Middle Village, Long Island
Middle Village is served by the M train of the New York City Subway which terminates at Metropolitan Ave. The LIRR tracks and Cooper Avenue divides it from kindred spirits in Ridgewood and Glendale to the south. As of the 2000 census, there were 28,984 people residing in the area. The latitude of Middle Village is 40.716N. The longitude is -73.881W. It is in the Eastern Standard time zone. Elevation is 98 feet. In 1816, the area was settled by people of English descent and was named in the early nineteenth-century for its location as the mid-point between the then towns of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and Jamaica, Queens on the Williamsburgh and Jamaica Turnpike (now Metropolitan Ave.); the hamlet was established in the same year. A Lutheran church in Manhattan purchased numerous farms north and south of Metropolitan Avenue that were made into a large cemetery in 1852. After the Civil War, the population of the hamlet became mostly German. In 1879, the Roman Catholic diocese laid out St. John's Cemetery east of 80th Street. The growth of Middle Village was limited by the cemeteries and by Juniper Swamp (filled in 1915 to make Juniper Park), and it came to cater almost exclusively to visitors to the cemeteries. A housing was also boomed which began in the 1920's finally consumed the surrounding farmland and became continuous with neighboring towns and neighborhoods. In the 1970s and early 1980s, drug trafficking held a high presence in Middle Village but there has always been a widely held belief that low level organized crime maintained control of the neighborhood. Well-known current and former residents of Middle Village include Anthony Aiello (reputed mobster), Vincent Ganci (mafia), Scott Hanover (Deputy Inspector), and Jeffrey Hanover (Korean activist). The population is largely Italian-American, although Middle Village has seen an influx of Polish, Irish, and Slavic residents over the recent years. The racial-makeup of Middle Village comprises of 89.5% White, 4.0% Asian, 0.7% African American, 3.2% from other races, and 2.4% from two or more races. The Juniper Valley Park is one of the best parks in Middle Village that is spread over more than 50 acres. It has some of the best kept courts and grounds in Queens. The park is loved by followers of tennis, soccer, baseball, and the other famous sports, but is Bocce that puts the park in a most prominent place of the public mind. The Juniper Park Civic Association is an unusually active body. It covers both Middle Village and Maspeth, and has an excellent record of achievement and a large membership as well. The association also sponsors the annual Juniper Park Concert Series which they look forward to many more years of summer music. |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Middle Village is a neighborhood located in the borough of 