Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, local historians and faith leaders are pressing the Mamdani administration to buy an Elmhurst lot where roughly 300 free Black New Yorkers and formerly enslaved people are believed to be buried.
The lot, located at 47-11 90th St., is in foreclosure proceedings and is being used by an NYPD vendor to store abandoned vehicles. State Attorney General Letitia James moved Friday to intervene in the foreclosure case, seeking an order that would require any future buyer to protect the remains.
But Richards said the city needs to take this a step further and buy the property outright, and said he would put borough capital money toward turning it into a green space and memorial.
“We wanted to come out to let them know that this is on our radar and to ensure that they are taking this extremely seriously,” Richards said at a press conference in front of the lot on Sept. 18. “Where else could you just pave over 300 bodies? And where else could you just have the NYPD towing cars on our descendants?”
History of the land
The land has been a burial ground since the 1820s, when a group of Black men from the United African Society bought more than an acre in Newtown – as Elmhurst was known until the 1890s. Their congregation later became St. Mark AME, which owned the property until it moved to Jackson Heights in the 1930s.
By 1995, a company called A.M.F. Machine Corporation owned the lot. A.M.F. Machine planned to construct an eight-story mixed-use building on part of the land, according to city property records. To do so, it needed a variance, or exemption from normal zoning rules, from the Board of Standards and Appeals. Approval for the project in 2006 came with a condition: an agreement to survey the site for historical artifacts before moving forward.
A.M.F. Machine scrapped its plans for the project, according to reporting by The City Reporter. In 2009, the company sold the property to 90 Queens LLC, which planned to build condos on part of the land.
Two years later, construction workers found a sealed iron coffin while digging a foundation for the condo project. Inside were the remains of a young Black woman. The developers brought on the Brooklyn-based Chrysalis Archaeological Consultants to survey the rest of the site. The firm identified additional graves.
The project never recovered. 90 Queens LLC defaulted on a $6.5 million mortgage taken out to build condos before abandoning the project in 2020, according to The City Reporter. In 2022, a bank filed a lawsuit to put the lot in foreclosure. 90 Street Realty LLC, which bought the original loan, plans to sell the property to recover part of the money it is owed.
In 2025, the lot was paved over and rented out as a commercial tow yard and auto repair business.
Last month, the city’s Buildings Department announced that it had reached an agreement with 90 Queens LLC to shut down the lot by Nov. 30. The company was cited for using the site for parking and storage without a permit, unsafe conditions and an excessive accumulation of tires, according to a statement from the attorney general’s office. The company did not respond to a request for comment.
St. Mark AME Church is pushing to stop a sale alongside the Elmhurst History and Cemeteries Preservation Society, an all-volunteer preservation group. In August, both groups asked the Landmarks Preservation Commission to designate the site, which would shield it from development. The commission is reviewing the request and did not answer questions on how long the process would take.
Matthew Rauschenbach, a spokesperson for Mayor Zohran Mamdani, did not say whether the city would consider buying the lot when asked by Epicenter NYC. He noted the administration understands concerns about the lot, which reflects an important period of New York City Black history. He called the Landmarks Preservation Commission an independent entity, referring questions to them about next steps.
On enforcement, he pointed to the Buildings Department’s agreement with the owner and tenant to end illegal operations by the end of November: “We are prepared to take additional action if they fail to live up to that agreement.”
Richards said he planned to use part of his $120 million capital budget to help advance the preservation process, though he declined to give a timeline or specific funding allocation when asked at Friday’s press conference. He pointed to two burial grounds preserved under former Mayor Bill de Blasio: a $500,000 city allocation for the The Old Towne of Flushing Burial Ground memorial in 2018, and roughly $450,000 for Weeksville, which was added to the city’s Cultural Institutions Group.
Looking back and forward
The woman in the coffin was later identified as 26-year-old Martha Peterson, who was believed to be buried in the late 1800s. Her body, braided hair, clothing and even combs were all preserved.
“You’re uncovering a grave that is 166 years old and you wouldn’t expect to see anything in it — maybe some bones,” said Detherage. In 2016, the St. Mark AME Church gave Peterson a proper burial in Jackson Heights. “Oftentimes, people think that people in slavery are poor or that people who are free don’t have much. But it’s obvious that these were self-determined people of color who wanted to make their lives … just better.”
Some of the people surfacing that history grew up just blocks away. After Peterson’s coffin was discovered, Elmhurst locals Marc Landas recruited two childhood friends, Greg Cassagnol and Jack Jaramillo, to better educate themselves and others about this corner of their neighborhood.
They couldn’t believe how many times they had walked above the site as kids, visiting Landas’ dad’s property next to it. No school textbook had taught them about the free Black community in Newtown, Landas told Epicenter NYC.
The trio has since written articles about the site for an online local history magazine Landas founded. They also built an interactive website, “The Wall of Ghosts,” that pairs archival documents and AI-generated portraits of those likely buried at 47-11 90th St. to honor their lives.
Nearly two centuries after the land was bought, local residents and leaders are still asking the city to treat it as a sacred resting place rather than a piece of real estate.
“Let the generations who come after us walk onto this ground, learn their names, know their stories, and understand that Black history is Queens history,” said Council Member Shanel Thomas-Henry at the press conference. “Black history is New York history.”
