Legends of LIC 32 lic courier • march 2013 • www.queenscourier.com Memories of Dead Man’s Hill Dead Man’s Hill stood behind the Strand Theater that occupied the building on the northeast corner of Broadway and Crescent Street. It abutted the north side of the theater and ran north to the row of attached private houses on the east side of Crescent Street. The Hill could be accessed from Crescent Street and also from 29th Street through a vacant parcel of land that ran behind the buildings on the north side of Broadway. I believe that lot now has some sort of structure on it blocking the access from 29th Street. Dead Man’s Hill was the local place for most of the boys in the neighborhood to play all year long. In the summer we caught butterflies (we called them Flying Dutchmen) with framed window screens that we would find in the trash piles awaiting the Department of Sanitation’s LEGENDS OF LIC BY GREATER ASTORIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY LEGENDS OF LIC collection. In the winter it was the scene of the best sledding in Astoria. The hill was about 25 feet high at its summit and had two principal sleigh runs from there toward Crescent Street. Though you could use all of the broad face of the hill to descend, the left and right runs were the most used. These took you off the hill at an angle to Crescent Street allowing you to extend your run for a longer distance than the center runs, which brought you perpendicular out onto the street. That wasn’t good as you didn’t have enough room to turn your sleigh before you reached the west side of the street. We were out as long as our clothes stayed dry. It was then and only then that we would force ourselves to leave the hill to go home and get dry clothes - so that we could come back for more! We dragged our American Flyer sleighs by the clothesline rope that was looped from one side of its handle to the other. When we were seated on the sleigh it became a steering control - or in some cases, a safety line to hold onto your sleigh in case you got upset and fell off the sleigh in mid-run. It seemed like those days had no end, and a snow day off from school lasted forever. I guess it was because we crammed so much of living and learning into every waking hour that we had, it just had to be longer. I don’t know how, no one ever was hit by a car, but they weren’t. In those days at the end of the 1940s there weren’t many cars in the neighborhood. Most times there were only a couple of cars parked on a whole block. I never recall any cars in front of the hill on Crescent Street, winter or summer. As I mentioned to you one winter when sleighing conditions were perfect, I had a ride that took me on the run that ran northwest off the hill onto Crescent Street. From there I went north where I steered the sleigh from my prone position, left onto 31st Drive heading west until I went half way down that block. That run was certainly my best that day - or any other after that! If I close my eyes I can still envision that wonderful ride to this day, it was that memorable. No one got further than I did that day, though everyone else tried. I bet there were about twenty-five kids using the hill on snowy days like that. We all took our turns running with our sleighs in both hands and transferring the sleigh, from our side to our front just before we got to the precipice and threw ourselves on top of our sled and landed on its boards face down, then rode the sled as it sped down the hill and into the memories of our lives. It was a wonderful time! Thanks to Walter Kehoe for sharing his memories. You are welcome to submit your stories – email the society at astorialic@ gmail.com or call 718-278- 0700!
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