JAMAICA TOWN HALL
Parson Boulevard and Jamaica Avenue
JUNE 1, 1937. ABBOTT FILE 249

At the geographical center of Queens, Jamaica became an important nineteenth-century trading center for Long Island farmers. After the 1898 consolidation of New York's five boroughs, its town hall, built in 1870, housed the municipal courthouse, sheriff's office, and traffic court.

This eclectic Victorian structure, which combined a rusticated base, a classical porch, and a mansard roof punctured by chimneys, reminded Abbott of the provincial architecture of her Ohio childhood (McQuaid, 338). The building was razed in 1941, and the 1981 construction of a 15-story federal office building across Jamaica Avenue brought a McDonald's to the site.

Return to The Bronx and Queens