1.
New York State Capitol
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The New York State Capitol, the seat of New York State government, is located in Albany, the capital city of the U. S. state of New York. The capitol building is part of the Empire State Plaza complex on State Street in Capitol Park, housing the New York State Legislature, the building was completed in 1899 at a cost of US$25 million, making it the most expensive government building of its time. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971, the New York State Capitol was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1979. Legislative sessions had been held at different buildings in different places before Albany was declared the State capital in 1797, from that time until 1811, the State Legislature met at the Old Albany City Hall. The first State Capitol was inaugurated in 1812 and remained in use until 1879 when the current building was inaugurated, the present Capitol was built between 1867 and 1899. Three teams of architects worked on the design of the Capitol during the 32 years of its construction and they were managed by, 1867-75, Thomas Fuller, 1875–83, Leopold Eidlitz and Henry Hobson Richardson, 1883-99, Isaac G. Perry. Fuller, the architect, was an Englishman who also designed the Canadian Parliament buildings of Parliament Hill. The ground floor of the capitol was built in the Classical/Romanesque style. The increasing construction costs became a source of conflict in the legislature. Eidlitz and Richardson, were dismissed by Grover Cleveland upon his election to governorship and he hired Perry to complete the project. The legislative chambers, the floor and roof work were all finished in Victorian-modified Romanesque that was distinctively Richardsons design. It was Richardson who dominated the final outcome of the grand building and it is claimed that Richardson was imitating the Hôtel de Ville in Paris, France. The Chazy limestone for its construction was quarried at the Clark Quarry in Essex County, the central open court is dominated by a shaft intended to support a massive dome. The dome and tower were never completed, as it was found that the weight of the building was already causing stress fractures, to stop this movement, a very large, 166-foot long exterior Eastern Staircase was added to support the front facade. The Capitol exterior is made of granite from Hallowell, Maine. The granite structure is 220 feet tall at its highest point, underground tunnels connect it to the Empire State Plaza and Alfred E. Smith Building. The buildings exterior underwent restoration from 2000 until fall 2014, the Assembly Chamber was built with the largest open arched span in the world. However, this produced very inconvenient acoustic results, a more serious problem was that the shifting foundations of the whole structure made the vaults unstable
2.
New York (state)
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New York is a state in the northeastern United States, and is the 27th-most extensive, fourth-most populous, and seventh-most densely populated U. S. state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south and Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont to the east. With an estimated population of 8.55 million in 2015, New York City is the most populous city in the United States, the New York Metropolitan Area is one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. New York City makes up over 40% of the population of New York State, two-thirds of the states population lives in the New York City Metropolitan Area, and nearly 40% lives on Long Island. Both the state and New York City were named for the 17th-century Duke of York, the next four most populous cities in the state are Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, and Syracuse, while the state capital is Albany. New York has a diverse geography and these more mountainous regions are bisected by two major river valleys—the north-south Hudson River Valley and the east-west Mohawk River Valley, which forms the core of the Erie Canal. Western New York is considered part of the Great Lakes Region and straddles Lake Ontario, between the two lakes lies Niagara Falls. The central part of the state is dominated by the Finger Lakes, New York had been inhabited by tribes of Algonquian and Iroquoian-speaking Native Americans for several hundred years by the time the earliest Europeans came to New York. The first Europeans to arrive were French colonists and Jesuit missionaries who arrived southward from settlements at Montreal for trade, the British annexed the colony from the Dutch in 1664. The borders of the British colony, the Province of New York, were similar to those of the present-day state, New York is home to the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of the United States and its ideals of freedom, democracy, and opportunity. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. On April 17,1524 Verrazanno entered New York Bay, by way of the now called the Narrows into the northern bay which he named Santa Margherita. Verrazzano described it as a vast coastline with a delta in which every kind of ship could pass and he adds. This vast sheet of water swarmed with native boats and he landed on the tip of Manhattan and possibly on the furthest point of Long Island. Verrazannos stay was interrupted by a storm which pushed him north towards Marthas Vineyard, in 1540 French traders from New France built a chateau on Castle Island, within present-day Albany, due to flooding, it was abandoned the next year. In 1614, the Dutch under the command of Hendrick Corstiaensen, rebuilt the French chateau, Fort Nassau was the first Dutch settlement in North America, and was located along the Hudson River, also within present-day Albany. The small fort served as a trading post and warehouse, located on the Hudson River flood plain, the rudimentary fort was washed away by flooding in 1617, and abandoned for good after Fort Orange was built nearby in 1623. Henry Hudsons 1609 voyage marked the beginning of European involvement with the area, sailing for the Dutch East India Company and looking for a passage to Asia, he entered the Upper New York Bay on September 11 of that year
3.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
4.
