Forgotten Fan Peter Moskos passes on this bit of Astoria’s past at an apartment house at 30-80 32nd Street between 30th and 31st Avenue. A careful look at the entrance reveals two addresses, 30-80 and above it, 463. That number is actually the building’s former address; it was constructed in the early 20th Century, when the street was not called 32nd street but had a different name. But what name?
This 1922 Hagstrom, the oldest Hagstrom map I have access to, reveals that 32nd Street, a block east of the Astoria elevated, was part of a different Astoria numbering system and was called 3rd Avenue. Earlier maps reveal that that numbering system had been imposed just prior to 1922 and the street had a third name, Lathrop Street, before that.
A short distance away at Broadway and 31st Street, an actual ancient 2nd Avenue street sign remains in place. Earlier the street was called Debevoise Avenue.
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6/12/26
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The earlier street names are also in the metes and bounds description in documents pertaining to the property in ACRIS. Can’t copy and paste from them, so I’ll type it in:
BEGINNING at a point on the Northwesterly side of 32nd Street (formerly 3rd Avenue and Lathrop Street) distant 190 feet 3-3/4 inches Northeasterly from the corner formed by the Northwesterly side of 32nd Street with the Northeasterly side of 31st Avenue (formerly Jamaica Avenue and Patterson Avenue);
etc. etc. etc.