35-01 Union Street Flushing, N.Y. 11354 http://www.flushinghighschool.org http://schools.nyc.gov/SchoolPortals/25/Q460/default.htm Flushing High School was the first public high school in what are now the corporate limits of the City of New York. It was incorporated by an act of the New York State Legislature on May 15, 1875. Not until 1893 was Boys' High School in Brooklyn given its charter and not until 1898 were Dewitt Clinton and Wadleigh High School founded. These were the forerunners of the more than 100 high schools of today. The beginnings of Flushing High School were small indeed. The Academic Department had seven students in 1875 and the first graduating class in 1878 had only six members! It was twenty-five years before the attendance reached 200. The original building was a three-story structure on the corner of Union Street and Sanford Avenue. The High School proper occupied the third story, consisting of a study hall and two adjoining classrooms. At times, classes were being conducted at the same time in various corners of the study hall. The Grammar Department occupied the first and second floors, and the janitor and his family lived in the basement. Flushing High School had been established while Flushing was a township, consisting of the villages of College Point, Whitestone, Flushing, Bayside, Douglaston, Little Neck and all the land half-way to Jamaica on the south. By 1870, Flashing’s population had reached 14,650 and it became apparent that new schools were needed. The Flushing School District #5 held a town meeting in 1873 to approve the building of a new public school that would also include a high school. A plot of land on Sanford Avenue was purchased from James B. Parsons for $9500 and the building was erected and furnished at a cost of $61,000. By 1891, the school population had grown so much that more room was needed. Additional land to the east of the building was acquired (at a cost of $65,000) and an addition was added which dwarfed the original building. The original structure became a wing of the new central building completed in 1892. The building on Sanford and Union was called the High School until 1915 even though most of the building was occupied by the pupils of the Grammar School. Even after the high school students were no longer there, the building was spoken of as the "old High School". The building presently on the site is the John Bowne School still designated P.S. 20, constructed in 1950. The consolidation of the Greater City of New York in 1898 brought to Flushing a constantly increasing population and improved transportation facilities. Students came to the school from new real estate developments rising everywhere. Far-sighted community leaders realized that new schools were necessary. It wasn't until the appointment of Mr. Rupert B. Thomas to the New York City Board of Education on January 1, 1907 did the movement to construct a new high school really make progress. Mr. Thomas was a distinguished resident of Flushing who realized that his community was growing rapidly and a new high school was necessary if the progress being made was to continue. The Superintendent of Schools, William H. Maxwell did not share the belief that Flushing would grow large enough to warrant a new building. It took Mr. Thomas nine years of constant effort before the new building was finished and opened to students on September 8, 1915.
With the overcrowding of the original building, a new wing was built that would house the facilities that modern high schools required. Though the idea was first suggested in 1938, the new wing wasn't completed until 1954. This wing, on the site of the Wells Estate (formerly Parsons Estate) was dedicated as a World War II memorial. The old building was then extensively modernized. A new gymnasium was added in 1972, extending the building to Northern Boulevard and Bowne Street. From "The History of Flushing High School" by Joel L. Friedman |
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