WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES AUGUST 16, 2018 29
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
Avenue. This organization would
later merge with another civic group,
the Residents of Juniper Park Homes,
to form the Juniper Park Civic Association
— which, to this day, remains
one of the most active civic groups in
Queens.
Most of Eliot Avenue serves as the
border between Maspeth and Middle
Village, stretching from Metropolitan
Avenue to 74th Street. It had also been
the border between Middle Village
and the area known as “South Elmhurst”
(south of the Long Island
Expressway between 74th and 86th
streets) until that section was added to
Middle Village’s 11379 ZIP code in 2003.
Eliot Avenue between Metropolitan
Avenue and Woodhaven Boulevard
remains four travel lanes wide
(two lanes in each direction) except
for the two-lane segment sandwiched
between All Faiths and Mount Olivet
Cemeteries (between Mount Olivet
Crescent and 67th Street. The twolane
portion was reconstructed by the
city between 2007 and 2008 to include
a new roadbed, a wider sidewalk on
the eastbound side (adjacent to All
Faiths Cemetery) and antique replica
lighting.
Though the roadway is predominantly
residential, Eliot Avenue is
home to two important religious institutions
in the community: Our Lady of
Hope Church and Catholic Academy
and Resurrection Ascension Church
and Catholic Academy. There are also
two small retail segments in Maspeth
and Middle Village between 71st and
74th streets, and between 79th and
82nd streets.
The construction of the Long Island Expressway
in the 1950s and 1960s, for better
or worse, transformed that highway into
the area’s most important roadway. But
for Maspeth and Middle Village residents,
Eliot Avenue remains one of the central
arteries for the place they call home.
One more thing: If the name Andrew
Reiff , as mentioned in the Ridgewood
Times excerpt above, sounds familiar,
it should. He’s the namesake of Reiff
Playground, located in Maspeth on
59th Drive between Fresh Pond Road
and 63rd Street.
Reiff , who died in 1963, served as
Ridgewood-Metropolitan Civic Association
president for more than 30 years.
As noted in a NYC Parks Department
biography, Reiff “played a leading role
in disputes over land development in
his neighborhood of Maspeth.” The
playground itself “owes its existence
to his dedicated eff orts.”
Like many other civic groups in
the area, the Ridgewood-Metropolitan
Civic Association was founded
in 1909 by residents who sought to
band together and receive proper
and necessary services from the
city. The group played a role in the
founding of Grover Cleveland High
School in Ridgewood and M.S. 153 in
Maspeth.
Sources: The Feb. 10, 1939, Ridgewood
Times, the NYC Parks Department, “Our
Community: Its History and People” by
the Greater Ridgewood Historical Society
(1976) and the Juniper Park Civic
Association.
***
If you have any memories and photos
that you’d like to share about “Our
Neighborhood:The Way it Was,” write
to The Old Timer, c/o Ridgewood Times,
62-70 Fresh Pond Rd., Ridgewood, NY
11385, or send an email to editorial@
ridgewoodtimes.com. All mailed pictures
will be carefully returned upon
request.
Ridgewood Times archives/Courtesy of the Greater Ridgewood Historical Society
This September 1938 photo shows Eliot Avenue near 70th Street, amid the development of homes on the
Maspeth/Middle Village border.
Ridgewood Times archives/Courtesy of the Greater Ridgewood Historical Society.
Eliot Avenue looking east at 78th Street in Middle Village in this photo taken in September 1938.