Seventeenth Century Historical Sites in  New York City and Long Island

As a child, I thought that history was just a study of time lines, wars and dead people. Then, around my teenage years, my dad completed his research into our family's history and found that we were descended from a passenger on the Mayflower.  Our family's history started in this country in 1620!  When he told me this, suddenly history became alive to me.  However, I felt upset that one could only "experience" the seventeenth century at sites such as Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts and Jamestowne in Virginia.

Growing up and becoming a high school teacher in New York City, I saw the City always changing.  The old buildings were constantly being torn down and new buildings were rebuilt.   Then, while strolling around the neighborhood of the school where I teach, I found a quaint, Dutch Colonial house, built at the end of the seventeenth century. There it was, among the factories in Ridgewood, Queens -- the Vander Ende-Onderdonk House.  On that day, I set out to find other buildings from that period!

When I started my search, I expected to find four or five buildings.  I was amazed to find so many seventeenth century buildings still existing in the New York City area (or rebuilt on the original site).  I worry that these structures may be destroyed.  Historical societies try to maintain homes (some are on the National Register of Historical Homes, so they have some protection), but this can be costly and time consuming.  I also worry about their destruction by arsonists or graffiti vandals and by pollutants.  It is important for these historical structures to be available to people, as visiting these homes may be the only learning experience one has about people from this earlier time.

Although this research is about buildings, we must realize that these structures also tell us a story about real people.  People created these buildings for a purpose -- for families to live in, for people to gather together for both religious and social reasons, and for people to acquire knowledge. The buildings express the lives of the people and their commitment to create a new life in the New World.

It is also important for people to remember that this nation was formed by the struggles of ordinary people to better themselves in a New World.  It was they who built the buildings out of native materials, grew food from an often stubborn land, so that their children could have a better life. That these buildings have survived for almost four centuries is reason enough not to destroy them!.

To see the lists and locations of these historic buildings and places, click on Manhattan, Brooklyn,Queens, Staten Island or the Bronx. I have also included Nassau,  and  Suffolk, two counties to the east of New York City. (These borough and county websites are a "work in progress" and will change as I take photos and obtain additional information.)