THE country of Lebanon, wedged along the Mediterranean Sea between Israel and Syria, pops up here and there on New York city maps. There had been a Lebanon Terrace in Astoria Village before the Queens street numbering system was conceived, and an apartment building on 14th Place still has the name chiseled above the entrance. In Morris Park in the Bronx, Lebanon Street is a short two-clock street wedged between Devoe and Morris Park Avenues, slotted between East 179th and 180th Streets.
The late Bronx historian John McNamara surmised that Lebanon Street was named because the Devoe family on whose land it was laid out were religious and wanted it named for the country of Lebanon which is featured in Bible stories, or that a cedar of Lebanon had to be cut down to build the street back in the 1800s.
In any case, we’ll never know at this late date.
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1/10/22
7 comments
This has more bite than bark!
Decades ago the NYT had an article about the naming of Hennessy Place, a one block street in the West Bronx running from W. Burnside Avenue to W179 St. I grew up at 1901 Hennessy Pl.
Anything to do with Lebanon Hospital, founded in the late 19th C., I wonder?
I was born at the Bronx-Lebanon hospital at Mount Eden on the Grand Concourse in the early 60’s. Is there any tie-in with Lebanon street ? It isn’t that large a distance to Morris Park.
Other countries commemorated in NYC streets ? Columbia, India and Holland come to mind.
Interesting theme. I may do this.
No Columbia; the country is “Colombia.”