The Dutch Kills Millstones are a set of millstones in Queens , New York City.
30-601: Constructed by Burger Jorissen in 1650, Jorrisen's Mill was the first tidal mill in western Queens. It operated using a ditch known as Berger's Sluice , which ran just east of Northern Boulevard between 40th Road and 48th Street. For decades, a pair of centuries-old millstones, once used to grind wheat, have been embedded in a traffic triangle at Queens Plaza, where Northern and Queens Boulevards intersect and two major elevated New York City Subway lines converge. The labor-intensive tasks of grinding wheat and sifting flour were predominantly carried out by African-American workers. It
60-426: A Library/Research Center that contains over 10,000 items, including books and publications on local history, a photographic record of the community, and neighborhood ephemera and memorabilia. The GAHS holdings include dozens of antiquarian atlases and thousands of historic maps of Queens and surrounding areas from the now defunct Belcher Hyde map company among others. The holdings also include an almost complete run (or
90-566: A bike lane and in a congested traffic hub, raised concerns about safety and exposure to road salt and weathering. As a temporary measure due to public outcry, the millstones of Dutch Kills have been moved to the Ravenswood library. Though the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission has declined to designate the millstones as landmarks., the millstones are considered the oldest surviving European artifacts in
120-748: A carpet or rubber matting, which trap the heavy minerals, gemstones, and other valuable minerals. Since the early 2000s more miners and prospectors are relying on more modern and effective matting systems. The result is a concentrate which requires additional processing. In the Somerset Levels , sluice gates are known as clyse or clyce. Most of the inhabitants of Guyana refer to sluices as kokers. The Sinhala people in Sri Lanka, who had an ancient civilization based on harvested rain water, refer to sluices as Horovuwa. Greater Astoria Historical Society The Greater Astoria Historical Society (GAHS)
150-561: A hearse from Quinn's funeral home, whose historical background is Irish Catholic , to save the synagogue stone," and relocate it to the Greater Astoria Historical Society. They also lobbied the city EDC to preserve the Dutch Kills Millstones . The holdings of the Greater Astoria Historical Society, on loan and owned, include a collection of rare and unusual items available for public perusal. The GAHS maintains
180-402: A secure environment, accompanied by interpretative and educational information, is essential for public understanding and appreciation. It is uncommon for tide mill millstones to remain intact, as many have been shattered or destroyed over time. The association of these millstones with a 17th-century mill further enhances their rarity and historical value. The Jorrisen millstones are likely among
210-552: A simple, hand-operated, chain pulled/lowered, worm drive or rack-and-pinion drive , or it may be electrically or hydraulically powered. A flap sluice, however, operates automatically, without external intervention or inputs. Sluice gates are one of the most common hydraulic structures used to control or measure the flow in open channels. Vertical rising sluice gates are the most common in open channels and can operate under two flow regimes: free flow and submerged flow. The most important depths in designing of sluice gates are: In
240-520: Is a non-profit cultural and historical organization located in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens , New York , United States , dedicated to preserving the past and promoting the future of the neighborhoods that are part of historic Long Island City , including the Village of Astoria , Blissville , Bowery Bay , Dutch Kills , Hunters Point , Ravenswood , Steinway Village , and Sunnyside . The mission of
270-429: Is a sluice channeling water toward a water mill . The terms sluice , sluice gate , knife gate , and slide gate are used interchangeably in the water and wastewater control industry. "Sluice gate" refers to a movable gate allowing water to flow under it. When a sluice is lowered, water may spill over the top, in which case the gate operates as a weir . Usually, a mechanism drives the sluice up or down. This may be
300-447: Is to foster a positive sense of community pride and identity through an understanding of history for all residents, both newly arrived immigrants and longtime residents. The Greater Astoria Historical Society's “Long Island City Forum” is a multi-faceted program that includes lectures, video presentations, walking tours, exhibits and programs designed for local schools to increase awareness of Long Island City history. Regular tours include
330-617: Is very likely that some of the 163 African American slaves known to have been held in Newtown in 1755 were employed in operating these millstones. Since 1631, tide-powered water mills in Boston, New England, and New York have been essential for grinding grain, cutting lumber, grinding spices, making snuff, pounding iron, and performing numerous other heavy labor tasks that contributed to America's development. These “tide-mills” also supported maritime commerce, connecting emerging metropolitan centers along
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#1733104647446360-770: The Astoria History Project . The GAHS also has an extensive collection of images relating to the history of the East River, which can be viewed at East River NYC . The Greater Astoria Historical Society has a historical plaque program, which designates noteworthy locations in Queens. The GAHS has erected a plaque on the apartment building at 43-30, 46th Street , in Sunnyside, Queens , where legendary jazz musician Bix Beiderbecke , "the remote and mysterious jazz cornettist... died in obscurity." In collaboration with local historians,
390-772: The East River and the piano factory Steinway & Sons . The Greater Astoria Historical Society sponsors an annual Haunted Waters Walking Tour along the East River in Long Island City as part of the Socrates Sculpture Park 's Halloween Harvest Festival. The Greater Astoria Historical Society's most recent program, the Winged Fist Project , is dedicated to preserving the legacy of the Irish American Athletic Club , an amateur athletic organization that
420-530: The Long Island Star Journal , a newspaper that chronicled life in Queens, from the 1840s until 1968. The Greater Astoria Historical Society offices in the historic Quinn Memorial Building on the corner of Broadway and 36th Street in Astoria include a 2,000-square-foot (190 m ) exhibit space for both permanent and rotating exhibits of topical interest to the community. The GAHS, which is affiliated with
450-800: The morgue file ) of the Long Island Star Journal, Archived May 9, 2008, at the Wayback Machine "a daily paper that informed the community about local and world news until it folded in 1968. A banner across the Star-Journal masthead reminded readers that the newspaper's name came from the merger of the Long Island Daily Star (1876) and the North Shore Daily Journal—The Flushing Journal (1841)." The Greater Astoria Historical Society actively solicits
