WHERE Elmhurst meets Jackson Heights, between 82nd and 94th Streets south of Roosevelt Avenue, is a curious little grid of streets all of which carry names in alphabetical order from Aske through MacNish. It’s one of a number of curious patches of streets with alphabetical names, defying the otherwise number system that was instituted between 1915-1930 across the borough. South of the Long Island Rail Road cut there’s a second grouping of streets in alphabetical order (Albion, Barnwell, Cornish, etc.
This grid appears as early as 1909, with numbered streets instead of names: but they had been changed to names by 1915 as shown on this Belcher Hyde map, and by that year the streets were also being populated by homes, schools and businesses.
Because of the diagonal grid a number of triangle intersections were produced. Ithaca Street meets Baxter at 82nd Street, and here you’ll find a public sitting area called Dunningham Triangle. When this park was founded in 1924, it was soon after named Jackson Plaza Triangle and later, in 1945, for Jabez E. Dunningham (1868-1945), British born founder of the Queens Council of Civic Associations soon after he acquired a residence on Denman Street in Elmhurst in the 1920s. While in England, Dunningham served as the London representative for the publisher Joseph Pulitzer (1847-1911) and continued to work in the Pulitzer organization after moving to New York City in 1896. He was a champion of neighboerhood improvements and mass transit.
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12/8/25
2 comments
You don’t see many men named “Jabez” nowadays.
Nor people in the community working with Putlizer