The site of Jackson Heights was a vast marsh named Trains Meadow until 1909 when Edward A. MacDougall's Queensboro Corporation bought 325 acres (132 ha) of undeveloped land and farms.

Inspired by Sir Ebenezer Howard's garden city movement,[10][16][17] it was laid out by Edward MacDougall's Queensboro Corporation in 1916 and began attracting residents after the arrival of the Flushing Line in 1917.

[19] Targeted at the middle class,[20] these multi-story apartment buildings designed in the Colonial Revival and neo-Tudor styles were based on similar ones in Berlin.

[21] They were to share garden spaces,[22] have ornate exteriors and features such as fireplaces, parquet floors, sun rooms, and built-in bathtubs with showers;[23] and be cooperatively owned.

[22] In addition, the corporation divided the land into blocks and building lots, as well as installed streets, sidewalks, and power, water, and sewage lines.

[26][27] The two sets of five buildings, separated by a gated garden with linden trees and two pathways, included parking spaces with single-story garages accessed via narrow driveways, the first Jackson Heights development to do so; gaps at regular intervals in the perimeter wall; a layout that provided light and ventilation to the apartments and fostered a sense of belonging to a community;[28] the area's first co-op;[29] and now-prevalent private gardens surrounded by the building blocks.

The elegant Château cooperative apartment complex, with 12 buildings surrounding a shared garden, was built in the French Renaissance style and has slate mansard roofs pierced by dormer windows, and diaperwork brick walls.

[36] The ad wanted viewers to: seek the recreation and the daily comfort of the home removed from the congested part of the city, right at the boundaries of God's great outdoors, and within a few minutes by subway from the business section of Manhattan ...

The cry of the heart is for more living room, more chance to unfold, more opportunity to get near Mother Earth, to play, to romp, to plant and to dig ... Let me enjoin upon you as you value your health and your hopes and your home happiness, get away from the solid masses of brick ... where your children grow up starved for a run over a patch of grass and the sight of a tree ... [37]Built in 1928, the English Gables line 82nd Street, the main shopping area of Jackson Heights's Hispanic community.

There are two developments, English Gables I and II; they are meant to provide a gateway to the neighborhood for commercial traffic and for passengers from the 82nd Street–Jackson Heights station.

Named after Robert Morris, a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, the apartments have ample green spaces, original high ceilings, and fireplaces, and are relatively expensive.

[40] The corner windows, considered innovative in the 1930s, gave the apartments a more spacious feel, and the landscaped interior courtyard is one of the historic district's largest.

[9][49] White residents' resistance to integration with African-Americans continued late into the decade, and Junction Boulevard came to be called the "Mason-Dixon Line", as it divided Jackson Heights from the black communities in East Elmhurst and Corona.

[50] The violence that ensued as a result of the growing Jackson Heights illegal drug trade is described in this excerpt from a 1978 New York magazine article titled "Gunfights in the Cocaine Corral": Over the past three years, in this nice, quiet neighborhood, 27 people have been killed and dozens have been injured....

[53] Two years later, journalist Manuel de Dios Unanue was murdered after authoring articles in El Diario La Prensa about the proliferation of Colombian cartels embedded within the business community along Roosevelt Avenue.

[54] Seeking to distance themselves from the portrayal of Jackson Heights as a crime-ridden neighborhood, some residents argued that de Dios had been murdered in Elmhurst, as the restaurant where he was attacked was on the south side of Roosevelt Avenue.

[67] Typical cart food includes Bengali fuchka (phuchka), Middle Eastern lamb over rice, Nepalese momo, Colombian chuzos and arepas, Greek souvlaki, Ecuadorian ceviche, Thai steamed chicken over rice, and Mexican elotes (corn on a cob), tacos, homemade tamales filled with meats, cheese, fruits or even chilies, fruit batidos or aguas frescas (smoothies), and South American sweet churros.

[68][69] In a 2017 episode of his show Parts Unknown, American chef Anthony Bourdain visited several Queens eateries, profiling Evelia Coyotzi, who sells tamales in a street cart on Junction Boulevard, the border between Jackson Heights and Corona.

In the 1920s, LGBT actors working in the 42nd Street theater scene decided to make their homes in Jackson Heights due to the lack of affordability of Manhattan neighborhoods and the easy accessibility of the 7 train.

On the night of July 2, three men cornered Rivera in a schoolyard that was known as a gay cruising area and beat him with a hammer and beer bottle, and then stabbed him.

The resulting activism led to the Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, a social services agency that helps monitor any type of criminal acts against the community citywide.

In 2000, the corner of 78th Street and 37th Avenue, where Rivera was killed, was renamed in his memory[94][97][98] and a documentary, Julio of Jackson Heights, was made about his murder.

The Inaugural Queens Lesbian and Gay Parade and Block Party Festival, organized by Daniel Dromm and Maritza Martinez, took place on June 6, 1993, in Jackson Heights, marking a watershed in LGBTQ history.

[101] Daniel Dromm and Jimmy Van Bramer were elected to the New York City Council on November 3, 2009, representing, respectively, the 25th and 26th districts in Queens.

[103] On August 15, 2001, Edgar Garzon, a gay man, was murdered in an incident that the Queens district attorney characterized as a "possible hate crime."

[113] Since May 2020, a 1.3-mile (2.1 km) stretch of 34th Avenue, much of which runs through Jackson Heights, is closed to vehicular traffic from 7am to 8pm, providing a space for the community to gather.

[75]: 14 The concentration of fine particulate matter, the deadliest type of air pollutant, in Jackson Heights is 0.0073 milligrams per cubic metre (7.3×10−9 oz/cu ft), lower than the city average.

[9] Originally serving the spiritual needs of European-American Protestant residents, it is now the most diverse church in Queens with Chinese, Korean, Spanish, and English services.

[139] Satya Narayan Mandir, at the corner of 76 street and Woodside Avenue, is the oldest Hindu-Sikhism combination temple in the United States (and, it claims, the Americas).

[147] It includes one of the first green buildings in the MTA system, the Victor A. Moore Bus Terminal, which is partially powered by solar panels built into the roof along the length of the sheds above the Flushing Line platforms.