The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Long Island City

LONG ISLAND CITY, a city of Queens co., New York, at the W. end of Long Island, opposite the upper part of New York city; pop. in 1874, about 16,000. It extends 3 m. E. and W. by 5 m. N. and S., and has a water front of 10 m., stretching along Newtown creek on the south, which separates it from Brooklyn, and thence N. along East river to Bowery bay. It is divided into five wards, and contains three post offices: Astoria in the north, Ravenswood in the central portion, and Long Island City in the south. The S. W. portion is also called Hunter's Point. The N. portion is high and finely situated, and in Astoria and Ravenswood there are many beautiful drives and handsome residences. The plan has been liberally projected, with wide streets and avenues and three parks, but the actual laying out of the city has not advanced far. A handsome brick court house, to cost $200,000, is in course of erection, and when it is completed the county seat of Queens co. will be removed to this place. Two ferries ply between Hunter's Point and New York, and Astoria is connected with that city by ferry and by the Harlem and Morrisania boats. Four lines of horse cars run to various parts of the city and to Brooklyn. Hunter's Point is the terminus of the Long Island, Flushing and North Side, and Central railroads, and contains the freight depot of the South Side line. It is the great depot for the storage and shipment of refined petroleum consigned to the New York market, and contains extensive lumber yards, a marine railway, three or four oil refineries, granite works, and manufactories of cabinet ware, varnish, chemicals, refrigerators, hammers, boilers and steam engines, asbestus roofing, mattresses, tinware, &c. A very extensive manufactory of pianofortes has recently been erected at Astoria, where there are also manufactories of carriages, carpets, and jewelry. The city has five ward school houses, a daily and five weekly newspapers, a Baptist and a Methodist mission, and 14 churches, viz.: Baptist, Episcopal (4), Methodist (3), Presbyterian, Reformed, and Roman Catholic (4). It was formed from a portion of the town of Newtown, and was incorporated by the act of May 6, 1870.