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On The Road in Queens: Jack Kerouac’s Beaten Path In The Boro That Made Him King
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| Glen Patrick’s Pub, formerly McNulty’s Tavern, on Cross Bay Boulevard where Kerouac drank with friends.
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By MICHAEL CUSENZA
Jack Kerouac lived in Queens.
Casual fans of classic literature, and even fringe literati, may not have known this fact. From 1943 to 1954, the author born Jean-Louis Kerouac from Lowell, Mass., inhabited, imbibed and was enlightened by the Southern swath of the borough. Experts say that it was during this time that Kerouac completed his most rewarding writing. His seminal tome, “On The Road,” which anointed him king of the Beat Generation, was published Sept. 5, 1957, and features several stops in Queens.
To honor the 50th anniversary of the publishing of one of the most influential expositions of literature in American history, Jeff Gottlieb, president of the Central Queens Historical Association, organized “The Essential Jack Kerouac Tour” this past Saturday, marking the sites in Queens that were significant to Kerouac’s work and shaped the man he became.
The Early Days
We first meet at 133-01 Cross Bay Blvd. in Ozone Park in front of Little Shoppe of Flowers. Above this storefront, on the second floor, is where Kerouac wrote and lived with his mother and father from 1943 to 1949. It’s also where Kerouac’s father, Leo, succumbed to cancer of the spleen in Jack’s arms in the Spring of 1946. This event is said to have had a profound effect on Jack and was very influential on his work. He wrote “The Town and the City” in this apartment. He started “On The Road” here.
We are an intimate group, comprised of fewer than 10 people. Jim Driscoll, president of the Queens Historical Society, is a familiar face. Dr. Larry Myers, associate professor of speech and theater at St. John’s University, is here, too. Our esteemed host, narrator, guide and expert is noted Kerouac scholar Patrick Fenton. A tall, genial Irishman from a blue-collar Brooklyn neighborhood, Fenton is the voice of this tour through what can be considered hallowed literary grounds. His passion for Kerouac and his words are evident in his anecdotes and thorough nature.
He knows Kerouac’s Queens.
“What’s amazing is that he lived in this borough 11 years and it’s almost as if he was a ghost,” Fenton said.
A Man Of Muscle
Our caravan next stops briefly in front of 95-16 101st Ave., still in Ozone Park. Gottlieb said the library that used to occupy this address was a “refuge” for a pensive Kerouac.
We don’t exit our vehicles. Instead, Gottlieb shifts back into drive and we roll on to Richmond Hill, home to Smokey Oval Park.
Named for its location across from a Long Island Rail Road terminal that produced railway smoke, Smokey Oval Park is located on the south side of Atlantic Avenue and 125th Street. It officially became park land in 1938. Smokey Oval is also slated to soon be renamed in honor of Richmond Hill High School alum Phil Rizzuto.
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| Richmond Hill home where Kerouac wrote “Visions of Cody.”
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Like Yankee legend Rizzuto, Jack Kerouac was a star athlete. He was awarded a football scholarship to Columbia University, but eventually dropped out. It was at Smokey Oval Park that Kerouac and friend Neal Cassady played pick-up basketball games with local children. Kerouac penned prose about these games in “On The Road.”
Fenton stood under one of the hoops, the retired New York State court officer’s frame shadowed by the backboard and the dancing silhouettes of the leaves from a large neighboring tree. He opened his worn copy of “On The Road” to a marked page near the end of the book and read to his attentive audience now gathered in a small circle.
“We jumped at the basket like maniacs,” Kerouac recalled through Fenton.
Dr. Myers then spoke of the dichotomy of Kerouac. He exuded an athletic, macho confidence, but was a bookworm at heart.
“He was very much a split personality,” Myers said.
And after a brief discussion we were off to the next haunt, chasing the ghost of Jack Kerouac, as Fenton put it.
Coming Full Circle
Kerouac wrote “Visions of Cody” and part of “On The Road” in an upstairs room in a detached, one-family house at 94-21 134th St. in Richmond Hill. He lived there from 1949 to 1954.
Kerouac also gave a writing lesson to close friend Allen Ginsberg at this address. In a later interview, Ginsberg referred to it as a “brown, gloomy house.” Now an area filed with factories and car dealerships, Ginsberg said he and Kerouac would love to walk around the block to the corner of Atlantic Avenue and the Van Wyck Expressway.
Where Kerouac went, our band was sure to follow.
Kerouac and Ginsberg witnessed the construction and opening of the Van Wyck Expressway in 1949. Kerouac was reportedly upset that several houses were demolished to complete the project.
At this noisy, congested intersection Fenton told us that “On The Road” “starts in Ozone Park and pretty much ends in Richmond Hill.” So, in a fitting tribute, Fenton raised his copy and read the last scene.
After that captivating rendition, we were to retire to Glen Patrick’s Pub, just across the street from Little Shoppe of Flowers, where it all began.
Honoring The Memory
Glen Patrick’s used to be McNulty’s Tavern. It rests at 133-10 Cross Bay Blvd. and was a second home for Kerouac who used to drink there with friends like Ginsberg and Cassady. He also would bring back Tom Collins’ to his mother, Gabrielle.
Fenton held court near the long oak bar as we raised our drinks to our lips. His hope is to have commemorative plaques placed at each location on the Kerouac Literary Trail, marking the locations and grounds that inspired the inspirer. When he speaks we listen. There is a gentle authority to Fenton’s tone. It’s obvious that Kerouac is a big part of his life and he wishes to share this gift with others.
“Hopefully, the borough of Queens one day will know who Jack Kerouac is,” Fenton remarked.
Many walk the path of the Beat every day and don’t know it. They’re unaware, as were some in our party, that Jack Kerouac strolled these same streets, drank in these taverns and lived the same seasons. It’s obvious he was profoundly inspired by the borough we call home. And he, in turn, enlightened several generations of Queens residents with his works culled from experiences in their enclaves.
Jack Kerouac lived in Queens. |
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