There Is Now an Adam Yauch Park: And the Stories Behind the Names of 10 Other Brooklyn Places.
Quentin Road
If you head south from Prospect Park down to Coney Island, the avenues shed their names and assume a simple alphabetical order. Once you get past Foster Avenue and Glenwood Road, you move through Avenue H and I and J. The avenues maintain this pattern for the most part, but there is one glaring exception: Quentin Road. Who is Quentin and why is he more important than having an Avenue Q? Well, in fact, Quentin Road used to be Avenue Q, but was renamed in honor of Quentin Roosevelt (1897-1918), Theodore Roosevelt’s beloved youngest son. Quentin was shot down in aerial combat during World War I. He was known for being a daredevil and just an all-around fun troublemaker who, as a child in the White House, “carved a baseball diamond on the White House lawn without permission, defaced official presidential portraits in the White House with spitballs, and threw snowballs from the White House’s roof at unsuspecting Secret Service guards.” So, basically, he was completely amazing. He was also admired and respected by those who served with him, and even those who fought against him: the German military buried Quentin with full honors. Theodore Roosevelt was said to have been so devastated by the loss of his son that he lost the will to live. He died just months later.
