ELIOT Avenue, seen here at Lutheran Avenue and 75th Street, roars through Middle Village as one of the few continuous auto northeast routes through the neighborhood. It connects Metropolitan Avenue and 60th Street with Woodhaven Boulevard and 86th Street at the LIRR main line overpass. A short one-way section connects the other side of Woodhaven Boulevard with Queens Boulevard at the Long Island Expressway.
The road was built piecemeal between about 1915 and 1938; at its completion, it was nicknamed “World’s Fair Boulevard” as prior to the construction of the Queens Midtown Expressway it funneled Brooklyn motorists on Metropolitan Avenue toward Nassau Boulevard (which would become the LIE) which took you directly to the fairgrounds in 1939-1940.
Eliot Avenue is named for Walter G. Eliot, an engineer in the Queens Topographical Bureau who named the streets in the area before the decision was made to number Queens streets in place of the old names. For a few years, Eliot Avenue was 61st Avenue, until it was changed back to Eliot. Today, there is no 61st Avenue in Queens west of Douglaston Parkway in Glen Oaks.
The road was built at the line separating Mount Olivet from Lutheran (All Faiths) Cemetery, and narrows to a single lane of traffic each direction through the cemeteries.
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4/20/24
2 comments
That narrow stretch of roadway between the Cemeteries is one of the few places that I ride my bike on the sidewalk. There is rarely any foot trafffic in this area. Lutheran Ave is my right turn into Juniper Park where they have clean bathrooms. Always good to know where the bathrooms are.
Also notable for the “sharrow” painted on the street – a new kind a indicator to “share the road” with cyclists