Flushing

John Bowne House

Flushing?  Why would anyone be interested in a visit to Flushing.
Here's my answer.

Welcome to Flushing.
The birthplace of America's Religious Freedom.

The numbers in the blue circles correspond with the listings in this post

1)  The US Post Office
41-65 Main Street.
The lobby of the post office has 12 murals started in 1933 and completed in 1934 as part of the New Deal WPA Project.  The artist, Vincent Aderente painted scenes of historical significance(though the accuracy of his murals are questionable.  The paintings of the Native Americans include head wear never worn by local tribes)   The murals represent the 12 communities served by the post office.
http://untappedcities.com/2016/01/07/10-nyc-post-offices-that-double-as-art-galleries/10/

2)Free Synagogue of Flushing
41-60 Kissena  Blvd.  But if you should look at it from Sanford Ave to see the original white columned house, possibly designed by Sanford White.

Founded in 1917 by the Hebrew Women’s Aid society the synagogue followed the philosophy of the first Free Synagogue, the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in Manhattan.

From the Website

The first Synagogue house was the stately pillared Hoffman Mansion, which stood on a corner of the lot. It was moved to Sanford Avenue in 1926 to make room for the grand structure which is home to the Free Synagogue of Flushing today. This neo-classic sanctuary designed by Maruice Courland features a massive portico supported by four Roman-style pillars and topped by a pediment inscribed with the words of Isaiah,“For mine house shall be called a house of prayer for all people.” http://www.nycago.org/Organs/Qns/html/FreeSynagogueFlushing.html

The building has landmark status.

3) Bowne Street Community Church
143-11 Roosevelt Avenue
Flushing (Queens), N.Y. 11354

From the Website
The Bowne Street Community Church was originally the Reformed Church of Flushing. The congregation grew so rapidly that it out grew its first building. The congregation borrowed money from the Collegiate Church in Manhattan and began construction on the present building which was completed in 1892. The architecture of this new church was stunning. It is a Romanesque Revival with a red brick edifice, with arches topping each of the windows and intricate brickwork and terra cotta tile details. The church is adorned with Tiffany stained glass windows. Agnes Fairchild Northrupby a life-long congregation member and long time Tiffany artist designed the windows for the church. The windows were made by the Louis Tiffany Glass Company of Corona. 
From:http://hdc.org/hdc-lpc/proposed-de-calendar-items/hbnd-bowne-street-community-church-queens

4) The Bowne House

37-01 Bowne Street, Flushing, Queens, New York.

There used to be a sign on Northern Boulevard that said,  Welcome to Flushing, birthplace of American Religous Freedom.  And that is all due to John Bowne, and the fight he waged against Peter Stuyvesant in the 17th Century the whole story is on the website. .http://www.bownehouse.org/index.htm.  The Bowne house, the first part of which was constructed in 1661, is the oldest structure in New York City.

5) The Kingsland Homestead

143-35 37th Avenue, Flushing, New York 11354.

Just around the corner from the Bowne House is the home of the Queens Historical Society, another historical home, built between 1774 and 1785 It was moved in 1978 to its present site, Weeping Beech Park.  ttp://www.queenshistoricalsociety.org/kingsland-homestead-history.html.

Flushing's Horticultural Past

The weeping beech tree is a link to Flushing's horticultural past.   In 1737 Robert Prince and his son William opened a nursery that was in business for over a hundred years.  George Washington bought plantings for Mount Vernon there.  Samuel Parsons who married Mary Bowne, founded the Parson's Grove Nursery in 1838.  He and his sons collected specimens from around. the world to be nurtured and sold from their nursery.  In 1906 the land was given to the City.  Today parts of Kissena Park are located where the nursery once stood, and one can see many of the trees or their descendents growing there,  Look for the labels on the trees. Samuel Bowne Parsons Jr., Samuel Parsons, son sold plantings to Frederick Olmstead to be used in Central Park.http://www.nnytimes.com/2003/08/17/nyregion/fyi-938572.html

Samuel Parson, a Quaker, was active in the Underground Railroad.

From the Website

Samuel Parsons claimed that he moved more enslaved people to freedom than any other man in Queens.  They concealed the slaves in the covered wagons of the Parsons nursery and brought them to the waterfront.  From there the escaped slaves were sent on boats to the north.  Since the Parsons were Quakers they were active in promoting civil rights, education, and also women’s suffrage.In addition, two Parsons sisters were involved in the Flushing Freedom School.  Interestingly, the first African-American man to receive a doctorate in America, Patrick Healy, was educated in Flushing.

http://www.queensjewishlink.com/featured-stories/kissena-park-the-oldest-house-in-queens-and-a-quest-for-religious-freedom/

6) Flushing High School

35-10 Union  Street, Flushing, New York 11354

Flushing High School is one of the two High Schools that claim to be the oldest High School in New York City.  It was built in 1875

From the   "Interesting Facts About Architecture " file.