Republican Party (United States)
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The Republican Party, commonly referred to as the GOP, is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, the other being its historic rival, the Democratic Party. The party is named after republicanism, the dominant value during the American Revolution and it was founded by anti-slavery activists, modernists, ex-Whigs, and ex-Free Soilers in 1854. The Republicans dominated politics nationally and in the majority of northern States for most of the period between 1860 and 1932, there have been 19 Republican presidents, the most from any one party. The Republican Partys current ideology is American conservatism, which contrasts with the Democrats more progressive platform, further, its platform involves support for free market capitalism, free enterprise, fiscal conservatism, a strong national defense, deregulation, and restrictions on labor unions. In addition to advocating for economic policies, the Republican Party is socially conservative. As of 2017, the GOP is documented as being at its strongest position politically since 1928, in addition to holding the Presidency, the Republicans control the 115th United States Congress, having majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The party also holds a majority of governorships and state legislatures, the main cause was opposition to the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise by which slavery was kept out of Kansas. The Northern Republicans saw the expansion of slavery as a great evil, the first public meeting of the general anti-Nebraska movement where the name Republican was suggested for a new anti-slavery party was held on March 20,1854, in a schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin. The name was chosen to pay homage to Thomas Jeffersons Republican Party. The first official party convention was held on July 6,1854, in Jackson and it oversaw the preserving of the union, the end of slavery, and the provision of equal rights to all men in the American Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861–1877. The Republicans initial base was in the Northeast and the upper Midwest, with the realignment of parties and voters in the Third Party System, the strong run of John C. Fremont in the 1856 United States presidential election demonstrated it dominated most northern states, early Republican ideology was reflected in the 1856 slogan free labor, free land, free men, which had been coined by Salmon P. Chase, a Senator from Ohio. Free labor referred to the Republican opposition to labor and belief in independent artisans. Free land referred to Republican opposition to the system whereby slaveowners could buy up all the good farm land. The Party strove to contain the expansion of slavery, which would cause the collapse of the slave power, Lincoln, representing the fast-growing western states, won the Republican nomination in 1860 and subsequently won the presidency. The party took on the mission of preserving the Union, and destroying slavery during the American Civil War, in the election of 1864, it united with War Democrats to nominate Lincoln on the National Union Party ticket. The partys success created factionalism within the party in the 1870s and those who felt that Reconstruction had been accomplished and was continued mostly to promote the large-scale corruption tolerated by President Ulysses S. Grant ran Horace Greeley for the presidency. The Stalwarts defended Grant and the system, the Half-Breeds led by Chester A. Arthur pushed for reform of the civil service in 1883
5.
Democratic Party (United States)
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The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The Democrats dominant worldview was once socially conservative and fiscally classical liberalism, while, especially in the rural South, since Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal coalition in the 1930s, the Democratic Party has also promoted a social-liberal platform, supporting social justice. Today, the House Democratic caucus is composed mostly of progressives and centrists, the partys philosophy of modern liberalism advocates social and economic equality, along with the welfare state. It seeks to provide government intervention and regulation in the economy, the party has united with smaller left-wing regional parties throughout the country, such as the Farmer–Labor Party in Minnesota and the Nonpartisan League in North Dakota. Well into the 20th century, the party had conservative pro-business, the New Deal Coalition of 1932–1964 attracted strong support from voters of recent European extraction—many of whom were Catholics based in the cities. After Franklin D. Roosevelts New Deal of the 1930s, the pro-business wing withered outside the South, after the racial turmoil of the 1960s, most southern whites and many northern Catholics moved into the Republican Party at the presidential level. The once-powerful labor union element became smaller and less supportive after the 1970s, white Evangelicals and Southerners became heavily Republican at the state and local level in the 1990s. However, African Americans became a major Democratic element after 1964, after 2000, Hispanic and Latino Americans, Asian Americans, the LGBT community, single women and professional women moved towards the party as well. The Northeast and the West Coast became Democratic strongholds by 1990 after the Republicans stopped appealing to socially liberal voters there, overall, the Democratic Party has retained a membership lead over its major rival the Republican Party. The most recent was the 44th president Barack Obama, who held the office from 2009 to 2017, in the 115th Congress, following the 2016 elections, Democrats are the opposition party, holding a minority of seats in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The party also holds a minority of governorships, and state legislatures, though they do control the mayoralty of cities such as New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and Washington, D. C. The Democratic Party traces its origins to the inspiration of the Democratic-Republican Party, founded by Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and that party also inspired the Whigs and modern Republicans. Organizationally, the modern Democratic Party truly arose in the 1830s, since the nomination of William Jennings Bryan in 1896, the party has generally positioned itself to the left of the Republican Party on economic issues. They have been liberal on civil rights issues since 1948. On foreign policy both parties changed position several times and that party, the Democratic-Republican Party, came to power in the election of 1800. After the War of 1812 the Federalists virtually disappeared and the national political party left was the Democratic-Republicans. The Democratic-Republican party still had its own factions, however. As Norton explains the transformation in 1828, Jacksonians believed the peoples will had finally prevailed, through a lavishly financed coalition of state parties, political leaders, and newspaper editors, a popular movement had elected the president
6.
