In 1921, the numbering system in Queens, where most named streets were given numbers (a practice that strived to lessen confusion by eliminating different street systems in towns around the borough (ie. 2nd Street in Astoria and Flushing would thence have different numbers) had begun. As this excerpt from the list of Queens streets in the Brooklyn Eagle Almanac shows, though, in 1921 the new system was only in place in Woodhaven and other southern Queens regions. Numbering would gradually be implemented for the rest of the decade.
Of course, the new system was even more baffling, with 58th Avenue, Street, Place, Road, Drive, Lane …
Also, if you needed to find, say, 84th Avenue on the list, you had to know how to spell it and look in the E’s.