The brick and terra-cotta building is a striking example of the Collegiate Gothic Style which was introduced to public school architecture in New York by C.B. J. Snyder, the Superintendent of Buildings for the Board of Education.  Erected between 1912 and 1915 in a campus-like setting, the high school with its monumental square entrance tower recalls English Medieval models. http://www.neighborhoodpreservationcenter.org/db/bb_files/91-FLUSHING-HIGH-SCHOOL.pdf

 http://schools.nyc.gov/SchoolPortals/25/Q460/AboutUs/Overview/SchoolHistory.htm

And now this!

Carl Hudson Jr., 33, principal of Flushing High School in Queens was arrested for possession of methamphetimine near the school. A Queens high school principal was nabbed just a block away from his school when cops found a baggie of methamphetamine in his car during a traffic stop, police said.http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/meth-bust-principal-qns-hs-article-1.1117444

7) Flushing Town Hall

127-35 Northern Boulevard

The building was designed and built in 1862 in the Romanesque Revival style popular at the time. It has had a variety of uses from civic offices, court house  and jail as well as a venue for entertainment including light opera and performances by P.T. Barnum.  If fell into disrepair in the 1960s but it received landmark status and currently is a performance space.  http://www.flushingtownhall.org/about-the-building

8) Flushing  Quaker Meeting House

137-16 Northern Boulevard

Supposedly the oldest continuous place of Worship in the United States.

From the Website

The Old Quaker Meeting House has been used by the Flushing Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends as a house of worship for over 300 years. The house remains today much as when it was first built, with dark, warm floorboards, simple benches and hand-hewn timber ceiling beams. To step across the threshold is to leave the present behind and to enter a profoundly sacred space seasoned by centuries of devotion. To those who visit, the Meeting House is a peaceful reminder of an eventful and historic past.

Built in 1694 by John Bowne and other early Quakers, the Old Quaker Meeting House is, by all known accounts, the oldest house of worship in New York State and the second oldest Quaker meeting house in the nation. Visitors to the Meeting House have included George Washington, John Woolman and William Penn. The Meeting House is recognized as a rare example of ecclesiastical architecture and as a monument to an important event in the struggle for religious freedom in America, the Flushing Remonstrance, a document which is perhaps the earliest demand for religious freedom in America. The Meeting House also saw the beginnings of the abolitionist movement and the first school in Flushing. http://www.nyym.org/flushing/hmh.html

9) Daniel Carter Beard  Mall

Born in Cincinnati, Daniel Carter Beard moved to Flushing with his family in the 1870s. His work in the city made him realize the need for green spaces where children could play. He was one of the founding members of the Boy Scouts. The park in the center of Northern Boulevard is one of the earliest Queens Park.  Included in the park are several memorials, including a Civil War obelisk, and a Spanish American War Flagpole memorial.https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/daniel-carter-beard-mall/history

10) Civil War Monument

11) 138-18 Northern Boulevard

 Here's a storefront  where you can watch the food preparation in the window.

12) 141-04 Northern Boulevard

An odd collection of old, and I mean really old telephones.

13) Spanish American War Memorial Flagpole

14) 

     137-58 Northern Boulevard

*The following  information is outdated:  The Flushing Masonic Hall is history now and there is a hotel at the site. (September 2023)

What today is the Siloam Reformed Church of Flushing was the Flushing Masonic Temple built in 1905. 

The building that was once the Flushing Armory remains visible in its mostly original state.

The castle-like structure built in 1906 was once the Flushing Armory, now it is a police station.

The beat goes on.

15) 37-07 Main Street

Lots of interesting dried things.

16) St. George Episcopal Church

135-32 38th Avenue at Main Street
Flushing (Queens), N.Y. 11354

Two churches preceded the one currently at this site. King George III in 1761, actually granted the church its charter. Francis Lewis, who was a signer of the Declaration of Independence was a vestryman here and is said to be buried in the churchyard.

