African Americans and Real Estate in Queens in the 1920s

By Lawrence Samuel

The following is an excerpt from Queens: A History of the Most Diverse Place on Earth, which will be published by SUNY Press in May 2025. Used by permission of the author and the publisher.

In 1922, a milestone was reached when the reportedly last remaining large tract of farmland was divided into 1,500 lots that were then placed on the market as Forest Hills West. “Farm after farm, large as well as small, has been taken in the revolutionary movement that has changed Queens from New York’s vegetable garden to a great expanse of small homes, flats, factories, and building sites,” the New York Herald Tribune noted. (Cabbages and potatoes had been commonly grown in the borough.) Anticipating the arrival (and departure) of commuters, the LIRR was starting train service to Forest Hills West. Not far away, plans were in the works to widen Queens Boulevard to two hundred feet, as merchants and tradesmen believed it was the avenue best suited for retail business in the borough. [1]

The year 1923 was a very good one for development in Queens, with more buildings erected in the borough than anywhere else in the country save for much larger cities of Chicago and Los Angeles. [2] There was every indication that more buildings and more people would come, however. The extension of the Queensboro subway west from Grand Central to Time Square in Manhattan and, even more so, the connecting of the B.R.T. with the interborough IRT line in 1923 boded well for further development of Queens. Two areas in particular—Astoria (named after the elder John Jacob Astoria without consulting him) and Elmhurst (after the trees)—would benefit in terms of population growth, experts (correctly) predicted, as it was now easier to get to and from Manhattan and Brooklyn. The linking of the BRT. with the IRT would also save passengers money; it would no longer cost an extra fare (a nickel) to transfer lines. [3] Hopes were for an interborough parkway, which had been conceived a decade earlier, that would connect Queens with Brooklyn by automobile. [4]

Queens: A History of the Most Diverse Place on Earth
by Lawrence R. Samuel
SUNY Press
May 2025, 198 pp.

Who was moving to Queens in the early 1920s? The Queensboro Chamber of Commerce asked that very question in 1924 and completed a survey to find the answer. Interestingly, at least 75% of new residents were purchasing property rather than renting. One- and two-family houses priced between $7,500 and $15,000 were the most popular, confirmation that it was families with moderate incomes who were most attracted to the borough. The bulk of the buyers were, as the New York Herald Tribune noted in 1924, “of the middle classes, or thrifty mechanics who have not allowed their increased earnings to slip through their fingers.” [5]

Direct references to race were scarce in the mainstream press, although there was little doubt that the purchasers of property in Queens were overwhelmingly White. Sales of co-operative apartments in Jackson Heights were entirely White, just as they were on Park Avenue in Manhattan. In each location, their popularity was “due in a measure to the highly restricted character of the neighborhoods,” boasted Frank Ray Howe, a vice-president at the Queensboro Corporation. Put simply, a certain segment of White people did not want to have African Americans, Jews, or members of certain ethnic groups as their neighbors and were willing to pay a significant amount of money for that perceived privilege. [6]

A Certain Sentiment

Although unlikely to be found in Jackson Heights, African Americans were very much part of the cultural fabric of Queens in the 1920s. African Americans had called Queens home for centuries, but their number increased dramatically due to the Great Migration. From the 1910s to the 1970s, millions of Southern Blacks moved to the Midwest and Northeast for better lives, with New York City the destination for some. Many settled in Harlem in upper Manhattan and Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, although those neighborhoods quickly became crowded (and later dangerous), impetus for thousands to relocate throughout the five boroughs through much of the 20th century.

The African American real estate market in Queens in the 1920s ran parallel to and occasionally intersected with the one serving the larger White community. By the mid-part of the decade, many Blacks had benefited from the robust economy and were seeking to buy property in the borough. Jamaica, and to a lesser extent Corona, represented the heart of the African American community in Queens, making that neighborhood the choice for most. Builders, whether White or Black, recognized that there was a legitimate market in Jamaica for, as they were commonly called, “colored buyers.” [7]

A number of African American real estate brokers too recognized the opportunity to be had in Queens. One was William J. Weir, who by 1925 had a number of agents (and his wife) working for him. [8] Another was Jamaica-based John J. Hill, whose business practices extended well beyond making a commission as quickly as possible (something ascribed to quite a few in the field). Hill profoundly explained his philosophy to the New York Amsterdam News:

