It is located in the Kew Gardens neighborhood of Queens, New York City, near Austin Street and Lefferts Boulevard.

One of the Kew Gardens station's unique features is the Lefferts Boulevard Bridge, which has one story commercial buildings on both sides for local businesses.

[10] Laws passed on April 19, 1859 allowed for the appointment of commissioners, empowered to contract with the LIRR to close the Cobble Hill Tunnel, cease using steam within city limits, and instead run horse cars for freight and passengers to the city line or East New York, connecting with steam trains to and beyond Jamaica there.

[15] The station was established in July 1875 along the new main line to Hunters Point to serve the newly opened Maple Grove Cemetery.

[31]: 114, 115, 120 [32]: 87  Service resumed on May 30, 1883 with one daily train in each direction after the managers of the cemetery made a request to the directors of the Long Island Rail Road.

[41][6] The Cut-Off shortened the Main Line by 328 feet (100 m),[5] and sped up service with the construction of a new straightened four-track route that ran at a lower grade.

[45] The Maple Grove station was moved from its location 500 feet (150 m) south of Kew Gardens Road (old Newtown Avenue) to a spot 600 feet (180 m) south along the north side of tracks on the west side of Lefferts Avenue, closer to the built-up portion of Richmond Hill.

[6] On November 20, 1908, the New York Public Service Commission approved the LIRR's application to complete the Maple Grove Cut-Off.

[50] As part of the agreement with the Long Island Rail Road, the property occupied by the old right-of-way was transferred to Cord Meyer and Alrick Man.

[55] The station's quick access to Manhattan (15 minutes) was used by the Kew Gardens Corporation in advertisements to convince buyers to move to the community.

[57]: 57 The old station building for Maple Grove was moved approximately 600 feet (180 m) south alongside and perpendicular to the tracks for use as a real estate office of developers of Kew, but was razed a short time later.

[60] On December 19, 1928, the New York State Transit Commission ordered the LIRR to increase service at Kew Gardens and to lengthen the westbound platform to eleven cars.

The LIRR had said that it anticipated a loss of annual revenue between $750,000 and $1 million with the opening of the extension of the Independent Subway System's Queens Boulevard Line to Jamaica.

[64] Following the opening of the Queens Boulevard Line to Kew Gardens on December 31, 1936,[65] ridership at this station decreased,[66]: 94  with the downturn noticed as early as July 1937.

[67] The Kew Gardens station became the site of the worst accident in the histories of both the Long Island Rail Road and New York State.

On November 22, 1950, a collision between two Long Island Rail Road commuter trains to the east of the station killed 79 people and injured hundreds.

[72] On July 1, 1964, the Tri-State Transit Commission began a year-long test of a mechanical fare collection system at the westbound platforms of Kew Gardens and Forest Hills.

Fencing was installed, requiring passengers to enter through the station house and then insert their magnetically encoded tickets into turnstiles.

[73] In November 1963, the LIRR announced a plan to shorten the platforms at Forest Hills and Kew Gardens by 300 feet (91 m).

[79] On February 1, 1980, the LIRR, in response to audit released by the state comptroller on November 16, 1979, submitted a proposal to close 29 stations, including Kew Gardens, to save $250,000.

Thirty-nine LIRR stations fell in to this category, but ten were not recommended for closure, either because they were terminals or switch locations.

In addition to Kew Gardens, Forest Hills, East Hampton, Westhampton, Sea Cliff and Locust Valley would be completely closed.

[80] In the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)'s 2010–2014 capital program, it proposed lengthening the four-car-long platforms at Kew Gardens to allow additional train cars to board at the station.

[83] On July 26, 2018, it was announced that the LIRR planned to extend the platforms at Kew Gardens and Forest Hills by 200 feet (61 m) to accommodate six-car trains.

[86] The ticket office had been open between 6:10 and 9 a.m.[87] In October 2012, the LIRR announced that it would extend the hours of the waiting room to 10 p.m. on weekdays as part of a pilot program.

It is the only bridge in New York City, and likely in the United States that has stores on either side of it, and therefore many Kew Gardens residents have pushed for its designation as a landmark on the National Registry of Historical Places to protect it from development.

[102] In 1990, the MTA drafted plans to build a ten-story condominium on top of the Kew Gardens station's north side parking lot, only 100 feet (30 m) from the bridge.

In February 1991, the MTA said that it would start to solicit bids on the master lease for the 19 buildings on the Lefferts Boulevard Bridge, which was scheduled to expire in November, by the end of the year.

[104] In June 1991, the NYCDOT began a $2.9 million project to rebuild the concrete surface of the bridge and to replace its steel girders and deck beams.

[105] In July, in response to strong community opposition and pushback from City Council Member Karen Koslowitz and others, MTA officials changed their stance, opening up to possible ideas about how to repair the bridge decks, which are 80 years old and decaying, while keeping the businesses in place.