IT’S happening. Slowly, almost inexorably. But it’s happening and it’s getting more and more noticeable by the day. Yes, once again, I am getting interested in NYC’s railroad pedestrian crossings. This is the one at the Long Island Rail Road Murray Hill station, connecting Barton and 41st Avenues at 150th Street. While some of the LIRR’s crossings are old and decrepit, this one is fairly new, in 2024 about a decade old after the station was refreshed. The Murray Hill station is likely the most difficult for the LIRR to maintain since it sits in an open cut and its walls are under constant attack from the area youth, whose will to apply graffiti is nearly unbreakable.
When most New Yorkers think of Murray Hill, they likely think of the area on the east side of Manhattan, just south of the United Nations between 34th and 42nd Street and east of Madison Avenue…and they well might, since its tree-lined streets harbor beautiful brownstones, high rise buildings and townhouses. It is home to prominent professional, political and social clubs, as well as the recently renovated Morgan Library – a must visit for both NYers and visitors alike.
Murray Hill has never been a small town on its own, as so many Queens neighborhoods like Long Island City, Jamaica, Flushing or Newtown (today’s Elmhurst) had been. It’s always been considered to be the eastern end of Flushing, and been a planned development carved out of Flushing’s vast acreage of plant nurseries in the late 1800s. In 1889 developer Frederick Dunton, a shareholder in the Long Island Rail Road, purchased large parts of the Robert Bowne Parsons estate, divided it into lots that quickly were snapped up. A railroad stop, school and firehouse were built (their descendants remain in place today, though the original school is now a modern structure (PS 22, the Thomas Jefferson School, on Sanford Avenue east of Murray Street). Murray Hill did develop a separate suburban identity from Flushing that it retains today; though multistory apartment builings were constructed near the Murray Hill RR station, they had a panache that today’s quickly proliferating multifamily buildings lack.
Before the neighborhood was developed by Dunton, the Murray family also held a lot of land in the area, and of course partnered in some of Flushing’s former plant nurseries, and also owned the Kingsland mansion on 37th Avenue that is now the home of the Queens Historical Society. Murray Street and Murray Lane are named for the family.
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.
4/11/24
7 comments
I have fond memories of Murray Hill. My first apartment, a studio on the corner of Roosevelt Avenue and Parsons Blvd, was nearby. I became more familiar with the neighborhood because of alternate side parking regulations.
As a result, I was obliged to change spaces several times a week. I frequently had to park relatively far from where I lived so I had to walk back home The neighborhood had the qualities of a village. Some highlights were many nice single-family houses; one of them just east of 149 St. was once owned by former First Lady Nancy Reagan’s stepfather, who was a doctor. Also, in the shopping center located where Roosevelt Avenue merged with Northern Blvd was a small family-owned Italian restaurant that served excellent shrimp marinara. I lived in that neighborhood for over six years. It was a nice place to spend my early adulthood. Thanks for the memories.
It still gets me how NYC has duplicate neighborhoods like this one along with Chelsea and Sunnyside as well.
Good point. One reason is that NYC was originally only Manhattan island, and expanded between 1874 and 1898 to encompass the entire five boroughs we know today. Each borough had developed separately from the other ones; Brooklyn had been a separate large city in its own right. So it was inevitable that some localized place names or street names were duplicated, or are very similar to a name in another borough.
Two examples of similar-sounding place names: Manhattanville and Manhattan Beach; Williamsburg and Williamsbridge. I’m sure that other FNY contributors will add to this list.
“examples of similar-sounding place names: Manhattanville and Manhattan Beach”
Don’t forget Manhattan Valley.
Am I the only one who finds it strange that both Manhattan Terrace and Manhattan are actually Brooklyn neighborhoods and not Manhattan despite their names?
…And that West New York is in New Jersey?
Many older bowlers may have learned, as did I way back when, that the left gutter lane in the bowling alley was the “Jersey Side” and the right gutter lane was the “Brooklyn Side”, as though you were throwing you bowling ball straight up Manhattan Island?
First place I lived in when I got married was in this neighborhood, in an “illegal” basement apartment. At the time (early 80s), the Murray Hill station was a true backwater, dumpy and easy to miss. There was a very nice little frame place right across from it, the guy did beautiful work (I still have his handiwork hanging on my wall). I am sure that store has been gone for many years. However, I cannot believe that laundromat at the corner of 41st and 149th St. is still there! That’s where I schlepped my clothes once a week.