Parsons Boulevard is a road in

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. Its northern end is at Malba Drive in the Malba neighborhood and its southern end is at Archer Avenue in downtown Jamaica.

Route

The road stretches for nearly six miles, divided into four segments: * Malba Drive to Whitestone Expressway: * Whitestone Expressway to Rose Avenue at Kissena Park: * Booth Memorial Avenue to

Horace Harding Expressway Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his ...

: * Horace Harding Expressway to Archer Avenue:

History

Parsons Boulevard takes its name from Samuel Bowne Parsons Sr., who moved to Flushing from

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of co ...

around 1800 and married Mary Bowne, a descendant of prominent local settler John Bowne. Samuel Bowne Parsons Sr. was an accomplished and well noted horticulturist, who was the first to import Japanese Maples and propagate

rhododendron ''Rhododendron'' (; from Ancient Greek ''rhódon'' "rose" and ''déndron'' "tree") is a very large genus of about 1,024 species of woody plants in the heath family (Ericaceae). They can be either evergreen or deciduous. Most species are nativ ...

s. Parsons' nursery was located within present-day Kissena Park. The oldest section of Parsons Boulevard is between Kissena Boulevard in Kew Gardens Hills and Archer Avenue in

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of Hispan ...

. Dating to the colonial period, this segment, together with Kissena Boulevard, connected the early settlements of Jamaica and Flushing. The most recent section of Parsons Boulevard was completed in 1951, during the construction of the Pomonok apartments. In contrast to most boulevards in Queens, Parsons is not regarded as a major transportation route because it is broken into four segments, with the section through Kissena Park having never been built, along with the Whitestone Expressway and Long Island Expressway interrupting its route.

Transportation

Between 14th Avenue and Union Street, the

Q20 and Q44 buses The Q20A and Q20B (collectively referred to as Q20A/B or Q20) and Q44 bus routes constitute the Main Street Line, a public transit line in Queens, New York City, running primarily along Main Street between two major bus-subway hubs in the ...

follow Parsons Boulevard. Between Kissena Boulevard and Archer Avenue, the Q25 and Q34 buses follow Parsons Boulevard. Parsons Boulevard is also the name of the following stations of the New York City Subway in Queens: *

Parsons Boulevard (IND Queens Boulevard Line) The Parsons Boulevard station is an express station on the IND Queens Boulevard Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of Parsons Boulevard and Hillside Avenue in Queens, it is served by the F train at all times, and th ...

, serving the *

Jamaica Center–Parsons/Archer (New York City Subway) Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of Hispan ...

, serving the

References

Streets in Queens, New York Flushing, Queens Jamaica, Queens {{NYC-road-stub