New York City Car Rental and a Middle Village Overview
Middle Village is found in central Queens with your New York City car rental. It is bordered by Eliot Avenue to the north, Woodhaven Boulevard to the east, Cooper Avenue to the south, and Lutheran Cemetery to the west. The communities of Elmhurst, Maspeth, Ridgewood, Glendale, and Rego Park are found along its borders.
Step into the past
The area that you can now visit with your New York City car rental was settled in 1816 by people with English roots and was named for its location halfway between the towns of Williamsburg in Brooklyn and Jamaica in Queens on what is now Metropolitan Avenue. In 1852 a Lutheran Church bought some of the farmland to establish a cemetery, and in 1879 a Roman Catholic Church was established. After the Civil War, hotels and other services began to appear to meet the needs of cemetery visitors, and the area began to grow. In the 1920s, a housing boom also contributed to the skyrocketing population and all of the farmland was occupied by towns and neighborhoods.
Look down
In the 1970s and 1980s drug trafficking was a problem in this neighborhood. There has always been the belief that organized crime has maintained control of the area, but the 1990s brought renewal of green space to Middle Village and it is a safe place to visit. However, when you visit with your New York City car rental you can get a glimpse of some of this underground life at St. John's Cemetery in Middle Village. Here you will find the burial sites of famed mobsters like John Gotti and Lucky Luciano. There are other famous people buried here as well. Fitness guru Charles Atlas and photographer Robert Mapplethorpe are also resting here.
Pay your respects
At the Lutheran All Faiths Cemetery you will find the General Slocum Steamboat Fire Mass Memorial with your New York City car rental, commemorating one of the worst disasters in New York history when a steamship caught fire and burned in the East River in 1904. More than 1000 people died in the accident, making it the worst disaster in New York history until the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The night of the disaster, the ship was chartered by the St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Manhattan for an annual event. There were over 1300 passengers on board, mostly women and children. The fire started in a storage compartment in the forward section, probably from a discarded cigarette or match. It was first noticed at 10:00 a.m. and the captain was informed by a small boy, who was not believed. When the crew did attempt to put out the fire, the hoses fell apart from lack of maintenance. The lifeboats and life preservers were also useless because they were rotten. Survivors reported that they fell apart in their hands. Many of these people were not able to swim and could only watch helplessly as children sank in the water because of faulty life jackets. Clothing of the day also made swimming impossible because they were too heavy.
Middle Village is an interesting place to visit with your New York City car rental because there are great sites to see with your New York City car rental. Check out the famous burials here and the fire memorial.