From the website

The third and present church occupies the same site as the original building and was built from 1853-54. It was designed by Frank Wills and Henry Dudley, architects associated with The New York Ecclesiological Society that had an interest in the development of Gothic Architecture as a new style (Neo-Gothic) for American churches. Local craftsmen were engaged and regional materials were used. The building includes walls of randomly laid granite rubble, and fine stained glass windows. Above the entrance is a 150-foot tapered wooden tower that houses the original bell which was recast and enlarged at Troy, N.Y., using the 1760 bell's metal and bearing the inscription, "The gift of John Aspinwall, Gentleman, 1760." http://www.nycago.org/Organs/Qns/html/StGeorgeEpisFlushing.html

The Steeple of the church was blown off in the 2010 tornado that hit NYC.  Here is a video of its restoration

https://vimeo.com/85392805

17) Macedonia AME Church

37-22 Union Street
Flushing (Queens), N.Y. 11354

*The following  information is outdated:  The Macedonia AME Church has been completely demolished  is history now and only redevelopment is currently observable at the site. (September 2023)

Tucked into the municipal parking lot, now largely replaced by construction of residential/commercial hi-risers is the Macedonia African Methodist Episcopal Church. Founded by freed slaves, for two hundred years the church has struggled against the forces that challenged its existence. There so much more to the story to read here. http://www.nycago.org/Organs/Qns/html/MacedoniaAME.html

18) China Buddhist Association

136-12 39th Ave, Flushing, NY 11354

House of Worship relevant to many current Flushing residents.

19) The New World Mall

136-20 Roosevelt Ave Flushing,NY 11354. 

The Chinese Food Court is overwhelming, to the uninitiated.  
Here's what the Gothamist writes about the experience:

http://gothamist.com/2014/03/24/inside_the_food_court_madness_at_fl.php#photo-1

Watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo7-sndr2Lg Make your  own decision.

20) RKO Keith

*The following  information is outdated:  The RKO is history now and only redevelopment is currently observable at the site. (September 2023)
If Grand Central Terminal and the above houses of worship are all examples of the success of the Landmark Laws, the RKO represents its abject failure.  The once, prominent Vaudeville house turned movie theater was granted Landmark status, but that didn't stop a developer from destroying the property before being stopped from demolishing it.  What remains, is just an eyesore.

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 

From the Website: http://muslimcenter.org/about/#ourhistory

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.

The Botanical Gardens and Vicinity

Flushing has a horticultural history.  The post about Flushing has a quite bit of information about this history.  But here is a short visit around some interesting gardens and  a few other things as well.


1. The Queens Library Flushing Branch.
41-17 Main St, Flushing, NY 11355
The original library, long since replaced , was the first lending library in Queens.  The current building, with the curious mitosis carving on the Kissena Boulevard side, is the latest in a series of three libraries located on this spot. It is one of the busiest branches in one of the busiest library systems in the world.
more information from the architects

2, The U.S. Post Office
41-65 Main Street 11365
Gone are the days when I eagerly awaited the igloo that would appear on the lawn selling holiday postage stamps.  But the post office remains an impressive structure
From Forgotten New York
As post office architecture goes, Colonial Revival is a popular style — Flushing’s majestic post office building, Main Street and Sanford Avenue, with its pediment and six Ionic columns, is similar to post offices in Hunters Point and also in St. George, Staten Island. It was constructed from 1932-1934 and designed by Dwight James Baum and partner William W. Knowles; most of Baum’s other NYC buildings are in Riverdale, Bronx, including the neighborhood’s iconic bell tower at Riverdale Avenue and Henry Hudson Parkway.
Go inside, and the busy patrons never look up, but if you do you are rewarded with the sight of WPA era murals depicting different scenes from the history ( or perceived history, some representations are not exactly accurate) of the 12 towns that make up Flushing. The immigrant artist Vincent Aderente painted them.  Much more information about each mural on the Forgotten New York website.

3. The Queens Botanical Garden
43-50 Main Street
From the Garden's website
Located at the northeast corner of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Flushing, QBG evolved from the five-acre “Gardens on Parade” exhibit showcased at the 1939-1940 New York World’s Fair. Officially opening as “The Queens Botanical Garden Society” in 1946 after local residents saved and expanded the original exhibit, the Garden remained at the original World’s Fair site until 1961, when it was moved to its current location on Main Street in Flushing. Among the original plantings taken from the 1939 site are two blue atlas cedars that frame the iconic tree gate sculpture at the Garden’s Main Street entrance today. QBG has become a 39-acre oasis in one of New York City’s most bustling and diverse neighborhoods.

4. Evergreen Community Gardens in the Kissena Park Corridor
Colden Street starting around Juniper Avenue
In the 1980s a group of Korean Immigrants began cleaning away the trash and creating a community garden.  Today over 300 plots over 5 acres are lovingly tended.

