WHERE: The neighborhoods of Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, and Woodside, in Queens
START: Junction Boulevard subway station (7 train), fully accessible
FINISH: 61 Street - Woodside station (7 train and Long Island Rail Road), fully accessible
DISTANCE: 2.9 miles (4.3 kilometers)
Photographs by Michael Cairl. Map courtesy footpathmap.com.
Route of this walk, reading from right to left.
When Pope John Paul II led the Roman Catholic Church, somebody once said that he could have spared himself all his overseas trips and just visit Elmhurst, Queens, with all the nationalities living there. This walk was inspired by the excellent book The Intimate City: Walking New York by the architecture critic of The New York Times, Michael Kimmelman, and took in a fascinatingly diverse and changing area.
In 1898 New York City, which previously had been confined to Manhattan and part of the Bronx, absorbed the rest of modern-day Bronx (then part of Westchester County), Brooklyn, Staten Island, and the western part of Queens County. The eastern townships in Queens County became Nassau County. This area of the new Borough of Queens was part of the pre-1898 Town of Newtown. It had some streetcar lines in the early 20th century but it only became developed after the Queensboro Bridge opened in 1909 and especially after the elevated subway along Roosevelt Avenue opened in 1917. A housing boom soon followed.
This walk started at the Junction Boulevard subway station on the edge of Elmhurst, in the midst of a busy commercial area. Here, the predominant language is Spanish, and people from all over Latin America live here. Along Junction Boulevard and elsewhere on this walk, shopkeepers took advantage of the sunshine to move a lot of their wares outside. At 37 Avenue the walk turned west. 37 Avenue runs parallel to Roosevelt Avenue and both are busy commercial corridors, but 37 Avenue is somewhat more serene as, unlike Roosevelt Avenue, it does not have elevated subway tracks overhead.
Intersection of Junction Boulevard and Roosevelt Avenue, at the subway station.
Junction Boulevard between Roosevelt Avenue and 37 Avenue.
Walking west on 37 Avenue into Jackson Heights, the commerce was busy and just as diverse. The history of Jackson Heights is an interesting study in early 20th century urban development. Before 1900, Jackson Heights did not exist; it was just an unnamed part of Newtown. The name was invented by the Queensboro Corporation, which had acquired the land, constructed utilities and paved roads, and began the construction of apartments surrounding common gardens. The demand for housing in Jackson Heights was great and between 1919 and 1929 new housing was constructed at a rapid pace in both Jackson Heights and Elmhurst. These were cooperative apartments, not rentals, and when built they were restricted to white Anglo-Saxon Protestants. How times have changed.
82 Street between 37 Avenue and the subway station at Roosevelt Avenue is another very busy commercial block. The co-naming Calle de Colombia probably wouldn’t have passed muster decades ago.
On 37 Avenue near 81 Street is Jahn’s, an old-time ice cream parlor and family restaurant. There used to be Jahn’s in the Richmond Hill neighborhood of Queens, on Kingsbridge Road in the Bronx, and elsewhere around the city. Jahn’s is celebrated for the Kitchen Sink sundae, an extravaganza of ice cream and toppings.
From 37 Avenue I turned north on 81 Street and met my old friend Clarence Eckerson, who did the video that appears on the post “The Stick It to the Stroke Stair Climb and Gallivant” post on the page “The Stair Streets of New York City,” and his family. At the corner of 35 Avenue we spotted a street sign honoring the inventor of Scrabble, Alfred Butts, who lived in Jackson Heights and invented the game while living there.
The Scrabble sign at 35 Avenue and 81 Street. Note the lower street sign with the letters showing the letter scores they have in Scrabble. A clever, great tribute.
From 81 Street we turned west onto 34 Avenue, a long stretch of which has been turned into an “open street” for pedestrians, bicycles, and a greenmarket, watching for cars only at the cross streets. Barricades keep cars off 34 Avenue from 7 AM until 8 PM. At 78 Street we passed what in 2008 became a temporary play street that has been made permanent.
This and the following image show how 34 Avenue has becoome a place for people.
The New York City Department of Transportation placed concrete blocks at intersections to demarcate the open street. A local resident gave this one some local color.
We turned south on 74 Street. The block between 34 and 35 Avenues is a mix of attached houses and apartment buildings, typical of the side streets in Jackson Heights. Near Roosevelt Avenue and a major subway station, we passed a block of Indian restaurants, sari shops, and other stores, turning onto Diversity Plaza, a car-free pedestrian space.
74 Street between 34 and 35 Avenues.
Diversity Plaza between 74 and 73 Streets.
From Diversity Plaza we walked west on Roosevelt Avenue underneath the elevated subway, along low-rise 39 Avenue, south on 61 Street to the subway and Long Island Rail Road station at Roosevelt Avenue, and then to Donovan’s Pub at 58 Street and Roosevelt Avenue for their great hamburgers. This area, the end of the walk, is Woodside, once heavily Irish Catholic but now fully as diverse as Jackson Heights. In the early 19th century this area, like much of Newtown, was farmland. Plank roads to the East River and railroads were built and farmland gave way to country estates. The opening of the subway in 1917 led to a building boom here as in Elmhurst and Jackson Heights. The 61 Street - Woodside station is a hub for the subway, several bus lines (including one to La Guardia Airport), and the Long Island Rail Road.
This walk was a feast for the eyes with plenty to enjoy, and restaurants along the way catering to just about every taste. It was a fully accessible walk. There were curb cuts at every intersection and nearly all are in very good condition. On 74 Street I encountered two narrow sections of sidewalk going past trees, but they are wide enough for a wheelchair. For someone wanting an easy excursion through a very diverse area, this walk would be hard to beat. And if you want to cut the walk short, at 74 Street and Roosevelt Avenue turn east one block, enter the subway station at street level at 75 Street, and take the elevator up to the 7 train or down to the E, F, M, or R trains.