Eliot Avenue runs from Metropolitan Avenue to Queens Boulevard. The oldest parts of the road are in Middle Village, from Fresh Pond Road to Mt. Olivet Crescent and in Maspeth, between Metropolitan Avenue and Fresh Pond Road. But the Middle Village section of Eliot Avenue was connected to Woodhaven Boulevard in 1938 and this year it turns 60.

It was named for Walter G. Eliot, an engineer in the Queens Topographical Bureau who was in charge of the Bureau in 1910. (He even went so far as to name the street a block over for his daughter Marion. Marion Avenue was renamed 63rd Avenue in the 1920s.) It was known as Eliot Avenue until 1925, when it was changed to 61st Avenue. In 1930 or 1931, the street’s name was changed back to Eliot Avenue and has remained so every since.

For many years, it was planned that this street would extend to Woodhaven Boulevard and further to Queens Boulevard, but it was not completed until late 1938, just in time for the upcoming World’s Fair in 1939-40. Eliot Avenue was sometimes called “World’s Fair Avenue, because it was the main road, if not the only road, that lead from Brooklyn to the World’s Fair in Flushing.

Much of the road in Middle Village is laid over the ancient Juniper Swamp (a swamp that existed when the original settlers came here in the 1600’s). Many delays were caused by the refusal of the cemeteries to permit a road to be cut through from Mt. Oliver Crescent going east. After many years of planning, the City was permitted to cut a narrow two-lane road through the cemetery. This two-lane portion of Eliot Avenue is still in use, while most of Eliot Avenue is much wider.

Eliot Avenue, as widened and paved from Metropolitan Avenue to Queens Boulevard, opened officially on February 11, 1939.

If Mr. Eliot were alive today, he would see a beautiful tree-lined road, heavily traveled by area residents, and with lovely homes and stores. Surely a sight to make him proud!