Myrtle Avenue in New York City is a street that runs from Flatbush Avenue Extension in Downtown Brooklyn to Jamaica Avenue in Richmond Hill, Queens.
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Myrtle Avenue has been a major thoroughfare since the early 19th century, named after the myrtle trees that were plentiful in the area. Most likely, Myrtle Avenue began in Queens and was a plank road that charged a toll. The road eventually hosted the Knickerbocker Stage Coach Line, that ran stagecoach and omnibus services.
After World War I, Myrtle Avenue in Glendale, Queens was a popular destination for picnickers. With a steam trolley running on the avenue, and its ample adjacent beer gardens and park space, people from as far as Eastern Brooklyn came to Myrtle. In the mid 1920s, the parks closed as a result of Prohibition. Ultimately, the parks became incorporated by the city into what is known today as Forest Park.[1]
Currently, Myrtle Avenue is one of the primary shopping strips of Ridgewood, along with Fresh Pond Road whose south end is at Myrtle Avenue. It is also the primary shopping strip in nearby Glendale, although this stretch of Myrtle Avenue isn't as busy as the Ridgewood stretch. It was also home to the Ridgewood Theatre, which was the longest continuously operated theater in the United States, having operated for 91 years before its closure in March 2008.[2]
Although Myrtle Avenue isn't a very big street, it is the head of many other major throughfares in Queens that were built later. This includes Union Turnpike, whose west end is in Glendale near Woodhaven Boulevard, and Hillside Avenue, which starts off from Myrtle Avenue in Richmond Hill.
The Queens stretch of Myrtle Avenue is served by the Q55 bus line.
In the neighborhoods of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill, the development of Myrtle Avenue was directly related to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, built in 1801.
In 1847 Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn's first park, was built on the south side of western Myrtle Avenue.
During World War II, the Navy Yard employed more than 71,000 people, many of them African American shipbuilders. As a result the demand for housing in the area increased, prompting the New York City Housing Authority to build the Walt Whitman and Raymond Ingersoll public houses on Myrtle Avenue in 1944.
By the early 1970s the vitality of Myrtle Avenue began to decline, mainly because of the decommissioning of the Brooklyn Navy Yard and the curtailing of the elevated railway. At its nadir of decline, the street became known to many Brooklynites as "Murder Avenue".[3]
The western end of Myrtle Avenue was closed to create the pedestrian-only MetroTech Center in the 1990s, so cars can no longer take Myrtle to Jay Street.
Today a revitalization movement is in effect by a collaboration of community organizations like the Myrtle Avenue Revitalization Project LDC (MARP), the Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Improvement district BID, and the Myrtle Avenue Merchants Association. Some parts of Myrtle Avenue, for example around Pratt Institute, have recently become a main street of commerce with many trendy restaurants and boutique retail shops.[1]
The Brooklyn stretch of Myrtle Avenue is served by the B54 bus line. The M train also runs above Myrtle Avenue through Bushwick and a small stretch through Bedford Stuyvesant.
The Myrtle Avenue El is an elevated railroad line that runs along Myrtle Avenue The completed line ran from Middle Village, Queens to Downtown Brooklyn and Park Row, Manhattan, using the avenue for most of its route. Since 1969, the portion of the line east of the Myrtle Avenue – Broadway station remains, with the remainder demolished.
Myrtle Avenue is served by the following subway stations, west to east (not counting abandoned or demolished stations):
Also, DeKalb Avenue (B D N Q R trains) and 121st Street (J Z trains) are stations near the avenue.
There is an abandoned Myrtle Avenue subway station on the BMT Brighton Line. It was closed due to its proximity to and a track reconfiguration north of DeKalb Avenue station.[4]
There are references to Myrtle Avenue in hip-hop culture and rap music, reflective of the street passing through African American neighborhoods in Brooklyn. The popularity of the nickname "Murder Avenue" dates back to the minor 1993 hit of the same name by the Geto Boys.[5]
Other artists that mention Myrtle Avenue include:
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