- Its location and history have separated it from the rest of Queens, linking it strongly to Brooklyn and Manhattan, and;
- Its history and current development are tied to transportation resources (subways, railyards, bridges, and tunnels).
Native Americans and Colonial History
The area was home to Algonquin-speaking Native Americans who navigated the East River by canoe and whose trails would later become roads like 20th Street in Astoria.In the 1640s Dutch colonists, part of the New Netherlands colony, settled in the area to farm the rich soil. William Hallet, Sr, received a land grant in 1652 and purchased land from Native Americans in what is now Astoria. He is the namesake of Hallet's Cove and Hallet's Point, the promontory jetting out into the East River. Farming remained the norm until the 19th century.
19th Century History
In the early 1800s wealthy New Yorkers came to escape the city crowds and built mansions in the Astoria area. Stephen Halsey developed the area as a village, and named it Astoria, in honor of John Jacob Astor.In 1870 the villages and hamlets of Astoria, Ravenswood, Hunters Point, Steinway, voted to consolidate and become chartered as Long Island City. Twenty-eight years later in 1898, Long Island City officially became part of New York City, as NYC expanded its borders to include what is now Queens.
Regular ferry service to Manhattan began in the 1800s, and expanded in 1861 when the LIRR opened up its main terminal in Hunters Point. The transportation links spurred commercial and industrial development, and soon factories lined the East River waterfront.
20th Century History
In the early 20th century, Long Island City became even more accessible with the opening of the Queensboro Bridge (1909), the Hellgate Bridge (1916), and the subway tunnels. These important transportation links encouraged further industrial growth, defining the area for the rest of the century. Even residential Astoria didn't escape the industrial transformation as power plants opened up along the northernmost bank of the East River.By the 1970s, the decline of manufacturing in the United States was evindent in Long Island City. Though it still remains a major industrial area in NYC, LIC's recent genesis as an artistic and cultural center started in 1970 with the opening of P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in a former public school. Since then Artists escaping Manhattan prices and then Brooklyn prices have established studios throughout Long Island City.
