THE MILLSTONES IN QUEENS PLAZA

These two 19th-century millstones were removed
from the sidewalk during the 2011 reconstruction
of Queens Plaza and set within this landscape as a
reminder of Queens' agrarian past. Millstones like
these were used to grind corn and grain into flour
in tidal gristmills, which were built along tidal inlets
and powered by water channeled through canal-
like sluices. The movement of the tides turned the
millstones for about five hours twice a day.

In the mid-1600s, Silesian immigrant Burger Jorissen
built a tidal gristmill not far from this site. By the
late 1700s, several tidal gristmills were active on
the western coast of Queens, providing an essential
service to the developing municipalities of Dutch Kills,
Ravenswood, and Astoria, which later joined to form
Long Island City.

In 1860, Jorissen's mill was demolished to make way
for a new railroad connection, but the mill's sluice,
known locally as "Burger's Sluice," survived for
several decades after. The historic sluice is echoed
in the drainage corridor that runs beneath the
elevated walkways and through the planted landscape
of the park, capturing rainwater and surface runoff.

To find out more information, please visit
www.nyc.gov/parks.

NYC Parks