Sample Page

Flushing, founded in 1644, is a neighborhood in the north central part of the City of New York borough of Queens, 10 miles (16 km) east of Manhattan.

Flushing was one of the first Dutch settlements on Long Island. Today, it is one of the largest and most diverse neighborhoods in New York City. Flushing’s diversity is reflected by the numerous ethnic groups that reside there, including people of Asian, Hispanic, Middle Eastern, European and African American ancestry. It is part of the Fifth Congressional District, which encompasses the entire northeastern shore of Queens County, and extends into neighboring Nassau County. Flushing is served by five railroad stations on the Long Island Rail Road Port Washington Branch, and the New York City Subway Number 7 subway line has its terminus at Main Street. The intersection of Main Street and Roosevelt Avenue is the third busiest intersection in New York City behind only Times Squareand Herald Square.((Hess, Meagan. “All the Neighborhoods, Towns, and Zip Codes in Queens”.QueensMetro. Retrieved September 4, 2010.))

Flushing is part of Queens Community Board 7 ((Queens Community Boards, New York City. Accessed September 3, 2007)) and is bounded by Flushing Meadows-Corona Park to the West, Francis Lewis Boulevard to the East, Union Turnpike to the South and Willets Point Boulevard to the North.

==History==

===Dutch colonial history ===

In 1645, Flushing was settled by Europeans on the eastern bank of Flushing Creek under charter of the Dutch West India Company and was part of the New Netherland colony. The settlement was named after the city of Vlissingen, in the southwestern Netherlands, the main port of the company. Flushing is the anglicization of the Dutch Vlissingen; the town of Vlissingen in the Netherlands even today is called Flushing by Anglophones.

In its early days, Flushing was inhabited by English colonists, among them a farmer named John Bowne. John Bowne defied a prohibition imposed by New Amsterdam Director-GeneralPeter Stuyvesant on harboring Quakers by allowing Quaker meetings in his home. The Flushing Remonstrance, signed in Flushing on December 27, 1657, protested religious persecution and eventually led to the decision by the Dutch West India Company to allow Quakers and others to worship freely. As such, Flushing is claimed to be a birthplace of religious freedom in the new world.

Landmarks remaining from the Dutch period in Flushing include the John Bowne House on Bowne Street and the Old Quaker Meeting House on Northern Boulevard.

===English colonial history===

In 1664, the English took control of New Amsterdam, ending Dutch control of the colony, and renamed it New York. When Queens County was established in 1683, the “Town of Flushing” was one of the original five towns into which the county was subdivided. Many historical references to Flushing are to this town. The town was dissolved in 1898 when Queens became a borough of New York City.

Flushing was the site of the first commercial tree nurseries in North America, the most prominent being the Prince, Bloodgood, and Parsons nurseries. Much of the northern section ofKissena Park, former site of the Parsons nursery, still contains a wide variety of exotic trees. The naming of streets intersecting Kissena Boulevard on its way toward Kissena Park celebrates this fact (Ash Avenue, Beech, Cherry …Poplar, Quince, Rose). Flushing also supplied trees to the Greensward project, now known as Central Park in Manhattan.

During the American Revolution, Flushing, along with most settlements in present-day Queens County, favored the British and quartered British troops. Following the Battle of Long Island, Nathan Hale, an officer in the Continental Army, was apprehended near Flushing Bay while on what was probably an intelligence gathering mission and was later hanged.

The 1785 Kingsland Homestead, originally the residence of a wealthy Quaker merchant, now serves as the home of the Queens Historical Society. The 1790 United States census recorded that 5,393 people lived in what is present-day Queens County.

===Nineteenth century===

 

During the 19th century, as New York City continued to grow in population and economic strength, so did Flushing. Its proximity to Manhattan was critical in its transformation to a fashionable residential area. In 1813, the Village of Flushing was incorporated within the Town of Flushing. By the mid-1860s, Queens County had 30,429 residents. Flushing’s growth continued with two new villages incorporating: College Point in 1867, and Whitestone in 1868. In 1898, although opposed to the proposal, the Town of Flushing (along with two other towns of Queens County) was consolidated into the City of New York to form the new Borough of Queens. All towns, villages, and cities within the new borough were dissolved. Local farmland continued to be subdivided and developed transforming Flushing into a densely populated neighborhood of New York City.

===Twentieth and Twenty-first century===

The continued construction of bridges over the Flushing River and the development of other roads increased the volume of vehicular traffic into Flushing. In 1909, the construction of the Queensboro Bridge over the East River connected Queens County to midtown Manhattan.

The introduction of rail road service to Manhattan in 1910 by the Long Island Rail Road Port Washington Branch and in 1928 by the New York City Transit Authority Number 7 subway line hastened the continued transformation of Flushing to a commuter suburb and commercial center. Due to increased traffic, a main roadway through Flushing named Broadway was widened and renamed Northern Boulevard.

Flushing was a forerunner of Hollywood, when the young American film industry was still based on the East Coast and Chicago. Decades later, the RKO Keith’s movie palace would host vaudeville acts and appearances by the likes of Mickey Rooney, The Marx Brothers and Bob Hope. The theater now lies vacant and in disrepair due to an unauthorized real estate development project that took place in the early 1990s.

