Landmarks Preservation Commission February 12, 2008, Designation List 401 LP-2109 (Former) JAMAICA SAVINGS BANK, 161-02 Jamaica Avenue, Borough of Queens. Built 1897-98; Hough & Duell, architects. Landmark Site: Borough of Queens, Tax Map Block 10101, Lot 9. On May 15, 2007, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a public hearing on the proposed designation as a Landmark of the former Jamaica Savings Bank and the proposed designation of the related Landmark Site (Item No. 1). The hearing had been duly advertised in accordance with the provisions of law. Seven people spoke in favor of designation, including Chairwoman Gloria Black of Queens Community Board 12, and representatives of the Central Queens Historical Association, the Queens Preservation Council, the Queens Historical Society, the Historic Districts Council, the New York Landmarks Conservancy, and the Jamaica Center Business Improvement District. A representative of Council Member Leroy G. Comrie, Jr. spoke in favor of designation, contingent upon the approval of the building’s owner.1 Summary The former Jamaica Savings Bank was constructed in 1897-98 for the oldest and most prestigious banking institution in Jamaica. Designed by the noted firm of Hough & Deuell, the building is a fine and particularly exuberant example of the classically inspired Beaux-Arts style strikingly executed in carved limestone and wrought iron, and is one of only a few buildings in the borough of Queens to embrace that architectural aesthetic. Prominently sited on Jamaica Avenue, the bank building is an urbane presence on the neighborhood’s main commercial thoroughfare. Although the four-story structure is relatively small in scale, the imposing design of the facade conveys a monumentality which is appropriately suited to the distinguished image and reputation of the banking institution, while lending the building the formal elegance of a private club or townhouse. Incorporated in 1866 by a consortium of local citizens—including John A. King, former Governor of the State of New York—the Jamaica Savings Bank played an important role in the development of Jamaica, at that time a burgeoning commercial center. The success of the organization was marked by its exponential expansion in the late nineteenth century and its need for more commodious—and more conspicuous—quarters. The construction of this bank coincided with the 1898 incorporation of Queens County into the municipal jurisdiction of the City of New York and reflects the metropolitan spirit of the period. The facade of the building maintains its original Beaux-Arts design and survives today essentially intact as a reminder of an important era in Jamaica’s history.

DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS2 The Development of Jamaica3 Historically an important crossroads of Long Island, the area of downtown Jamaica developed as a result of its central location and extensive transportation systems. Jamaica began as a rural settlement when the town was granted a patent from Governor Peter Stuyvesant in 1656. The English took over the town in 1664, changing its name from the Dutch “Rusdorp” to a variation on the name of the local Yemacah Indians, which meant “beaver.”4 Queens County (then incorporating present-day Nassau County) was chartered in 1683 as one of the ten counties in the colony of New York and official town patents were soon given to Jamaica, Newtown, and Flushing. Through the next century the community of Jamaica served as the county seat and became a trading post where farmers from outlying areas brought their produce. By the time the village of Jamaica was incorporated in 1814, it had become a center of trade on Long Island. Jamaica Avenue, which evolved from an Indian trail, has been called the oldest continuously used road on Long Island. In 1703 the colonial legislature established a highway, known as the “King’s Highway,” which extended from the East River (later Fulton) Ferry through Brooklyn and Queens (along portions of the curre

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