Our condition in this country is such I believe that a certain sentiment should play its part between our people as a race. I haven’t lost a thing by looking out for the interest of my people in the purchase of real estate. I want to see my people well housed. I want to see them in prospering communities and living in wholesome surroundings. I want to see them looking forward without the discontent that comes from practices that in the past have left many of them discouraged. If I can do my part in helping towards this end and still manage to make a livelihood, I am satisfied. [9]

Recognizing the need for decent housing for his people (especially given the overall shortage after the war), Hill had some years back persuaded a construction company to build fourteen houses on George Street and another two on Dewey Avenue for “colored people.” These were said to be the first set of houses designed specifically for African Americans in Jamaica. Fifty more such houses were being erected in 1925 in Jamaica, with William J. Weir appointed as the broker. The homes were selling before they were finished, a clear sign of the demand for good housing for African Americans in Queens. [10]

Jamaica had become the most popular place for African Americans from Manhattan and Brooklyn to relocate for the very same reasons that Whites were attracted to Queens. It was an easy hop to Manhattan by subway, the LIRR, or trolley, and property remained relatively cheap compared to most other parts of New York City. As in Harlem, more Blacks were buying property on streets in Jamaica that had previously been all White. More often than not, should one African American family buy a house on such a street, neighbors quickly put their house on the market for “colored buyers.” [11]

As part of New York City, Jamaica had the same school system as that in Manhattan, a source of comfort to families moving from that borough. (School buildings were also newer in Jamaica.) There were six African American teachers in the Jamaica school district (plus a few substitutes) as the 1925/1926 school year began, with more likely to come with the opening of the new Jamaica High School. Men from Jamaica had traditionally worked as porters or messengers in lower Manhattan, but job opportunities opened up in Long Island City, a burgeoning area of manufacturing. With the widening of Queens Boulevard and other projects, there was construction work too for African American men. Blacks were being hired by the LIRR as watchmen at grade crossings (accidents at the gates were frequent), positions that had previously been held by new immigrants. [12]

With rents getting ever higher in Manhattan, including Harlem, it was easy to recognize the attractiveness of Jamaica. “Colored men in the real estate field in Jamaica with a vision of the possibilities have interested white builders with large capital,” the New York Amsterdam News noted. E. & J. Dorf, a large lumber merchant in Queens, had gotten into the home building business for the African American market. The houses sold quickly, and the company decided to put up twenty more. Again, it was William Weir who got the exclusive to sell them; the man advertised regularly in that newspaper, and it appeared to be money well spent. The lumber company was beginning to think bigger, eyeing a spot in the Merrick Park section of Jamaica (near the new high school) which could accommodate two hundred homes. [13]

While such building was business as usual in mainstream real estate circles, it was unprecedented with regard to African Americans. By the end of 1925, it was believed that Jamaica, Queens, was the only suburb in the United States predominantly populated by Blacks. The Milla-Cohn Company, which built homes for both Whites and Blacks, had secured fifty-two additional plots in Jamaica on which to construct houses for prospective African American homeowners. “Many colored men and women suffering the inconveniences of flat life will be inhaling the healthful ozone of the country and pottering around in their own yards,” New York Amsterdam News reported. With six rooms, steam heat, parquet floors, breakfast nooks, electric kitchen appliances, and built-in ironing boards, the homes were indeed a dream come true for those who could come up with the down payment and afford the monthly payments. [14]

Jamaica remained a magnet for African Americans as financially motivated developers created more housing for them. “The Jamaica of today is a colorful mass of surging humanity,” a journalist for the New York Amsterdam News observed in 1927, particularly on the town’s south side. White real estate agents steered Blacks to that area to try to keep Jamaica segregated, although significant numbers of both Polish Americans and Italian Americans resided there as well. African Americans began moving into Merrick Park, on the south side, around 1910, and the area continued to thrive. The NAACP had recently formed a branch in Jamaica, and the organization would soon play an important role in the pursuit of racial equality across the borough. The total number of African Americans residing in Queens was now estimated to be twelve thousand, with thousands more expected to settle in the borough over the following year. [15]

