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Queens: West Drive - Alston Place

Van Wyck House West Dr. & Alston Pl. Douglaston, N.Y. C. Manley DeBevoise 51-05 Browvale Lane, Little Neck, N.Y. 11362 The old Dutch colonial house at the corner of West Drive and Alston Pl. in Douglas Manor, Douglaston, New York, now owned by Mr. and Mrs. L. Kelville Larson, was built in 1735 by Cornelius Van Wyck. He was the eldest son of Johannes Van Wyck whose father was an earlier Cornelius Van Wyck, was one of the patentees of Mid-Wout, having emigrated there from Holland in 1660. In 1705 one hundred and twenty-five acres of land south and east of the present house at West Drive and Alston Pl., was purchased from Richard and Sarah Cornell by Johannes Van Wyck. His brother Theodorus had already acquired land from King's Point. Johannes had three sons and four daughters and became a Justice of the Provincial Courts. When Justice Johannes died in 1734, the property was inherited by his eldest son Cornelius who had married Mary Hicks, daughter of Judge Isaac Hicks. Cornelius and Mary prospered, added to the original farm, and until Cornelius' death in 1759, lived in the house they had built twenty-four years earlier. Cornelius left three sons - Stephan, Cornelius II, and Gilbert. Stephan the eldest, inherited the house and flourishing farm. Cornelius II had the misfortune of being captured by the British in a surprise raid of Flushing and was confined aboard one of the notorious prison ships anchored in the Wallabout (Bay). He died soon after his release from the effect of a years confinement under horrible conditions. Stephan fell heir to the appointment as delegate to the Continental Congress to which office his deceased brother Cornelius had been elected in June, 1776.

Photo from the New York Public Library - Milstein Collection