These stones are the ghosts of a forgotten era in Queens history, entombed in a shabby sidewalk.They come from a grist mill built in Dutch Kills around 1657 that helped turn the economic fortunes of western Queens.
The Colonial-era relics, among the oldest European artifacts in the borough, are cemented into a sidewalk along Queens Plaza, with only their tops visible.
"People walk on them every single day, and I'm sure they think that they are manhole covers," said Debbie Van Cura, of Long Island City, who teaches sociology at LaGuardia Community College.
"Nobody really understands fully what they are."
That will soon change.
The millstones will be disinterred and displayed in a park to be created along Northern Blvd. as part of a $43 million city project to overhaul the traffic-choked plaza.
Ancient millstones grist for historians
5 comments:
This millstone, alongside the other millstone called Commissar Bloomberg need to be displayed to remind people that one did useful work for all, and the other took care of only himself.
I am a non sequitur.
Thanks Crappy! Nice work.
Very exciting. I honestly didn't think that there'd still be something so old and full of history, right here in Queens. I'm definitely checking it out one day and taking pictures.
A non-sequitur, how cute!
If we allow our history to be forgotten we are destined to become the grist of the political clubhouse.
By denying our past
the machine seeks to ensure
their own future.
Pandering to new arrivals
who are much more easily "tweeded"
is one of their specialties!
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