Social Democratic Party of America
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The Social Democratic Party of America was a short-lived political party in the United States, established in 1898. The group was formed out of elements of the Social Democracy of America, following the defeat of the 1894 American Railway Union strike, the former populist Eugene V. Debs exhaustively read socialist literature provided to him by Milwaukee publisher Victor L. Berger and other independent Socialists and this paper was a major success, quickly gaining a paid subscribership of 80,000 and invigorating the Socialist movement. Debs was named the head of project and the planets were thus aligned for the formation of a new national political organization. A convention of the remnant of the American Railway Union was called for June 15,1897 in Chicago. The convention which gave birth to the new organization actually began as a final conclave of the American Railway Union, director William E. Burns called the meeting to order and A. B. Adair of the Typographical Union presided. President of the ARU Eugene Debs delivered an address to the assembled delegates, the first three days of the convention were occupied with hearing reports of officers and of committees and closing up the affairs of the American Railway Union. On Friday, June 18, the organization changed its name to the Social Democracy of America. The convention was thrown open to delegates representing other organizations. The Social Democracy of America initially did not have an official head — its executive powers were vested in an Executive Board, the unit of organization of the Social Democracy was the Local Branch of at least 5 members. On the first Tuesday in April, each of these Local Branches was to elect a representative to the State Union. An initiation fee of 25 cents was set, and monthly dues pegged at 15 cents per month, office of the organization was established at 504 Trude Building, Corner of Randolph and Wabash Aves. The Social Democracy of America proved to be a short lived and disparate group of Marxists, trade unionists, Owenite socialists, populists, the SDA initially sought to establish socialist cooperative colonies. In August 1897 a three-member Colonization Committee was established, consisting of Col. Richard J. Hinton, Wilfred P. Borland and this trio explored the possibility of establishing a colony to seed the future Cooperative Commonwealth in the Cumberland plateau of Tennessee. The colonization scheme failed to materialize by the time of the convention of the SDA, held in Chicago from June 7–11,1898. Frederic Heath, the first historian of the movement, recounted the gathering in a 1900 book, outwardly the meeting presented the picture of a pleasing and harmonious gathering, creditable to the Socialist movement. Under the surface, however, there was a hostility that meant almost certain rupture, the presence of such well-known Anarchists as Mrs. These branches had been organized by William Burns and the members of the national board
7.
