Queens County was established in 1683 as one of the original 12 counties of New York State, and was supposedly named for the Queen consort, Catherine of Braganza (1638-1705), the Portuguese princess who married King Charles II of England in 1662. [1] [2] The Borough of Queens was formed in 1898 as one of the Five Boroughs which form the City of New York. Originally, Queens County included the adjacent area now comprising Nassau County. The boundaries of the Borough of Queens and the County of Queens have been identical since Nassau County was split off and created in 1899.
The written History of Queens begins with European colonization by both Dutch and English settlers, as a part of the New Netherlands colony. The first settlements occurred in 1635, with colonization at Maspeth in 1642, [3] and Vlissingen (now Flushing) in 1643. [4] Other early settlements included Newtown (now Elmhurst) and Jamaica. However, these towns were mostly inhabited by English settlers from New England via eastern Long Island ( Suffolk County) subject to Dutch law. After the capture of the colony by the English and its renaming as New York in 1664, the area (and all of Long Island) became known as Yorkshire.
Queens was an original county of New York State, one of twelve created on November 1, 1683. [5] On October 7, 1691, all counties in the Colony of New York were redefined. Queens gained North Brother Island, South Brother Island, and Huletts Island (today known as Rikers Island). [6] 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). [7]
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 Long Island, fell under British occupation after the Battle of Long Island in 1776 and remained occupied throughout most of the rest of the war. Under the Quartering Act, British soldiers used, as barracks, the public inns and uninhabited buildings belonging to Queens residents, against the will of many of the local people. The quartering of soldiers in private homes, except in times of war, was banned by the Third Amendment to the United States Constitution. Nathan Hale was captured by the British on the shore of Flushing Bay in Queens before being executed in Manhattan.
From 1683 until 1784, Queens County consisted of five towns: Flushing, Hempstead, Jamaica, Newtown, and Oyster Bay. On April 6, 1784, a sixth town, the Town of North Hempstead, was formed through secession by the northern portions of the Town of Hempstead. [8] [9]
The seat of the county government was located first in Jamaica, [10] but the courthouse was torn down by the British during the American Revolution in order to use the materials to build barracks. [11] After the war, various buildings in Jamaica temporarily served as courthouse and jail until a new building was erected about 1787 (and later completed) in an area near Mineola (now in Nassau County) known then as Clowesville. [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] The 1850 census was the first in which the population of the three western towns exceeded that of the three eastern towns that are now part of Nassau County. Concerns were raised about the condition and distance of the old courthouse, and several sites were in contention for the construction of a new one. In 1870, Long Island City was incorporated as a city, consisting of what had been the Village of Astoria and some unincorporated areas in the Town of Newtown. Around 1874, the seat of county government was moved to Long Island City from Mineola. [23] [24] [25]
On March 1, 1860, the eastern border between Queens County (later Nassau County) and Suffolk County was redefined with no discernible change. [26] On June 8, 1881, North Brother Island was transferred to New York County. [27] On May 8, 1884, Rikers Island was transferred to New York County. [28] In 1885, Lloyd Neck, which was part of the Town of Oyster Bay and was earlier known as Queens Village, seceded from Queens and became part of the Town of Huntington in Suffolk County. [29] [30] On April 16, 1964, South Brother Island was transferred to Bronx County. [31]
The New York City Borough of Queens was authorized on May 4, 1897, by a vote of the New York State Legislature after an 1894 referendum on consolidation. [32] The eastern 280 square miles of Queens that became Nassau County was partitioned on January 1, 1899. [33]
Queens Borough was established on 1898-01-01. [34] [35] [36] Long Island City, the towns of Newtown, Flushing, and Jamaica, and the Rockaway Peninsula portion of the Town of Hempstead were merged to form the new borough, dissolving all former municipal governments (Long Island City, the county government, all towns, and all villages) within the new borough. The areas of Queens County that were not part of the consolidation plan, [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] [43] consisting of the towns of North Hempstead and Oyster Bay, and the major remaining portion of the Town of Hempstead, remained part of Queens County until they seceded to form the new Nassau County on January 1, 1899, whereupon the boundaries of Queens County and the Borough of Queens became coterminous. With consolidation, Jamaica once again became the county seat, though county offices now extend to nearby Kew Gardens also. [44] [45]
From 1905 to 1908 the Long Island Rail Road in Queens was electrified. Transportation to and from Manhattan, previously by ferry or via bridges in Brooklyn, opened up when the Queensboro Bridge was finished in 1909, and with railway tunnels under the East River in 1910. From 1915 onward, much of Queens was connected to the New York City subway system. [46] [47] With the 1915 construction of the Steinway Tunnel carrying the IRT Flushing Line between Queens and Manhattan, and the emergent expansion of the use of the automobile, the population of Queens more than doubled in the 1920s, from 469,042 in 1920 to 1,079,129 in 1930. [48] Queens was the site of the 1939 New York World's Fair and the 1964 New York World's Fair.
