NYC:Queens hoods-Richmond Hill

Heading north brings us into the hood known as Richmond Hill. It goes from Liberty to Myrtle Aves with Hillside Aves between Woodhaven Blvd and the Van Wyck Expwy (I-678). This hood is mostly residential. It was originally farmland that was owned by the Welling and Lefferts families. In 1776, the American soldiers had been able to defeat the Hessian soldiers on the ridge as part of The Battle of LI durring the Revolutionary War. In 1836, the Brooklyn and Jamaic RR built a line that would run on Atlantic Ave, but they leased it over to the LIRR. The stop was known as Clarenceville, though nobody knows why. In the mid 1800's, a landscape architect known as Edward Richmond decided to lay out the area. It wasn't until 1868, when Albon P Man bought the farms. He named it Richmond Hill after the suburban town near London, not after the landscape architect everyone believed it to be after. In 1877, the LIRR placed the NY, Woodhaven, & Rockaway RR, and it even gave an interchange at the Woodhaven Station nearby. Much of the developement didn't come until 1918 when the Jamaica Ave El was extended through this area. Most of the houses developed were mainly Queen Anne Victorian houses and the residents were Jewish and Irish. The post war era was not too kind to the LIRR in Richmond Hill. In the 1950's the Rockway Branch was stopped and no longer in service. In the 1970's, the Richmond Hill and Woodhaven Stations were no longer along being used as the Altantic Ave Line just ran express from Jamaica to East NY. Nevertheless, the people still had the subway. New immigrants from Guyana and Trinidad & Tobago came to live here as did a number of Sikhs. Some known celebrities have included Jacob Riis, The Marx Brothers, Rodney Dangerfield, Phil Rizzuto. You can get here by taking the subway to Rockaway Blvd (A), 104th-Oxford St (A), 111th St-Greenwood Ave (A), Ozone Pk-Lefferts Blvd (A), Woodhave Blvd (J, Z), 102nd-104th Sts (J, Z), 111th St-Jamaica Ave (J), 121st St (J, Z), and Jamaica-Van Wyck (E). Here is what you will find in Richmond Hill.



































































































































































































































































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