St. Albans, Queens

St. Albans is a residential community in the New York City borough of Queens around the intersection of Linden Boulevard and Farmers Boulevard, southeast of Jamaica, west of Cambria Heights and northwest of Springfield Gardens and Laurelton. [cite web |url=http://www.queensbp.org/content_web/map_boundaries.htm |title=Map of Queens neighborhoods] The neighborhood is part of Queens Community Board 12, [ [http://www.nyc.gov/html/cau/html/cb/cb_queens.shtml Queens Community Boards] , New York City. Accessed September 3, 2007] and its ZIP Code is 11412.

History

Part of a land grant to Dutch settlers from New Netherlands Gov. Peter Stuyvesant in 1655, the area, like much of Queens, remained farmland and forest for most of the next two centuries.

By the 1800s, the plantations of four families — the Remsens, Everitts, Ludlums and Hendricksons — formed the nucleus of this sprawling farm community in the eastern portion of Jamaica Township.

The area was earlier known as Francis Farm — possibly the farmland of the family of Francis Lewis of nearby Whitestone, [While this remains a possibility, the 1880 census reveals a number of families named Francis who farmed in the Town of Jamaica
*http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/census/household_record.asp?HOUSEHOLD_CODE=1880US_11269780
*http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/census/household_record.asp?HOUSEHOLD_CODE=1880US_11269782
*http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/census/household_record.asp?HOUSEHOLD_CODE=1880US_11269862
*http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/census/household_record.asp?HOUSEHOLD_CODE=1880US_11270771
*http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/census/household_record.asp?HOUSEHOLD_CODE=1880US_11270772
*http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/census/household_record.asp?HOUSEHOLD_CODE=1880US_11270773
*http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/census/household_record.asp?HOUSEHOLD_CODE=1880US_11270998and other records indicate at least some of these lived in an area then called Jamaica South and/or Springfield
*http://www.rootsweb.com/~nynassa2/newspapers/febsso.htm
*http://www.bklyn-genealogy-info.com/Death/Jamaica.death.html
*http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jdevlin/ny/springfield_cem2.htm
*http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jdevlin/ny/jamaica_ny_bapt.htm
*http://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/nn/church/jamaicanybpt.shtml] a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Francis Lewis Boulevard is now the eastern boundary of St. Albans.

In 1872, the Long Island Rail Road Cedarhurst Cut-off was built through the area, but no stop appears on the first timetables. In the 1890s, St. Albans began to emerge from a sleepy farm community. The first street lights illuminated Lazy Lane, which became Central Road (also called Foch Blvd in the 1920s) and is now Linden Boulevard; and Freeman's Path, which became Farmers Boulevard. New shops clustered around August Everitt's lone store.

In April 1892, a N.Y. syndicate laid out the Francis Farm. By July 1, station.

In 1899, a year after Queens became part of New York City, 100 residents officially named their community after St Albans in Hertfordshire, England, which itself was named after a Saint Alban, thought to be the first Christian martyred in England. The name had been in use for the area since at least 1894 for the name of the school district. [cite web |url= http://eagle.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Search&Key=BEG/1895/12/12/7/Ar00709.xml&CollName=BEG_COL2&DOCID=2838004&Keyword=%28%3Cmany%3E%3Cstem%3Ealbans%29&skin=BE&AppName=2&ViewMode=GIF |publisher=Brooklyn Eagle |title=article on opening of first school in St. Albans, and 1894 split from Hollis |date=1895-12-12 cite web |url=http://eagle.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/Repository/BEG/1895/12/12/002-BEG-1895-12-12-01-SINGLE.PDF#OLV0_Entity_0254 |title=full issue of paper for that day |format=PDF

LARGE pdf shows more of article and sketch of school)] There had long been a road in the area called St. Albans, and the LIRR station was named St. Albans when it opened in 1898.

The St. Albans Golf Course, built in 1915, brought rich and famous golfers, including baseball star Babe Ruth. The Depression forced the golf course owners to sell to the government. The 3000-bed St. Albans Naval Hospital was constructed on the site in 1950, containing a network of 76 hospital wards. [http://www.va.gov/cares/documents/StAlbans_2007_01_22_LAP4FactSheet.pdf] The hospital was turned over to the Veterans Administration in 1974 and more recently evolved into the Veterans Administration St. Albans Primary and Extended Care Facility.

Many famous jazz musicians used to live in some of the large houses there, particularly in the western section known as Addisleigh Park. Some musicians were also neighbors.

The housing here consists mostly of detached, one and two-family homes. Linden Boulevard is the major shopping street.

Notable residents

*Count Basie (1904-1984), jazz pianist.Johnson, Kirk. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9902E6D8133DF931A35751C0A961958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=5 "Black Workers Bear Big Burden As Jobs in Government Dwindle"] , "The New York Times", February 2, 1997. Accessed November 20, 2007. "Its roots and its reputation as New York's premier black middle class enclave go back further than that, to the 1940's, when Count Basie and Lena Horne and Jackie Robinson made their homes in St. Albans."]
*Bad News Allen, 1976 bronze medalist (Olympic Judo) and pro-wrestler
*Brook Benton
*James Brown (musician)
*Bob Cousy
*Miles Davis (jazz musician)
*W. E. B. DuBois
*Roy Campanella [cite web |url=http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,807431,00.html |title=1955 TIME article on Campanella]
*John Coltrane
*Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis saxophonist
*Mercer Ellington
*Anna Lee Tingle Fisher, M. D. - astronaut
*Ella Fitzgerald
*Milt Hinton
*Lena Horne (1917-), singer.
*LL Cool J
*Bill Kenny of the The Ink Spots [cite web |url=http://inkspots.ca/BILL-BIO.html |title=Biography]
*James McBride
*Illinois Jacquet
*Francis Lewis ?
*Joe Louis, boxer
*Will Poole - football player
*Jackie Robinson Major League Baseball
*Al Roker, meteorologist
*Babe Ruth, baseball player
*Eileen Southern, musicologist
*William Grant Still, classical composer
*Robert Taylor (jazz musician, World War II veteran)
*Fats Waller, jazz pianist
*Clarence Williams, jazz pianist and composer
*Lester Young, jazz tenor saxophonist and clarinetist

References

External links

* [http://www.ephemerapress.com/queens.html Queens Jazz Trail]
* [http://www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET%20SCENES/jazztour/queensjazz.html Jazz Tour of Queens]
* [http://eagle.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Search&Key=BEG/1902/06/30/8/Ar00827.xml&CollName=BEG_COL2&DOCID=4179211&Keyword=%28%3Cmany%3E%3Cstem%3Ealbans%29&skin=BE&AppName=2&ViewMode=GIF "Brooklyn Eagle" June 1902 article on lot sale]
* [http://www.queens.lib.ny.us/pub/demographics_1990.asp?branch=St.%20Albans 1990 Population Demographics]
* [http://docs.unh.edu/NY/brkl98ne.jpg1898 map of area] shows Baisley Blvd, Farmers Blvd, Linden Blvd, and LIRR line which runs through St. Albans
* [http://www.centralqueenshistoricalsociety.org/tourofjazzqueens.htm More on famous residents, including former addresses]
* [http://www.queenslibrary.org/index.aspx?page_nm=CL-CommunityInfo&branch_id=SA Queens Library article on St. Albans]
*Excerpts from [http://books.google.ca/books?id=HZ3XCz-LrngC&pg=PA120&vq=albans&dq=albans&source=gbs_search_s&cad=5&sig=W9Wmo_VMRYZ7LcBS5MMvhwKo7ts "To Stand and Fight: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Postwar New York City"] by Martha Biondi