All Aboard The Seven Line
BY GLORIA SANDERS O
ur next stop on our journey on the No. 7 line is 46th Street/Bliss Street in a neighborhood called Sunnyside. OLocated between Long Island City and

Photo Gloria Sanders

Woodside and just a few minutes away from the Big Apple (Manhattan), Sunnyside is one of the busiest neighborhoods in Queens, and in fact sees more cars on its stretch of Queens Boulevard in a day than some other neighborhoods may see in a week.

No one is quite sure where the name “Sunnyside” originated but one school holds that the Sunnyside Roadhouse Hotel gave the neighborhood its name after a railroad was built in front of the establishment to take visitors to the Fashion Race Course in Corona during the mid 1800s. Many families chose to move to Sunnyside Gardens, one of the nation’s first planned communities, in the 1940s. Some came from confined studios in Lower Manhattan to attached twoand three-story buildings, and soon the area earned a nickname, “the maternity ward of Greenwich Village”.

The area originally attracted Eastern European, Dutch, Irish and South American immigrants, and now is home to predominantly Hispanics, Middle Easterners and Armenians, Romanians and other European immigrants. With its mix of cultures, Sunnyside offers a diverse sampling of ethnic foods in small restaurants along Queens Boulevard, fast food restaurants for those who prefer familiar restaurant menus, coffee and spice stores and varied shopping venues that offer everything necessary for daily needs. Parks, churches, libraries and active nightlife make Sunnyside a delightful cross between urban and suburban lifestyles.

Join me next week as we move a stop closer into Sunnyside and see all it has to offer.