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HISTORY In the mid 17th Century, the Dutch and English wanted large land parcels here. The 17,000 acres of marshes, plains and woods comprising all of north central and northeastern Queens was owned by the Matinecock Indians, but Dutch Governor William Kieft purchased the parcel and granted land use to a group of English and Dutch families in 1645.
Included in this original group was William Lawrence, a descendant of English nobility. He received the 900 acres of land in an area called Tue's Neck, and was College Point's first settler. For more than a century, the Lawrence family were sole owners of the area that now makes up College Point. In 1788, they started selling pieces of the estate to cover debts. The most notable buyer was the Rev. W. Muhlenberg, rector of St. George's Episcopal Church in Flushing. He envisioned a college to train young men in the Episcopal ministry, and bought all the land at the westernmost point of Lawrence Neck. St. Paul's College opened in 1839, but closed in less than a decade. However, this was long enough for the familiar name of "College Point" to stick and was eventually adopted by the entire community.
In the 1850s, College Point remained rural, but progress began when a newcomer from Germany purchased a huge tract in the point's west central section. Vulcanization of rubber was just discovered in Germany and America, and Conrad Poppenhusen saw the potential of...