Until the mid-19th Century, the Kew Gardens, Briarwood sections of Queens Boulevard were nothing but marshland and an estuary (inlet). The Boulevard itself did not exist. In those days, only one road connected Jamaica Township to our east with the Town of Elmhurst (then called Newtown) to our west. That road was called Whitepot Road - later, Newtown Road - and it ran through a hilly area just south of the marsh. Today, that hilly area is Kew Gardens, and the road is Kew Gardens Road.