Downtown Glen Cove in 1873

This section of the Glen Cove map shows how downtown Glen Cove looked in 1873, from just north of Highland Road on School Street (then considered a part of Glen Street) south to the Glen Street Railroad. The public school was located at the corner of School and Highland, opposite the Methodist Church. The site of today's City Hall was occupied by the home and office of Dr. George Altmuller, one of our community's leading physicians and President of the Queens County Medical Society.

Just south of Glen Street were the Upper and Lower Lakes (also called the Upper and Lower Mill Ponds), picturesque bodies of water originally created to power the saw mills and grist mills of the colonial era. During the 19th Century people came from as far away as New York City for the excellent trout fishing the ponds offered each Spring.

South of the Mill Ponds was an area called "South Glen Cove". Because the stream and mill ponds created a bit of a barrier to people travelling by horse and wagon (there were only two roads across the ponds, atop the mill dams) South Glen Cove didn't evolve as quickly as other parts of the community. It was home to the Duryea Starch Works as well as the homes of the Starch Works owners, and the estates of Wright Duryea and John Duryea are clearly seen just to the right of the Starch Works.

 

 

 

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