5.) New York Chens Buddha Associates

46- 38 Kissena Boulevard

This pagoda structure sits on the corner of Kalmia Avenue and Kissena Boulevard.  Sometimes I See people who are dressed in what I consider traditional Buddhist Monk clothing,  coming out, sometimes I see people dressed in three piece suits coming out.  I could find no information about it on the Internet.

6) Hindu Center of North America

     The Ganesh Temple

      45-57 Bowne Street

The Temple Canteen is often listed in guidebooks as an attraction.  The canteen, originally developed in the 1980s to provide food for ritual use,  is a bustling restaurant that serves good, reasonably priced vegetarian food.  The Temple and Community Center cover several blocks and are ornately decorated.  The community is welcoming and friendly to visitors from all faiths.

7) The Olde Town of Flushing Burial Ground

Entrance on 46th Avenue between  164th and 165th 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 was 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.

Things to do in Queens- Especially along the #7 train-

Things to do in Queens-

Especially along the #7 train- all blue print should be clickable links for more information

I admit it.  I have a love hate relationship with the #7 train.  I have been stuck between stations- standing squished in crowded car with a heavy bag listening to the same We'll be moving in shortly, announcement over and over.  But I also have had a bird's eye (okay a low flying bird) of the changing landscape of Queens. Here is a list of things you can see from the train, and interesting stops along the way. I am not including the Manhattan Stops, 34th Hudson(the
Highline), 42 St Times Square, 5 Avenue (Bryant Park), Grand Central- all interesting but not Queens.

Things to see from the train

• The Manhattan skyline - multiple views from multiple spots
• The train itself - right after it comes above ground it makes a sharp curve and you can see the tail of the train chasing itself.
• The Courthouse - from the Court Street Station- the green colored roof covers one of the oldest continuously operating courts in the country
• The Hell Gate Bridge -on the northside- two bridges come into view.   The Hell Gate Railroad  Bridge built between 1912-1916, designed by Gustav Lindenthal, any resemblance in appearance to the Sydney Harbor Bridge is not coincidental. Next to it is the RFK Bridge (used to be called the Triboro) it connects three boroughs, Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx and is used for motor vehicles.
• The smoke stacks of the Ravenswood Power Station-
• The stained glass windows between Courts Street and Woodside Stations
• The new towers being built around Long Island City at Queensboro Plaza
• Pass the Jackson Heights stations and LaGuardia comes into view-the blue control tower
• In the far distance over the relatively flat low rise section of Queens you can see the Bronx and in the bridges that connect Queens to the mainland
• After 103 Street on the Southside -the sites of Flushing Meadow Park, 2 rocket ships in front of the science museum, the round towers of NYS Pavilion, the T shaped Terrace of the Park,and of course the various tennis stadiums and the Unisphere.
• On the northside- Citifield home of the New York Mets

Subway Station:  Vernon Jackson- First stop in Queens

• Gantry State Park- best view of the skyline
• Corner of Vernon and 50th Avenue -traditional Police Station, 9/11 memorial on a light post 
• Changing Long Island City Neighbor- the mixed old frame wooden homes that once housed the blue collared factory and dock workers are now scattered among the high rise luxury towers
• New Long Island City Library- not open yet, but see what  the city builds when the luxury towers bring in the city's highest income earners.

Subway Stop:  Court Square

• Court Square Diner-right beneath the subway station- a real traditional looking American Diner
• Historic District- 21 Street and 45 Avenue.  - Brownstone Townhouses from the 1800's.  The guide books will tell you they filmed Carries's house from Sex In The City n Greenwich Village, but that was only the first season.  They used several locations and this was the most common
• PS 1- What has more recent- modern art than MOMA?- PS 1

Subway Stop: 61 and Woodside

• The Irish Bars-  Donovan's,  Saints and Sinners
• The Doughboy World War I Memorial - not a major- not miss attraction, but an interesting memorial-honoring the wounded rather than the victorious hero- and a destination for  anyone wandering around the neighborhood off the the main roads.

Stops: 74 and Roosevelt to 82 and Roosevelt

           Jackson Heights  enough to see here for its own page, but some highlights

• Historic District- apartment buildings built when the subway arrived - 
• Multi-Culture at its best- restaurants and stores from the Indian/Pakistani Community, the Nepal/Tibetan Community and the all parts of the Latin Community
• The Post Office - Federal Style Architecture with WPA murals inside
• The Public School- a 5 story example of NYC school architecture

Stop:  111 Street 

           Corona

Louis Armstrong House-  When Louis was among the highest paid musicians in the World he chose to buy a house in one of the most humble neighborhoods in Queens.  The house is preserved as a museum and open to the public.  Listen to the song Its a Wonderful World , and hear Louis himself describe the neighborhood.

