Lent Homestead and Cemetery

The Riker-Lent-Smith Homestead and Cemetery are a historic house and cemetery in East Elmhurst, New York. The neighborhood, within the New York City borough of Queens, is called Steinway in the National Register of Historic Places designation document.[2]

Riker-Lent-Smith Homestead and Cemetery
NYC Landmark No. 0135
House as seen from 19th Road
Location78-03 19th Rd.,
East Elmhurst, New York
Coordinates40°46′23″N 73°53′31″W
Area1 acre (0.40 ha)
Built1656, 1729 additions
Architectural styleColonial, Dutch Colonial
NRHP reference No.84002918[1]
NYCL No.0135
Significant dates
Added to NRHPFebruary 2, 1984
Designated NYCLMarch 15, 1966

The earliest part of the house was built by Abraham Riker in 1656. He was an early settler of New Amsterdam, and a member of the Riker family, for whom Rikers Island nearby is named, The house was owned by the Riker and Lent families for much of its history. In 1729, the house was expanded and additions were built by then owner Abraham Lent, a descendant of Abraham Riker. The small graveyard contains not only the graves of family members, but also that of Irish revolutionary and physician William James MacNeven who died in 1841 and who had stayed with the Riker family.[3] Around 1800 the house was again expanded to its current size. It remains an intact house in the Dutch Colonial style. Current owner Marion Duckworth Smith and her late husband Michael Smith began restoration work in 1980,[4] and the house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.[2][5]

The house is the oldest known existing residential structure in the borough of Queens, New York. See the list of oldest buildings in the United States of America.

References

Media related to Riker-Lent-Smith Homestead and Cemetery at Wikimedia Commons

  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. Dibble, James E. "National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form - Lent Homestead and Cemetery". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation. Retrieved 27 December 2013.
  3. The WPA Guide to New York City (1982 Reprint by Pantheon Books ed.). Works Progress Administration. 1939. p. 566. ISBN 0-394-71215-3.
  4. https://www.6sqft.com/tour-the-lent-riker-smith-homestead-and-cemetery-queens-oldest-private-residence/
  5. "Lent Homestead photos". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation. Retrieved 27 December 2013.


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