Beverl(e)y

Q. In Brooklyn, Beverl(e)y Road is spelled two ways, either Beverley or Beverly. The subway station on the Brighton (Q) Line, near East 16th Street, is labeled the Beverley Road Station. The station on the Nostrand Avenue (2 and 5) line is named the Beverly Road Station. What gives?

A. Herbert Schonhaut, an authority on station signs for New York City Transit, said the two spellings date to the development of the Prospect Park South area. The street was originally called Avenue B.

At the request of the developers, in 1897 the City of Brooklyn renamed a stretch, from Coney Island Avenue to Flatbush Avenue, Beverley Road, using the English spelling.

Later, after Brooklyn was annexed into the City of New York, three of the remaining four of the street’s sections — Church to Coney Island Avenue; Flatbush to Brooklyn Avenue; and Schenectady to Ralph Avenue — were renamed Beverly Road, using the Americanized spelling.

The fourth section, from Ralph Avenue to East 98th Street in Remsen Village, was never renamed and is still Avenue B. (This could be because it complements Avenue A, a block north.)

The Brighton Line station fell in the area with the third “e,” and the Nostrand Avenue station is in the area that was renamed without the “e.”

The correct name for the entire stretch from Church to Ralph Avenue is now Beverley Road, according to the Brooklyn borough president’s office.