Since New York City's consolidation in 1898, Queens has been governed by the New York City Charter that provides for a strong mayor-council system. The centralized New York City government is responsible for public education, correctional institutions, libraries, public safety, recreational facilities, sanitation, water supply, and welfare services in Queens.
The office of Borough President was created in the consolidation of 1898 to balance centralization with local authority. Each borough president had a powerful administrative role derived from having a vote on the New York City Board of Estimate, which was responsible for creating and approving the city's budget and proposals for land use. In 1989 the Supreme Court of the United States declared the Board of Estimate unconstitutional on the grounds that Brooklyn, the most populous borough, had no greater effective representation on the Board than Staten Island, the least populous borough, a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause pursuant to the high court's 1964 "one man, one vote" decision. [49]
Since 1990 the Borough President has acted as an advocate for the borough at the mayoral agencies, the City Council, the New York state government, and corporations. Queens' Borough President is Helen Marshall, elected as a Democrat in 2001 and re-elected in 2005.
Census Year |
Queens (old) |
Nassau portion |
Queens (new) |
% increase |
---|---|---|---|---|
1698 | 3,565 | |||
1771 | 10,980 | |||
1790 | 16,014 | 9,855 | 6,159 | - |
1800 | 16,916 | 10,274 | 6,642 | 7.8% |
1810 | 19,336 | 11,892 | 7,444 | 12.1% |
1820 | 21,519 | 13,273 | 8,246 | 10.8% |
1830 | 22,460 | 13,411 | 9,049 | 9.7% |
1840 | 30,324 | 15,844 | 14,480 | 60.0% |
1850 | 36,833 | 18,240 | 18,593 | 28.4% |
1860 | 57,391 | 24,488 | 32,903 | 77.0% |
1870 | 73,803 | 28,335 | 45,468 | 38.2% |
1880 | 90,574 | 34,015 | 56,559 | 24.4% |
1890 | 128,059 | 41,009 | 87,050 | 53.9% |
1900 | 152,999 | 75.8% | ||
1910 | 284,041 | 85.6% | ||
1920 | 469,042 | 65.1% | ||
1930 | 1,079,129 | 130.1% | ||
1940 | 1,297,634 | 20.2% | ||
1950 | 1,550,849 | 19.5% | ||
1960 | 1,809,578 | 16.7% | ||
1970 | 1,986,473 | 9.8% | ||
1980 | 1,891,325 | – 4.8% | ||
1990 | 1,951,598 | 3.2% | ||
2000 | 2,229,379 | 14.2% |
According to a Census Bureau estimate, the population increased to 2,241,600 in 2005.
When Queens County was created the courts were transferred from Hempstead to Jamaica Village and a County Court was erected. When the building became too small for its purposes and the stone meeting house had been erected, the courts were held for some years in that edifice. Later a new courthouse was erected and used until the seat of justice was removed to North Hempstead.
From the final withdrawal of the British in November, 1783, until the 1830s, Queens continued as an essentially Long Island area of farms and villages. The location of the county government in Mineola (in present-day Nassau County) underscores the island orientation of that era. Population grew hardly at all, increasing only from 5,791 in 1800 to 7,806 in 1830, suggesting that many younger sons moved away, seeking fortunes where land was not yet so fully taken up for farming.
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Jon A. Peterson and Vincent Seyfried, ed. (1983). A Research Guide to the History of the Borough of Queens and Its Neighborhood. {{
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Peterson, Jon A., ed. (1987). A Research Guide to the History of the Borough of Queens, New York City. New York: Queens College, City University of New York. {{
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Under the Reorganization Act of 7 March 1788, New York was divided into 120 towns (not townships), many of which were already in existence.
