Farrington's of College Point

Motorists getting a fillup or an oil check at Farrington’s Service Station at 15th Avenue and 126th Street in College Point may be interested in knowing that the station has been in operation since 1868, long before there were any automobiles to service.

“Farrington” is an old name in Flushing and College Point; the first Farringtons arrived in Flushing in the 1640s. Farrington Street, which now ends at the Whitestone Expressway, was formerly a main route between the two communities. The road traversed the former Farrington’s Meadows. A Farrington married a descendant of John Bowne, a Quaker who spearheaded a battle for religious freedom in 1640s Flushing when he refused to convert to the Dutch Reformed Church and eventually forced Peter Stuyvesant to allow diversity in religion.

William Farrington opened a farrier and blacksmith on 14th Avenue and 126th Street in 1868, and the business has survived through several modes of animal and mechanically-conducted transportation. Its modern sign was cleverly rendered to resemble the original one.

The present co-owners are William’s great-great-grandsons, John Farrington and his brother Michael Farrington. The original proprietor, the brothers’ great-grandfather, specialized in making horseshoes for racing. William’s son, also John Farrington, realized that transit of the four-legged variety would soon be superseded by the internal combustion engine and began selling gasoline as early as 1917.

In recent years John and Michael Farrington have ceded daily operations, but to cousins, so the nearly 150-year old business has remained in the family. A visit to the office will reveal a wall full of photographs of old College Point, which used to be largely a resort area for the wealthy, as well as Farrington’s Service station’s own evolution from horseshoeing to servicing modern Mustangs.