East Elmhurst, Queens

Neighborhood of Queens in New York City

From colonial times to the early 1900s, the area now known as East Elmhurst was a vast marsh named Trains Meadow. Urbanization at the turn of the century was creating a New York City housing shortage and urban sprawl. In 1909, Edward A. MacDougall's Queensboro Corporation bought of undeveloped land and farms to the south and christened them Jackson Heights after John C. Jackson, a descendant of one of the original Queens families and a respected Queens County entrepreneur. The neighborhood formerly contained an amusement area along Bowery Bay Beach (later renamed North Beach), which started operating in 1886. An amusement park called Gala Amusement Park was built by William Steinway on the Bowery Bay in what is now present day LaGuardia Airport. In the 19th century the area used to be called Frogtown before Steinway rebuilt the area. It was home to the East Coast's first Ferris wheel and was known as the "Coney Island of Queens." Gala Amusement Park was eventually shut down due to Prohibition. In 1929 it was razed and transformed into a private flying field named Glenn H. Curtiss Airport after the pioneer Long Island aviator, later called North Beach Airport. Starting in 1937, a Works Progress Administration project transformed North Beach Airport into LaGuardia Airport, which formally opened in 1939. The first houses were built in 1905. These residences were small frame houses located on lots, and some houses on the bay contained private beaches. The neighborhood's first commercial development came to Ditmars Boulevard during World War II. In 1929, Holmes Airport opened near the western section of East Elmhurst. Bordering St. Michaels Cemetery to the west, the airfield was also called the Grand Central Air Terminal and Grand Central Airport. Holmes Airport shut down in 1940, one year after LaGuardia Airport opened. Today, the site is part of the Bulova Corporate Center and residential homes that surround the area. The neighborhood saw an influx of African American residents in the 1960s and 1970s, as it was one of the few areas of the city where they could buy homes. In September 2021, remnants of Hurricane Ida severely flooded the neighborhood of East Elmhurst and all surrounding areas. After surveying hurricane damage in New Jersey, President Joe Biden flew to East Elmhurst and toured one of the many residential common driveway inundated by the storm. Near the 87th Street alleyway, Biden met with local representatives and residents, and he delivered remarks on the response to Hurricane Ida in Queens.

The boundaries of East Elmhurst, as with most other New York City neighborhoods, are imprecise and often disputed, but the name generally applies to the area directly south of LaGuardia Airport. A more expansive definition considers East Elmhurst to be bordered by the Brooklyn Queens Expressway (BQE) and 70th Street on the west, Northern Boulevard on the south, and Flushing Bay on the north and east. According to the Encyclopedia of New York City, the section west of Junction Boulevard and south of Astoria Boulevard is excluded from East Elmhurst.

Based on data from the 2010 United States Census, the population of East Elmhurst was 23,150, an increase of 1,967 (9.3%) from the 21,183 counted in 2000. Covering an area of , the neighborhood had a population density of
The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 4.7% (1,092) White, 25.4% (5,869) African American, 0.2% (46) Native American, 4.4% (1,023) Asian, 0.1% (14) Pacific Islander, 0.6% (146) from other races, and 1.2% (269) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 63.5% (14,691) of the population. According to the 2020 census data from New York City Department of City Planning, there were between 20,000 and 29,999 Hispanic residents while each the White, Black, and Asian residents all were each less than 5000 residents. In 2011, the median move in year for residents of one census tract in East Elmhurst was found to be 1974, the oldest of any of the more than 2,000 census tracts in the city. The 115th Precinct has a lower crime rate than in the 1990s, with crimes across all categories having decreased by 82.5% between 1990 and 2018. The precinct reported 3 murders, 41 rapes, 248 robberies, 368 felony assaults, 195 burglaries, 653 grand larcenies, and 149 grand larcenies auto in 2018.

During the 1950s and 1960s, the area was home to many African American musicians, civil rights leaders, professionals, and athletes including Malcolm X, Dizzy Gillespie, Nat Adderley, Louis Armstrong, Jimmy Heath, Frankie Lymon, Charlie Shavers, Ella Fitzgerald, and Willie Mays. During the late 1960s and early 1970s. numerous New York Mets such as Ed Charles and Tommie Agee called East Elmhurst home. East Elmhurst is the childhood home of former U. S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Queens Borough President Helen Marshall. Jazz vocalist Norman Mapp also lived in East Elmhurst.

The intersection of 75th Street and 31st Avenue in East Elmhurst was co named "Mount Everest Way" on March 9, 2019, to celebrate the Nepali American community in the western part of East Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, and Woodside areas.

The Marine Air Terminal in LaGuardia Airport is a New York City designated landmark on the National Register of Historic Places. Bulova Corporate Center was the original headquarters of the Bulova Watch Company. It was redesigned as an office center, and contains the New York City Department of Correction headquarters. The Lent Homestead and Cemetery is a historic house and cemetery in the Astoria Heights section of East Elmhurst. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. St. Michael's Cemetery, a triangular cemetery surrounded by the Brooklyn Queens Expressway and Grand Central Parkway

Politically, East Elmhurst is represented by parts of the 21st (Francisco Moya), 22nd (Tiffany Cabán), and 25th Districts (Shekar Krishnan) in the New York City Council. In the New York State Legislature, East Elmhurst in the State Senate is part of District 13 with Jessica Ramos as current senator. In the State Assembly, the lower half of the legislature, East Elmhurst is a part of District 34 (Assemblywoman Jessica González Rojas) and District 35 (Assemblyman Jeffrion Aubry).

New York City Department of Education operates District 30 public schools in the area. P. S. 127 Aerospace Science Magnet School is an elementary school for grades PK 8. East Elmhurst Community School serves students PK 3. Also in East Elmhurst is the application school, I. S. 227 Louis Armstrong Middle School (grades 5–8), for Queens residents. A small section of the neighborhood is zoned for a separate district in Whitestone, causing some children to attend P. S. 21 for elementary and J. H. S 185 for middle school.

East Elmhurst is home to Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology located at 86–01 23rd Avenue, abutting Grand Central Parkway.

The Langston Hughes Community Library and Cultural Center, "conceived and designed by the residents of the Corona East Elmhurst community", houses one of the most extensive collections of African American art and literature. A component of the Queens Library system, the Langston Hughes Community Library and Cultural Center, is located in Corona on Northern Boulevard. The Black Heritage Reference Center, a part of the Langston Hughes Community Library and Cultural Center, serves Queens with a comprehensive reference and circulating collection, totaling approximately 30,000 volumes of materials written about and related to Black culture.

The Corona East Elmhurst News, first published in 1959 by Kenneth and Corien Drew, was located on Astoria Boulevard. It ultimately became the Queens Voice and was published from 1959 to 2002. The tabloid style newspaper was a weekly publication which included many notable columnists that highlighted the social and political activities of the African American communities of Corona and East Elmhurst and the Borough of Queens.

The New York City Department of Health has a 2018 community health report on the Queens Community Board 3 district which includes East Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, and North Corona. As of 2018, preterm births are about the same in the district as in other places citywide, but births to teenage mothers are more common. In the district, there were 86 preterm births per 1,000 live births (compared to 87 per 1,000 citywide), and 27.9 births to teenage mothers per 1,000 live births (compared to 19.3 per 1,000 citywide). COVID 19 cases in East Elmhurst ZIP Codes 11369 and 11370 were among the highest of any ZIP Code in New York City.