Middle Village, Queens
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Middle Village is a neighborhood in central Queens, a borough of New York City. The neighborhood is located in the western central section of Queens, bounded to the north by the Long Island Expressway, to the east by Woodhaven Boulevard, to the south by Cooper Avenue, and to the west by Lutheran Cemetery. Middle Village borders Elmhurst to the North, Maspeth and Ridgewood to the West, Glendale to the South, and Rego Park to the East. In 2003, "South Elmhurst", an area between Eliot Avenue and the LIE, was "annexed" to Middle Village and given its postal code 11379.
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[edit] About Middle Village
The area was named in the early nineteenth-century for its location as the mid-point between Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and the Jamaica Turnpike. Middle Village is served by Juniper Valley Park, which is a large public park built on what was once called Juniper Swamp (filled in 1915). Originally composed of Western European immigrants, primarily German, Irish & Italian. Today the neighborhood is much more ethnically diverse.
[edit] The Famous Dead
St. John's Cemetery, Queens, a cemetery located in Middle Village, holds many famed mobsters, including John Gotti and Lucky Luciano. Fitness guru Charles Atlas and photographer Robert Mapplethorpe are also interred there. The General Slocum Steamboat Fire Mass Memorial, commemorating one of the worst disasters in NYC's history, is at Lutheran All Faiths Cemetery (67-29 Metropolitan Avenue).
[edit] Crime and Safety
Middle Village is a relatively safe, working class neighborhood in the borough of Queens. In the 1970s and early 1980s, as in other parts of the US, drug trafficking held a high presence in this neighborhood. There has always been a widely held belief that low level organized crime maintained control of this town. The early 1990s brought about a major urban renewal of all its parks and green spaces. This has created a safer more inviting place to live. These days burglary and car theft are not uncommon, but violent crime is rarer.
[edit] Schools
PS 49 and PS 128 are elementary schools in Middle Village with grades K to 5. PS 87 is an elementary and junior high school with grades K to 8. Our Lady of Hope is a Catholic school with grades K to 8. St. Margaret is also a Catholic elementary school grades K-8.
Christ The King Regional High School is a private school. It is also nationally-known as the home of the Royals girl's basketball team, with a total of 13 Federation Championships spanning the last 16 years. Christ The King Regional High School is also the home of one of the City's best forensics teams, sending students to the National Forensics Championships annually. Over the past five years, the team has gone through several coaching changes, though the current team is headed by veteran coach Anton Jans.
