By Joseph N. Manago
When I had moved from Clinton Hill to Richmond Hill in a house on 102nd Street in 1967, the 102nd Street station of the BMT JJ train was at the border of Richmond Hill and Woodhaven. The station was then structurally closed and renamed 104th Street.
I would like to propose to the MTA New York City Transit that the present name be changed to “Richmond Hill – 104th Street,” in view of its strategic location and the historicity of Richmond Hill.
Fond memories light the corners of my mind, from hikes with teen friends in verdant Forest Park, warm Joe of Joe’s ice cream truck, the extravagant shows of the Dorr Dance Studio, the congenial Reverend Monsignor Leonard of Holy Child Jesus Roman Catholic Church, Jahn’s Ice Cream, and the New England religious ambience of churches as Pilgrim Congregational and Community Bible Free Evangelical Church, both on 89th Avenue.
Decades later, I can proudly proclaim, “ Richmond Hill is my station,” even though I left the neighborhood in 1985.
Joseph N. Manago
Flushing