While Jamaica was the epicenter of the African American community in Queens in the 1920s, Corona was, as the New York Amsterdam News put it, “also making a bid to better class of race home seekers.” (Corona had been developed on the crown of a hill, hence its name.) Like Jamaica, Corona was well connected to Manhattan by mass transit, and the latter was indeed attracting Harlemites wanting more breathing space. In September 1925, twelve hundred of Corona’s five thousand residents were African American, with about half of that twelve hundred owning or in the process of buying their homes. Corona’s inter-denominational Congregational Church served as the hub of the Black community, both religiously and socially, and the Corona Building & Loan Company was helping prospective homeowners get financing. There were few (if any) Black members of the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills Gardens, but the Corona Tennis Club had been organized in 1921 by Mrs. Daisy C. Reed, an African American who continued to serve as its president. [16]

With those amenities, plus the fact that a nice two-family home (brick or frame) could be had for $10,000 and a single-family home for half of that, one could see how Corona was a desirable place to live, regardless of one’s race. (To that point, Corona was not segregated, a rare thing in those days.) Seeing a show by the Aldridge Players, a drama club, was a popular thing to do; the group was led by Frank Wilson, a well-known playwright. If that weren’t enough, Flushing Bay was just a short hop away, a great spot for beach activities and boating. [17]

It’s understandable that Corona continued to draw residents, many of them coming from congested Harlem, which in addition to its space constraints had air quality judged to be unhealthy because of the crowded conditions. By February 1927, the population of African Americans in Corona had risen to about three thousand, with two-thirds owning their homes. These houses were not “across the tracks,” as they were in many communities, but interspersed among middle-class White-owned houses. The town was getting bigger as more people arrived; the number of retailers and banks were growing along with the population. In addition to the Congregational Church, there were the Episcopal Mission and First Baptist, and the public schools in Corona were modern and considered racially tolerant. [18]

Lawrence R. Samuel is a Miami- and NYC-based independent scholar who holds a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Minnesota. He is the author of The End of the Innocence: The 1964–1965 New York World's Fair; Making Long Island: A History of Growth and the American Dream; and Queens: A History of the Most Diverse Place on Earth, from which this essay is excerpted.

[1] “Forest Hills West, in Queens, Put on Map This Morning,” New York Herald Tribune, June 25, 1922, B2; Woodhaven Avenue was widened to 100 feet.

[2] “News and Comment of City and Suburban Real Estate Market,” New York Herald Tribune, April 13, 1924, B2.

[3] “Population May Be Diverted to Right by New Subway,” New York Herald Tribune, June 24, 1923, C1.

[4] “Demand Parkway Planned Ten Years Ago Be Built Now,” New York Herald Tribune, July 29, 1923, C2.

[5] “News and Comment of City and Suburban Real Estate Market,” New York Herald Tribune, July 13, 1924, B2.

[6] Frank Ray Howe, “62 Buyers Pay $1,182,422 for Queens Suites,” New York Herald Tribune, January 3, 1926, B2.

[7] “Jamaica Beckons Home Seekers,” New York Amsterdam News, August 12, 1925, 8.

[8] “Race Realty Brokers Making Good,” New York Amsterdam News, August 19, 1925, 8.

[9] “John Hill Another Successful L.I. Realtor Who Grasped His Opportunity,” New York Amsterdam News, September 9, 1925, 8.

[10] “John Hill Another Successful L.I. Realtor Who Grasped His Opportunity.”

[11] James H. Hubert, “James H. Hubert Writes Interestingly on Long Island Town Now Holding Attention of the Entire Countryside, New York Amsterdam News, October 7, 1925, 8.

[12] “James H. Hubert Writes Interestingly on Long Island Town Now Holding Attention of the Entire Countryside.

[13] “L.I. Lumber Merchant to Build Homes for Colored People in Jamaica,” New York Amsterdam News, November 25, 1925, 8.

[14] “Fifty-two Plots Secured by Milla-Cohn Company to Erect Homes for Negroes,” New York Amsterdam News, November 25, 1925, 8.

[15] “Jamaica a Miniature ‘Land of Promise’ Amsterdam News Representative Sees,” New York Amsterdam News, May 25, 1927, 9.

[16] “Corona, L.I., Also Making Bid to Better Class of Race Home Seekers,” New York Amsterdam News, September 23, 1925, 8.

[17] “Corona Homes,” New York Amsterdam News, October 7, 1925, 14.

[18] “Some Facts About Corona,” New York Amsterdam News, February 23, 1927, 16.