Laurelton is a largely middle-class neighborhood in the

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle A ...

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

and part of the former town of

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

Merrick Boulevard Merrick Road is an east–west urban arterial in Queens, Nassau, and Suffolk counties in New York, United States. It is known as Merrick Boulevard or Floyd H. Flake Boulevard in Queens, within New York City. Merrick Road runs east from the Queens ...

, which bisects the community in a generally east–west direction, forms its commercial spine. It is bounded by

Springfield Boulevard Springfield Boulevard is a major north/south roadway that runs through the eastern section of Queens, New York (state), New York. It is long and goes from New York State Route 25A, Northern Boulevard in Bayside, Queens, Bayside, to 147th Avenue ...

to the west, 121st Avenue to the north,

Laurelton Parkway Laurelton may refer to: *Laurelton, Queens, New York City * Laurelton, New Jersey *Laurelton, Pennsylvania Laurelton is a census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population defined by the United States Ce ...

to the east, and

Conduit Avenue Conduit Avenue (Conduit Boulevard in Brooklyn) is an arterial road in New York City, the vast majority of which is in Queens. The divided highway runs from Atlantic Avenue in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn to Hook Creek Boulevard in Rosedale, Quee ...

to the south. Laurelton is located in Queens Community District 13 and its ZIP Codes are 11413 and 11422. It is patrolled by the

New York City Police Department The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...

's 105th Precinct.

History

Laurelton derives its name from the Laurelton station on the Long Island Rail Road, which was named for the laurels that grew there over 100 years ago. It was developed by

Dean Alvord Dean Alvord (December 4, 1856 – April 18, 1941) was an American real estate developer, college professor, and philanthropist known for his real estate developments in the New York City Metropolitan Area and in Florida. He was a relative of both ...

and was modeled after an English village, with stately Tudor-style homes, both attached and detached. A few co-ops exist in a former garden apartment complex, there has been some new construction but no high-rise buildings, which has enabled Laurelton to keep its small-town feel. The area of Laurelton closest to Rosedale and

Cambria Heights Cambria Heights is a residential neighborhood in the southeastern portion of the New York City borough of Queens. It is bounded by Springfield Boulevard and Francis Lewis Boulevard to the west, the Elmont, Nassau County border on the east, Qu ...

consists primarily of single-family homes whereas the area abutting Springfield Gardens contains more multi family homes. The area south of Merrick Boulevard contains many large, individually designed houses, while certain blocks to the north, running eastward from

Francis Lewis Boulevard Francis Lewis Boulevard is a boulevard in the New York City borough of Queens. The roadway is named for Francis Lewis, a Queens resident who was a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence. The boulevard zigzags across Queens by inc ...

, have attached, Tudor-style rowhouses. Laurelton also has a series of streets with landscaped and tree-lined center malls.

Demographics

In the 1930s through the 1970s, Laurelton was home to many

Jewish-American American Jews or Jewish Americans are American citizens who are Jewish, whether by religion, ethnicity, culture, or nationality. Today the Jewish community in the United States consists primarily of Ashkenazi Jews, who descend from diaspora Je ...

families, home to female American radio trio NBC radio vocal harmonists

Three X Sisters The Three X Sisters were an American all-girl harmony singing trio initially known as The Hamilton Sisters and Fordyce. They were on stage singing together in New York City, on Broadway, as early as 1922 and formed their trio in 1924, which was com ...

during the 1930s, but succeeding generations since the 1960s have included various Afro-descended groups, including African-Americans, Caribbean/West Indians and West Africans, many of whom were attracted to Laurelton's more suburban-like environment. Beyer, Gregory
"Prosperous Area Seeks Shops to Match"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', April 24, 2009. Accessed November 2, 2017. "IN parts of Laurelton, Queens, you can look down seemingly endless streets lined with Tudor homes, each a collection of squat rectangles with roofs so pointed as to have come from a child’s drawing.... 'Mine is the eighth-wealthiest district in the city, and a large part of that is Laurelton,' said Councilman James Sanders Jr., of the 31st Council District. “One of the things that make Laurelton unique is that it sits in the only census tract where blacks make more money than whites.'" Based on data from the

2010 United States Census The United States census of 2010 was the twenty-third United States national census. National Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2010. The census was taken via mail-in citizen self-reporting, with enumerators servi ...

, the population of Laurelton was 24,453, a decrease of 1,922 (7.3%) from the 26,375 in

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

. Covering an area of , the neighborhood had a population density of .Table PL-P5 NTA: Total Population and Persons Per Acre - New York City Neighborhood Tabulation Areas*, 2010
Population Division -

Department of City Planning, February 2012. Accessed June 16, 2016. The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 1.5% (366)

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...

, 90.1% (22,032)

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

, 0.3% (73) Native American, 0.7% (171) Asian, 0.5% (12)

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of O ...

, 0.4% (97) from

other races Other often refers to: * Other (philosophy), a concept in psychology and philosophy Other or The Other may also refer to: Film and television * ''The Other'' (1913 film), a German silent film directed by Max Mack * ''The Other'' (1930 film), a ...

, and 1.6% (391) from two or more races.

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties forme ...

or Latino of any race were 5.5% (1,344) of the population.Table PL-P3A NTA: Total Population by Mutually Exclusive Race and Hispanic Origin - New York City Neighborhood Tabulation Areas*, 2010
Population Division -

Department of City Planning, March 29, 2011. Accessed June 14, 2016.

