OuterB on Queens Real Estate

This past Sunday I took a tour of the Lent-Riker-Smith home in Jackson Heights, Queens. This is a historic home located in the northern part of Jackson Heights, on 19th Road at 78th Street; the original part of the home dates from the middle of the 17th century and is landmarked by New York City. Its current residents, Michael and and Marion Smith, have lovingly taken care of it for close to 30 years now. The house is filled with all sorts of antique furniture, knick-knacks from times past, and of course the 17th and 18th century architecture in different parts of the home. I loved all the wood and rich fabrics, and the wooden floors were particularly appealing to me.

The cemetery on the property contains primarily the graves of the Lents and Rikers. As you may know, the name “Riker” is the named shared by Riker’s Island, the prison off the coast of NY. The cemetery is amazing. The grounds overall are just lovely and I enjoyed sitting in the backyard relaxing after having seen the house and grounds.

The Smiths hold this tour once a year, usually in the fall. It is done through the Queens Historical Society. While I was there it was fun to hear snippets of conversations between people who are descendents of the Lents or Rikers.

I highly recommend this tour. I took a lot of photos, and have included my favorites here. Please enjoy!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 19th, 2007 at 10:12 am and is filed under Jackson Heights. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.