A little bit of road pavement from the past was revealed in Little Neck as 40th Avenue was scraped, or “milled” as the Department of Transportation puts it, in preparation for a new blacktop this week. Near the curb, they got down to the Belgian block pavement at the very bottom. I’m in one of the older parts of Little Neck that was developed just after 1900 or so, and Belgian blocks were one step up from plain dirt pavement. Other main roads got the macadam treatment. I really should have gotten this shot yesterday when the cars weren’t parked here, but oh well.
To drive the point home here’s a photo of Little Neck and Lakeville Roads, now Little Neck Parkway and Bates Road, in the mid-1920s, with the Belgian block pavement.
There’s a lot more photos like this in my & the Greater Astoria Historical Society’s new book, Forgotten Queens. Get yours today!
5/29/14
3 comments
Does this mean that they won’t physically remove one by one the belgian blocks but preserve them like fossils under layers of macadam ??
if only Penn Station could have suffered a similar fate !!
Until I saw this page, I didn’t even think that Little Neck even had Belgian blocks considering that this area was pretty rural for a long period of time.
Over here in Belgium you’ll still find whole streets paved with them, especially (but not exclusively) in rural areas. They’re disappearing, but not fast. Some people use them to pave their driveway or courtyard.