Utopia Parkway (Queens)

For the album, see Utopia Parkway.

Crossing 19th Avenue

Utopia Parkway is a major street in the New York City borough of Queens. Starting in the neighborhood of Beechhurst and ending in the Jamaica Estates neighborhood, the street connects Cross Island Parkway and Northern Boulevard in the north to Union Turnpike, Grand Central Parkway and Hillside Avenue in the south.

History and naming

In 1905, the Utopia Land Company purchased 50 acres of farmland "between the communities of Jamaica and Flushing". The group intended to build a cooperative community for Jewish families interested in moving away from the Lower East Side of Manhattan. After the initial acquisition, the company was unable to secure enough funding to further develop the area, however. Thirty-five years later, the Gross-Morton Park Corporation of nearby Jamaica began to develop the area, which had remained farmland since the original purchase. The area is now a neighborhood named after the parkway.