The Lawrence family was one of Colonial Flushing’s most prominent, along with the Price, Parsons, Willets and Bowne clans.
William Lawrence came here in 1643 from England with his brother John. William became the largest landowner in what was then the Town of Flushing, settling at Tew’s Neck, now College Point.John became the mayor of New York, serving two nonconsecutive terms in the late 1600s. A third brother, Thomas, arrived in 1655 and also became a large landowner. Their family cemeteries are in Astoria and Bayside, the latter at a spot where they used to picnic. Both were landmarked in the ’60s.
Lawrence Street, which runs from 57th to 60th avenues in Flushing, honors the family. But it used to be much longer. Above is a view of Lawrence just south of Roosevelt Avenue, where there was a gas station — motor oil at 15 cents a quart! — and the Flushing Sanitary Live Market at 40-13 Lawrence, where they killed your poultry on the spot, cleaned and dressed it for you.
In 1969 City Councilman Ed Sadowsky decided that Lawrence Street, College Point Causeway and 122nd Street, from Powells Cove Boulevard down to Booth Memorial Avenue collectively, were essentially all one street, and proposed renaming them all College Point Boulevard.The council passed the bill on Dec. 11, 1969 and Mayor John Lindsay signed it into law on Dec. 29.
The city rarely makes street name changes of such magnitude. But it recently changed a large group of numbered streets in Douglaston back to their old names, so who knows — maybe Lawrence Street will be re-extended in the next century.