SINCE Forgotten New York seems to have wandered into several blind alleys this week, I may as well go with the flow and talk about another one. On the undefended border of Maspeth and Woodside, there seems to be something fishy going on with 71st and 72nd Streets south of Calamus Avenue. On 71st, south of 52nd Avenue, seen above, what appears to be a driveway wanders off to the northeast. However, there are three relatively new homes built there.
And at 52nd Avenue itself, there’s a house built on an angle that matches the trajectory of that driveway.
And then, 72nd Street north of 52nd Avenue takes a mysterious swerve to the northeast, and looks a bit unfinished, as its sidewalk-free west side borders an empty lot.
Courtesy Google Street View, here’s an overhead look at the “driveway”, tabbed “Old Lane”. You can also see the angled building.
Using a Google map, you can draw a straight line between these two mysterious sections.
This 1903 Queens atlas excerpt clears things up a bit. As you may have guessed the two sections were formerly connected and were indeed once labeled “Old Lane.” The road may have been in existence before any of the other streets were laid out and built in the area. The paved road on the left, shown in purple, is Fisk Avenue, named for a casketmaker. It’s still a main route today, 69th Street, and the MTA still subnames its 69th Street station on the Flushing Elevated as Fisk Avenue, originally a nod to area oldtimers, but in 2024 purely for tradition’s sake. There’s probably a lot to be written about Mariendale Park, or the pond that’s now filled in, but while those have vanished. Old Lane’s traces remain.
Since it’s not on official city maps, the Department of Transportation doesn’t provide street signs, so I’ve made one up myself. My question: do those houses on the “driveway” have 71st Street addresses, or Old Lane addresses? Comments, as always, are open. [see Comments for response]
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12/11/24
5 comments
The NYCityMap shows Old Lane on it, but all the addresses on it are 71st Street addresses.
According to a Zillow map I consulted, it appears all the “Old Lane” residences have 52-00 block 71st Street, Maspeth addresses. They all have odd numbers corresponding with the “driveway aspect” coming off the east side of 71st Street, which have odd numbered addresses, as would be typical of any north/south street in the Queens borough numbering system.
Two Lexington Avenues on the 1903 map???
Tax map shows 71st St addresses at the south end, 72nd St addresses at the north end.
Who approved the permits for all these legal two-family homes? So many multi-family homes crowded onto a narrow street without garages or even driveways. I don’t see a fire hydrant either so insurance premiums must
be stratospheric. A recipe for urban blight. To paraphrase Winston Churchill: Never have so many paid so much for so little.