JUST for fun, I dragged my H.G. Wells Time Machine out of the closet for another spin. It’s always tricky to travel into the past because the least little thing you do there can alter history into an infinite amount of unforeseen consequences that may include your never being born…so extreme care needs to be taken. The safest thing is to remain buckled in your seat and never stepping outside, and even then…
I set the controls for 1952 and traveled to 160th Street and 25th Drive in Whitestone, at a time when Whitestone As We Know it did not even exist. Though 160th Street is paved, cross streets such as 25th Drive were still gravel. Homes were still sparse and tall weeds lined both sides of the street. However, changes were afoot. There’s an advertisement for ranch homes that would soon be built and investors would be wise to jump in, as such plots would appreciate in value in the coming decades. Telephones and utilities had come to the region, and the poles that support the wires remain today. Just one streetlamp is in evidence, and even that was a dim incandescent bulb. The white Queens street signs would be used until 1964, when they were supplanted by white vinyl signs with blue letters; and then in 1984 by green street signs.
But in 1952? Nothing much going on here. Photo: Al Ponte’s Time Machine
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12/27/22