MANY Corona and Flushing residents, across the mighty Flushing River from each other, believe Willets Point is located just west of the river, where Citifield is. After all, that’s what the #7 train identifies the station there as, and about a football field’s length south in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, the LIRR station, (thankfully) now open year round, is called Mets-Willets Point. In fact, the real Willets Point is several miles northeast in Fort Totten, where in the 19th Century, the US government purchased acreage from the Willets family to fortify NY Harbor against attackers, whether foreign or domestic.
Why the confusion, then? This road. Willets Point Boulevard now exists in two pieces, a few blocks connecting Roosevelt Avenue and 126th Street (Seaver Way) to Northern Boulevard, and the lengthier section, in Whitestone, which leads to the fort and Cross Island Parkway. Long ago, original plans called for the two pieces to span across the Flushing River, but the bridge was never built and the “orphaned” piece shown here in July 1937, gave its name to the general area…a false Willets Point of sorts.
While Willets Point ran through grassland in 1937, it evolved over time into the Iron Triangle, a collection of car repair, auto parts stores and other larger businesses, including waste facilities and warehouses and even a spice wholesaler at one point. I have called it the “neighborhood the city hates” as Willets Point Boulevard hasn’t been repaved in decades and sewers were never installed, as the city tried not so gentle persuasion to oust the repair joints. Today, about half are gone, mostly in the southern section: indeed, Willets Point Boulevard is closed to traffic for about half its length now.
If NYC, Major League Soccer, and the Queens Borough President get their way, the Iron Triangle will be now more by 2027-2030 as a new soccer stadium…NYC’s first stadium dedicated to soccer…as well as several housing projects with both “affordable” and unaffordable apartments will rise along WPB, which I presume will have sewers installed.
But the Iron Triangle has held on tight for decades, and I wouldn’t count it out.
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3/7/24
14 comments
“Affordable & unaffordable housing” (in Willet’s Pt ) “will (presumably) include sewers”. Affordable housing has always been a euphemism for “low-income” but in this era of planned decline, it also means that the desired tenants will be illegals so perhaps the plan won’t include sewers. After all, planners must show them cultural sensitivity to better accommodate them. “Don’t raise the bridge, lower the water”.
I remember unloading our clapped out VW around there in ’69.Kelly’s Auto Salvage I think who bought it.
I could never understand why they didn’t just open the sewer grates when those shops were there, which makes me feel as if they were closed off intentionally to make them leave and only do it for whoever replaces them.
Isn’t this the area that F. Scott Fitzgerald, with much descriptive embellishment, characterized as the “Valley Of The Ashes” in The Great Gatsby?
John – Not precisely there but in Flushing Meadows Park itself. In The Power Broker, Robert Caro describes what the “park” looked like before the 1939 World’s Fair got there. It was essentially a waste dump for Brooklyn’s garbage and ash waste. There was a huge insect population feeding on the garbage.
As Kevin said in the piece, there were NEVER sewers installed here, so there were no “sewer grates” to open or to have closed intentionally. This is NOT the “Valley Of The Ashes”, either. This area sits north of Roosevelt Avenue. The giant ash dumping ground was on the south side of Roosevelt Avenue. The “Iron Triangle” grew from what had been a Long Island Rail Road facility many years earlier known as a “Team Yard”. The Whitestone Branch broke off from the Port Washington Branch and ran along the west shore of the Flushing River until it crossed the River onto what is now King Road, in Flushing, on it’s way through College Point to Whitestone Landing.
Between the Whitestone Branch and Willets Point Boulevard the LIRR had a significant Team Yard, with adjoining businesses that used rail sidings, like coal and concrete companies. Many of these businesses were across Willets Point Boulevard. The freight yard saw the transfer of goods from rail to horse wagons and motorized trucks for local delivery. These businesses grew in an area that included very large open yards, so it was not a logical target for sewer installations. Over the years, those large open yards, by then junk yards, etc. were built upon, but the City never paid attention, as the planners could never get a real handle on what they wanted the area to become.
I wonder if the city went in that area every 10 years and took pictures of every structure like
they do or was the area deemed not worthy
Not many to photograph but some here
https://1940s.nyc/map/#15.97/40.758237/-73.841693
Does it drive anybody, beside me, nuts that the “Iron Triangle” is a misnomer born of poor continuity by the Long Island Railroad in dropping “Boulevard” from the old “Shea Stadium-Willets Point Boulevard” stop ? I’m trying to draw a timeline of the misnaming. Did it begin with the renaming of the LIRR station that came with the opening of “CitiField” ? I realize the LIRR did not want to get into the commercial naming business by calling the station “CitiField-Willets Point Boulevard.” At some point the naming contract will either run out and we’ll have to go through another re-naming for the stadium, or they’ll extend it. (Rather the Mets extend Pete Alonso’s contract than Citibank’s.) All the LIRR had to do was continue with the second half of the hyphenated original name to include the “Boulevard.” Or, may they could have dropped “Willets Point” entirely. I’m tired of correcting people. But, is it possible that prior to the renaming of the station, real estate folks, the Wilpons, local businesses or media outlets had already begun to call the Iron Triangle, Willets Point. Lots of “points” have changed or dropped their earlier names. I realize this is a small thing to vent about. Am I the only one ? Or do we just throw in the towel and give way to the neighborhood appellation as it now appears ?
The NYCityMap now has its own street view, with selectable dates. Have a look at the current southern point of the Iron Triangle: https://roadview.planninglabs.nyc/view/-73.8417170142949/40.7579247370544
Appears promising but I have no idea how to navigate it.
From the view I gave you, spin 180 toward the north and play frogger (tap the green dots) to move. Sorry for giving you the dead end view!
How do you get to another street you want to look at?
You can look up by address on the actual map (https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/d826b115c87841d491c2b41fcb175305) or surf to a property, click on it, then (if available) on the right, there will be info about the property, scroll down to and click the “Street View” link.