Private school education

Cariculum Academy of Southeast Queens
A Community Schoolhouse

Transportation

Belt Parkway exits 24A/B, 23A, and 22 service Laurelton. The section of the Belt Parkway known as the Laurelton Parkway was the subject of a master plan as part of the city's emerging system of greenways and bikeways. The restoration of this link was completed in 2006. The Laurelton station on the Long Island Rail Road, located at 225th Street and 141st Road, offers service via the

Far Rockaway Far Rockaway is a neighborhood on the eastern part of the Rockaway peninsula in the New York City borough of Queens. It is the easternmost section of the Rockaways. The neighborhood extends from Beach 32nd Street east to the Nassau County line ...

and

Long Beach Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

branches. Residents also have access to

MTA Regional Bus Operations MTA Regional Bus Operations (RBO) is the surface transit division of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). It was created in 2008 to consolidate all bus operations in New York City operated by the MTA. , MTA Regional Bus Operations ru ...

buses , which connect to New York City Subway stops in Jamaica. The express bus to Manhattan also stops in Laurelton.

Notable residents

* David Bergman (born 1950), gay writer/academic. * Joel Brind, professor of

human biology Human biology is an interdisciplinary area of academic study that examines humans through the influences and interplay of many diverse fields such as genetics, evolution, physiology, anatomy, epidemiology, anthropology, ecology, nutrition, populat ...

and

endocrinology Endocrinology (from '' endocrine'' + '' -ology'') is a branch of biology and medicine dealing with the endocrine system, its diseases, and its specific secretions known as hormones. It is also concerned with the integration of developmental event ...

Baruch College Baruch College (officially the Bernard M. Baruch College) is a public college in New York City. It is a constituent college of the City University of New York system. Named for financier and statesman Bernard M. Baruch, the college operates unde ...

. * Sam DeLuca (1936-2011), New York Jets right guard in the 1970s. * Derrick Harmon (born 1963), NFL running back for the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

from 1984-1986. * Ronnie Harmon (born 1964), running back, kick returner who played in the NFL for the Buffalo Bills and San Diego Chargers."At Iowa, Harmon Makes Offense Go"
''

'', October 10, 1984. Accessed November 2, 2017. "Greg, 23 years old, is the oldest Harmon brother, followed by Gary, 22, the musically inclined nonathlete of the family, and then Derrick, 21, Ronnie, 20, and Kevin, who will be 19 on Oct. 26. The boys grew up in a two-story brick home in Laurelton, Queens." * Marcus Jansen (born 1968), Expressionist painter. Attended PS 156 in Laurelton. *

Hettie Jones Hettie Jones (née Cohen; born in 1934) is an American poet. She has written twenty-three books that include a memoir of the Beat Generation, three volumes of poetry, and publications for children and young adults, including ''The Trees Stand ...

, poet/memoirist and former wife of writer Amiri Baraka. *

Meir Kahane Meir David HaKohen Kahane (; he, רבי מאיר דוד הכהן כהנא ; born Martin David Kahane; August 1, 1932 – November 5, 1990) was an American-born Israeli ordained Orthodox rabbi, writer, and ultra-nationalist politician who serv ...

(1932-1990), head of the youth group of the Young Israel of Laurelton; founded the

Jewish Defense League The Jewish Defense League (JDL) is a Jewish far-right religious-political organization in the United States and Canada, whose stated goal is to "protect Jews from antisemitism by whatever means necessary". It has been classified as "a right wi ...

. * Doron Lamb (born 1991),

Kentucky Wildcats basketball The Kentucky Wildcats are the men's and women's intercollegiate athletic squads of the University of Kentucky (UK), a founding member of the Southeastern Conference. The Kentucky Wildcats is the student body of the University of Kentucky. 30,473 ...

player. * Neil Leifer (born 1942), photographer and filmmaker known mainly for his work in the Time Inc. family of magazines. *

Bernard Madoff Bernard Lawrence Madoff ( ; April 29, 1938April 14, 2021) was an American fraudster and financier who was the admitted mastermind of the largest Ponzi scheme in history, worth about $64.8 billion. He was at one time chairman of the NASDAQ ...

, former NASDAQ chairman, convicted of the largest financial fraud in U.S. history. *

Ruth Madoff Ruth Madoff ( ; Alpern; born May 18, 1941) is the widow of Bernie Madoff, the convicted American financial fraudster who served a prison sentence for a criminal financial scheme until his death in April 2021. After her husband's arrest for his ...

(born 1941), wife of Bernie Madoff. * Irving Mosberg (1908-1973), politician who served in the

New York Senate The New York State Senate is the upper house of the New York State Legislature; the New York State Assembly is its lower house. Its members are elected to two-year terms; there are no term limits. There are 63 seats in the Senate. Partisan compo ...

from 1958 to 1967.Staff
"Candidate Picked Here; Queens Democrats Designate Mosberg for State Senate"
''

'', December 13, 1957. Accessed November 2, 2017. "Mr. Mosberg is 49 years old and lives with his wife and two children at 141-05 228th Street, Laurelton, Queens." *

Winston Rodney Winston Rodney OD (born 1 March 1945), better known by the stage name Burning Spear, is a Jamaican roots reggae singer-songwriter, vocalist and musician. Burning Spear is a Rastafarian and one of the most influential and long-standing roots ar ...

Reggae music legend, AKA "Burning Spear". * Elliot Sperling (1951-2017), expert on Tibetan history and the Tibet-China conflict and chair of Central Eurasian Studies at

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universi ...

References

External links

Laurelton Civic AssociationThe Laurelton Blog
{{Queens Neighborhoods in Queens, New York Communities developed by Dean Alvord