“St. John's Way to be Unveiled”

Media Advisory: April 28, 2022 
Media Contact: Brian Browne  
917-561-7068 (Cell) 718-990-2762 (Office) 
[email protected] 

(Queens, NY) An official co-naming ceremony to reveal “St. John's Way” is slated to take place on Monday, May 2 at 2 pm recognizing the many contributions of St. John's University to the local community, Queens County, the country, and beyond since its founding in 1870.

The southwest intersection of Union Turnpike and Utopia Parkway in the Hillcrest neighborhood of Queens County will be dedicated as "St. John's Way", paying homage to the enduring legacy of the 152-year-old Catholic and Vincentian University. The New York City Council voted overwhelmingly for an omnibus package of street co-namings which included the co-naming honor for St. John's.

Members of the St. John's University community, Queens elected officials, community leaders, and neighborhood residents of Hillcrest will gather for the street co-naming ceremony. The ceremonial co-naming originally planned for the sesquicentennial celebration of St. John's in 2020 was repeatedly delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

What: Co-naming ceremony "St. John's Way" celebrated a St. John’s University
Who: Students, faculty, staff, alumni, friends of St. John's
When: Monday, May 2, 2022, at 2 pm
Where: Southwest corner of Union Turnpike and Utopia Parkway. St. John’s University, 8000 Utopia Parkway, Jamaica, NY 11439. Enter campus at Gate 4 on Union Turnpike and 175th Street
The outdoor ceremony begins at 2 pm

Founded in 1870, in Brooklyn, NY, St. John's University first established a foothold in Queens County when it purchased the old Hillcrest Golf Course and some adjacent lots of land in 1936 for a total cash sum of $510,000. Delays in development, the onset of World War II, and further delays kept the property operating as a golf course until New Year's Eve, 1953. Ground was eventually broken for the first building on the Queens Campus in 1954 and classes began a year later.

Today, St. John’s University offers more than 100 undergraduate and graduate programs, including 15 doctoral programs and offers residential living at its Queens Campus. St. John’s also has campuses and locations in Staten Island and Manhattan, and in Rome, Italy; in Paris, France; and in Limerick, Ireland.

As of Fall 2021, the University has over 2,500 employees, 15,452 undergraduate students, and 4,206 graduate students who come from 48 states and 118 countries to study in Queens County—“the World’s Borough.” St. John’s has 193,000+ living alumni, more than eighty percent live in the New York area.

For more information contact Brian Browne, St. John’s University Spokesperson at 917-561-7068 or [email protected]