Maspeth is a residential and commercial community in the borough of Queens in New York City. It was founded in the early 17th century by Dutch and English settlers. Neighborhoods sharing borders with Maspeth are Woodside to the north; Sunnyside to the northwest; Greenpoint, Brooklyn, to the west; East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to the southwest; Fresh Pond and Ridgewood to the south; and Middle Village and Elmhurst to the east.
Maspeth is located in Queens Community District 5 and its ZIP Code is 11378. It is patrolled by the New York City Police Department's 104th Precinct. Politically, Maspeth is represented by the New York City Council's 26th and 30th districts.Current City Council Districts , New York City. Accessed February 19, 2026.
History
The name "Maspeth" is derived from the name of Mespeatches Native Americans, one of the 13 main tribes that inhabited Long Island. It is translated to mean "an inundating tidal river" as determined by William Wallace Tooker.
The area known today as Maspeth was chartered by New Netherlanders and British settlers in the early 17th century. The Dutch had purchased land in the area known today as Queens in 1635, and within a few years began chartering towns. In 1642, they settled Maspat, under a charter granted to Rev. Francis Doughty, making Maspeth the first English settlement in Queens.
The deed that was signed between the Native Americans and the settlers was the first one signed on Long Island. As part of the deed's signature, the "Newtown Patent" granted to settlers. Conflicts with the Maspat tribe forced many settlers to move to what is now Elmhurst in 1643. The settlement was leveled the following year in an attack by Native Americans, and the surviving settlers returned to Manhattan.
In 1652, settlers ventured back to the area, settling an area slightly inland from the previous Maspat location. This new area was called Middleburg, and eventually developed into what is now Elmhurst, bordering Maspeth. Originally, 28 English Quakers had founded the village of Maspeth, which had sizable water and milling industries along Newtown Creek and Maspeth Creek. Two storekeepers, Nathanial Hazard and Francis T. White, sold food and clothes at the Maspeth Town Docks, at what is now 56th Terrace and Rust Street, by the late 18th century. After the American Revolutionary War, villagers repaved roads with crushed oyster shells or wooden planks.
Columbusville was the name formerly applied to a section of Maspeth. It was a development of Edward Dunn that took place on 69th Place, originally known as Firth Avenue, between Grand Avenue and Caldwell Avenue during 1854–55, and was subsequently absorbed into Maspeth. The name fell into disuse in the 1890s.
What was Laurel Hill in the post-colonial era has become West Maspeth, bounded by Calvary Cemetery, and later the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, in the west, the Queens-Midtown Expressway on the north, 58th Street on the east, and 56th Road and the Long Island Rail Road's Montauk Branch on the south. Laurel Hill Boulevard (56th Road) is a remnant of the neighborhood's previous name,Forgotten New York: Laurel Hill, Queens. Accessed December 7, 2021. although all traces of the former Laurel Hill railroad station are gone.
Following waves of immigration during the 19th century, Maspeth was home to a shanty town of Boyash (Ludar) Gypsies between 1925 and 1939, though this was eventually bulldozed. By the 1970s, the neighborhood had become home primarily to German, Irish, Lithuanian, and Polish residents. Maspeth was considered relatively safe compared to other New York City neighborhoods experiencing crime increases, and multiple generations of the same family often lived in Maspeth.
Demographics
The entirety of Community Board 5, which comprises Maspeth, Ridgewood, Middle Village, and Glendale, had 166,924 inhabitants as of NYC Health's 2018 Community Health Profile, with an average life expectancy of 81.4 years. This is about equal to the median life expectancy of 81.2 for all New York City neighborhoods. Most inhabitants are youth and middle-aged adults: 22% are between the ages of 0–17, 31% between 25 and 44, and 26% between 45 and 64. The ratio of college-aged and elderly residents was lower, at 8% and 13% respectively.
As of 2017, the median household income in Community Board 5 was $71,234. In 2018, an estimated 19% of Maspeth and Ridgewood residents lived in poverty, compared to 19% in all of Queens and 20% in all of New York City. One in seventeen residents (6%) were unemployed, compared to 8% in Queens and 9% in New York City. Rent burden, or the percentage of residents who have difficulty paying their rent, is 46% in Maspeth and Ridgewood, lower than the boroughwide and citywide rates of 53% and 51% respectively. Based on this calculation, , Maspeth, Ridgewood, Middle Village, and Glendale are considered to be high-income relative to the rest of the city and not gentrifying.
Most people who live in Maspeth are of Polish, Italian, or Irish descent. This is reflected in the many businesses in the neighborhood like Irish pubs and Italian and Polish specialty stores and markets. Many people of Eastern European, German, Chinese, or Hispanic origin (mostly Puerto Ricans from nearby Ridgewood) have also moved to the area. The Polish population in Maspeth is relatively large; the New York metropolitan area is home to the second largest community of Polish Americans behind Chicago.
2020 census In the 2020 census data from the New York City Department of City Planning, Maspeth is part of a neighborhood tabulation areas of the same name. Maspeth had 43,257 residents. The racial makeup was 47.9% (20,731) White, 1.4% (607) African American, 16.0% (6,916) Asian, 0.9% (409) from other races, and 1.5% (635) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 32.3% (13,959) of the population.