Socialist Labor Party of America
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Originally known as the Workingmens Party of America, the party changed its name in 1877 to Socialistic Labor Party and again sometime in the late 1880s to Socialist Labor Party. It has operated continuously since then, although its current existence is tenuous, despite these organizational efforts, the socialist movement in America remained deeply divided over tactics. In April 1876, a conference took place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania bringing together representatives of the union-oriented Internationalists. The gathering agreed to issue a call for a Unity Congress to be held in July to establish a new political party, on Saturday, July 15,1876, delegates from the remaining American sections of the First International gathered in Philadelphia and disbanded that organization. German émigrés dominated the organization, although in Chicago Albert Parsons, in 1877 the Workingmens Party met at Newark, New Jersey in a convention which changed the name of the organization to the Socialist Labor Party. The SLP achieved its most notable success in Chicago, where in 1878-79, its candidates won slots for a state senator. There was an upsurge of support for the new organization, reflected in the proliferation of the socialist press, between 1876 and 1877, no fewer than 24 newspapers were established which either directly or indirectly supported the SLP. Eight of these were English-language publications, including one daily, while 14 were in German, two more papers were published in Czech and Swedish, respectively. Just two years later, in the wake of a crisis, not one of the privately owned English newspapers had survived. The party established its own English-language paper, The National Socialist, in May 1878, the year 1878 saw the establishment of a more enduring newspaper, the German-language New Yorker Volkszeitung. About this same time, the American anarchist movement gained strength, fueled by the economic crisis, both being critics and denouncers of the present system, however, they were able to work together. As a result of the brutalities of the militia and regulars in the strikes of 1877. This found expression in the Lehr und Wehr Verein, an armed and drilled body of workmen pledged to protect the workers against the militia in a strike, the arms-bearing tactics were opposed by the Executive Committee of the SLP, the Secretary of which was Philip van Patten. A fight ensued between the Verbote, which was the edition of the Arbeiter Zeitung, of Chicago, and the Labor Bulletin. The SLP suffered its first split in 1878, members who were displeased with the exclusively political actionist turn of the party who wanted the group to focus more on organizing workers formed the International Labor Union. Members were not barred from belonging to both, but there was some animosity between the two organizations. Amidst economic crisis and factional squabbling, membership in the SLP plummeted, as the 1870s drew to a close, the Socialistic Labor Party could count about 2,600 members—with at least one estimate substantially lower. The party was on the ropes, the years 1880 and 1881 saw a new influx of political refugees from Germany, activists in the socialist movement fleeing the crackdown on radicalism launched with the Anti-Socialist Laws of 1878
8.
Staten Island
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Staten Island /ˌstætən ˈaɪlənd/ is one of the five boroughs of New York City in the U. S. state of New York. In the southwest of the city, Staten Island is the southernmost part of both the city and state of New York, with Conference House Park at the tip of the island. The borough is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull, with a 2015 Census-estimated population of 474,558, Staten Island is the least populated of the boroughs but is the third-largest in area at 58 sq mi. Staten Island is the borough of New York with a non-Hispanic White majority. The borough is coextensive with Richmond County, and until 1975 was the Borough of Richmond and its flag was later changed to reflect this. Staten Island has been called the forgotten borough by inhabitants who feel neglected by the city government. The East Shore is home to the 2. 5-mile F. D. R, Boardwalk, the fourth-longest in the world. The South Shore, site of the 17th-century Dutch and French Huguenot settlement, the West Shore is the least populated and most industrial part of the island. Motor traffic can reach the borough from Brooklyn via the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and from New Jersey via the Outerbridge Crossing, Goethals Bridge, and Bayonne Bridge. Staten Island has Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus lines and an MTA rapid transit line, the Staten Island Railway, Staten Island is the only borough that is not connected to the New York City Subway system. The free Staten Island Ferry connects the borough to Manhattan and is a popular tourist attraction, providing views of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and Lower Manhattan. The landfill is being redeveloped as Freshkills Park, a devoted to restoring habitat. As in much of North America, human habitation appeared in the island fairly rapidly after the retreat of the ice sheet, archaeologists have recovered tool evidence of Clovis culture activity dating from about 14,000 years ago. This evidence was first discovered in 1917 in the Charleston section of the island, various Clovis artifacts have been discovered since then, on property owned by Mobil Oil. The island was abandoned later, possibly because of the extirpation of large mammals on the island. Rossville points are a type of arrowhead that defines a Native American cultural period that runs from the Archaic period to the Early Woodland period. They are named for the Rossville section of Staten Island, where they were first found near the old Rossville Post Office building, at the time of European contact, the island was inhabited by the Raritan band of the Unami division of the Lenape. In Lenape, one of the Algonquian languages, Staten Island was called Aquehonga Manacknong, meaning as far as the place of the bad woods, or Eghquhous, the area was part of the Lenape homeland known as Lenapehoking
9.
