Little Neck, Queens

Little Neck is an upper middle class neighborhood of Queens, New York City, bordered on the north by Little Neck Bay and on the east by Great Neck in Nassau County. Due to this proximity to Nassau, Little Neck remains one of the most suburban-looking areas in New York City. The southern border is the Grand Central Parkway, and to the west is Douglaston. The Little Neck station is the easternmost New York City station on the busy Port Washington Branch of the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR), and thus Little Neck is home to the busiest of approximately a dozen remaining railway grade crossings in New York City. The neighborhood is part of Queens Community Board 11.

Development

Prior to the mid-1600s, the Matinecock lived in what is today considered Little Neck, sustained by the seafood in Little Neck Bay. In the 17th century, European settlers began arriving in the area for its conveniently located harbor. Soon after, the British and Dutch gained control of the Matinecock lands peacefully, except for a small area known as Madnan's Neck (possibly a shortened form of Indian name for the area, Menhaden-ock, or "place of fish"). Thomas Hicks, of the Hicks family that eventually founded Hicksville, and a band of armed settlers forcibly drove out the Matinecock in a battle at today's Northern Boulevard and Marathon Parkway. An old Matinecock cemetery remained in Little Neck on Northern Boulevard between Cornell Lane and Jesse Court. One of the last photographs of the cemetery (available online) was taken by the Daily News in August 1931, a few months before it was removed to make room for a widened Northern Boulevard. The remains from the cemetery were moved to the Zion Episcopal Church of Douglaston and placed under a stone marker that reads "Here rest the last of the Matinecoc."

Little Neck (LIRR station)

Little Neck is a station in the Little Neck section of Queens, the last station on the branch in New York City on the Port Washington Branch of the Long Island Rail Road. The station is at Little Neck Parkway and 39th Road, about half a mile (800 m) north of Northern Boulevard, and is 14.5 miles (23.3 km) from Penn Station in Midtown Manhattan. The station house is unusual for this line in standing on the south (eastbound) side. The station is part of the CityTicket program and is in Zone 3. The Little Neck train station has been colloquially referred to as "Raccoon Junction" by locals and raccoon aficionados since the early 1930s.

Little Neck Parkway at the west end of the station crosses the line at the only at-grade railroad crossing on the Port Washington Branch, and one of the few remaining in New York City. It is also the only "quiet" grade crossing in the LIRR system. Trains do not need to blow their horns here, because trains are coming to a complete stop here, and Little Neck Parkway is not a high-traffic road. It is regarded as the most dangerous crossing in the city, as the other crossings carry few trains, usually only freight trains late in the night (such as on the Montauk Branch and Bushwick Branch west of Jamaica station, where the line is non-electrified).

Douglaston (LIRR station)

Douglaston is a station in the Douglaston section of Queens in New York City on the Port Washington Branch of the Long Island Rail Road. The station is at 235th Street and 41st Avenue, off Douglaston Parkway and Wainscott Avenue, and is 13.9 miles (22.4 km) from Penn Station in Midtown Manhattan. The station is part of CityTicket, and has an underground walkway between the two platforms.

History