The Engine 311/Ladder 158 firehouse stands at the northeast corner of Springfield Park (map), a lovely green space with a stream running through it and a pond in the middle. This building brings to mind the nearby Engine 314 firehouse located at the northeast corner of Brookville Park, another streamy/pondy park (map). In fact, the locations of the firehouses relative to their respective parks are so similar that I initially thought I was looking at the same firehouse we saw earlier, even though I remembered there was a different mural painted on the door.
I can't find anything to confirm this, but I'd guess the proximity of these firehouses to the parks is not a coincidence. Until fairly recently, southeastern Queens relied on local wells for its water supply, so perhaps it seemed like a wise idea back in the 1920s (when this firehouse was put up) to build firehouses near bodies of surface water that could be used as backup, or maybe even primary, sources of water for the fire engine tanks. (At that time, I believe these ponds were still being used to feed the Ridgewood Reservoir, which supplied water to Brooklyn until 1959.) A third similar park in the area, Baisley Pond Park, does not appear to have a firehouse located particularly close to it, however, so maybe I'm just full of crap.
And I suppose it's also possible that the firehouses were built on city land simply as a cost-saving measure, with the nearby water playing no role in the decision.
I saw a paper delivery guy pull up to this house in a car with "UniversalMaids.com" emblazoned on the side, take one step out of the car, and lackadaisically chuck a copy of the Daily News in the general direction of the yard. It landed right in the middle of one of these bushes, making it almost invisible (close-up). The guy contemplated the situation for a moment before deciding it would be best to just move on to the next house and refrain from doing any extra work. Odds are he was just lazy, but perhaps he had realized that these people would undoubtedly be better off not reading the Daily News. (I ultimately decided to leave the paper hidden in the bush for that same reason.)
After years of successful implementation in Staten Island, the city is now developing Bluebelts — which use natural drainage corridors rather than conventional sewer systems to manage stormwater — in Queens. Street reconstruction for the Springfield Gardens Bluebelt was in full swing today.
It seems like this place offers it all. There's only one thing missing — the address! There's nowhere near this sign that looks like it offers these services (take a look for yourself), and there's no indication on the sign where one might go to partake of them.
Every borough has at least one street named Broadway. Queens's main Broadway runs about four miles between Long Island City/Astoria and Elmhurst, but this block-long private street also carries the Broadway appellation. There's one other Broadway in Queens that I know of, a dinky little stretch of pavement out in Ramblersville.
