Preserved Remnants of Ancient Queens Streets

Probably the most consistent set of reminders of the ancient street names of Queens, before the numerical system stil used today was adopted in 1915 and gradually took over throughout the 1920s, are in the subway and elevated station names. The former names were often preserved here, so that neighborhood oldtimers would know where the stations were. The Astoria Line, Flushing Line, and the A train on Liberty Avenue all have handfuls of stations subtitled with old names, and the only reason the names are still there is a nod to tradition.

Here on the Rockaway A train, the old names not only signify old elevated station names, they actually go back to the days prior to 1956, when this was part of the Long Island Rail Road, and even prior to 1942, when the railroad ran at grade. Throughout all the changes, the Gaston Avenue name has remained, except the street has been numbered Beach 67th since the 1920s.

This small building sign is a relic, not only of the days when there were actually building signs (the role is filled by green and white signs on lampposts these days) but also of a street renamed nearly a century ago. This sign, at Cypress Avenue and Menahan Street along the Brooklyn-Queens border (you can be assured this is on the Queens side) proves Menahan was once named Ralph Street.

In Bedford-Stuyvesant, Ralph Street’s course south is taken over by Ralph Avenue, which, with some interruption, goes all the way south to Avenue U in Bergen Beach. The street is named for early landholder Ralph Patchen, and a parallel avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant is named Patchen Avenue.

Unfortunately, the Bergen Tile warehouse at the corner of Jamaica Avenue and 153rd Street, across from King Park, home of historic King Manor, has been torn down, and with it, this lone reminder that 153rd used to be called Ray Street.

Kevin Walsh’s website is Forgotten New York. His book, with the same name, is also available.