Route of today’s walk, courtesy Google Maps.
WHERE: College Point, Queens
STAIR STREET: 125 Street between 5 Avenue and Lax Avenue
START: 7 Avenue and 125 Street, by way of Q25 bus from Jamaica Station (Long Island Rail Road; E, J, Z subway lines; fully accessible)
FINISH: College Point Boulevard and 15 Avenue, then Q65 bus to Main Street subway station (7; fully accessible)
DISTANCE: 2.8 miles (4.5 kilometers)
Photographs by Michael Cairl except where noted.
Profile of today’s walk, courtesy Google Maps.
On the City’s list of stair streets is one in College Point, a neighborhood north of Flushing and across Flushing Bay from La Guardia Airport. I once worked for a military contractor in College Point but hadn’t been in the neighborhood since 1998. The one stair street by itself might not have been reason enough to go to College Point but it is a very diverse neighborhood with a rich history, so I went.
The community gets its name from an Episcopal seminary that stood there in the 19th century. College Point used to have a large German population. An old-timer at that military contractor once told me of some employees being escorted out of the plant during World War II after being discovered to be Nazi sympathizers. One old-time German restaurant, Flessel’s, survived into the time I worked there; the building later burned to the ground. Now College Point is home to people from many countries in Asia and Latin America. In other words, it is a microcosm of the crazy quilt that is this city.
If you haven’t lived or worked in College Point, or aren’t a way-down-in-the-weeds Long Island Rail Road history buff, chances are pretty good that you’ve never heard of Conrad Poppenhusen. That’s a pity, because he was a significant figure in Queens in the 19th-century, and his legacy is College Point. More about him as we go along.
Today’s stair street is 29 steps on 125 Street; I descended these walking north. On one side is a retaining wall with a not-continuous handrail. On the opposite side, to my right walking down, there is no handrail. Going down a few of the steps I had to go down sideways, holding on to the handrail. The rest of the way, I had to hold on to a chain link fence. There isn’t a lot of foot traffic around here and I don’t imagine these steps get much use, but this is part of a public street. The steps themselves are in good condition and it would cost the City very little to install proper, continuous handrails on both sides. From the bottom of the stairs to Lax Avenue there is enough of a down slope that I had to walk with some care.
Two views of the 125 Street stairs, looking north (left) and looking south (right).
Standing Liberty quarter, photo courtesy PGCS CoinFacts.
Just past the stair street is a waterfront promenade, followed by Hermon A. MacNeil Park, with waterfront and other trails, Hermon MacNeil was an American sculptor who lived in College Point for a time, and is perhaps best known as the designer of the Standing Liberty quarter that was minted from 1916 until 1930. The original design (pictured) caused an uproar because Miss Liberty’s breasts were exposed. The coin was redesigned in 1917 with Miss Liberty wearing chain mail armor and a redesigned reverse (“tails”) side, resulting in two varieties of the 1917 quarter.
Clockwise from top left: The waterfront pathway starting near 125 Street and Lax Avenue; the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge from the same pathway; plaque about College Point and Hermon A, MacNeil; view of Manhattan (and, at extreme left, La Guardia Airport) from MacNeil Park.
About Conrad Poppenhusen. He was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1818, and emigrated to the United States in 1843 to start a whalebone processing plant in Brooklyn. He later received a license from Charles Goodyear to produce hard rubber products and set up a factory in what is now College Point. For his workers in the area, Poppenhusen built housing, the First Reformed Church, and numerous streets. In 1868 Poppenhusen founded the Flushing and North Side Railroad, later absorbed by the Long Island Rail Road. Also in 1868, he founded the Poppenhusen Institute, containing a vocational high school and, later, the first free kindergarten in the United States. The Poppenhusen Institute thrives to this day as a cultural center, adult education center, and kindergarten. Poppenhusen died in 1883 after his spendthrift sons squandered his large fortune. (Information courtesy Wikipedia.)
Besides the Poppenhusen Institute there is a Poppenhusen Avenue, the Poppenhusen Monument at Poppenhusen Triangle, and the local branch of the Queens Library - an Andrew Carnegie-endowed building that opened in 1904 - is the Poppenhusen Branch.
Left to right: First row, Poppenhusen Institute and historical plaque on the facade. Second row, First Reformed Church and placard describing “Old First Avenue,” now 14 Avenue. (The divide referred to on the plaque still exists, in a way; north of 14 Avenue is almost all leafy and residential, while to the south is a mix of houses and light industry.) Third row, Poppenhusen Monument (erected 1884) in Poppenhusen Triangle, and explanatory placard. Fourth row, Poppenhusen Avenue sign and the Poppenhusen Branch of the Queens Library.
But for the stair street, I would have posted this under “Other Walks Around Town.” This was a good walk on a sparkling day, with enough slopes for a decent workout. The river views and abundance of history made this an interesting, worthwhile walk.