Today, Hunters Point remains a patchwork of residences, small businesses, local retail, and public institutions, with many buildings dating from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A variety of warehouse, industrial service and light manufacturing businesses are interspersed throughout the neighborhood. These include building contractors, elevator repair companies and small graphic printing shops. A mix of uses is found throughout the area; most blocks contain an array of residential, industrial, community facility and commercial uses.

Land Use in Hunters Point	View larger map in PDF

Vernon Boulevard, Jackson Avenue, and 21st Street serve as the main streets of Hunters Point. These north-south thoroughfares are lined with three- and four-story late nineteenth century brick buildings with restaurants and cafes, convenience and variety stores, offices and small industrial uses on the ground floor with residential uses above.

The traditional center of Hunters Point at the intersection of Jackson Avenue, Vernon Boulevard and 50th Avenue remains a community gathering place. Contributing to pedestrian activity here are the entrances to the Vernon-Jackson Avenues #7 subway station, a tree-planted seating area in the center of Vernon Boulevard, small restaurants and delicatessens and commuter parking lots. The brick and brownstone steeple of St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church presides over this neighborhood hub on Vernon Boulevard at 49th Avenue. Nearby, the neo-Baroque 108th Precinct of the NYC Police Department provides a bold municipal presence.

There are also sizeable clusters of late nineteenth and early twentieth century Romanesque Revival and Greco-Italianate Revival Style row houses and multi-story apartment buildings primarily located on the midblocks, many of which are lined with mature trees. Among the most notable of these residences in the area is a concentration of nineteenth century row houses along 45th Avenue between 21st and 23rd streets comprising the Hunters Point Historic District designated in 1968 by the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Other notable land uses in Hunters Point include the former, now vacant Pennsylvania Railroad Power Plant and the adjacent Schwartz Chemical building – Renaissance Revival Style industrial structures located on 2nd Street between 50th and 51st avenues. Important cultural institutions in the neighborhood include the P.S. 1 Contemporary Arts Center, a Romanesque Revival Style former school building on Jackson Avenue converted to galleries and supporting spaces affiliated with the Museum of Modern Art. Most prominent among the area’s parks and open spaces is the Hunters Point Community Park on 48th Avenue between 5th Street and Vernon Boulevard and the John F. Murray Playground which occupies an entire block between 11th and 21st streets, 45th Road and 45th Avenue. The park includes a children’s playground, basketball courts, and open seating areas.

View pictorial display of Neighborhood Character and Land Use (PDF)