On a street grid packed with lettered avenues, Brooklyn’s Quentin Road stands out.
Stuck between Avenue P and Avenue R, Quentin Road actually used to be known as Avenue Q. But in 1922, a petition to change the name was brought to the city’s Board of Aldermen. So who was Quentin, and why did Brooklynites want to honor him with a street name?
Quentin was Quentin Roosevelt, 21, fifth child of Teddy Roosevelt. Rambunctious and mischievous as a child, Quentin left Harvard and his fiance, Flora Vanderbilt Payne, in 1916 to volunteer for World War I.
He trained as a pilot at a field on Long Island (today known as Roosevelt Field), but was killed in combat over France in 1918.
The petition to rename Avenue Q for Quentin may have had to do with his father’s popularity in New York. After all, he was the former city police commissioner and state governor, not to mention U.S. president.
Reportedly devastated by his son’s death behind enemy lines, Theodore Roosevelt died the next year.
“To those who fearlessly face death for a good cause; no life is so honorable or so fruitful as such a death,” he said.
“Unless men are willing to fight and die for great ideals, including love of country, ideals will vanish, and the world will become one huge sty of materialism.”
Tags: Avenue Q Brooklyn, Brooklyn Street origins, Quentin Road Brookln, Quentin Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt New York City, War Memorials Brooklyn, World War I in Brooklyn
Ephemeral New York 
August 31, 2015 at 5:30 am |
That is pretty much what has happened! I loved Teddy….now I love
Quentin….how adorable is he? the horrible effects of war.. Families, children….horrible.
I will visit that street the next time I am in NYC….a city I ADORE!!!!
August 31, 2015 at 6:19 am |
Thank you! For another wonderful post! I forgot to say!!!!
September 1, 2015 at 4:56 am |
Thank you!
August 31, 2015 at 9:31 am |
Reblogged this on psychosputnik.
August 31, 2015 at 2:42 pm |
Most Roosevelt Field shoppers assume the mall is named for Theodore or maybe Franklin, if they think at all. There is a plaque there honoring Quentin.
August 31, 2015 at 4:54 pm |
The death of his son, Quentin, so devistated Teddy Roosevelt, all the fierce attitude and quotes like: ‘Speak softly and carry a big stick!’ became like dross… This son’s life mattered more than he ever realized (as every parent would feel) It changed Roosevelt dramatically. A tremendously moving book on this final period of his life is called ‘RIVER OF DOUBT’. I strongly urge anyone wanting to know more, to read this book. It offers revelations that will amaze and readers will come to understand how brokenhearted (in many ways) the great leader was at the time of his own death…
August 31, 2015 at 5:00 pm |
One more note of interest:
The gigantic World War 1 Memorial in Kansas City features the gravesite photo you have included. Quentin was eventually moved to another and given a simple government-issued tombstone, no different than the thousands surrounding him. When President and Mrs. Reagan visited the cemetery. While there, Nancy Reagan placed flowers on a single grave – the son of Roosevelt, Quentin’s resting place in France near the battlefields of WWI.
September 1, 2015 at 4:57 am |
Thanks Audrey, this bit of history is fascinating.
August 31, 2015 at 5:42 pm |
Reblogged this on wack60585.
August 31, 2015 at 9:39 pm |
I have been receiving three email together each week. This week only one?????
Sent from my iPad
>
September 1, 2015 at 4:58 am |
Another two will come this week. My apologies; a medical emergency got in the way.
September 1, 2015 at 5:36 pm |
Hence the name of the musical, “Avenue Q: The Musical”!
September 1, 2015 at 8:14 pm |
MEDICAL EMERGENCY???
Don’t you understand – your readership needs ‘an ephemeralnewyork’ fix on a regular basis! We were all out here in the hinterlands just walk’n the floors waiting for more NYC info & pic! Hope you are OK. Even folks who don’t personally know you – but thro this magic window called a computer – WE ALL CARE. ‘Get Well!’
September 2, 2015 at 1:53 am |
Thank you Audrey! I’m fine, and I promise a new blast of Ephemeral is coming in the next few days…now that the morphine has worn off and I can concentrate again.
September 2, 2015 at 4:22 am |
OH! Heal and be well! YIKES!!!
January 24, 2016 at 7:13 am |
[…] pip, cheerio, and all that rot”), but those of us in southern Brooklyn have heard, repeatedly, how “Avenue Q” was renamed in honor of President Theodore Roosevelt’s youngest […]