nassau

Forgotten Fan Jeff Saltzman (of the Streetlite Nuts website) recently accompanied me on a tour of the tiny neighborhoods, barely in Queens, that cluster around Rockaway Boulevard east of JFK airport, as well as a trip out to the deserted Edgemere section of the Rockaway peninsula. These locales are barely acknowledged in NYC annals and guidebooks...and constitute the last frontier of NYC (outside of some sections of Staten Island). One of them contains the only bridge between New York City and Nassau County.

THE ROAD TO MEADOWMERE

Springfield Boulevard, along with Linden Blvd., Farmers Blvd. and Merrick Blvd. were the first roads through what became Springfield Gardens.

Unusual lampposts for NYC (above and detail, below) stand in front of an industrial park near the church.

Though the area was mostly settled in the 1940s, this church, from the early part of the century, remains from the early days.

Speaking of lampposts...as befits a last frontier of New York City, before you enter Nassau County, some bizarre leftovers from previous eras still prowl here like tyrannosaurs on Borneo.

Amazingly enough, a castiron survivor. Until the 1980s Rockaway Blvd. had a few dozen of these poles along its route, but this one still stands as a reminder of a more ornate era.

Since the last time I was here in 1998, the pole seems to have listed to the right as if it's had one Sam Adams too many.

Some original signage.

Forgotten Fan and webmaster of the Streetlite Nuts website Jeff Saltzman tries not to let too much of the rust flake off onto his arm.

Though the city has been busily installing faux "Corvingtons" like this one, it can't be bothered to maintain the ones from the old days that still stand. That means they eventually die a rusty death.

In this case the city applied euthanasia and tore down this pole in the summer of 2003.

Unpaved Broad Street stretches toward Thurston Basin (photos above and top right)

Pressing further down Rockaway Boulevard you come to an inlet known as the Head of Bay. It forms the border between Queens amd Nassau counties as it stretches north into Rosedale.

Across this inlet is a Nassau County community known as Meadowmere Park.

At Rockaway and Brookville Boulevards is a small community of mixed use--homes, auto parts stores, and one restaurant--centered on two unmarked streets known as Bayview Avenue and Broad Street, which meet at the corner shown below.

A quirk of geography allows a small lip of Nassau County to forge north into Queens, separated from the NYC borough by the Head of Bay. At one point you have to travel west from Queens to get into Nassau County.

Footbridge between Queens and Nassau. Above, the Nassau side and at right, facing Queens.

Two other bridges connect Queens and Nassau, but this is the only one that is divided evenly between the city and its neighbor to the east, or west in this case.

A small neighborhood has existed on the Queens side for the better part of this century. It's politically in Queens County but for all intents and purposes, it's a part of Nassau. I'm unclear as to what the exact name of the neighborhood is; the Nassau side is called Meadowmere Park.

Its street naming system has nothing to do with the rest of Queens.

Two scenes from First Street; at right, 1950s school bus.

Above: Meyer Avenue and First Street.

A look at Meyer Avenue from the footbridge. The ancient Victorian-era house must have been one of the first houses built here.

Leaving Meadowmere, Rockaway Blvd. becomes Rockaway Turnpike once you get into Nassau County. A drive west through Far Rockaway leads to Edgemere, one of the eeriest places in New York City, where a once-bustling seaside community with a boardwalk and bungalows was leveled by bulldozers decades ago. Now Nature is taking over again.

At Larkin Avenue and Beach 67th Street, an abandoned synagogue stands above the encroaching dunes.

The synagogue burned down in 2003.

Above, Beach 65th. A few streets in the area have been inexplicably repaved, despite the fact that there are no buildings on them and virtually no auto traffic.

The IND subway, on a right of way purchased from the Long Island Railroad in 1956, rumbles near the empty lots at Larkin Avenue and Brach 67th Street.

Beach 67th.

Above, another lamppost fossil: a two-light stoplight, of which there are a few dozen on the Rockaway Peninsula. A double red and green stands for yellow.

At right, a visit to Connolly's Pub, once a hotel on Beach 91st Street, completed the journey.

E me at erpietri@earthlink.net