Queens’ Road With Three Names

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    The only road that connects Douglaston and Little Neck north of Northern Boulevard runs between Douglas Road, at the eastern edge of Douglaston at Udall’s Cove Park, and Little Neck Parkway alongside the Long Island Rail Road. The city has never really settled on a name for the road, and thus it’s known by a variety of names depending on what part of the route you happen to be on.

     

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    Until Hagstrom listed it in the 1970s, it had never made city maps, either, which leads me to believe the road in its complete route is a relatively recent connection. Area residents have been calling it simply “the back road.”


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    However, where the “back road” meets Douglas Road the city’s Department of Transportation calls it “Bayshore Boulevard” and Google Maps falls into line and calls the western section of the road Bayshore Boulevard as well.

     

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    While Hagstrom calls it “Sandhill Road” no DOT signs identify it as such. The only house on the western end of the back road did have a mailbox sign calling it Sandhill Road. Of late this sign is no longer there, but this lone address may be the sole Sandhill Road listing.

     

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    Two of the homes on the eastern end of the road approaching Little Neck Parkway bear signs that indicate the road as 39th Avenue. However, the fickle DOT does not acknowledge that on street signs.

    We may be able to piece together three names for the “back road:” Bayshore Boulevard, at its Douglaston end; Sandhill Road in the middle section with just one residential address; and 39th Avenue on its eastern end, though the city apparently considers it a private right-of-way here and has never placed a street sign indicating it as 39th Avenue.

     

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    The back road runs through Udall’s Cove Park, which features Aurora Pond. The Udalls Cove Preservation Committee was formed in 1969 to preserve the local marshes, which had formerly been privately owned. Richard Udall first settled the region in 1833 and after a sawmill was erected on the property, the nearby inlet of Little Neck Bay later hosted thriving shellfishing businesses that produced the famed “Little Neck clams.” By the mid-1890s, however, the waters were fished out. Remnants of piers and bulkheads at the end of Little Neck Parkway, which used to be called Old House Landing Road, are all that is left of the local industry.

    Aurora Gareiss fought for the preservation of these wetlands, which are home to wood ducks, blue-winged warblers, Louisiana water thrushes, and Fowler’s toads, among other species; the pond was subsequently named for her. A nature trail leads through the park and also provides a pedestrian short cut to Douglaston.

     

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