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Saturday, September 3, 2016

Flushing beyond downtown

When I get out of the train at the Main Street subway station, Flushing is crowded, noisy and dirty.  But it never ceases to amaze me how fast that changes.  I walk south of Sanford Avenue and the air smells better, I don't have to fight for sidewalk space and if I trip and fall its not because there is so much garbage in the streets but because I am so busy looking around.

The following listings are notated in the red circles  on the map at the end of the entry.





1) Temple Gates of Prayer- Building Sold winter 2020 -c new usage currently under construction
38-20 Parsons Blvd, Flushing, NY 11354
A conservative synagogue in the heart of Flushing the website acknowledges that its congregation is drawn from all over the borough. It was founded in 1900.
http://www.templegates.org/who-we-are/history

2) Sikh Center of New York
38-17 Parsons Blvd, Flushing, NY 11354
And right across the street from the conservative synagogue- The Sikh Center Gurdwaras, like churches and synagogues provide a variety of services as well of religious worship services.  This Gurdwara is one of five in Queens.

3)Korean American Presbyterian Church of New York
38-17 Parsons Blvd, Flushing, NY 11354
This by far the largest religious institution on the list.  In 1999 the New York Times reported the congregation was 3,500 people.  I would link to the website- but it appears to be in Korean.


4) Union Street and Sanford Ave
Just stand on the corner and look south.  The conglomeration of apartment buildings represent just about every idea of apartment architecture imagined in the last 150 years.

Waldheim
In the last post, I wrote about the horticultural history of Flushing in the 18th and 19th Century.  In the beginning of the 20th Century, Waldheim, I suppose you can call it an early subdivision, was created.  Kevin Walsh from Forgotten NY, explains more.
From the website:http://www.brownstoner.com/history/watching-waldheim-flushings-victorian-enclave/
In 1903 Franklin R. Wallace sold ten acres of mostly wooded Flushing property to real estate developers George Appleton and W.B. Richardson. The developers set to work building luxury housing and cutting through streets, named for plants in a likely hommage to Flushing’s former plant nurseries. Many of the old woods’ many huge trees were retained as street trees, and the developers named the tract Waldheim, German for “woods home.” A small number of architects under the supervision of Appleton worked on the new neighborhood, which originally attracted Flushing’s wealthier set: at one time, the founder of Buster Brown shoes, the Hellman family of mayonnaise fame, and members of the piano-manufacturing Steinway family lived in Waldheim, as well as Appleton and Richardson themselves. The appellation “Waldheim” fell from favor during World War I.
Some examples can be found on Ash, Beech and Cherry Avenues

5) Ash Avenue



6)Cherry Avenue
7) Won Buddhist Temple of America

8) Kissena Jewish Center- building for sale
43-43 Bowne Street Flushing, NY 11355.
An Orthodox synagogue  founded in 1950
9) BAPS Shri Swaminarayan
43-38 Bowne Street
Flushing NY
From the Website:http://www.baps.org/Global-Network/North-America/NewYork/Mandir-info.aspxA Mandir is a sacred Hindu place of worship. It represents the earthly home of Bhagwan, where one can visit to quiet the mind and experience spirituality. Visitors and devotees come to mandir to offer prayers before the murtis, or sacred images, as well as to attend cultural classes and religious services known as sabhas. BAPS Swaminarayan mandirs serve to both foster and further personal and collective worship. Pramukh Swami Maharaj, the spiritual leader and guru to BAPS, supports the establishment of mandirs as a means to cultivate peace within communities and connect individuals to Bhagwan.
10)Muslim Center of New York
137-58 Geranium Ave Flushing, NY 11355 
Muslim Center of New York is a 501(c) religious organization in the heart of Flushing, Queens- a community of believers adhering to the Qur’an and the life traditions of Prophet Muhammad (Peace and Blessing Be Upon Him).Established in 1975
11) The Hindu Temple Society of North America
Flushing, New York 11355

The Temple is a pretty amazing structure.  Check it out on the website.  But the day I was there they were struggling with a cow.  No such picture on the their website.

From the Website:
Ganesh Temple History The Hindu Temple Society of North America (“Society”), a non-profit religious institution was incorporated on January 26, 1970, under the laws of the State of New York. Soon thereafter, the Society acquired from the Russian Orthodox Church a site on which the present Temple is situated. It was in this small frame house that daily rituals were performed and weekend services conducted by volunteer priests, until the present structure, designed in accordance with the Agama Sastras (scriptures relating to temple building), was completed early in 1977, and the Temple consecrated on July 4 of the same year. His Holiness Sri La Sri Padrimalai Swamigal, a great siddha from Madras, had prepared twenty-six yantras for the temple and done pujas for them for five years before installing them on July 4, 1977.
12) New York Chens Buddha Associates
46- 38 Kissena Boulevard

A Pagoda like structure.  Sometimes you see people who are dressed in what I consider traditional Buddhist Monk clothing,  coming out, sometimes you see people dressed in three piece suits coming out.  I could find no information about it on the Internet
13) Nichiren Shosho
143-63 Beech Avenue
Flushing, New York 11355





From the Website:http://www.nstny.org/Pages/default.aspx
Nichiren Shoshu is the name of the denomination that follows the orthodox teachings of True Buddhism as taught byNichiren Daishonin, the True Buddha, who made his advent in Japan in 1222. 





14)First Presbyterian Church of Flushing- 

150-20 Barclay Avenue
Flushing, New York 11355

If you like a house of worship to look like it belongs at the end of a country road, this 111 year structure might be the one you are looking for.
First Presbyterian Church

15) Martin Field, The Olde Town of Flushing Burial Ground
46th Avenue between 164 and 165 Street
When my children were in grade school this park is where we went for picnics and field days and hanging out.  But then it got renovated and in the process of doing the renovation, it was determined that the area was, in fact, a burial ground. The story is filled with history and deception and of course Robert Moses, and the determination of one man,Mandingo Tshaka, to preserve its rightful place.  
From the Website: https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/the-olde-towne-of-flushing-burial-ground/history
The ‘re-discovery’ of burial grounds within our municipality is an experience shared by many cities world-wide. The City of New York has buildings and parks that stand on former burial grounds. In the 1990’s, when Parks began a renovation of the site, local activist Mandingo Tshaka drew attention to its previous history. In response, Parks commissioned a $50,000 archaeological study in 1996. Archeologist Linda Stone concluded that the site served as the final resting-place for between 500 to 1,000 individuals. Death records for the town of Flushing exist for the period 1881 until 1898, and show that during this period, 62 percent of the buried were African American or Native American, 34 percent were unidentified, and more than half were children under the age of five.

16) Flushing  Cemetery 
Cemetery Office Address
163-06 46th Avenue
Flushing, NY  11358
Thirty years ago, the Rabbi at the Reform Synagogue, Temple Beth Sholom, explained that as the older German Jewish Refugee population of the congregation died out, they left requests to be buried in this non-sectarian cemetery.  It is a beautiful spot, where the trees and plantings reflect Flushing's horticultural past.  But that was not why.  Many of these congregants had witness anti-semitic attacks on Jewish graves in Europe.  They chose to be buried in a non-sectarian cemetery as insurance they could rest in peace.

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style="background-color: white; line-height: 24px;">Opened in 1853, Flushing Cemetery has its fair share of famous people who's final resting place is below the spreading trees. A List of Famous People Buried in Flushing Cemetery.

If you visit be sure to look for Louis Armstrong's grave, with the marble trumpet on top.