Middle Village grew up about 1830 and received its name because it marked the midpoint for farmers on the long wagon haul between Brooklyn ferries, at the foot of Broadway, and Jamaica. Metropolitan Avenue was laid out in 1814 and completed in 1816 as a turnpike road with toll gates at each end. Middle Village for years was a typical one-street town with small-scattered houses strung out along the Williamsburgh and Jamaica turnpike (now Metropolitan Avenue) between Fresh Pond Road and Dry Harbor Road.

Just before and after the Civil War, a three-story brick hotel at what is now 75-43 Metropolitan Avenue was a rendezvous for farmers offering a night’s lodging and refreshments. North of the village lay the primeval and impenetrable Juniper Swamp; part of what is now Juniper Valley Park.

The coming of the cemeteries to Middle Village changed its character; Lutheran south came in 1852, Lutheran north about 1860 and St. John’s in 1879. Nurseries, saloons and hotels grew up in profusion to meet the demands of cemetery visitors. In the 1920’s the housing boom struck the village; streets were laid out on either side of Metropolitan Avenue, Dry Harbor Road and Cooper Avenue, and in short order row upon row of houses stretched out to join those of Glendale and Maspeth and Forest Hills on the borders. Middle Village was an Anglo-Saxon community down to the Civil War; for a century it remained heavily German; in modern times Yugoslavian and Italians have moved in in substantial numbers.