Flushing High School, April 8, 1921. Flushing High School was founded in 1875 and is the oldest public high school in New York City. The school began with seven students and six of them graduating in 1878! The original building was three stories, had only two official classrooms, and the janitor and his family lived in the basement. By the turn of the century, the student population of the school had grown and a large addition was constructed onto the original building. In 1907 a Board of Education member and Flushing resident began the fight for a larger, modern school in Flushing. That fight would last nine years. In 1915 the new C.B.J. Snyder designed school opened for students. The imposing Neo-Gothic (sometimes called Collegiate Gothic) style building features a five-story tower, buff-colored brick, turrets, and gargoyles, all reminiscent of British medieval universities.

Each month the Landmarks Conservancy celebrates New York City’s extraordinarily rich architectural heritage by featuring a different building style or function. So, in September, as the new academic year begins, we’ll explore New York’s historic public schools designed by the prolific architect C.B.J. Snyder. With more than 1,500 schools and 1.1 million students, the New York City Board of Education is the nation’s largest public school system and one of the oldest. Snyder served as Superintendent of School Buildings for the Board of Education between 1891 and 1923. As Superintendent, he is credited with the design of more than 400 structural projects — including more than 140 elementary schools. Snyder worked in several styles, including Beaux-Arts, English Collegiate Gothic, Jacobean, and Dutch Colonial. He preferred mid-block locations away from busy and polluted avenues. One of his signature motifs was to design spaces for learning that would offer a respite from noisy streets and poverty.

Flushing High School 35-01 Union Street, Flushing, Queens 1915 Founded in 1875, Flushing High School is the oldest public high school in New York City. Its distinctive Neo-Gothic style building, built of buff-colored brick, terra cotta, and granite was constructed between 1912 and 1915, with another wing added in 1954. The most dominant feature is the entrance: a five story, square central tower, which is an element closely associated with Gothic architecture. One of her most famous alumni is fictional character, Archie Bunker. It was designated as a New York City Landmark in 1991 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.

Queens is such an integral part of the metropolis that is hard for us to think of it as rural and agricultural. But when New York was New Amsterdam, Queens was no more than a series of remote villages scattered between the Dutch Brooklyn (Breukelen) and the English eastern Long Island settlements. As Dutch and English settlers moved closer to one another, they began to assimilate in what would later become Queens County. The Dutch colonial government of New Amsterdam exercised political and military control of this area, but permitted, even welcomed English settlement. The Dutch chartered Hempstead (Heemstede) in 1644, Flushing (Vlissingen) in 1645, Newtown (Middelburgh) in 1652, and Jamaica (Rustdorp) in 1656. These were predominately English towns, but they differed from the settlements at the eastern end of Long Island, not only in their recognition of the Dutch government and their accommodation of Dutch settlers but also in harboring many religious dissenters. These towns proved to be a comfortable place for Quakers in particular. Nowhere more so than Flushing was this religious welcoming evident. When the colonial government forbade the entertaining of Quakers, thirty inhabitants issued the Flushing Remonstrance objecting to the order on December 27, 1657. Today this document is considered instrumental to the concept of religious liberty. The tradition of acceptance and diversity is continued in Flushing, which is one of the most diverse neighborhoods in Queens County with Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indian, Pakistani, Afghan, and Indonesian communities.

Flushing High School ARCHITECT: C.B.J. Snyder DATE: 1912-15 STYLE: Collegiate Gothic Built between 1912 and 1915, this is the oldest public high school in New York City. It was designed by C.B.J. Snyder, a prominent architect who designed several schools in the five boroughs. It is an example of the Collegiate Gothic style, and it features a monumental square entrance tower, a picturesque auditorium wing, and Gothic-inspired ornament.