Subway Stop:  Mets Willets Point

Flushing Meadows Corona Park

The Unisphere

At the Mets Game- Citifield

• The Queens Museum- especially for the Panorama- a scale model of the whole city!
• The Tennis Center
• Citi Field- its not Yankee Stadium- it is the other MLB home in NYC-
• The Hall of Science (even if you don't go in check out the real Rockets)
• The Queens Night Market- On a summer Saturday night -the equivalent of the Brooklyn Smorgasboard
• New York State Pavilion- where the aliens landed according to Men In Black

Subway Stop:  Main Street

Flushing

• Chinatown-maybe the largest Chinatown in the country(Sunset Park and Lower Manhattan would dispute it) Click the link for some interesting eating places
• Historic Flushing(all addresses are in the clickable link for Flushing)
• John Bowne House
• Quaker Meeting Hall
• St. George Episcopal Church
• Post Office- WPA Murals
• Free Synagogue of Flushing
• Lots more in link

Hungry?
The first link is from Vogue Magazine- I do not look like I read Vogue.  I would look a lot less like a Vogue person if I tried all the eateries (or even a tiny fraction of them) along the way.  But here are various suggestions:

from Vogue
from NYCGO
from Tripsavvy

Where the NYT thinks you should eat

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/01/travel/queens-new-york-city-international-food-scene.html

All images have been deleted to save space

By Seth Kugel

·       July 1, 2019

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The $3.50 kebab was supposed to be a stopgap measure, a placeholder for a lunch that would have to wait until after an appointment in Manhattan.

Neither the foil-wrapped sandwich nor the dumpy corner shop was much to look at. But the first bite — moist ground lamb laced with onion and a jolt of spice, wrapped in pillowy naan and doused with a Pakistani cucumber-yogurt sauce — stopped me short. It was the best thing I had eaten in a month. (And, pizza slices aside, the cheapest.) I sat down to savor it, then walked across a pedestrian-clogged plaza, past a Tibetan dumpling truck and a samosa-filled shop window before entering the subway. Three stops later I was in Midtown, easily making my appointment.

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Preparing tacos at the Crus-Z Family Corp. Mexican restaurant in Jackson Heights, Queens.Credit

I was using an easy trick for finding delicious cheap meals in New York City: Eat in Queens. Though the city’s biggest borough may be home to Kennedy and La Guardia airports, most travelers fly in and head for the glamour of Manhattan and the bright, shiny objects of hipster Brooklyn. Alas, their wallets are the lighter for it.

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The kebab shop, by the way, is called Kabab King, but there’s no pressing need to jot that down. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of others of its kind, unceremoniously serving unadulterated national cuisine to working-class compatriots.

[This story is part of our package about Queens, New York City’s most diverse borough. It also includes 36 Hours in Rockaway Beach, and a review of the new TWA Hotel, by our architecture critic, Michael Kimmelman.]

Whether you’re coming from another state, or country, or (in the case of Brooklyn) world, you have two options: Choose your own adventure by hopping off the 7 train at a random stop and following your nose, or do exhaustive research. If you tend toward the latter, start by looking for Queens articles on Eater, Serious Eats, Grub Street and this publication’s Hungry City column. Then explore specialized publications like Chopsticks and Marrow, Culinary Backstreets’ Queens page, and Edible Queens. For the deepest dive of all, click on any Queens neighborhood in the vast listings of Dave Cook’s Eating in Translation blog.

Joe DiStefano, the author of 111 Places in Queens You Must Not Miss and the creator of Chopsticks and Marrow, deftly sums up the borough’s culinary appeal: “If I want to eat Thai food, I eat where Thai people live and work and play and pray: Elmhurst,” he said. “When you go there, you’re getting a huge degree of specificity. You don’t go to where the menu is an encyclopedia, you go where ‘all we do is chicken and rice.’ That analogy holds true in every neighborhood in Queens,” he added. “ ‘We’re a Korean barbecue restaurant but our specialty is kalbi. Or we do Korean sashimi or we do just porridge and we don’t care.’”

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There’s far more to do in Queens than eat, which is lucky, because you certainly want to have something to do between meals. What follows is a humble sample of my recent food adventures in three areas, plus a handful of suggestions for pre- and postprandial activities.

