LAKEVILLE ROAD is a major north-south thoroughfare in western Nassau County, part of a much longer road running from Kings Point south to Jericho Turnpike in New Hyde Park. North of Northern Boulevard in Great Neck, it’s called Middle Neck Road. Today, though, I’m concentrating on a short two-block section north of Union Turnpike at, you guessed it, the undefended border of Queens and Nassau Counties.
Here, Lakeville Road comes oh, so close to the Queens-Nassau line but manages to stay just east of it except, perhaps, the NW corner of Union Turnpike. After that, the city line turns south, and Lakeville Road is indisputably Nassau once again.
In the title card photo, we see Lakeville Road looking north at 77th Road. But do 77th Road and Lakeville Road officially meet? Why, no. No, they don’t. Note the paved triangle on the left, where Hewlett Street in Glen Oaks meets Lakeville Road. On the map, note that Hewlett Street meets Lakeville Road and then begins again, running one block south to Union Turnpike. Both pieces are comfortably in Queens.
But what can the NYC Department of Transportation do for signage where Lakeville Road and 77th Road meet? Treat (or pretend?) that Lakeville Road is called Hewlett Street here, where Hewlett Street doesn’t exist! This workaround exists because Lakeville Road never exactly enters Queens County. The city line is at the curbline: thus, a ghost piece of Hewlett was invented so there don’t have to be any Queens Lakeville Road signs. There isn’t one at Union Turnpike and Lakeville Road, either.
The actual Hewlett is considerably south, along Peninsula Boulevard in the town of Hempstead east of in the “Five Towns.” The name comes from British settler George Hewitt, who arrived in the area in 1634. Since there are both a Hewlett Street and Hewlett Avenue in Glen Oaks near the border, it must be assumed that Hewletts also eventually settled in the region during the colonial era.
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3/13/25
4 comments
Slight correction. Hewlett is not east of the Five Towns, it is one of the Five Towns. Hewlett, Woodmere, Lawrence, Cedarhurst and Inwood.
The colonial Hewlett family owned a large tract of land at the northern tip of Great Neck. It is still called “Hewlett Point.” In the mid 1850s, the King family started acquiring land in the area, eventually supplanting the Hewletts and causing the area to be relabeled “Kings Point.” The south shore Hewletts were headquartered at and around today’s Rock Hall (which is well worth visiting). There was some connection between the two Hewlett groups, but details escape me.
Hewlett is one of the Five Towns:
Hewlett
Cedarhurst
Woodmere
Lawrence
Inwood
The Hewletts are one of the oldest families on Long Island. Besides homesteads in Lawrence, Hewlett, and Flower Hill, there was once one in East Rockaway and another in Woodbury. There is also a Hewlett Point south of East Rockaway and on Hewlett Bay. The main street is Hewlett Point Avenue, and I lived there for part of my childhood.