The 1777 New York State Constitution, Article XXXVI, confirmed land grants and municipal charters granted by the English Crown prior to October 14, 1775. Chapter 64 of the Laws of 1788 organized the state into towns and cities...The basic composition of the counties was set in 1788 when the State Legislature divided all of the counties then existing into towns. Towns, of course, were of earlier origin, but in that year they acquired a new legal status as components of the counties.
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The building shown below "is one of the most important buildings in the history of Mineola," wrote Jack Hehman, president of the Mineola Historical Society. Built in 1787 and known as the "old brig," it was the first Queens County courthouse and later a home for the mentally ill. The building was at Jericho Turnpike and Herricks Road until 1910, when it burned to the ground.
The investigation of the charges made against the Superintendent and keepers of the Mineola Asylum for the Insane, which was begun last Tuesday, was continued yesterday by the standing Committee on Insane Asylums of the Queens County Board of Supervisors-- Messrs. Whitney, Brinckerhoff, and Powell. The committee were shown through the asylum, which is the old building of the Queens County Court-house over 100 years old
There was only one post office established in present Nassau County when the Long Island post road to Sag Harbor was established September 25, 1794. It appears that the mail from New York went to Jamaica. This was the only post office in the present day Boroughs of Queens or Brooklyn before 1803. From Jamaica the mail went east along the Jericho Turnpike/Middle Country Road route and ended at Sag Harbor. The only post office on this route between Jamaica and Suffolk County was QUEENS established the same date as the others on this route 9/25/1794. This post office was officially Queens, but I have seen the area called "Queens Court House" and was located approximately in the Mineola-Westbury area. The courthouse was used until the 1870's when the county court was moved to Long Island City. Later it served as the Queens County Insane Asylum and still later as an early courthouse for the new Nassau County, during construction of the present "old" Nassau County Courthouse in Mineola. It was demolished shortly after 1900 ... after about 120 years of service of one type or the other.
For forty years the Supervisors of Queens County have been quarreling over a site for a Court-house. The incommodious building used
bottom right by spur road off Jericho Tpk - location is now known as Garden City Park. Clowesville was the name of the nearest station on the LIRR, approximately at the location of the present Merillon Avenue station. The courthouse (photo at http://www.newsday.com/community/guide/lihistory/ny-hs2tmi01,0,3275994.photo ) was north of the station.
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1874 – Queens County Courthouse and seat of county government moved from Mineola (in present-day Nassau County) to Long Island City.
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That was the year when the "Old Brig" courthouse was vacated after 90 years of housing lawbreakers. The county court moved from Mineola to Long Island City.
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The area included a radius of twenty miles (32 km), with the city hall in New York as a center to circumscribe it
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The question of the Greater New-York, which is also to be submitted to the people at this coming election, involves the proposition to unite in one city the following cities, counties, and towns: New-York City, Long Island City, in Queens County; the County of Kings, (Brooklyn;) the County of Richmond, (S.I.;) the towns of Flushing, Newtown, Jamaica, in Queens County; the town of Westchester, in Westchester County, and all that portion of the towns of East Chester and Pelham which lies south of a straight line drawn from a point where the northerly line of the City of New-York meets the centre line of the Bronx River, to the middle of the channel between Hunter's and Glen Islands, in Long Island Sound, and that part of the town of Hempstead, in Queens County, which is westerly of a straight line drawn from the south-easterly point of the town of Flushing in a straight line to the Atlantic Ocean.
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The increase in area and population that New-York will acquire if consolidation becomes a fact will become evident by a glance at the following table... Flushing... *Part of the town of Hempstead... Jamaica... Long Island City ... Newtown... The townships in Queens County that are to be included in the Greater New-York have not been heard from yet...
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North Hempstead, Oyster Bay and the rest of Hempstead were excluded from the vote.
Even more crucial to future development was the opening of the Queensboro Bridge in 1909. This span ended the isolation of the borough's road system at precisely the time when mass use of the automobile was getting underway in the United States.
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The most momentous event in the history of Queens occurred in 1909 when the long planned Queensboro Bridge was finally opened. This ended the century old isolation of the county and dependence on ferries.
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link), as cited in: Rosenwaike, Ira (1972). Population History of New York City. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press. p. 12.
ISBN
0815621558. (for 1698-1771)