Saying, in essence, “it’s the least we could do,” the City Council on Tuesday unanimously voted to rename four Queens locations after firefighters who died during the terrorist attacks of September 11th. The action was initiated by City Councilman Walter McCaffrey. It passed the Council’s Committee on Parks, Recreation, Cultural Affairs and International, Intergroup Relations on December 6th and is expected to be signed by the mayor shortly. Windmuller Park, located at the intersection of 52nd Street and 39th Drive in Woodside, will be renamed “Lawrence Virgilio Park” in honor of a firefighter from Woodside. Virgilio’s mother named him Lawrence after seeing the movie “Lawrence of Arabia.” He was baptized and took his first Communion at Woodside’s Saint Sebastian’s Roman Catholic Church, which is where his funeral was also held in late September. Virgilio was 38 years old when he died. He was stationed at Squad 18 in Manhattan’s West Village. Until September 11th, that squad had the distinction of having the most losses ever suffered during a single fire—at the Wonder Drug Store fire in 1966, where the squad lost five men. Virgilio was one of three firefighters from that squad to die at the World Trade Center. A section of 57th Street, between 30th and 31st Avenues in Woodside will be renamed “Teddy White Place” in honor of a firefighter who was born in Woodside’s Boulevard Gardens in 1971. He attended PS 151 and McClancy High School, and settled in the neighborhood when he and his wife married in 1998. A daughter, Taylor, was born to the couple one year later. He worked out of Engine 230 in Brooklyn. A section of Queens Boulevard, between 63rd Street and 65th Place in Sunnyside, will soon bear the additional name of “Boulevard of Bravery” in honor of Rescue Company 4. The squad was one of the first to reach the disaster scene on September 11th. It suffered heavy losses, losing seven of its members. The intersection of Perry Avenue and 68th Street in Maspeth will be renamed to honor Squad 288, HazMat 1, which is Queens’ only hazardous materials unit. The unit was also one of the earliest arrivals at the attack scene and lost 11 members. The locations in Queens were part of a City Council proposal that included 11 public space renamings in Queens, the Bronx and Brooklyn. These proposals followed closely on the heels of a few renamings in Manhattan. One changed a block on 31st Street in Midtown to honor fallen Fire Department Chaplain Mychal Judge. These are the first of the many public tributes to those killed during the recent disaster that are expected to continue. Included among future tributes is the memorial being planned for the World Trade Center site, where more than 3,000 police officers, firefighters, rescue workers, Port Authority officers and civilians lost their lives when the twin towers collapsed after being hit by two airplanes piloted by terrorists. How that memorial is to be handled is the subject of some controversy. Mary Scarlos has lived in Sunnyside since 1942. She lost a brother in combat during World War II. But she doesn’t like the idea of renaming streets. “I get frustrated. You go away and when you come back you don’t know where anything is. My brother died in the war but I never thought of naming a street after him. Sometimes they just put up a plaque.” Albert Matousek is a veteran of the Korean War and a member of American Legion Post 1836 in Woodside. He’s also a retired police officer. “It’s not a question of being biased,” he said of whether his history on the New York City Police Force made him more willing to support street renaming in honor of those who died while on duty on September 11th. “There’s no question about it. I’m behind this 100 percent.” Matousek scoffed at the idea that anyone would oppose the renamings. The need for Americans to remember their military history and the sacrifices that have been made on behalf of the country’s preservation and protection far outweighs the small inconvenience caused by name changes. A ceremony will be held for each location when the new names take effect.

Return to Lawrence Virgilio Home Page