A meal of roasted and crispy pork with noodles and broccoli at Moo Thai Food in Elmhurst, Queens.CreditCalla Kessler/The New York Times

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Jackson Heights and Elmhurst

Walk east from the Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Avenue subway stop, and you’ll pass Mexican taco trucks and Colombian bakeries; north, and it’s South Asian sweets shops and Himalayan momo trucks; southeast and you’ll pass a Chinese supermarket on your way to some of (most of?) the best Thai food in New York. If this is not the most diverse neighborhood in the world, it’s at least the most diversely delicious.

As you stroll, occupy yourself by shopping for saris and spices on 74th Street, admiring the prewar buildings of the Jackson Heights Historic District, or having a drink at Terraza 7, a quirky, thumb-sized Colombian bar featuring eclectic live music. But the star nonfood-related attraction is a few stops east on the 7 train: Corona’s Louis Armstrong House Museum, the place where the trumpeting legend lived for three decades, frozen in time from the 1970s and open for tours Wednesday through Sunday

But mostly you’ll eat, which is how I lured my friends Lee and Caryn and their two teenage daughters to join me one afternoon. We met up at Diversity Plaza, an accurate, if cloying, name for the pedestrianized block of 37th Road I mentioned earlier, in the South Asian business district of Jackson Heights. Our first stop was Namaste Tashi Delek Momo Dumpling Palace, a decidedly unpalatial eatery in a dingy basement where curries are sold alongside lottery tickets. On our visit workers were tossing pallets around just off the cramped dining room.

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Preparing beef momos at Namaste Tashi Delek Momo Dumpling Palace, in Jackson Heights.Credit

“This is what you’ve dragged us out here for?” my friends didn’t quite say as we found a seat at a table near the counter. But then came jhol momos: tidily crimped, doughy dumplings swimming in a tomato-and-sesame broth spiced up with chiles and Nepalese hog plum powder (eight for $7). They were good, but not as much fun as the steamed beef momos ($1 cheaper), which we dressed up with three sauces of varying heat, spooned out of glasses capped with plastic coffee lids.

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Jackson Heights is also known as a Colombian neighborhood, and the country’s largely chile-free, hearty and accessible cuisine includes great snack food: empanadas that pack meat or other fillings inside a fried cornmeal shell (try them at Empanada Spot, from $1.50); cheesebreads like pandebonos (Miracali, $1.25); and summertime fruit, ice and condensed milk treats called cholados for around $6. (I like the ones at Delicias Colombianas on 82nd Street near 37th Avenue.)

But I’ve been to all those places countless times, so I dragged Lee, Caryn and company to the adjoining East Elmhurst neighborhood to eat at Cali Aji, which a Colombian friend had recommended. A few eyebrows were raised (in a friendly way) when our non-Latino group goofily paraded into the small, homey spot that looks like a converted pizza shop. We feasted on sobrebarriga ($13) — a slab of brisket in a tomato-based sauce that, dressed differently, would have felt at home at a Seder or barbecue joint — and several seafood dishes. It’s also a good place to try juice made from the lulo — a citrusy fruit that looks like a persimmon on the outside and a quadrisected green tomato on the inside, and was a hit with everyone. The somewhat unlikely highlight, however, were the tostones, which were so perfectly round, hot and crisp that they even convinced Lee, whom Caryn referred to as an “avowed hater” of the fried green plantains, to reconsider.

For a variety of goat tacos, go to the Crus-Z Family Corp. Mexican restaurant in Jackson Heights, Queens. CreditCalla Kessler/The New York Times

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For a variety of goat tacos, go to the Crus-Z Family Corp. Mexican restaurant in Jackson Heights, Queens. CreditCalla Kessler/The New York Times

Mexican food is tricky business in this area, where, along Roosevelt Avenue, some spots exist more as Corona dispensaries for tired workers than culinary temples. That’s why I was hesitant to take some friends to the Crus-Z Family Corp restaurant (sometimes known as Family Cruz online). But doubt faded when our server brought out warm, slightly greasy tortilla chips and dirty scarlet chile de árbol salsa that packed deliciously short-lived heat. We over-ordered — pozole and a packed cemita sandwich among our unfinished choices — but the highlight was a platter with four samples of goat tacos ($3.50 each): moist shredded barbacoa; an “enchilada” or chile-marinated version of the same; the surprisingly tasty panza (stomach); and “rellena,” coagulated blood with jalapeños and onion, my unlikely favorite.

I brought the group next to the cafe side of La Gran Uruguaya restaurant, just a few blocks away, for the most Uruguayan dessert possible: chajá ($5.25). Vanilla cake with peaches and dulce de leche is buried in nondairy whipped cream studded with chunks of meringue ($3 for a small piece). I’ve never seen it anywhere in the city except on these few blocks of 37th Avenue, where the neighborhood’s Uruguayan eateries are concentrated.