The New York Times says that Flushing’s Chinatown now rivals Manhattan’s Chinatown for being the center of Chinese-speaking New Yorkers’ politics and trade.

==Location of the World’s Fair==

The 1939-1940 World’s Fair was held in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. Massive preparations for the Fair began in 1936 and included the elimination of the Corona dumps. Among the innovations presented to the world in 1939 was the television, which broadcast a speech by Franklin D. Roosevelt.

After the World’s Fair, the New York City pavilion was converted into the temporary headquarters of the United Nations where, in 1947, the UN voted in favor of the establishment of theState of Israel. After the United Nations moved to their permanent headquarters in Manhattan, the New York City pavilion was converted into a roller rink & ice skating center.

A second World’s Fair, the 1964-1965 World’s Fair was also held at the site of the Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. Pope Paul VI attended the Fair on October 4, 1965. On this papal trip, Pope Paul VI became the first pope to visit the United States. An exedra now commemorates the site of the Vatican pavilion. Michelangelo‘s masterpiece, the Pietà, was exhibited during his trip.

Following the Fair, the Unisphere, the New York State Pavilion and the New York City Pavilion remained in the park. The NYC Pavilion’s roller rink which had been converted back into exhibit space for the 1964-1965 World’s Fair became the Queens Museum of Art.

==Landmarks, museums and cultural institutions==

Flushing has many landmark buildings. Flushing Town Hall on Northern Boulevard is the headquarters of the Flushing Council on Culture and the Arts, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The building houses a concert hall and cultural center and is one of the sites designated along the Queens Historical Society’s Freedom Mile.

Other registered New York City Landmarks include the Bowne House, Kingsland Homestead, Old Quaker Meeting House (1694), Flushing High School, St. George’s Church (1854), the Lewis H. Latimer House, the former RKO Keith’s movie theater, the United States Post Office on Main Street and the Unisphere, a 12-story high, stainless steel globe that served as the centerpiece for the 1964 New York World’s Fair. TheFlushing Armory, on Northern Boulevard, was formerly used by the National Guard. Presently, the Queens North Task Force of the New York City Police Department uses this building. In 2005, the Fitzgerald-Ginsberg Mansion on Bayside Avenue and in 2007, the Voelker Orth Museum, Bird Sanctuary and Victorian Garden were designated as landmarks.

Several attractions were originally developed for the World’s Fairs in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. There is a stone marker for the two 5,000-year Westinghouse Time Capsules made of special alloys buried in the park, chronicling 20th century life in the United States, dedicated both in 1938 and 1965. Also in the park are the Queens Museum of Art which features a scale model of the City of New York, the largest architectural model ever built; Queens Theatre in the Park ; the New York Hall of Science and the Queens Zoo.

The Queens Botanical Garden on Main Street has been in operation continuously since its opening as an exhibit at the 1939 World’s Fair. The Botanical Garden carries on Flushing’s nearly three centuries long horticultural tradition, dating back to its once famed tree nurseries and seed farms.

===Demographics===

Flushing is among the most religiously diverse communities in America. There are “over 200 places of worship in a small urban neighborhood about 2.5 square miles (6.5 square kilometers).  “Flushing has become a model for religious pluralism in America,” says R. Scott Hanson, a visiting assistant professor of history at the State University of New York at Binghamton and an affiliate of the Pluralism Project at Harvard University.

In 1657, while Flushing was still a Dutch settlement, a document known as the Flushing Remonstrance was created by Edward Hart, the town clerk, where some thirty ordinary citizens protested a ban imposed by Peter Stuyvesant, the director general of New Amsterdam, forbidding the harboring of Quakers. The Flushing Remonstrance cited the Flushing Town charter of 1645 which promised liberty of conscience.

Today, Flushing abounds in houses of worship, ranging from the Dutch colonial epoch Quaker Meeting House, St. George’s Episcopal Church, the Free Synagogue of Flushing, theCongregation of Georgian Jews, St. Mel Roman Catholic Church, St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church – the largest Greek Orthodox Church in the United States, and the Muslim Center of New York.

The intersection of Main Street and Roosevelt Avenue, the business center for Flushing located at the terminus of the Number 7 subway line on the westernmost edge of the neighborhood has a concentration of Chinese and Korean small businesses, including Asian restaurants. Chinese-owned businesses in particular dominate the area along Main Street and the blocks west of it. Ethnic Chinese constitute an increasingly dominant proportion of the Asian population and as well as of the overall population in Flushing. Consequently, Flushing’s Chinatown has grown rapidly enough to become the second-largest Chinatown outside of Asia. In fact, the Flushing Chinatown may surpass the original Manhattan Chinatown itself within a few years.

The northeastern section of Flushing near Bayside continues to maintain large Italian and Greek presences that are reflected in its many Italian and Greek bakeries, grocery stores and restaurants. The northwest is a mix of Jews, Greeks, and Italians. Most of central Flushing is an ethnic mix of Whites, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans.

An area south of Franklin Avenue is a concentration of Indian, Pakistani, Afghan and Bangladeshi markets.