Untapped Mailbag: The Oldest Private Residence in New York Area

This week in the Untapped Cities mailbag, an Untapped reader caught this flub by NBC News, which claims that the oldest private residence in the New York area is the 1712 Seydenham House. The Lent-Riker-Smith homestead was built almost 60 years earlier in 1665. The Lent-Riker-Smith homestead is the only remaining Riker house on the land given to Abraham Riker by Governor Peter Stuyvesant. The house is located discreetly behind a white picket fence between the entry to Riker’s Island and a Tudor garden apartment community in Queens.

For an in-depth look inside the Lent-Riker-Smith house and its current resident, Marion Duckworth Smith, check out Benjamin Waldman’s article on the Last Riker House.

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