A small traffic triangle in front of the clock-towered Bank of Manhattan, where Northern Boulevard begins its march to the eastern end of Long Island, contains two of the oldest man-made objects in Queens embedded in its concrete.

In 1650, Dutchman Burger Jorissen constructed a grist mill that today would be on Northern Boulevard between 40th Road and 41st Avenue. The mill existed on the site for about 111 years, until 1861 when it was razed by the Long Island Rail Road. The Payntar family by that time owned the mill property (40th Avenue was called Payntar Avenue until the 1920s) and had placed millstones that had been shipped in by Jorissen around 1657 in front of their house. The Payntar house was razed in the early 1900s. When Sunnyside Yards, Queens Plaza and the Bank of Manhattan and the elevated were constructed, the millstones were fortunately preserved and embedded in the traffic plaza.

Payntar House east of Northern Blvd about 1900. Millstones were moved to sidewalk in front of house between ca 1860 and ca 1912).

Head of Dutch Kills looking north from Queens Blvd. (black arrow is Payntar house and blue arrow is Sunnyside)

Queens Plaza, 2009. Orange arrows show millstone location ca 1920 to 2009. White arrow: site of former Long Island Savings Bank

Original location of millstones. (blue arrow Sunnyside and black arrow Payntar house)