"52nd Street, north from Queens Boulevard to Roosevelt Ave., showing in the background the I.R.T.; B.M.T. elevated subway station, November 1, 1936." The billboards that dominate the facades of the buildings on 52nd Street advertise the monument and gravestone companies that were established in this neighborhood to service the nearby massive Calvary Cemetery and smaller Mt. Zion Cemetery. These cemeteries are the northernmost part of the Cemetery Belt of Queens and Brooklyn that runs south from LIC/Woodside through Middle Village and Glendale and veers west into Ridgewood and the edge of Bushwick.

Steinmann Gardener, 1936. Much like the proliferation of monument and gravestone businesses, Woodside also had an abundance of nurseries and florists, which also catered to the nearby cemeteries and their visitors. The outdoor displays at this shop are all wreaths meant for grave sites.

"Queens Boulevard at the N.E. corner of 58th Street (Betts Avenue). This is an old roadhouse which was demolished in 1925 as it lies directly in the center of the proposed widening of the Boulevard, 1922." During the late 1920s and early 1930s Queens Boulevard was widened (in some places to 12 lanes) in conjunction with the construction of the the IND Queens Boulevard Line (today's E,F, M, and R trains). Hundreds of buildings were razed in preparation for this street widening. In some cases, plans were made to move structures in order to preserve them, including the 1895 building for the First Presbyterian Church of Newtown.

“51st Street, west side, just north of 43rd Avenue, viewing northwestward, showing the remains of an old farm — the Mrs. Beals property of 1873 — on the former Astoria Road (extreme left), also known as Celtic Avenue. The road marked the boundary between Long Island City and Newtown. The view is north and shows newly-erected apartments on the former farm. 1931.” - P.L. Sperr (photographer)

Public School 11, 1925. The Union Free District School No. 10 opened in 1894, sitting high on a 100-foot hill. Four years later, when Queens became a borough of the consolidated city, this wood-frame structure with its soaring belfry was one of the borough's tallest buildings. Renamed the Woodside High School in 1897, the building had two, three-story, brick wings added in 1905. Renamed Public School 11 in the early 20th century, the school served Queens' growing population. By the mid-century, the wood-frame building was no longer in use and scheduled for demolition. Before it could be razed, it was lost to a massive fire in 1951. A new, three-story, brick school was completed on the site a few years later. In 2017 a large, new extension was completed to relieve the cram of students in New York City's most crowded elementary school.

Flower vendors on the north side of Queens Boulevard and 52nd Street, 1936. At left, C. Remuzzi Sons offers “fresh-cut flowers” and sodding for grave plots at Calvary Cemetery, across Queens Boulevard. Mourners inspect flowers displayed on the sidewalk. Calvary Cemetery, established in 1848, has over three million interments, the most of any cemetery in the United States. At center, the brick building advertises a 50 cent “blue plate dinner” with beer on draught. That building, recently demolished, was later a Veterans of Foreign Wars post and stood until at least 2014.