TODAY’S view in older Queens takes us back to 1937 and this view of Saultell Avenue looking north toward Corona Avenue/111th Street, with the still undeveloped Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in the background, which would host NYC’s first World’s Fair in a couple of years. This is in an odd pocket of Corona in which the streets run athwart the overall grid and have kept their names instead of receiving numbers, with street names like Van Cleef, Van Doren, Waldron, Penrod, Granger and Queens’ only “X” street, Xenia. 108th cuts through the odd grid the way 7th Avenue South does in the Village, and was likely a late addition. The region was laid out relatively early as can be seen on this 1909 map excerpt; street names have been changed since then.
On the 1909 map, Saultell Avenue is labeled as “Broad Street,” and is indeed broad in 2023 as it has a center median. Traffic planners probably made it wide as it connects 108th and 111th Streets. However, in 1937 it was no wider than its fellow Corona streets.
Nothing in the 1937 photo remains in the present.
As always, “comment…as you see fit.” I earn a small payment when you click on any ad on the site. Take a look at the new JOBS link in the red toolbar at the top of the page on the desktop version, as I also get a small payment when you view a job via that link.
9/9/23
8 comments
It might also be mentioned that the Newtown and Flushing Railroad passed through this intersection of Saultell Avenue and Corona Avenue in the 1870s. The hyperlinked 1909 Bromley atlas shows a portion of the path of the former railroad as a vacant white strip west of the aforementioned intersection. The railroad is also shown further west, as dotted lines, south of what is now Justice Avenue and 57th Avenue. Little other evidence remains of the former railroad . . . there are some hints on the 1924 aerial views of this area.
I can’t put my finger on it, but there’s something deeply appealing about that 1937 photo.
Let me guess. Lots of parking spaces?
I cant tell what that thing in the road is.Best guess is a horse and wagon because it
couldnt be a car
Previous commenter – its the birds chirping in the trees with a nice breeze rustling the leaves. I agree, delightful!
Saultell and the streets around it are within the Corona Park community that was settled in the 1850s, long before the
surrounding grid was imposed on the borough.
There seems to be Sheep grazing at the end of the road a little to the left side.
The reason why the 1937 photo doesn’t look like there is much is because this area was most likely well off the beaten path for any development at the time.