WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES DECEMBER 10, 2020 35
Exploring the history of Fresh Pond Road from Ridgewood to Maspeth
BY THE OLD TIMER
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
Whenever you drive, walk or
ride the infamously slow
Q58 bus along Fresh Pond
Road, there’s always two questions
that come to mind. The fi rst is, why the
heck is there so much traffi c on this little
roadway?
We can’t answer that one, but we
can answer the second question: Why
do they call it Fresh Pond Road when
there isn’t anything close to resembling
a fresh pond nearby?
Believe it or not, there were fresh
ponds in the vicinity of Fresh Pond
Road at one point in time. They were
drained and developed centuries ago
into the residential and commercial
areas that we know of today.
More than that, however, Fresh Pond
Road is one of the most important and
historic roadways in all of Queens
County. Its roots date back to a time
before colonists even arrived on our
shores some 400 years ago.
Fresh Pond Road started out as an
old trail for Native Americans living
in present-day Maspeth, the neighborhood
whose name is derived from the
Mespeatches tribe that once resided
there. The Mespeatches walked along
this trail from Maspeth south into
present-day Brooklyn to Jamaica Bay.
There, they fi shed and clammed, then
brought back home with them seashells
later used to make wampum, a form of
native currency.
Colonists, upon arriving in Queens
in the 1600s, continued to use the trail,
which would at one point be known
as Kill’s Path. It was given that name
because, according to legend, the road
became a site for battles among Native
American tribes.
Kill’s Path, which extended from
present-day Cypress Hills, Brooklyn
to Maspeth, would be incorporated
into the maps of the town of Newtown
(which had encompassed much of the
Greater Ridgewood area) and later into
Queens County.
The road was named Fresh Pond Road
in the 1800s to refl ect two small ponds
that once occupied an area just to the
east of the roadway and to the north
of what would become Mount Olivet
Crescent. Reiff Playground, at this intersection,
occupied part of where one of
these ponds once existed. These ponds,
fi lled with brackish runoff from the
nearby Newtown Creek, were drained
and fi lled in during the 1900s.
Fresh Pond Road, at one point, also included
the full length of what is known
today as Cypress Hills Street, which
runs from Jamaica Avenue in Cypress
Hills to the intersection of Fresh Pond
Road and 69th Avenue in Ridgewood.
This stretch had many diff erent nicknames
over the years including Old
Fresh Pond Road, Stony Road and Snake
Hill Road.
The serpentine nature of Snake Hill
Road, which curves and twists up and
down the steep glacial moraine running
through the heart of geographic Long
Island, probably had more to do with
Ridgewood Times archives
the name than the presence of actual
snakes.
During the 20th century, the city
formally established Fresh Pond Road
on its current route from Flushing
Avenue in Maspeth to Myrtle Avenue
in Ridgewood. The last three blocks of
Fresh Pond Road, from 69th to Myrtle
avenues, were carved out of farm land.
The “old” portion of Fresh Pond Road
from 69th Avenue to Jamaica Avenues
became Cypress Hills Street.
Of course, Fresh Pond Road is today
one of the busiest and active roadways
in the entire borough, lined with shops,
restaurants, bars and apartments. It’s
one of the most important north-tosouth
roadways in the Greater Ridgewood
area, as it is the only street to
cut through Ridgewood, Maspeth and
Middle Village.
Reprinted from the July 21, 2016
Ridgewood Times.
An 1891 Long Island Rail Road map of the Fresh Pond LIRR station.
Photo via Wikimedia Commons
An early 20th century photo of Fresh Pond Road looking north at
Metropolitan Avenue on the Ridgewood/Middle Village border.
Ridgewood Times archives
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