Date: Sunday, May 19, 2019
Time: 12:00pm – 2:30pm
Start Location:Quaker Meeting House, 137-16 Northern Blvd, Flushing, NY 11354
End Location: St. Michael’s Roman Catholic Church, 136-76 41st Avenue Flushing, NY 11355
Advanced registration is required at https://bit.ly/2DGa37V.
The New York Landmarks Conservancy: Flushing Sacred Sites Tour
Queens is the most diverse county in the United States. With nearly half of the 2.3 million residents born abroad, its neighborhoods are home to families that hail from over 120 countries and speak over 135 languages. On Sunday, May 19th visitors will enjoy learning more about the sacred sites that highlight Flushing’s religious diversity.
Flushing is the site of North America’s first proclamation of religious freedom: the Flushing Remonstrance of 1657, and the oldest extant house of worship in New York State: the Quaker Meeting House of 1694. The area is now the site of many new churches, temples, and mosques due to both a surge in the needs of contemporary immigrants and the availability of sizable plots of land in once-elite residential areas. We’ll discuss the ecological and economic problems engendered by the new churches as well as the uncertain status of historic religious institutions.
The first stop on our tour will be the Quaker Meeting House (built in 1694), at noon. The site is just a ten-minute walk from the Main St. stop of the #7 train and LIRR or a short walk from the Main St./Northern Blvd stop of the Q19, 66, 65, 25, 20A, 20B buses.
We’ll end the tour by 2:30 pm at the St. Michael’s Roman Catholic church.
We will also pass by a number of remarkable new and older houses of worship from tiny storefront churches to the elaborate Korean Buddhist temple, Masjid Abu Bakr Mosque, Mormon church, Sikh Temple and Temple (Jewish) Gates of Prayer.
The tour will be led by urban geographer Jack Eichenbaum, Ph.D. – the appointed Queens Borough Historian. His main focus is to promote Queens’ history-related attractions and changing cultures. His academic career encompasses quantitative and theoretical research on migration, ethnicity, urban growth and neighborhood change. He has an extraordinary knowledge of the New York City geography, which he teaches at the City University of New York.
Sacred Sites Open House Website
Sacred Sites in Queens https://sacredsitesopenhouse.org/project/nyc-borough/queens/
Advanced registration is required at https://bit.ly/2DGa37V.
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