Spaces & Flows: Ninth International Conference on Urban and ExtraUrban Studies

Abstract

Shaped by immigrants, the occupancy patterns and visual cultures of American urban neighborhoods have continually shifted over time. The South Richmond Hill section of Queens in New York City demonstrates ethnic succession and the theories of collective memory and heterotopia. In less than fifty years, the spiritual landscape of South Richmond Hill—colloquially known today as Little Guyana-Trinidad and Tobago—has shifted away from its historically Catholic, Jewish, and Lutheran origins toward Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, and Jain faith traditions. Among the most remarkable, though largely overlooked aspects of Little Guyana-Trinidad and Tobago, are the spiritually-adapted commercial buildings and domestic interior spaces near Liberty Avenue. Storefronts that formerly housed German biergartens, Irish pubs, Italian pizzerias, Polish hair salons, Jewish congregations, and Puerto Rican botanicas currently host Sikh gurdwaras, Muslim masjids, and Hindu shrines. Adapted three-story, wood-frame houses incorporate sacred spaces onto streets that had been uniformly residential. Together, these spatial interventions have reshaped the neighborhood into an ethno-spiritual landscape created by modest modifications to existing buildings.