There’s only one Ireland Street in New York City, and I’m not sure it honors the Emerald Isle at all. It’s part of many groupings of streets in Queens (and other boroughs) featuring streets named in alphabetical order, most famously the “plant streets” in Flushing that honor the former horticultural nurseries located in what was a town during the colonial era.
The borderline of Elmhurst and Woodside has a rather odd “alphabet street” grouping, consisting of Albion, Barnwell, Cornish, Dongan, running from Queens Boulevard generally northeast; and Gorsline, Hillyer, Ireland, Jacobus, Kneeland, running from Queens Boulevard south. This is an odd entry because the developer, as was sometimes the wont of developers, jumped around and reversed direction. The E and F streets have been lost or renamed. More confusingly, there’s a separate Kneeland Street and Kneeland Avenue. In 1915, the two streets were mapped out as connected.
Ireland Street runs for two blocks from Queens Boulevard south to Kneeland Avenue, crossing 51st Avenue. The two blocks are completely different. Century Fasteners on the northern block produces items such as nuts, bolts, pin and screws that hold one mechanical object to another. Century’s website features a lot of aviation photos, and I imagine that’s the industry they concentrate on. Elsewhere on the block is the Good Fortune supermarket.
The block of Ireland Street between 51st Avenue and Kneeland Avenue is lined on both sides by one-story attached brick dwellings with front yards. The bordering neighborhoods of Rego Park, Middle Village and Glendale feature this style of dwellings by the hundreds.
Check out the ForgottenBook, take a look at the gift shop, and as always, “comment…as you see fit.”
3/17/20