Learn About Queens NY
Queens is located on the far western portion of Long Island and includes a few smaller islands, most of which are in Jamaica Bay, forming part of the Gateway National Recreation Area, which in turn is one of the National Parks of New York Harbor. Queens county has a total of 178 sq miles, or this 109 square miles is land and 70 square miles iw water.
Originally, Queens County included the adjacent area now comprising Nassau County. It was an original county of New York State, one of twelve created on November 1, 1683.The county is assumed to have been named after Catherine of Braganza, since she was queen of England at the time (she was Portugal’s royal princess Catarina daughter of King John IV of Portugal).
The county was founded alongside Kings County (Brooklyn, which was named after her husband, King Charles II), and Richmond County (Staten Island, named after his illegitimate son, the 1st Duke of Richmond). However, the namesake is disputed. While Catherine’s title seems the most likely namesake, no historical evidence of official declaration has been found.
On October 7, 1691, all counties in the Colony of New York were redefined. Queens gained North and South Brother Islands as well as Huletts Island (today is known as Rikers Island).
On December 3, 1768, Queens gained other islands in Long Island Sound that were not already assigned to a county but that did not abut on Westchester County (today’s Bronx County).
Queens played a minor role in the American Revolution, as compared to Brooklyn, where the Battle of Long Island was largely fought. Queens, like the rest of what became New York City and Long Island, remained under British occupation after the Battle of Long Island in 1776 and was occupied throughout most of the rest of the Revolutionary War.
Here are some of the areas we service in the Queens: Fresh Meadows, Murray Hill, Flushing, Utopia, Bayside, Oakland Gardens, Kew Gardens Hills, Terrace Heights, Surrey Estates, Parsons Beach
Interesting Places to See Around Queens
Residents of Queens often closely identify with their neighborhood rather than with the borough or city. The borough is a patchwork of dozens of unique neighborhoods, each with its own distinct identity:
Flushing, one of the largest neighborhoods in Queens, has a large and growing Asian community. The community consists of Chinese, Koreans, and South Asians. Asians have now expanded eastward along the Northern Boulevard axis through Murray Hill, Whitestone, Bayside, Douglaston–Little Neck, and eventually into adjacent Nassau County.
These neighborhoods historically contained Italian Americans and Greeks, as well as Latino Americans. The busy intersection of Main Street, Kissena Boulevard, and 41st Avenue defines the center of Downtown Flushing and the Flushing Chinatown, known as the “Chinese Times Square” or the “Chinese Manhattan”.
The segment of Main Street between Kissena Boulevard and Roosevelt Avenue, punctuated by the Long Island Rail Road trestle overpass, represents the cultural heart of the Flushing Chinatown. Housing over 30,000 individuals born in China alone, the largest by this metric outside Asia, Flushing has become home to the largest and one of the fastest-growing Chinatowns in the world as the heart of over 250,000 ethnic Chinese in Queens, representing the largest Chinese population of any U.S. municipality other than New York City in total.
Howard Beach, Whitestone, and Middle Village are home to large Italian American populations.
Ozone Park and South Ozone Park have large Italian, Hispanic, and Guyanese populations.
Rockaway Beach has a large Irish American population.
Astoria, in the northwest, is traditionally home to one of the largest Greek populations outside Greece. It also has large Spanish American, Albanian American, Bosnian American,
Bulgarian American, Croatian American, Romanian American and Italian American communities, and is home to a growing population of Arabs, South Asians, and young professionals from Manhattan. Nearby Long Island City is a major commercial center and the home to Queensbridge, the largest housing project in North America.
Maspeth and Ridgewood are home to many Eastern European immigrants such as Romanian, Polish, Serbian, Albanian, and other Slavic populations. Ridgewood also has a large Hispanic population.
Jackson Heights which is known as “Little Colombia” thanks to the gastronomical and demographic impact of Colombian people in Queens, specially in this neighborhood, Elmhurst, and East Elmhurst make up a conglomeration of Hispanic, Asian, Tibetan, and South Asian communities.
Woodside is home to a large Filipino American community and has a “Little Manila” as well a large Irish American population. Many Filipino Americans live in Hollis and Queens Village
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