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