SAINT ALBANS, LONG ISLAND

St. Albans, Long Island

St. Albans is a residential community of New York City, in eastern Queens around the intersection of Linden Boulevard and Farmers Boulevard, southeast of Jamaica and northeast of Springfield Gardens and Laurelton. St. Albans is home to middle-class Americans and growing numbers of immigrants. As of 2007, St. Albans has a total population of 36,306. The median home cost in the area is $449,900. The community was named after a village of England.

Part of a land grant to Dutch settlers from New Netherlands Gov. Peter Stuyvesant in 1655, St. Albans, like much of Queens, remained farmland and forest for most of the next couple of centuries. By the 1800s, the plantations of four families; the Remsens, Everitts, Ludlums and Hendricksons were formed the nucleus of this sprawling farm community in the eastern portion of Jamaica Township. In the 1890s, St. Albans began to emerge from a sleepy farm community. The first street lights illuminated Lazy Lane, which became Central Road and then Linden Boulevard, and Freeman's Path, which became Farmers Boulevard. New shops clustered around August Everitt's lone store. 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, and it became the St. Albans Naval Hospital, serving thousands of World War II veterans.

The neighborhood is famous for the jazz legends like Cab Calloway, John Coltrane, Lena Horne, Fats Waller, and Ella Fitzgerald that lived in its elegant enclave Addisleigh Park. Housing development in St. Albans is booming which has brought a higher density of living to the entire area. It has a detached one and two family homes with a mix of attached homes and small apartment buildings. Much of the housing was built in the 1920s and 1930s. Most of the homes are colonial style but all different types of colonials, detached, semi detached, attached, and center hall styles. As of December 2005, the average real estate prices ranges from $300,000 or more. Compared to the rest of the country, St. Albans cost of living is 40.72% Higher than the U.S. average. St. Albans lacks a subway but has a LIRR station and is close to the Belt and Cross Island Parkways. There is also the option of taking a bus to the subway. And there is a St. Albans stop on the Long Island Railroad that will take you to Penn Station in Manhattan. The Belt Parkway is just to the south.

Francis Lewis Boulevard is a main shopping area and it is a short drive to one of the biggest shopping areas in Queens on Jamaica Avenue. Linden Boulevard is also a small business paradise from the LIRR east to Cambria Heights. The busiest area is around the intersection of Linden and Farmers Boulevard.