Queens officials ask Mamdani to buy Elmhurst lot over a 19th-century Black burial ground and make it a memorial

Queens elected officials are formally asking Mayor Zohran Mamdani's administration to buy a paved-over lot at 47-11 90th St. in Elmhurst, where roughly 300 free Black New Yorkers and formerly enslaved people are believed to be buried, and turn it into a memorial.

Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. sent the letter to the mayor on Tuesday, The City Reporter reported Wednesday, urging the city "to acquire the lot and transform it into a proper memorial" for the people interred there. Eight other Queens officials signed on, including U.S. Rep. Grace Meng, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, state Sen. Leroy Comrie, Assembly members Catalina Cruz and Larinda Hooks, and Council members Shanel Thomas-Henry, Ty Hankerson and Shekar Krishnan.

The same group wrote to the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission asking it to landmark the site, and to the state parks and historic preservation commissioner asking her to consider placing it on the state's registry of historic sites. City Hall and the commission did not respond to The City Reporter's questions on Wednesday.

From burial ground to tow yard

The land has been a burial ground since the 1820s, when members of the United African Society bought more than an acre in what was then the village of Newtown, Epicenter NYC reported. Their congregation became St. Mark AME Church, which owned the property until it moved to Jackson Heights in the 1930s. The site later held a factory.

In 2011, workers digging the foundation for a condo project hit a sealed iron coffin holding the remains of a young Black woman, later identified as Martha Peterson; archaeologists then found more graves. The developer, 90 Queens LLC, defaulted on its mortgage and abandoned the project, and the lot has been in foreclosure proceedings since 2022, according to Epicenter NYC. In 2025 it was paved over and rented out as a commercial tow yard, including for vehicles towed under an NYPD program, The City Reporter has reported.

Where things stand

• State attorney general: Letitia James has moved to intervene in the foreclosure case. In a court filing, her office says the property contains human remains protected under the state's Unmarked Burial Site Protection Act and asks that any foreclosure sale materials warn buyers of their obligations under the law.
• Buildings Department: the city reached an agreement with the owner to shut down the lot's parking and storage use by Nov. 30, Epicenter NYC reported; a mayoral spokesperson said the city is "prepared to take additional action" if that deadline is missed.
• Landmarks: St. Mark AME and the Elmhurst History and Cemeteries Preservation Society asked the commission in August to designate the site; that request is still pending.
• Money: Richards has said he would put part of his roughly $120 million capital budget toward a memorial, but has not named an amount or timeline.

Mamdani has so far said the decision on landmarking rests with the commission and that talks about buying the site are "ongoing," according to earlier reporting by The City Reporter.