Queenswalk: Flushing Town Hall, 137-35 Northern Boulevard

I love this building. It has a wonderful sense of whimsy and joy to it, and is just a delight to behold. Unlike the usually dour and ponderous town halls of most cities and towns, the Flushing Town Hall is not trying to convince you of how serious and important Flushing is. To me, anyway, it says that the Flushing of 1862, which is when the building was finished, was a town reaching for higher and loftier goals. Considering it was built while the nation was embroiled in a horrible Civil War, that was certainly a good thing.

Flushing was originally called “Vlissingen” by the Dutch who founded the settlement in 1645. They named it after the city of the same name in the Netherlands, which was the port city of the Dutch West India Company. English settlers came soon afterwards, and “Flushing” is an Anglicization of the Dutch name. When the English took over New Netherlands in 1664, Flushing was one of the original five towns that made up Queens County.

Fast forwarding to the middle of the 19th century, Flushing had become a populous and popular area, due in part to its proximity to Manhattan. It was already spinning off separate neighborhoods such as College Point and Whitestone. The farms and fields of Flushing were quickly being developed into residential neighborhoods, with Northern Boulevard as the town’s main street. As the town grew, it became apparent that a centrally located town hall was needed for civic functions.

The Flushing Town Hall was completed in 1862. One of its first tasks was to swear in thousands of conscripts into the Union Army and war. This took place in the upper floor assembly room. Downstairs, the offices of government were housed. The building, with an unknown architect or designer, is an early example of the Romanesque Revival style of architecture, and features that style’s signature arched windows and doorways. The windows on the tall second story are quite magnificent, especially the double window in the front.

The spires, which are actually buttresses that extend above the roof line, are capped with delightful peaked roofs and pinnacles. They are the joy in this building, aspiring to ever greater heights, while the heaviness of the structure seeks to hold it down. The grand entrance is a triple arched portico, supported by heavy pilasters. A running band of arched corbels rings the building all along the roof line, adding detail to a very well designed building.

All of the important civic functions of Flushing were held in this building. Military swearings-in, volunteer fire department functions, fancy dress balls and political speeches. The auditorium featured light opera and theater performances, and welcomed P.T. Barnum and his most popular act, Tom Thumb. Frederic Douglass spoke here, and the men of the Flushing Volunteer Artillery Unit marched to war after a farewell ceremony here. Years later, Theodore Roosevelt gave a presidential campaign speech here, from the front steps.

In the early 20th century, after Queens became part of Greater New York City, the old town hall became a courthouse. It served in that capacity from 1902 until the early 1960s. In 1904, it was necessary to add a new addition to serve as a jail. The lobby held a branch of the Queens County Savings Bank, and upstairs still served as a meeting hall and venue for dances and balls. The Flushing Library was here too, for a while. The last special civic function the hall served as was as a precinct headquarters during the 1964-65 World’s Fair.

But as with many of our city’s civic buildings, the Flushing Town Hall became redundant, and all city function ceased. The building became one more of New York’s many city-owned buildings that was suffering from neglect and deferred maintenance, especially in the municipal poverty years of the 1970s. The building was landmarked in 1967, only two years after the creation of the Landmarks Preservation Commission, which enthusiastically approved historic designation upon the building. In 1972, the building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

These designations protected the building, but it still needed a purpose. At some point during the 1970s, an entrepreneur had a go at running a supper club from this location. A 1970s photo shows diners outside, and the entire building painted white, which apparently had been the color since at least the 1920s, as per period photos. It was not to last. The building deteriorated throughout the hardship years of the 1970s and ‘80s.

In 1990, Queens Borough President Clair Shulman spearheaded a rescue of the building, choosing the Flushing Council on Culture and the Arts (FCCA) to occupy and rescue the building. Under the leadership of the FCCA’s founding Executive and Artistic Director, Jo-Ann Jones, a three-phase, $8 million restoration of the building began.

The abandoned building was restored, inside and out, and a visual and performing arts center was created. It features first floor galleries and a performance space, which opened in 1993, and the second floor Great Hall Theater, which seats 308 people, opened to the public in 1999. In addition to those facilities, the building also has a garden that can hold up to 250 people, offices and a gift shop. Like the days of old, the Flushing Town Hall is once more home to dancing and music, and again a place of great civic pride. GMAP

(Photo:Jim Henderson for Wikipedia)