Where Rapelje and Pleasure Intersect

I got thinking about Astoria history. A lot of it is hidden in plain sight. The more hipster inclined, myself included, get off on the old street names. SITE is changing its name to Lockwood. We can enjoy a beer at Suswick or Hell Gate, a meal at Pachanga Patterson, have Van Alst cater a whole damn party, or mail a letter at the Woosley Station Post Office. This, my dear, is Astoria history!

Why, young child, way back in the days, before there was a New York City outside of Manhattan, there was Long Island City, an independent city which existed from 1870 to 1898. Astoria and everything south was part of it (Ravenswood, Dutch Kills, Blissville, Sunnyside, and Hunters Point).

In 1898, when Queens unified and joined NYC, Long Island City ceased to exist (to everybody but the Post Office, which is why you can — and until recently technically should — mail yourself love letters addressed to Long Island City, New York).

Who wouldn’t prefer to have a real street name instead of a number? You may have lived on Cabinet Street, Van Alst Ave, Kowenhoven, Luyster, Winslow Place, or even Pleasure Avenue. Nowadays people get lost at the corner of 31st Street and 30th Drive.

But these names disappeared when somebody saw a problem in one borough having, say, twelve Washington Streets and four Broadways. Yes, that might have been a problem. Too bad the solution was even worse.

I can’t find a grand on-line listing of all the old street names. So here’s one. It’s not complete (and there may be a typo or two), but it covers most of the streets and avenues from the Queensburo Bridge to Ditmars, from Vernon Blvd to 50th Street.

This all comes courtesy of [too much time and] my handy 1919 Atlas of Long Island City’s Ward One. I assume (but do not know) that the name in parenthesis precede the 1870 incorporation of Astoria Village into Long Island City. Alas, all these names went out — with some opposition — in the 1920s when everything was replaced with “modern” system which changed address numbers and street names. Sigh.

Old and New Astoria Street Names (from West to East, mostly off 34th Avenue)

Old and New Astoria Avenue Names (from South to North, mostly off Crescent and 31st St.)