FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM JANUARY 11, 2018 • THE QUEENS COURIER 41
Whitestone’s growth into
a middle-class community
BY THE QUEENS COURIER STAFF
editorial@qns.com/@QNS
Rooted in a rural past, Whitestone is
today a burgeoning middle-class neighborhood
that off ers the comforts of suburbia
just a few miles from Manhattan.
According to the New York City
Department of City Planning,
Whitestone is one of the oldest
European settlements on Long Island,
dating to the 1640s. Dutch farmers who
founded the settlement named the area
for a large, white boulder that broke the
tides along the shore. Information from
the New York City Parks Department
notes that these farmers purchased
the land from the Matinecock Native
Americans at the price of one ax per
50 acres.
One of the area’s most prominent
settlers was Francis Lewis, a merchant
who was an original signatories on
the Declaration of Independence. Lewis
settled into the area in 1765 aft er retiring
from the trade business, and he
lived there when starting his political
career in the Continental Congress and
throughout the Revolutionary War.
One of Whitestone’s public parks is
named aft er Francis Lewis, and locals
frequently fl ock to the waterfront
grounds to snap photos of the illuminated
bridge over the wide expanse of
water below.
The Whitestone community is
extremely close-knit, with many families
living in the area for generations.
Residents pitch in to plan many local
events throughout the year and several
civic associations exist to reinforce
the sense of small-town solidarity within
the larger context of New York City.
Perhaps its most prominent landmark
is the bridge co-named for the neighborhood
and its northern neighbor.
Th e Bronx-Whitestone Bridge, from its
1939 opening, has been regarded as
one of the city’s busiest crossings, with
thousands of cars and trucks traveling it
each day. Carrying Interstate 678 across
the East River, it links the Hutcheson
River Parkway in the Bronx with the
Whitestone Expressway, which feeds
into the Van Wyck Expressway, and the
Cross Island Parkway.
Living in Whitestone