Parkside (LIRR station)

Parkside
Site of former Parkside Station
Location	9230 Metropolitan Avenue Queens, New York City
Coordinates	40°42′43″N 73°51′24″W / 40.71185°N 73.85667°W / 40.71185; -73.85667Coordinates: 40°42′43″N 73°51′24″W / 40.71185°N 73.85667°W / 40.71185; -73.85667
Owned by	City of New York
Line(s)	Rockaway Beach Branch
Platforms	2 side platforms
Tracks	2
Other information
Station code	None
History
Opened	September 15, 1927
Closed	June 8, 1962
Electrified	1905
Previous names	Glendale (September–October 1927)
Services
None (demolished) Preceding station   LIRR   Following station Rego Park toward Grand Street Rockaway Beach Branch Brooklyn Hills toward Rockaway Park

Parkside is a former elevated Long Island Rail Road station on the north side of Metropolitan Avenue on the border of the Middle Village, Rego Park, Forest Hills, and Glendale neighborhoods in Queens, New York City. Opened in 1927, the wooden station was part of the Rockaway Beach Branch and was the northernmost station on the branch before the junction with the Main Line at Rego Park Station and the terminus of the line at Grand Street Station in Elmhurst. The station was closed in 1962, twelve years after the LIRR had abandoned the Rockaway portions of the line.

The station had two tracks and two wooden high-level side platforms, with four small wooden shelters on both platforms. Exit stairs were located on Metropolitan Avenue.

North of the station, the line veered west to merge with the LIRR Main Line at Whitepot Junction. Just south of the station near the Union Turnpike overpass was a junction with the Montauk Branch (Glendale Junction), with a wye from the westbound Montauk track merging with the Rockaway Branch going north, and another from the eastbound Montauk track going south. The Rockaway line, meanwhile, ran elevated over the Montauk branch on a wooden trestle.

Prior to the construction of the station, Rockaway Beach Branch service north of Ozone Park traveled via the Atlantic Branch to Flatbush Terminal, or the Montauk Branch to Hunters Point Ferry. Between 1908 and 1911, the branch was extended north past the Montauk Branch to the Main Line; this new grade-separated section was known as the Glendale Cut-off, and allowed service from the branch to Penn Station in Manhattan. In early 1927, a new station was conceived at Metropolitan Avenue along the cut-off to alleviate congestion at the Forest Hills Main Line station, and to replace the nearby Glendale station and Atlas Yard station (the current site of The Shops at Atlas Park at Cooper Avenue) on the Montauk Branch. The station was opened on September 15, 1927. It was originally named "Glendale" as a substitute for the former station on the Montauk Branch. It was renamed "Parkside" on October 23, 1927, due to its proximity to Forest Park, after protests over the station name from the local community. The Parkside name is shared with a nearby post office at Metropolitan Avenue and Continental Avenue (71st Avenue).