For Isaac Abraham, 2,300 square feet did not fit the needs of his family of five so the Abrahams are adding a bedroom and a basement. Mr. Abraham believed his that the expansion was also needed to upgrade the traditional houses to younger tastes. He said he expected the $350,000 renovation to increase the property’s value to $1.6 million.
Michael J. Degnon, who was an integral designer of the original subway system in New York City, also built his own house in Jamaica Estates. The Roman Catholic Passionist priests bought Degnon’s twelve-acre land, which later became the Bishop Molloy Retreat House and the Immaculate Conception Church and School. The monastery was completed in 1927 and the church in 1962.
The Immaculate Conception School at 179-14 Dalny Road is a Roman Catholic school. However, claims to be accepting of any religious student and currently has 420 pupils in grades pre-kindergarten through 8th grade. Although the Srivastavas do not practice Christianity, they still had all three children matriculate from Immaculate Conception in the belief that the school provided a fantastic education.
Across the street is the Mary Louis Academy at 176-21 Wexford Terrace, a college preparatory school for girls that is owned and run by the Roman Catholic Sisters of St. Joseph in Brentwood, has 950 students in grades 9 through 12. Anjili, the oldest of the Srivastava children, also graduated from this high school. “Mary Louis and Immaculate Conception even worked together to make sure that I could pick up my younger brother on time when I finished classes. They kind of looked after us when they really didn’t have to.”
The community’s private schools include the suburban campus of the United Nations International School in Manhattan. Situated since 1982 at 173-53 Croydon Road, the school has 230 pupils in kindergarten through grade 8. “My daughter went there for a couple of years but it was almost as if I was paying for her college education.” Tuition ranges from $10,500 to $11,000 a year.
St. John’s University, which borders Jamaica Estates to the west, offers a large variety of adult education courses. Sporting and cultural events held at the 105-acre campus are also open to the public. However, the institution has been in disputes with the Jamaica Estates Association. When St. John’s began building its dormitory in the neighborhood, many people disapproved. Many individuals of the community believed that the building would exacerbate the lack of parking, create noise, crime, kill the water pressure, overwhelm the sewage system causing flooding, destroy the quiet residential lifestyle and cause property values to decline. Pamphlets and fliers went around to persuade other members to protest. Furious residents shouted slogans and waved signs outside St. John’s University’s gate. Nevertheless the building was justified under zoning regulations and is currently utilized. “ I told my dad that he needed to take the “Say No to SJU Dorms!” poster in front of our house because we would soon be egged by college students.”
As a microcosm of Queens, the neighborhood is ethnically diverse; 45 percent of its approximately 14,000 residents are foreign-born, according to the recent census.
Although modern orthodox Jews mainly occupied the area, Jamaica Estates has progressively seen the arrival of new South Asian immigrants. However, it still has a sizeable presence of African Americans, which makes up over forty percent of the overall population.
“The diverse and tight-knit community has been everything for us,” said Mrs. Srivastava. “It has been our home for more than thirty-five years and will continue to be.”
Jamaica Estates may have been created as a beautiful secluded location for the privileged but the founders would not have expected the tremendous affect it would have on immigrants. Unfortunately, many other immigrants have had a hard time starting from nothing in New York City and working hard to sustain a living. However, individuals who immigrate to Jamaica Estates do not start from nothing. They have the welcome and support of the Jamaica Estates Association as well as those neighbors who are not a part of the organization. It provides a haven for arriving immigrants who need help transitioning to American life. Overtime this help forges strong bonds between neighbors are grateful and wish to help others in the same way.
This pattern that the Srivastavas explain has influenced my parents as well. They had lived in a one-bedroom apartment in Jamaica for a few years before they decided on buying a house in Jamaica Estates. In the apartment, my parents kept to themselves. They went to work and straight home, almost in seclusion while living in the middle of New York City. Living in Jamaica Estates was a bit different. My father always boasted about living a few blocks away from Donald Trump’s childhood home. He claimed that the neighborhood is lucky. However, I do believe it was much more. My neighbors were willing to babysit my sister and I if our parents worked late. My father began spending his Fridays with the “boys” on the block. The women next door would come over to borrow onions or any other ingredient needed to cook dinner that night. Jamaica Estates is a community that is quite different from the expected immigrant life. But maybe that is the beauty of it.
