FROM EXCLUSIONARY COVENANT TO ETHNIC HYPERDIVERSITY IN JACKSON HEIGHTS,QUEENS*

ABSTRACT. When Edward MacDougall of the Queensboro Realty Company originally envisioned and developed Jackson Heights in Queens, New York in the early twentieth century, he intended it to be an exclusive suburban community for white, nonimmigrant Protestants within a close commute of Midtown Manhattan. He could not have anticipated the 1929 stock market crash, the subsequent real estate market collapse, or the change in immigration policies and patterns after the 19505. This case study examines how housing and public transportation infrastructure intended to prevent ethnic diversity laid the foundation for one of the most diverse middle‐class immigrant neighborhoods in the United States.