Flushing High School

35-01 Union Street | Flushing | built 1915

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The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1912

    Work begins on a new Flushing High School after civic leaders lobby for it

    Early in the 20th century, Flushing's community and civic leaders expected rapid growth from the planned Queensborough Bridge and a subway extension into Queens, and they pressed for additional schools, a new high school among them. The Board of Education came around, and work on this building began in 1912. The school it would house dated to 1875, when the state legislature incorporated it, and is the city's oldest public high school institution.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1915

    C. B. J. Snyder's Collegiate Gothic school is completed around a five-story entrance tower

    Finished in 1915, the school is dominated by a square five-story entrance tower, a college-style element also found at Shepard Hall at City College and at the Morris and Curtis high schools, and a signature of C. B. J. Snyder's Collegiate Gothic designs. A double-height auditorium wing with broad traceried windows, modeled on the chapels of English colleges, sits to the east. Buff brick and gray terra cotta are dressed with oriels, battlements, grotesque corbels, drip moldings and heraldic statues.

    “The tower is also a feature that Flushing High School shares with Morris High School, curtis High School, and City College's Shepard Hall…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1916

    January 14

    The city's oldest public high school is formally dedicated in its new building

    Flushing High School started teaching here in September 1915, and the building's official dedication came on January 14, 1916. Recognized by the state Regents in 1877, the school had first shared a building with a grammar school at Union Street and Sanford Avenue. That building was enlarged in 1891 to plans by Frank A. Collins, but the growing area soon outstripped it again.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  4. 1938

    Painter James Penney's four WPA murals are installed at the school

    The Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project paid artist James Penney to paint four murals for Flushing High School, and they were put in place in 1938. The school had by then moved into its Collegiate Gothic building of 1912 to 1915, known for its turrets and gargoyles.

    “The WPA's Federal Art Project funded James Penney to paint four murals which were installed in 1938.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  5. 1954

    A new wing dedicated to World War II eases crowding at the school

    As development and population growth around Flushing crowded the school, a new wing was finished in 1954 and dedicated as a memorial to World War II. An adjoining gymnasium wing followed in 1974. Neither addition is part of the city landmark designation, which covers only the original building.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  6. 1967

    Future Abyssinian Baptist pastor Calvin O. Butts graduates as senior class president

    Calvin O. Butts (1949-2022) was a member of Flushing High School's class of 1967 and president of that year's senior class. He went on to become pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem.

    “Calvin O. Butts (1949–2022, class of 1967), Pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem and President of FHS Senior Class of 1967…”

    Source: Wikipedia

  7. 1991

    January 8

    Flushing High School becomes a city landmark, minus its later extensions

    The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the school a landmark on January 8, 1991, following a July 1990 hearing where six witnesses, the principal among them, spoke in favor and none against. The Board of Education's school facilities division had asked that the extensions built in 1952-54 and 1970-74 be excluded, and they were left out of the designation.

    “…six witnesses, including the principal of the school, spoke in favor of designation. No witnesses spoke in opposition to designation.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  8. 2017

    The struggling school makes its entire staff reapply for their jobs

    By the 2010s Flushing High School was still generally low-performing, and in 2017 every staff member had to reapply for their position as part of an effort to improve it. Graduation rates climbed afterward, from 63 percent in 2017 to 83 percent in 2021.

    “…the entire staff had to reapply for their positions in 2017. Since then, graduation rates have increased from 63% in 2017 to 83% in 2021.”

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 9 buildings with stories in Flushing