Suffolk County, New York
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Suffolk County /ˈsʌfək/ is a suburban county on Long Island and the easternmost county in the U. S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 1,493,350, estimated to have increased to 1,501,587 in 2015. Its county seat is Riverhead, though most county offices are located in Hauppauge, the county was named after the county of Suffolk in England, from where its earliest European settlers came. Suffolk County incorporates the easternmost extreme of the New York City metropolitan area, the largest of Long Islands four counties and the second-largest of 62 counties in New York State, Suffolk measures 86 miles in length and 26 miles in width at its widest. Major scientific research facilities in Suffolk County include Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, Suffolk County was an original county of the Province of New York, one of twelve created in 1683. From 1664 until 1683 it had been the East Riding of Yorkshire, according to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 2,373 square miles, of which 912 square miles is land and 1,461 square miles is water. It is the second-largest county in New York by total area, Suffolk County occupies the central and eastern part of Long Island, in the extreme east of New York State. The eastern end of the county splits into two peninsulas, known as the North Fork and the South Fork, the county is surrounded by water on three sides, including the Atlantic Ocean and Long Island Sound, with 980 miles of coastline. The eastern end contains large bays, the highest elevation in the county, and on Long Island as a whole, is Jaynes Hill in West Hills, at 401 feet above sea level. The population density in 2010 was 1,637 people per square mile, however, by 2012, with an estimated total population increasing moderately to 1,499,273 there were 569,359 housing units. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 18. 2% of the population and those who identified as white alone, not being of Hispanic or Latino origin, represented 69. 3% of the population. In 2006, the racial or ethnic makeup of the county was 83. 6% White, african Americans were 7. 4% of the population. Asians stood at 3. 4% of the population,5. 4% were of other or mixed race. Latinos were 13. 0% of the population, the most common ethnicities in Suffolk County in 2007 were Italian, Irish, and German. 18. 30% of all households were made up of individuals and 7. 80% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.96 and the average family size was 3.36. In the county, the population was out with 26. 10% under the age of 18,7. 60% from 18 to 24,31. 20% from 25 to 44,23. 30% from 45 to 64. The median age was 36 years, for every 100 females there were 95.90 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.80 males, in 2008, Forbes magazine released its American Community Survey and named Suffolk County number 4 in its list of the top 25 richest counties in America
10.
Nassau County, New York
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Nassau County /ˈnæsɔː/ is a suburban county on Long Island in the U. S. state of New York. At the 2010 census, the population was 1,339,532. The county seat is in the Village of Garden City, within the boundaries of the Mineola 11501 zip code, Nassau County is immediately east of New York City, within the New York-Newark-Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Two cities, three towns,64 incorporated villages, and more than 60 unincorporated hamlets are located within the county, there are 56 public school districts within the county. Post office districts and school use the same names as a city, hamlet, or village within them. In 2012, Forbes magazine, in an article based on the U. S and it also ranks as the most expensive county in America. Nassau County has a police department, fire commission. The county colors are also the colors of the House of Orange-Nassau, several alternate names had been considered for the county, including Bryant, Matinecock, Norfolk, and Sagamore. However, Nassau had the advantage of having at one time been the name of Long Island itself. In 1784, the Town of North Hempstead, was formed through secession by the portions of the Town of Hempstead. When the first European settlers arrived, among the Native Americans to occupy the present area of Nassau County were the Marsapeque, Matinecoc, Dutch settlers in New Netherland predominated in the western portion of Long Island, while English settlers from Connecticut occupied the eastern portion. Until 1664, Long Island was split, roughly at the present border between Nassau and Suffolk counties, between the Dutch in the west and Connecticut claiming the east. The Dutch did grant an English settlement in Hempstead, but drove settlers from the present-day eastern Nassau hamlet of Oyster Bay as part of a boundary dispute, in 1664, all of Long Island became part of the English Province of New York within the Shire of York. Present-day Queens and Nassau were then just part of a larger North Riding, in 1683, Yorkshire was dissolved, Suffolk County and Queens County were established, and the local seat of government was moved west from Hempstead to Jamaica. By 1700, very little of Long Island had not been purchased from the native Indians by the English colonists, the courthouse in Jamaica was torn down by the British during the American Revolution to use the materials to build barracks. About 1787, a new Queens County Courthouse was erected in the new Town of North Hempstead, near present-day Mineola, the Long Island Rail Road reached as far east as Hicksville in 1837, but did not proceed to Farmingdale until 1841 due to the Panic of 1837. The 1850 census was the first in which the population of the three western towns exceeded that of the three towns that are now part of Nassau County. Around 1874, the seat of county government was moved to Long Island City from Mineola
11.
