Queens addresses

[ArkansasTraveler]

Originally Posted by breakingfree

I've been noticing while looking for hotels that the Queens addresses have two sets of numbers (like 35-200 or something like that). What is that about?

Here in LuLu land of Hono, city and county, the locals can not or do not have numbers over one hundred. So at 199 be like - 56- 200..

[K 22]

Originally Posted by Fred314X

How is it confusing? The first number tells you what the closest numbered cross street is. The second number is the building itself.

There's a similar system in the sections of Brooklyn that have numbered streets. Something like, say, 5200 Fourth Avenue would be at 52nd Street--and if you go around the corner, 400 52nd Street would be at 4th Avenue.

North and south-running streets in the "alphabetized" part of Brooklyn refer to the closest letter. Thus, 1050 Ocean Parkway would be between Avenues J and K--those being the 10th and 11th letters of the alphabet.

In the Bronx, Riverdale has something similar to this. Excluding Broadway, the north-south streets follow XX00 is at West 2XX Street. i/e 4600 Riverdale Avenue would be on the corner of West 246th Street; 6000 Riverdale Avenue is at West 260th Street.

[Fred314X]

Originally Posted by Andysocks

And while on the topic of Queens addresses, isn't it time we just switched to using "Queens, NY" like the rest of the boroughs? It's farcical to be receiving mail to "Bayside", "Oakland Gardens" and "Flushing" because all three are apparently correct.

That's an historical holdover. There wasn't originally a Queens County. In a referendum at the end of the 1890s, the three westernmost townships in Nassau County (Flushing, Jamaica and Newtown) voted to switch allegiance and join up with New York City...and the Rockaway Peninsula got on the bandwagon. That's why Queens zip codes start with four different numbers: 111 was Newtown, 113 Flushing, 114 Jamaica and 116 for the Rockaways.

You're right, though; it would be consistent with the rest of the city if all the mail could just read "Queens, NY." The zip codes would still identify the old township arrangement.

[breakingfree]

There's a similar system in the sections of Brooklyn that have numbered streets. Something like, say, 5200 Fourth Avenue would be at 52nd Street--and if you go around the corner, 400 52nd Street would be at 4th Avenue.

North and south-running streets in the "alphabetized" part of Brooklyn refer to the closest letter. Thus, 1050 Ocean Parkway would be between Avenues J and K--those being the 10th and 11th letters of the alphabet.

The grid system in DC is similar to this. For instance, if I were on 800 K Street, I'd be at the intersection of 8th and K (NW, NE, SE, or SW, depending on which quadrant this intersection's in.) However, if I were on 1000 8th Street, it's the same intersection. Though J's the 10th letter of the alphabet, there's no J Street in DC (I have no clue why), so K takes its place as the 10th letter. When the letters run out there are two syllable names, then three syllable names, then four syllable names (or flower/tree names depending on which section of DC you're in).

I'm really amazed by all sorts of nerd crap like this. I've learned most of it from reading Forgotten-NY religiously.

Me too! I wouldn't have started this thread if things like this didn't intrigue me. (Thanks for the site---it gives me something to look at!)

[Andysocks]

Originally Posted by Fred314X

That's an historical holdover. There wasn't originally a Queens County. In a referendum at the end of the 1890s, the three westernmost townships in Nassau County (Flushing, Jamaica and Newtown) voted to switch allegiance and join up with New York City...and the Rockaway Peninsula got on the bandwagon.

Other way around. Nassau was created in 1899 out of the parts of Queens County that didn't join the city in 1898. There was a vote in Hempstead, but supposedly it didn't matter because they weren't asked anyway.

[bmwguydc]

Originally Posted by Fred314X

You're right, though; it would be consistent with the rest of the city if all the mail could just read "Queens, NY." The zip codes would still identify the old township arrangement.

Actually, the post office allows Riverdale the same privilege. Mail may be addressed to either Bronx, NY or Riverdale, NY in 10463 or 10471. And, good luck trying to convince some Riverdaleians to abandon the Riverdale address in favor of Bronx, NY.

Originally Posted by breakingfree

Though J's the 10th letter of the alphabet, there's no J Street in DC (I have no clue why), so K takes its place as the 10th letter.

J was omitted, or as some say L'Enfant forgot it (but he likely didn't), largely because of the similarity in written English to I, and were generally accepted as interchageable during the 18th Century, when the plan for Washington was conceived. Poor Pierre was not even paid, and if it were not for George Washington retaining a copy of the original design, credit would have gone to the Ellicotts, who revised (ever so slightly) L'Enfant's original conception for the city after he was dismissed from the project by the new government.

For a good book on the history of Washignton, check out Kenneth Bowling's The Creation of Washington, DC.

[Andysocks]

Originally Posted by bmwguydc

Actually, the post office allows Riverdale the same privilege. Mail may be addressed to either Bronx, NY or Riverdale, NY in 10463 or 10471. And, good luck trying to convince some Riverdaleians to abandon the Riverdale address in favor of Bronx, NY.

The post office more acquiesces to these things than allows them, they'd be much happier if Riverdale folks would quit being uppity for a minute and just write Bronx, NY on their addresses--not to mention it would probably help public relations with the rest of the borough, haha.

The Queens P.O. had a multi-decade effort to get everyone to write either "Long Island City", "Flushing", "Jamaica", "Rockaway" or "Floral Park" as their address based on the first three digits of their zip code (that's why junk mail in Queens usually has only those five different addresses, or why franchises of chain stores would be listed under Flushing even if it's in Jackson Heights). But they've pretty much given up. Not to mention neighborhood boundaries are folklore (and sometimes, like in the case of Douglaston and Little Neck, completely non-existent), not official like in Nassau County where each neighborhood is a municipality or CDP, so you often get families living next door or in the same building using different ones in their address.