Walking Tours Will Showcase Jamaica's History

JAMAICA, NY -- Visitors and locals alike will soon be able to tour a handful of Jamaica's historic landmarks and hottest restaurants on foot.

Community Board 12's Economic Development Committee is planning a walking tour of downtown Jamaica to show neighborhood newcomers the gems that it offers. Committee chair Glenn Greenidge hopes the tour, with stops at sights like King Manor Museum and Grace Episcopal Church, will entice tourists and new residents to explore downtown Jamaica and its local businesses.

"Not only are the tourists going straight into Manhattan, but as the development of many hotels and apartments are in planned and building stage, I feel like there’s a need to accommodate them," Greenidge told Patch.

"We’ve got quite a few interesting places for them to spend an hour or two in downtown Jamaica."

Greenidge, who is also executive director of the Sutphin Boulevard Business Improvement District, is working with fellow Community Board 12 member Cequyna Moore to organize the walking tours, which would take participants to 10 or so stops along Jamaica Avenue and Sutphin Boulevard through 168th Street.

Moore said the King Manor Museum – which is the former home to U.S. Constitution signor Rufus King – the Loew's Valencia Theatre, the former Union Hall Street LIRR station, Chapel of the Sisters in Prospect Cemetery and Grace Episcopal Church - the second-oldest Episcopal Church in the state of New York - will be among the stops on the walk.

After visiting the area's historic sights, a second component of the tour would take participants through local shops and restaurants in downtown Jamaica in an effort to put more money back into Jamaica's local economy, Moore said.

Greenidge said the tours themselves are part of a joint effort by Sutphin Boulevard BID and the economic development committee to keep people who come to Jamaica's new apartment and hotels shopping in the area, too.

"With all the hotels that will be here, we're looking to keep people here," Greenidge said. "All of those are people who are traveling through but don't have much to do in downtown Jamaica. We’re hoping to use these developments to bring in more restaurants, shops and nightlife."

But the tours are still in the planning stages for now, with the lineup of historical sites and local businesses still being put together, Moore said. It will likely roll out by April of next year.

The tour will likely start with volunteer guides, though Greenidge hopes to eventually hire teens to conduct them through a local summer youth employment program.

"We haven’t formalized it and made the arrangements yet," he said. "Right now it's all volunteer."

Lead image via Patch Reporter Danielle Woodward.