After construction took place from 1915-1917, Junction Boulevard was originally supposed to serve as an extension of the IRT Flushing line, but the station became part of the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation and was renamed to Junction Boulevard in 1940. Since its construction, the surrounding area became highly commercial—we know it today as Corona Plaza. Yet, this station is not without controversy. As more and more lower income black Americans moved into what was once a middle-class white area during the 1950s, racial tensions developed. White residents began to move out of the area leaving an ethnic divide separated by the boulevard. Junction Boulevard became known as the “Mason-Dixon line” of Corona and was compared to Edmund Pettus Bridge in Alabama (Roman).

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