Flushing High School

The building housing Flushing High School at 35-01 Union St. was constructed from 1912 to 1915 in Collegiate Gothic style. Flushing High School was first established in 1875, making it the oldest public high school program in New York City. The original location for the school was the corner of Union and Sanford Ave.; the school was the site of a special training program for prospective schoolteachers. Hundreds of the students protested in 1919 - read on to find out why. The 1910s school building became a New York City landmark in 1991 and was listed in the National Register of Historic Places the following year.

While there were plenty of private schools in Flushing, the first free school wasn't established until the 1810s. The Flushing Female Association was formed by a group of ladies - mostly of the Society of Friends ("Quakers") - who each donated $2 per year into a treasury. Others donated cash or firewood, and a school was opened in April 1814 in a house on Liberty St. Members of the Association, and then a hired teacher named Mary McMannus, taught the classes attended by both White and African-American children. The first public school in Flushing wasn't established until the 1840s. School district no. 5 covered the whole Village of Flushing and some adjoining land. The first public schoolhouse was built in Flushing in 1843 at the corner of Garden and Church streets, at a cost of $950. At that point, the public funds that had been partially supporting the Flushing Female Association were cut off and funneled to the new school. Within a few years, efforts were underway to raise taxes to build a larger public school, and a lot was purchased on Union St. The new school was finished in the late 1840s and opened with seven teachers and 381 students.

In 1875, the first Flushing High School opened. The large, four to five-story building served as the town's high school until 1915 and stood at xx (see the photo below). The first year that Flushing High School operated, there were only seven students! For the 1878 - 1879 school year, the high school received about $3,800 in public funds and the principal was Sherman Williams. The School Superintendent of New York State approved Flushing High School to offer a Teachers' Training Class beginning in January 1880 and continuing on Wednesdays for 14 weeks; it was the only high school in Queens County to offer this program as of 1889. Tuition and books were free to county residents who wanted to become teachers; minimum age was 16 for ladies and 18 for gentlemen. The other subjects offered to Flushing High School students in 1889 were "College Preparatory, Business, Scientific and English courses;" the school's principal was John H. Clark.

In 1902, the Central School Board approved a request from the local Board of Education to purchase additional grounds for Flushing High School. The plans for new high schools at Jamaica and Flushing were in the works by 1905; the estimated cost for the Flushing building was about $200.000. The new Flushing High School building was still being discussed in 1908, and the estimated cost had risen to $300,000. The purchase of land on Whitestone Ave. and State St. for the high school was approved in July 1908. The new building was proposed to be of brick and have a seating capacity of 800 students. A fire on the top (fifth) floor of the 1875 Flushing High School building broke out in September 1908 and caused $15,000 in damage to the top two floors; the firefighters had problems with low water pressure and one fell through the roof, suffering severe injuries. The building needed to be closed for several months for repairs. The Superintendent of School Buildings for the New York City Board of Education, C.B.J. Snyder, designed the new building for Flushing High School and construction finally got underway in 1912. Students finally got to experience the new building in 1915; one 1920 newspaper account called it a "fine piece of architecture."

John Holley Clark was still principal on November 11th 1919 when about 200 boys and 15 girls refused to enter their classrooms at Flushing High School in protest of having to attend school on Armistice Day. The students "did a snake dance around the school and then started to wind their way down the main streets of Flushing" toward Jamaica; the crowd broke up near Jamaica High School when threatened with arrest. The principal called it a "clear violation of school discipline." There was a new principal by 1922, Harold G. Campbell.

Flushing High School is still a New York City public school and currently has nearly a 90 percent graduation rate. The curriculum includes eleven Advanced Placement courses and a partnership with LaGuardia Community College for earning college credits.

Anonymous. "Local Record." Roslyn News (Roslyn) April 12th 1879. 3-3.

Anonymous. "Board of Education." Long Island Farmer (Jamaica) May 16th 1902. 1-1.

Anonymous. "Three New Schools." Long Island Farmer (Jamaica) January 13th 1905. 1-1.

Anonymous. "Flushing's New School House." Long Island Farmer (Jamaica) July 17th 1908. 1-1.

Anonymous. "Quit School to Celebrate." New York Tribune (New York) November 12th 1919. 7-7.

Anonymous. "Principals Oppose High School Frats." New York Herald (New York) October 11th 1922. 7-7.

Anonymous. "New Homes and Old Homes, .... To Be Had in Long Island Towns Near City Line." New York Tribune (New York) March 21st 1920. II sec, 14-14.

Clark, John H. "Flushing High School." Roslyn News (Roslyn) August 24th 1889. Classifieds sec, 3-3.

Flushing High School. History of FHS, About Us. January 1st 2022. Accessed June 22nd 2022. https://www.flushinghighschool.org/about_us.

Flushing High School. Why Flushing?, Prospective Students. January 1st 2022. Accessed June 22nd 2022. https://www.flushinghighschool.org/prospective_students.

NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission. Designation Report, Flushing High School, 35-01 Union St., Borough of Queens. Volume LP-1798. NYC landmarks. New York, NY. New York City Government, 1991.

Walling, Henry D. History of the Town of Flushing, Long Island. Flushing, NY. J.H. Ridenour, 1899.

Williams, Sherman. "Flushing High School." Roslyn News (Roslyn) December 6th 1879. , Classifieds sec, 3-3.