2010 census Based on data from the 2010 United States census, the population of Maspeth was 30,516, an increase of 1,600 (5.5%) from the 28,916 counted in 2000. Covering an area of , the neighborhood had a population density of .Table PL-P5 NTA: Total Population and Persons Per Acre – New York City Neighborhood Tabulation Areas*, 2010, Population Division – New York City Department of City Planning, February 2012. Accessed June 16, 2016.
The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 59.2% (18,080) White, 0.8% (253) African American, 0.1% (31) Native American, 12.0% (3,676) Asian, 0.0% (1) Pacific Islander, 0.4% (115) from other races, and 0.8% (245) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 26.6% (8,115) of the population.Table PL-P3A NTA: Total Population by Mutually Exclusive Race and Hispanic Origin – New York City Neighborhood Tabulation Areas*, 2010, Population Division – New York City Department of City Planning, March 29, 2011. Accessed June 14, 2016.
Land use
Maspeth is zoned for a mixture of uses. The area consisting of 43rd Street through 58th Street, including the former Furman Island, is mostly industrial lowlands. The blocks from 60th Street to 74th Street are mostly residential, but there is a small industrial presence on Grand Avenue.
Industrial The Phelps Dodge Corporation was present from 1920 to 1983, during which matter from their premises contaminated Newtown Creek, which separates northern Brooklyn from western Queens and serves barge traffic. In the 2000s, politicians started to make efforts to clean up the Newtown and Maspeth Creeks.
Freight train traffic moves on the Long Island Rail Road Montauk Branch and the lightly used Bushwick Branch, both of which are used by the New York and Atlantic Railway. The LIRR Bay Ridge Branch, a freight-only railway branch, separates the neighborhood from Elmhurst and Middle Village. A new West Maspeth rail freight station has been proposed in connection with a Cross-Harbor Rail Tunnel to diminish truck traffic across New York City. It is opposed by residents who do not want more trucks in Maspeth.
The Elmhurst gas tanks were formerly located in the area and were demolished in 2001. They are now the site of Elmhurst Park. The Maspeth gas tanks were also located in the area until they were demolished.
Residential and commercial Single and multi-family dwellings make up most of Maspeth. There are few apartment buildings, except for the Ridgewood Gardens co-ops along 65th Place. Houses in Maspeth range from 400 to 600 thousand dollars. One particularly notable group of houses in the area is a cluster of 2- and 3-story orange and yellow brick buildings located between Grand Avenue, 79th Street, and Calamus Avenue. They were made for the Mathews Company and built in 1930 by Louis Allmendinger.
Much of the area's commerce is situated along Grand Avenue.
The neighborhood, which is nearly isolated by the industrial areas and cemeteries surrounding it, is described by some residents as having a small-town feeling. It is bisected by the Long Island Expressway, though the two parts of Maspeth are connected by several crossings across the expressway. There are many community organizations, which have, among other things, preserved the neighborhood's small-town-like character; for example, they blocked the construction of a Home Depot at the site of what is now the Elmhurst Park.
Cemeteries
Cemeteries take up another large part of Maspeth, although they are separated from residential areas for the most part. The Mount Olivet Cemetery, the largest cemetery in the neighborhood, is located on a high hill in Maspeth and used to be an outer-borough vacation site. Mount Olivet Cemetery was planned on March 26, 1850, when James Maurice held a meeting at his Maspeth house to discuss the formation of the cemetery. Notable interments in the cemetery include cosmetics magnate Helena Rubinstein Courielli and sixteen victims of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. The adjoining Mount Zion Cemetery contains a memorial to the victims of the fire.
Police and crime Maspeth, Ridgewood, Middle Village, and Glendale are patrolled by the 104th Precinct of the NYPD, located at 64–02 Catalpa Avenue. The 104th Precinct ranked 21st safest out of 69 patrol areas for per-capita crime in 2010. However, the precinct covers a large diamond-shaped area, and Maspeth and Middle Village are generally seen as safer than Ridgewood. , with a non-fatal assault rate of 19 per 100,000 people, Maspeth and Ridgewood's rate of violent crimes per capita is less than that of the city as a whole. The incarceration rate of 235 per 100,000 people is lower than that of the city as a whole.
The 104th Precinct has a lower crime rate than in the 1990s, with crimes across all categories having decreased by 87.4% between 1990 and 2018. The precinct reported 2 murders, 17 rapes, 140 robberies, 168 felony assaults, 214 burglaries, 531 grand larcenies, and 123 grand larcenies auto in 2018.
Fire safety
Maspeth contains a New York City Fire Department (FDNY) fire station, Squad 288/Hazardous Materials Co. 1, at 56–29 68th Street. Another fire station, Engine Co. 291/Ladder Co. 140, is located at 56–07 Metropolitan Avenue in Ridgewood, just outside the Maspeth border.
The firehouse of Squad 288/Hazmat 1 was designed by Morgan & Trainer and opened in 1914. During the September 11 attacks in 2001, Squad 288/Hazmat 1 were among the first to respond. The firehouse lost 19 firefighters in the collapse of the towers, the largest loss from any firehouse in the city. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission considered the firehouse for official city landmark status in 2013.
Health