It is bounded by Roosevelt Avenue on the north; the Long Island Expressway on the south; Junction Boulevard on the east; and the New York Connecting Railroad on the west.

[4] The village, originally named Middleburgh, was established in 1652 by English Puritans, approximately 7 miles (11 km) from New Amsterdam.

[6] The village was founded in 1652 in the Dutch colony of New Netherland (Nieuw Nederland) by English Puritans from Connecticut and Massachusetts.

They named it Middelburgh ('Middleburgh') after the capital of the Dutch province of Zeeland, which had been a refuge of Puritans fleeing religious persecution in England.

[4][7] When the British took over New Netherland in 1664, they renamed Middleburgh as Nieuwe Stad (New Town) to maintain a connection to its Dutch heritage.

[9] In 1669, the town planned a new church for all of these denominations, on a plot of land donated by Ralph Hunt near Grand Avenue and Queens Boulevard.

A chance seedling on his farm eventually produced the Newtown Pippin, Colonial America's most famous apple.

With the program of gradual abolition and the manumission of some slaves by masters following the American Revolution, the free population increased.

[15] In 1828, a year after slavery in New York state was finally abolished under the terms of a 1799 gradual abolition law,[16] landowner James Hunter and his wife deeded 2 acres (0.81 ha) to the community for a church and parsonage.

The church moved further east and gradually the burial ground was forgotten until the remains of a woman were discovered in an iron coffin in 2011 during development.

The Long Island Rail Road's Main Line was built through Newtown in 1876, attracting more residents to the neighborhood.

[4][18] In the 1930s, the Independent Subway System's Queens Boulevard line was built through the neighborhood, spurring economic development but also destroying many old buildings.

[7] Prior to World War II, Elmhurst had become an almost exclusively Jewish and Italian neighborhood, made up of early 20th century immigrants and their descendants.

Following the war, Elmhurst evolved into what has been considered one of the most ethnically diverse neighborhoods in New York City, as immigrants arrived from new areas.

Because the Long Island Expressway frequently became congested in that area, "backup at the Elmhurst Gas Tanks" became a familiar phrase in radio traffic reporting.

Much of the neighborhood is composed of detached or multi-family houses, though there are also rowhouse districts, apartment buildings of up to six or seven stories, and large developments such as LeFrak City.

Light-manufacturing zones are located near the western end of the neighborhood, mainly between the LIRR's Port Washington Branch and 51st Avenue.

[36]: 14 The concentration of fine particulate matter, the deadliest type of air pollutant, in Elmhurst and Corona is 0.0077 milligrams per cubic metre (7.7×10−9 oz/cu ft), slightly higher than the city average.

[70] It was built on land previously occupied by a 24-ride children's amusement park named Fairyland, which opened in 1949 and closed in 1968.

Originally planned as a traditional rectangular construction designed to replace several blocks of residences, the mall had to be redesigned because the owner of the corner house at 55th Avenue and Queens Boulevard, Mary Sendek, refused to sell what had been her childhood home.

[72] The Elks Lodge's name is shared by a local street, Elks Road, a short road in a cluster of 2- and 3-story orange and yellow brick buildings located between Grand Avenue, 79th Street, and Calamus Avenue, that were built in 1930 by Louis Allmendinger for the Matthews Company.

[62] Horace Harding Expressway was once a turnpike called Nassau Boulevard, which went from Elmhurst to Flushing, Bayside, and Little Neck.

[18] The traffic island is reminiscent of the former Horse Brook, a creek that flowed to the Flushing River from the present-day intersection of Kneeland Avenue and Codwise Place.

The street grid consists of Broadway; Aske, Benham, Case, Denman, Elbertson, Forley, Gleane, Hampton, Ithaca, Judge, Ketcham, Layton, Macnish Streets; Ketcham Place; and Baxter, Pettit, Britton, Vietor, Elmhurst, Whitney, and Lamont Avenues.

Although it extends to Cross Bay Boulevard in the Rockaways, two small parts of the original lane still exist in Forest Hills.

The park's plaque states that it was dedicated "to the memory of those soldiers from Elmhurst who lost their lives serving in World War I."

[37]: 24 (PDF p. 55) [36]: 6  Additionally, 81% of high school students in Elmhurst and Corona graduate on time, more than the citywide average of 75%.

Planned to be completed in two years, the reconstruction of the library took more than twice the original expected time and exceeded its $27.8 million budget.

The new four-story, 32,000-square-foot (3,000 m2) building, which included elements of the original structure, was opened to the public in December 2016 at a cost of $32 million.

For the week-long shot, the filmmakers cosmetically altered an existing Wendy's restaurant, which was closed in May 2013 and was razed by December 2013 to make way for condominiums.