The streets of Astoria, Queens — especially the ones that run north-south– have been through three regimes of street naming. After they were laid out in the 1800s, they were first given names, then numbered avenue names, then numbered street names.
Here’s some proof at Broadway and 31st Street — the street, shrouded by an el since 1920, was first called Debevoise Avenue, then 2nd Avenue, as on this sign, and beginning in the 1920s, 31st Street.
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