The Riker–Lent–Smith Homestead and Cemetery are a historic house and cemetery in

East Elmhurst, New York East Elmhurst is a residential neighborhood in the northwest section of the New York City borough of Queens. It is bounded to the south by Jackson Heights and Corona, to the north and east by Bowery Bay, and to the west by Woodside and Ditmars ...

. The neighborhood, within the

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

borough of

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

, is called

Steinway Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway (), is a German-American piano company, founded in 1853 in Manhattan by German piano builder Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (later known as Henry E. Steinway). The company's growth led to the opening of a ...

in the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

designation document. 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 Rikers Island is a island in the East River between Queens and the Bronx that contains New York City's main jail complex. Named after Abraham Rycken, who took possession of the island in 1664, the island was originally under in size, but has ...

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 William James MacNeven (also sometimes rendered as MacNevin or McNevin) (21 March 1763 Ballinahown, near Aughrim, Co. Galway, Ireland - 12 July 1841 New York City) was an Irish physician forced, as a result of his involvement with insurgent Unit ...

who died in 1841 and who had stayed with the Riker family. 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, and the house was added to the

in 1984. The house is the oldest known existing residential structure in the borough of

, New York.

References

Cemeteries on the National Register of Historic Places in New York City Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Queens, New York Houses completed in 1729 Cemeteries in Queens, New York 1729 establishments in the Thirteen Colonies East Elmhurst, Queens {{QueensNY-NRHP-stub

See also

References