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HISTORY When the sailors on a Dutch survey ship entered Flushing Bay for the first time in 1628, they were so impressed with the vast area of marsh and meadow that they called it Vlissingen, meaning salt meadow valley. Seventeen years later, a town patent was issued to a group of Dutchmen, who promptly began to homestead the area at the southeast end of Flushing Bay. The town steadily grew, and in 1837, the Flushing Township was incorporated.
Fresh Meadows was the southern suburb of Flushing. The name was probably a reference to the land, and the area was also called Black Stump because plantations were separated by rows of blackened stumps making it easier for slaves to distinguish their master's land from another. During the colonial period, there were only two roads to the meadow: Black Stump Road, which cut east-west through the meadow toward Bayside, now 73rd Avenue, and Fresh Meadow Lane, which ran north-south toward Jamaica.
Members of the British Army, led by Benedict Arnold, tramped through the meadow, making themselves at home at farms along the route. In fact, until well past the turn of...