La Gran Uruguaya on 37th Avenue in Jackson Heights is one of the rare local places where you can find chajá: vanilla cake with peaches and dulce de leche.CreditCalla Kessler/The New York Times

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La Gran Uruguaya on 37th Avenue in Jackson Heights is one of the rare local places where you can find chajá: vanilla cake with peaches and dulce de leche.CreditCalla Kessler/The New York Times

You’d need a week to explore the Thai offerings found largely in Elmhurst, but the place to start is the south side of Broadway between 81st and 82nd streets, home to two specialized restaurants, Eim Khao Mun Kai for that chicken and rice dish Mr. DiStefano mentioned, and Moo Thai Food, which serves pork only. Down the block is Lamoon, which opened last year and specializes in northern Thai cuisine and makes food writers swoon. Order anything that includes nam prik noom, a Northern Thai “young chili dip,” in the description. The ingredients of my second favorite Thai dish in town, sai aua, include an aggressively spicy sausage made with pork, pig ear, lemongrass, lime leaves and cilantro. (My favorite is miang kah-na, dried pork, onion, peanuts and chunks of peel-on lime wrapped in Chinese broccoli leaves. It’s $11 at Paet Rio on the same block, but I’m partial to the $9.95 version, spelled ming ka-na, a few blocks away at Kitchen 79.)

A meat market on 30th Avenue in Astoria.CreditCalla Kessler/The New York Times

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A meat market on 30th Avenue in Astoria.CreditCalla Kessler/The New York Times

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Astoria and Long Island City

The two neighborhoods closest to Manhattan are also the ones you could visit even on a diet, stopping at the Museum of the Moving Image, MoMA PS1’s contemporary art exhibits, and the Noguchi Museum, dedicated to the work of the 20th-century sculptor Isamu Noguchi. Long Island City is also home to Queens’s lone Michelin star (versus 98 in Manhattan and Brooklyn) earned by Casa Enrique. It’s delicious. Skip it.

Instead, dive into traditionally Greek, now polyglot Astoria, starting with a startlingly non-greasy $8.95 pork gyro at BZ Grill or, even better, their sandwich made with loukanika, a Greek sausage stuffed with pork and leeks and fragrant with red wine. Others will tell you to hit an old school Greek taverna next, but to me the unique Astoria Greek experience is at Astoria Seafood, where I took two out-of-town visitors: my brother Jeremy and our friend Len. The day before, Jeremy told us, he had met a friend for lunch in Manhattan and had a mediocre $16 turkey burger. That was a wrong that had to be made right.

At Astoria Seafood, customers pick out their own seafood, which the restaurant will then prepare.CreditCalla Kessler/The New York Times

At Astoria Seafood, customers pick out their own seafood, which the restaurant will then prepare.CreditCalla Kessler/The New York Times

From the street, Astoria Seafood looks like an average neighborhood fish market. But the inside is as descript as the outside is non-. Boisterous lunch customers pack tables, blabbing in Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Greek and English. Trays of fish line the back, and workers yak behind a counter filled with prepared dishes like spanakopita and seafood rice.

“Pull the bag inside out and use it as a glove,” the man behind the counter said, directing me to pick out my own fish, which I did: a $12 slab of swordfish, $11 for eight chunky scallops, and a bargain $4 for a slippery handful of calamari. I dropped it off with him, and minutes later, my purchase reappeared at our table, grilled and doused in olive oil, minced garlic and several jolts of vinegar. The caramelized tentacles of the squid were crunchy outside and silky inside; the swordfish was impossibly juicy. With drinks and sides, our bill came to $48: the equivalent of one lame Manhattan turkey burger each.

A spinach pie at Ukus, a Bosnian restaurant, in Astoria.CreditCalla Kessler/The New York Times

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A spinach pie at Ukus, a Bosnian restaurant, in Astoria.CreditCalla Kessler/The New York Times

You could go Egyptian or Brazilian or more Colombian in Astoria, but for my next visit, I took my friends Zack and Carolina and their young kids to Ukus, an extraordinarily casual Bosnian restaurant where we were greeted, waited on, cooked for and served by the same somberly friendly man. Beverages were self-serve — we tried the Cockta soda, a citrusy, less cloying version of Dr Pepper, and thick Croatian pear juice. Ukus’s family-friendliness was tested when 5-year-old Clara began shooting spitballs, but neither our multitalented server nor the other customers batted an eye.