480-557: The Atlantic Coast. In New York, these mills were an economic boon that propelled the city to greatness—a fact commemorated by the two flour barrels on the city's coat of arms. The mill at Dutch Kills in Long Island City , New York was the first in western Queens. The LIRR expansion caused the gristmill to be destroyed in 1861, the last vestiges of the mill are the stones Jorrisen installed in 1657. These millstones are linked to
510-468: The Greater Astoria Historical Society has authored or co-authored four books on the history of Queens: Long Island City , Postcards of Long Island City , The East River , and The Queensboro Bridge . The GAHS has also published a free map that includes popular walking tours along the East River in Queens. The GAHS also compiles a weekly column for the Queens Gazette , summarizing historical articles from
540-542: The Greater Astoria Historical Society, founded in 1985, is to discover, procure and preserve the history of historic Long Island City , which was incorporated into the City of Greater New York in 1898. In a borough well known for its diverse population (some 138 languages are spoken in Queens), the Long Island City / Astoria area is home to more than 350,000 people. A primary goal of the GAHS
570-571: The Grist Mill in the first European community in Queens, located in what was and still is known as Dutch Kills. The Payntar Millstones are significant beyond making flour for Washington's Continental Army; they are a tangible link to early U.S. industrial history. The mill's ownership can be traced through several families: Bragaw, Parcell, Polhemus and Ryerson, before being acquired by the Payntar family in 1831. The mill and its pond remained until 1861, when
600-599: The Long Island Railroad's construction obliterated the site. The Payntar family salvaged the millstones and placed them in front of their home on Jackson Avenue , approximately 300 feet north of Queens Plaza . When the Payntar home was demolished in 1913, the millstones were moved to the plaza in front of the Long Island Savings Bank at 41st Avenue and Queens Plaza North. A postcard from around 1925 depicts tall light fixtures with circular bases resembling
630-479: The Queens Tourism Council, maintains a tourist information booth outside its office and provides free maps and pamphlets to visitors looking to explore the history of Queens. A number of community groups use the Greater Astoria Historical Society offices for meetings, including; Astoria Music Society, Astoria Performing Arts Center, Central Astoria Development Coalition, Greenshores New York, Queens Council on
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#1733104647446660-538: The borough. Lore was they arrived on a West Indian merchant ship. The design on their faces suggests they are either replacements or originals with their faces re-scored, dating to the early 19th century. However; Historian Theodore Hazen, a millstone expert, confirmed that the Jorissen Tide Mill millstones in Dutch Kills, western Long Island, were indeed Esopus Millstones made from Shawangunk Conglomerate sourced from
690-495: The donation of photographic images related to Queens history. The GAHS holdings include thousands of black and white photographs, photographic slides , glass negatives and tintypes and include the works of notable Queens historians Vincent F. Seyfried and Frank Carrado, informally known as the "Mayor of Long Island City." The GAHS has published hundreds of these photos in their books, and has scanned thousands of images. More than 3,000 of these images are available online through
720-570: The earliest tidal millstones preserved in the United States, and possibly in the Western Hemisphere. Sluice A sluice ( / s l u s / SLOOS ) is a water channel containing a sluice gate , a type of lock to manage the water flow and water level. It can also be an open channel which processes material, such as a river sluice used in gold prospecting or fossicking . A mill race , leet , flume , penstock or lade
750-646: The elements. The centers of the stones have eroded, with one stone cracked and asphalt dumped into them. Concerns about their condition were raised as early as 2001. As part of a multimillion-dollar renovation of Queens Plaza by the NYC Planning and the New York City Economic Development Corporation , the millstones were to be moved to the center of the plaza and mounted on pedestals with four pins drilled through them. Their centers would be filled with grout. However, their new location, near
780-594: The millstones. 40th Avenue was once called Paynter Ave. During the construction of the Queens Plaza subway station around 1930, the stones were temporarily relocated to a nearby flower bed. A 1940s booklet by the Long Island Savings Bank shows the millstones embedded in a traffic island, where they remained until the 2000s. For the next 15 years, the local historical society monitored the millstones, noting significant deterioration due to vandalism and exposure to
810-401: The mountains of the United States, sluices transported logs from steep hillsides to downslope sawmill ponds or yarding areas. Nineteenth-century logging was traditionally a winter activity for men who spent summers working on farms. Where there were freezing nights, water might be applied to logging sluices every night so a fresh coating of slippery ice would reduce friction of logs placed in
840-416: The sluice the following morning. Sluice boxes are often used in the recovery of black sands , gold , and other minerals from placer deposits during placer mining operations. They may be small-scale, as used in prospecting , or much larger, as in commercial operations, where the material is sometimes screened using a trommel , screening plant or sieve. Traditional sluices have transverse riffles over
870-685: The ‘Gunks’ above the Rochester-Accord area in New York. The Greater Astoria Historical Society sought support to temporarily house the millstones in their museum, retain experts to study their origin and age, and exhibit them for the community until a permanent local interior space is found. The society, with the expertise to securely house the artifacts, would make them available for public viewing more frequently than alternative proposals. The millstones from Jorrisen's Mill are significant artifacts of New York's early industrial history. Their preservation in
900-460: Was active in Long Island City in the first two decades of the 20th century. When possible, the Greater Astoria Historical Society attempts to acquire and preserve artifacts of historical significance to Queens. The GAHS played an important role "in saving the cornerstone of Congregation Mishkan Israel, the third oldest temple in Queens. It had been sitting near (a sidewalk in Queens) until a Greek American , George Stamatiades, and others helped to get
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