IRONICALLY, in my opinion, Astoria and Long Island City were among the last neighborhoods in Queens to receive their street numbers in what I call the Great Renumbering in Queens that took place gradually for about 20 years from 1915-1935, in which many of Queens’ previous street names and previous numbered streets were wiped out and a new scheme put in. Today, I’ll concentrate on 30th Avenue in Astoria, which before it was 30th Avenue, was Grand Avenue.
At 30th Avenue and 23rd Street, a pair of large apartment buildings are named Grand Court and Ely Court. Grand you know about now, but 23rd Street was called Ely Avenue, which persists on a couple of building signs, as well as the IND Court Square-23rd Street station, where Ely Avenue is remembered in tiled station signs. In the subways, older street names were often preserved for the benefit of area oldtimers.
This 1922 Hagstrom map still has the older names in LIC. I’ve circled Grand, Ely, and the next example…
Van Alst Playground, 30th Avenue and 21st Street. You may have guessed by now that 21st Street was once Van Alst Avenue. Once again, the subways illustrate this as the IND 21st-Van Alst station serving the G train attests. (It’s one of the uglier stations as it has constantly suffered from water damage over the years).
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10/14/25