Gravesend, Brooklyn
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Gravesend is a neighborhood in the south-central section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, in the U. S. state of New York. As of 2010, Gravesend had a population of 29,436, Gravesend was one of the original towns in the Dutch colony of New Netherland and became one of the six original towns of Kings County in colonial New York. It was the only English chartered town in what became Kings County and was designated the Shire Town when the English assumed control, courts were removed to Flatbush in 1685. Gravesend is notable for being founded by a woman, Lady Deborah Moody, a prominent early settler was Anthony Janszoon van Salee. When the town was first laid out, almost half were salt marsh wetlands, Gravesend was annexed by the City of Brooklyn in 1894. The derivation of the name Gravesend is unclear, some speculate that it was named after the English seaport of Gravesend, Kent. An alternative explanation suggests that it was named by Willem Kieft for the Dutch settlement of s- Gravesande, there is also a town in the Netherlands called s-Gravenzande. The modern neighborhood of Gravesend lies between Coney Island Avenue to the east, Stillwell Avenue to the west, Kings Highway to the north, to the east of Gravesend is Sheepshead Bay, to the northeast Midwood, to the northwest Bensonhurst, and to the west Bath Beach. To the south, across Coney Island Creek, lies the neighborhood of Coney Island, next to, and parallel with the van Sicklen Family Cemetery is the Old Gravesend Cemetery, where Lady Moody is purported to be interred. Gravesend Cemeterys most exotic occupant is Egyptian émigré Mohammad Ben Misoud, Gravesend is served by three lines of the New York City Subway system. The Coney Island subway yard is in the neighborhood, Gravesend is patrolled by the NYPDs 60th, 61st, and 62nd Precincts. The island and its environs were first inhabited by bands of the Lenape, the first known European to set foot in the area that would become Gravesend was Henry Hudson, whose ship, the Half Moon, landed on Coney Island in the fall of 1609. Due to clashes with the native tribes the town wasnt completed until 1645. But when the charter was finally signed and granted it became one of the first such titles to ever be awarded to a woman in the new world. The town Lady Moody established was one of the earliest planned communities in America and it consisted of a perfect square surrounded by a 20-foot-high wooden palisade. The town was bisected by two roads, Gravesend Road running from north to south, and Gravesend Neck Road. These roads divided the town into four quadrants which were subdivided into ten plots of land each, at the center of town, where the two main roads met, a town hall was constructed where town meetings were held once a month. Today, Lady Moody is believed to be buried in Old Gravesend Cemetery, in 1654 the people of Gravesend purchased Coney Island from the local natives for about $15 worth of seashells, guns, and gunpowder
12.
Orange County, New York
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Orange County is a county located in the U. S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 372,813 and this county was first created in 1683 and reorganized with its present boundaries in 1798. Orange County is included in the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA Metropolitan Statistical Area and it is in the states Mid-Hudson Region of the Hudson Valley. The County Executive is Steve Neuhaus, as of the 2010 census the centre of population of New York state was located in Orange County, approximately three miles west of the hamlet of Westbrookville. Orange County was officially established on November 1,1683, when the Province of New York was divided into twelve counties. Each of these was named to honor a member of the British royal family, and Orange County took its name from the Prince of Orange, as originally defined, Orange County included only the southern part of its present-day territory, plus all of present-day Rockland County further south. The northern part of the county, beyond Moodna Creek, was then a part of neighbouring Ulster County. Due to its small population, the original Orange County was not fully independent and was administered by New York County. The first European settlers in the area of the county arrived in 1685. They were a party of around twenty-five families from Scotland, led by David Toshach, the Laird of Monzievaird, and his brother-in-law Major Patrick McGregor and they settled in the Hudson Highlands at the place where the Moodna Creek enters the Hudson River, now known as New Windsor. In 1709, a group of German Palatine refugees settled at Newburgh and they were Protestants from a part of Germany along the Rhine that had suffered during the religious wars. Queen Annes government arranged for passage from England of nearly 3,000 Palatines in ten ships, many were settled along the Hudson River in work camps on property belonging to Robert Livingston. A group of Dutch and English settlers arrived at Goshen in 1712, additional immigrants came from Ireland, they were of Scots and English descent who had been settled as planters there. In 1798, after the American Revolutionary War, the boundaries of Orange County changed and its southern corner was used to create the new Rockland County, and in exchange, an area to the north of the Moodna Creek was added, which had previously been in Ulster County. This caused a reorganization of the administration, as the original county seat had been fixed at Orangetown in 1703. The county court was established in 1801 and it was not until 1970 that Goshen was named as the sole county seat. Due to a dispute between New York and New Jersey, the boundaries of many of the southern towns of the county were not definitively established until the 19th century. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 839 square miles
