kneeland

Oh, well, there is one series I haven't mentioned yet; it's the most hidden one and the subject of today's Slice. It's in the old neighborhood of Nassau Heights, now pretty much folded into western Elmhurst, at about the eastern border of Woodside.

The alphabetical series in question is arranged on either side of Queens Boulevard, and the named streets arrange themselves in a spoke-like sequence between two forks of the Long Island Rail Road, the main line on the south and the Port Washington Branch on the north. Developers wedged a series of N-S streets here that begin with Albion, Barnwell, Cornish, and Dongan Avenues, which run from Queens Blvd. northeast toward the Port Washington Branch, and the G-K streets, Gorsline, Hillyer, Ireland, Jacobus, and Kneeland, which extend south toward the LIRR main line. You can see the modern arrangement on this google map.

What happened to the "E" and "F" streets? They don't turn up on any of the older maps I've consulted, so I really don't know.

The 1915 Belcher-Hyde atlas plate showing the area, though, is quite interesting. It shows Kneeland Street forming the southern border of Jacobus, Ireland, Hillyer and Gorsline, as it does today, but also shows a number of streets such as Dewey and Manila Streets as well. What happened here is that those slanted streets survived (Dewey took over the Codwise Place name, and Manila stayed where it is), Kneeland Street was straighted, separated from the section between Jacobus and Queens Boulevard and became Kneeland Avenue. The part that was cut off kept the name Kneeland Street.

Shall we stroll Kneeland and see what it looks like?

Kneeland Avenue separates from Grand Avenue at Van Kleeck Stret and runs down a steep hill. Here, it assumes the path of an old road, Calamus Road (not to be confused with Calamus Avenue, on the south side of the LIRR tracks). Here we find a group of classic attached brick buildings, some ofwhose stoops still boast their well-cared for iron railings.

It doesn't just turn right; it makes a graceful semicircle, a circumstance depicted on no NYC map except google, whose large scale makes it possible to depict the turn.

At Manila Street Kneeland rights itself and runs NW in a straight line, and we run into a very pleasant area of tract houses with wide lawns, the kind NYC developers have forgotten how to build.

Thanks to a FFan car buffs who have provided a variety of responses: 1971 Chevrolet C20; 67-72 Chevy C20 or C30 (Not a C10- i.e. not a half-ton, but a 3/4 or 1 ton- as it has 8-lug wheels); 1973 Chevy C10 pickup. It appears to be the 'Custom Deluxe' trim for that year.