Place:Elmhurst, Queens, New York, United States

Modern Description (per Wikipedia)

Elmhurst is a middle class neighborhood or village in the New York City borough of Queens in the United States, on Long Island. It is bounded by Roosevelt Avenue on the north; the Long Island Expressway on the south; Junction Boulevard on the east; and the New York Connecting Railroad on the west.[1] The neighborhood is part of Queens Community Board 4.

Once Queens joined the City of Greater New York in 1898, Elmhurst developed into a more fashionable residential area when Cord Meyer Jr., a local developer, began constructing housing there, just north of the Port Washington Branch railroad station. The Cord Meyer Development Company expanded their holdings between 1905 and 1930, including Elmhurst Square, Elmhurst South, Elmhurst Heights, and New Elmhurst. Elmhurst also became home to the Grand Street LIRR station just west of the current Grand Avenue–Newtown (IND Queens Boulevard Line) station.

Brief History

• pre-1642 - Area is known by Native Americans as Mespachtes.
• 1635 - Colonization of the area begins by Dutch and English settlers who call the area Mespat or Maspeth in the Dutch Colony of New Netherland.
• 1642 - Mespat Patent is issued in which Dutch Director Willem Kieft grants 13,332 acres to Rev. Francis Doughty of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Doughty and his followers establish their settlement, known as the "Mespat Settlement" at the time, but later referred to as the "Newtown Settlement".
• 1643 - Mespat Settlement breaks up due to hostilities with the Native Americans.
• 1644 - Dutch and English settlers return to the area to reestablish their settlements, calling them Dutch Kills and English Kills, respectively.
• 1652 - village of Middleburg(h) is established by the Dutch Colony of New Netherland in honor of the capital of the Dutch province of Zealand, which had provided asylum to English puritans.
• 1663 - village of Middleburg(h) is renamed Hastings after the area is annexed by English Connecticut. The village of Hastings is combined with several out-plantations (Poor Bowery, Hell Gate Neck, etc.) and named "New Towne (Nieuwe Stad)" which eventually becomes shortened to Newtown.
• 1664/65 - English capture the New Netherland Colony and rename it New York. They also redraw the map, joining Long Island to Staten Island and briefly calling the entire area "Yorkshire" which is divided into three Ridings:
  • the East Riding (formerly Suffolk county) ;
  • the West Riding (Kings county, Newtown and Staten Island) ; and
  • the North Riding (the remainder of Queens county).
• 1683 - Charter of Liberties redraws the map again. Yorkshire disappears and the province is divided into ten counties. On Long Island, Queens county is established, containing five official towns: Flushing, Hempstead, Jamaica, Newtown, and Oyster Bay.
• 1870 - Long Island City splits from the Town of Newtown, incorporating itself as a city and including the villages of Astoria, Ravenswood, Hunter's Point, Dutch Kills, Blissville, Middletown and Bowery Bay under its jurisdiction.
• 1896 - Town of Newtown is renamed Elmhurst at the urging of developer Cord Meyer, Jr., who doesn't want his new development there to be associated with the notoriously polluted Newtown Creek
• 1898 - The Greater City of New York is established, containing five boroughs. The Borough of Queens is established from the western part of Queens county which includes Long Island City, Elmhurst, Flushing, Jamaica, and the Rockaway Pennisula portion of the Town of Hempstead. The Borough of Queens is divided into five Wards with Elmhurst in the Second Ward.

Research Tips

• Outstanding guide to Elmhurst family history and genealogy resources (FamilySearch Research Wiki). Birth, marriage, and death records, town histories, cemeteries, churches, newspapers, libraries, and genealogical societies.
• Newtown Township was in Queens County, NY. Newtown Township stretched from the East River to the Flushing River and included the following towns: Maspeth, Newtown/Elmhurst, East Elmhurst, Middle Village, Glendale, Ridgewood, Forest Hills, Rego Park, Woodside, Jackson Heights and Corona.

Sources

• Source:Riker, James. Annals of Newtown in Queens County, New-York

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Elmhurst, New York may refer to:

• Elmhurst, Chautauqua County, New York
• Elmhurst, Queens, New York City