We shared a $6.50 begova corba, a chicken and rice soup just like what your grandmother would have made, were she Bosnian, and five beef kebab/sausages called cevapi, served inside pita bread and ready to be doused in ajvar (a red bell pepper condiment) or kajmak (a fresh cheese spread) — a bargain at $7.50.

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A selection of dishes at Point Brazil in Astoria.CreditCalla Kessler/The New York Times

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A selection of dishes at Point Brazil in Astoria.CreditCalla Kessler/The New York Times

We also had a dense dessert called a Russian hat, in this case a yellow cake buried inside shaved coconut and drizzled with chocolate syrup, but a better idea would have been to up the international quotient by heading over to Point Brazil for some tangy Brazilian passion fruit mousse ($3) and coffee.

Flushing and beyond

No part of Queens presents a more bafflingly spectacular array of restaurant options than Flushing’s Chinatown and the heavily Korean neighborhood of Murray Hill, easily complemented by the digestion-aiding (or at least digestion-neutral) attractions, situated in and around Flushing Meadows Corona Park, home to the Unisphere and other less-well-maintained structures from the 1964 World’s Fair, as well as the Queens Zoo, Queens Museum and eastward, the Queens Botanical Garden. (The park is also home on Saturdays to the Queens Night Market, open April to August and for a month in the fall. It features food vendors from Norway to Singapore to Puerto Rico, and a crowd diverse in age and origin.) Flushing, a town merged into New York City in 1898, has several historic buildings you can visit on specific days, including the 17th-century Bowne House (Wednesdays), the Queens Historical Society (Tuesdays and weekends), and the Quaker Meeting House (Sundays).

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I had three meals in the Flushing area, each of them nothing like the other. My first stop was a splurge, Xiang Hotpot, on the second floor of the New World Mall and, like a portal to a different universe, a palatial China-themed hall halfway between elegant and raucous, where on a Sunday night a friend and I were the only non-Asians.

Xiang HotPot in Flushing, Queens, is a palatial China-themed food hall.CreditCalla Kessler/The New York Times

Xiang HotPot in Flushing, Queens, is a palatial China-themed food hall.CreditCalla Kessler/The New York Times

The fun of a hotpot restaurant is that you cook your own food, in our case pork meatballs, pig kidney, black tofu, shrimp paste with bamboo and (because I couldn’t resist) a bullfrog. Here, the built-in pots are divided, in modified yin-yang style, allowing you to choose two soup bases including the “special spicy pot,” with chiles, Sichuan peppercorns and globs of melting beef tallow. (Beef tallow is a standard cooking fat for hotpot restaurants, just as it used to be for McDonald’s French fries and still is for Belgian street fries, for deliciously crisp results.)

The rest of the fun is that sauce bar, where you can whip up your own dipping bowls based in soy or sesame or seafood sauce, say, and adding ingredients like ground peanuts, cilantro or red chiles. Despite the near-infinite combinations, it’s really hard for even the most amateur sauce maker (me) to make something that isn’t delicious. The cost, at just over$120 for two (with tip), is a worthwhile splurge.

A seafood pancake at Dae Sung Kal Guk Su in Murray Hill.CreditCalla Kessler/The New York Times

My guide to Murray Hill was a Korean-American dentist and Flushing local, Ester Linton, who suggested we have the knife-cut noodle soup called kalguksu at Dae Sung Kal Guk Su. That the noodles are cut (into delicate, silky strands) is an important detail, for we also ordered sujebi, a hand-torn noodle soup traditionally associated with lower classes. “Ah, you like the peasant food,” Ester told me when I indicated a preference for the sujebi. But it was actually a reaction to the variety: Whereas our kalguksu had come in plain, light broth with short-neck clams (delicious), the sujebi came with fish cakes and was jazzed up with spicy broth (more delicious). Both soups were $13.99, and were plenty for two or three.

An assortment of Korean dishes at Myung San in Flushing.CreditCalla Kessler/The New York Times

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An assortment of Korean dishes at Myung San in Flushing.CreditCalla Kessler/The New York Times

Ester also brought us to Myung San to try ganjang gaejang ($19.95), raw crab in a fishy, salty, soy-sauce-based marinade. The dish, she explained, is known as a “rice thief,” since once the meat is gone, soaking the rice in the remaining marinade pooled in the crab shell yields results so allegedly delicious that Koreans cannot stop eating it.

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I had a different reaction and declare the dish innocent of all charges, and kind of disgusting. But if everything you try in Queens suits your palate, you’re probably doing something wrong.

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Seth Kugel, a frequent contributor to the Travel section, is the author of “Rediscovering Travel: A Guide for the Globally Curious.”

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