It had been awhile…perhaps since before the pandemic began in 2020…that I had been in Glendale. It’s a hike from any of the buses that run from the LIRR in Woodside, and of course has no subway of its own. However, on the 4th of July I was stir-crazy and before getting crazed from the heat, made my way from Hunters Point through Greenpoint through Williamsburg and then, with the aid of the M train, Ridgewood and then Glendale.
Apparently I had never been down this particular stretch of Cooper Avenue, one of Glendale’s main east-west drags along with Myrtle Avenue, because I would certainly had taken note of the signage on the corner residence at 64th Lane (street numbers tend to repeat in this part of Queens) because of the vintage blue and white Ireland Street sign mounted on a vane pole along with traditional directional signs found in Ireland. There’s also a die cut One Way sign that resembled the ones used in NYC until the 1960s, though those were usually inscribed “Police Department” as the NYPD was in charge of traffic control before the Department of Transportation was founded. The Ireland Street sign came from Woodside, which is where Ireland Street can be found in Queens.
Also curious is the references to Dromore West in County Sligo...
…which can also be found inscribed on the awning of Tee Dee’s Tavern a block away at Cooper Avenue and 64th Place. Thus, we can infer that Glendale is populated by a not unsubstantial number of immigrants from County Sligo in Ireland and more specifically, the town of Dromore West.
What baffles me is that I had never heard of Glendale being a hotbed of Irish immigration; Woodside yes, Woodlawn Heights in the Bronx yes, but not Glendale.
Comments are open if you know of any details about this circumstance.
7/7/22