Firewood Oakland Gardens

Bayside’s history dates back to 2000 B.C. when the Matinecock Native American tribe first settled there. Around 1637, the Dutch West India Company encouraged Dutch farmers to settle on land grants in New Amsterdam, which was the name of New York then. William Lawrence, of England, built the first permanent building, a stone farmhouse, when he settled Bayside in 1644. Twenty years later, England took control of New Amsterdam, renamed it the Province of New York, and English people began settling the area. When Queens was officially established in 1683, the Town of Flushing was one of the original five towns of Queens, and today’s Bayside was within the Town of Flushing. During the American Revolutionary War, whaleboatmen from Connecticut raided the Bayside-Little Neck area, and Town of Flushing was occupied by the British military.

The first known written occurrence of the name Bayside was in a deed dated 1798, written as Bay Side.

During the 19th century, Bayside was primarily farmland, where wealthy people from Manhattan would visit it as a rural resort. The Bayside House, owned by Joseph Crocheron, was well-known for its clambakes. The Bayside House burned down in 1906, but Crocheron’s name lives on as the namesake of the 45-acre (18 ha) Crocheron Park.