Veterans Plaza

Jackson Mill Rd., 32 Ave. bet. 93 St. and 94 St.

Queens

Directions via Google Maps

This text is part of Parks’ Historical Signs Project and can be found posted within the park.

Veterans Plaza is located in the Elmhurst section of Queens. Before the establishment of New Netherlands in the 1600s, the native Lenapes referred to the area as Mespat. In 1642, Reverend Francis Doughy, a dissenting clergyman, and a group of his followers from Plymouth received the permission of Director General of New Netherlands, Willem Kieft (1597-1647), to settle 13,000 acres of Mespat. The newcomers called the area Newtown. It continued to be a bastion of religious tolerance during the entire colonial period (Kieft’s grant, dated March 28, 1642, is still on file in Albany, and is the oldest in Long Island.)

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