Flushing High School

File:Flushing High School, New York City (1917).jpg

Flushing High School was established by the Village of Flushing in 1875 prior to its consolidation with New York City and is the oldest public high school in the city.[http://www.queenshistoricalsociety.org/freedom.html Freedom Mile - Site 7] sch{{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060707125028/http://queenshistoricalsociety.org/freedom.html|date=July 7, 2006}}, The Queens Historical Society. Accessed June 26, 2006. For decades, the school enjoyed a good reputation with local real estate sales brochures touting proximity to "famed Flushing High School" as late as the 1960s.{{Cite book|title=Linden Towers|date=1958|location=Columbia University Library Real Estate Brochure Collection}} By the 1980s, the student body ceased to be drawn from the local Jewish and Asian population. As of the 2010s, the school remained generally low-performing. In an attempt to improve conditions, the entire staff had to reapply for their positions in 2017.{{Cite news|title=DOE to shake up Flushing High School|publisher=Queen Chronicle|date=October 26, 2017}} Since then, graduation rates have increased from 63% in 2017{{Cite web|title=FLUSHING HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION RATE DATA 4 Year Outcome as of August|url=https://data.nysed.gov/gradrate.php?year=2017&instid=800000042107|website=NYSED Data|access-date=7 March 2022}} to 83% in 2021.{{Cite web|title=FLUSHING HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION RATE DATA 4 Year Outcome as of August 2021|url=https://data.nysed.gov/gradrate.php?year=2021&instid=800000042107|website=NYSED Data|access-date=7 March 2022}}

Flushing High School was originally located on the northeast corner of Union Street and Sanford Avenue.{{Cite book|title=Map of Flushing, Queens|date=1903|publisher=Sanborn Map Co.}} It is currently located on Northern Boulevard, and housed in a distinctive Collegiate Gothic style building featuring turrets and gargoyles. It was built from 1912 to 1915, with another wing added in 1954. The WPA's Federal Art Project funded James Penney {{Cite web|url=https://www.aaa.si.edu/download_pdf_transcript/ajax?record_id=edanmdm-AAADCD_oh_212110|title=Oral History Interview with James Penney Archives of American Art|date=August 21, 1981|website=Archives of American Art}} to paint four murals which were installed in 1938.{{Cite web|url=http://livingnewdeal.berkeley.edu/projects/flushing-high-school-murals-flushing-ny/|title=Flushing High School Murals - Flushing NY | Living New Deal|access-date=September 11, 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140912030111/http://livingnewdeal.berkeley.edu/projects/flushing-high-school-murals-flushing-ny/|archive-date=September 12, 2014}}

The building was designated as a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1991.{{Cite web|url=http://www.oprhp.state.ny.us/hpimaging/hp_view.asp?GroupView=7303|title=National Register of Historic Places Registration: Flushing High School|date=September 1991|access-date=January 16, 2011|author=John A. Bonafide|publisher=New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation}} See also: {{cite web|url=http://www.oprhp.state.ny.us/hpimaging/hp_view.asp?GroupView=7318|title=Accompanying 13 photos}} It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.

{{Category see also|Flushing High School alumni}}

• Dave Barbour (1912–1965), musician who played with Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman{{citation needed|date=September 2019}}
• Jay Bromley (born 1992), defensive tackle who played in the XFL for the DC Defenders and also played in the NFL for the New York GiantsSchwartz, Paul. [https://nypost.com/2014/05/25/giants-bromley-overcomes-obstacles-in-dark-past/ "Giants’ pick Bromley found success, hope after dark past"], New York Post, May 25, 2014. Accessed September 5, 2019. "'I remember, he didn’t meet his father until he was 17 years old,' said Jim DeSantis, Bromley’s football coach at Flushing High School."
• Jerry Bock (1928–2010), musical theater composer who was co-author of the Broadway musical Fiddler On The RoofBerkvist, Robert. [https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/04/theater/04bock.html "Jerry Bock, Fiddler on the Roof Composer, Dies at 81"], The New York Times, November 3, 2010. Accessed September 5, 2019. "Jerrold Lewis Bock was born on Nov. 23, 1928, in New Haven, the only child of George Bock, a salesman, and the former Peggy Alpert. He grew up in Flushing, Queens, where he wrote his first musical, My Dream, while still in Flushing High School."
• Lynn Burke (born 1943), Olympic gold medalist in swimming[http://special.lib.umn.edu/findaid/html/ymca/ygny0023x1.phtml YMCA of Greater New York, Flushing Branch]
• Calvin O. Butts (1949–2022, class of 1967), Pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem and President of FHS Senior Class of 1967[https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/reverend-dr-calvin-o-butts Reverend Dr. Calvin O. Butts], The HistoryMakers. Accessed September 5, 2019. "During his early childhood, Butts’s family moved to New York City, where he received his primary education; in 1967, he earned his high school diploma from Flushing High School, where he was a member of the track team and president of the senior class."
• Margaret I. Carman (1890–1976), history teacher
• Godfrey Cambridge (1933–1976), African-American actor and comedian[https://aaregistry.org/story/unique-stage-and-screen-talents-godfrey-cambridge/ Unique stage and screen talents, Godfrey Cambridge], African American Registry. Accessed September 5, 2019. "Born to parents who emigrated from British Guiana, he attended public schools in Nova Scotia while living with his grandparents. After finishing his education in New York at Flushing High School and Hofstra College, he began to study acting."
• Robert Christgau (born 1942), music critic for The Village VoiceStevens, Dana. [https://slate.com/culture/2015/03/robert-christgaus-memoir-going-into-the-city-reviewed.html "Beautifully, Profoundly, Naively, Contradictorily, Romantically, Kinetically, Jokily, Cockily, Fearfully, Drunkenly, Goofily, Impudently; Robert Christgau’s memoir."], Slate (magazine), March 4, 2015. Accessed September 5, 2019. "The moment I realized Robert Christgau’s Going Into the City: Portrait of a Critic as a Young Man would be doing something different from your average writer’s memoir came—well, almost came—around Page 95. The morning after skipping the Flushing High School senior prom to hit a couple of Manhattan jazz clubs with the girlfriend who would later relieve him of his long-guarded Presbyterian virginity, Bob, a precocious graduate at 16, drops his date off at the door of her family’s apartment with a single chaste kiss on the lips."
• Michael Costa (born c. 1948), American football coach who was head coach of the St. Augustine's Falcons football team from 2002 to 2014.[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/65626592/the-news-journal/ "Costa named Cheyney coach"], The News Journal, February 8, 1985. Accessed December 20, 2020, via Newspapers.com. "Costa, a graduate of Flushing (N.Y.) High, played defensive back at Prairie View A&M in Texas before transferring to Norfolk (Va.) State, which he graduated from in 1971."
• Eddie Fogler (born 1948), University of North Carolina Tar Heels basketball star and former college basketball coach[https://vucommodores.com/eddie-fogler-recalls-his-career/ Eddie Fogler recalls his career], Vanderbilt Commodores, January 12, 2011. Accessed September 5, 2019. "Fogler, 62, was an All-City guard from Flushing High School in Flushing, N.Y."
• Nancy Gertner (born 1946), former United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts.[https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/hk739sp3201/GertnerN_Transcript.pdf Nancy Gertner Interview Transcript], Stanford Law School. Accessed September 5, 2019. "Yes. That was the only alternative. I went to public school in Manhattan, no I guess I first went to public school in Queens, College Point and then Flushing and then I went to Flushing High School."
• Harry Kondoleon (1955–1994), playwright, Obie award-winner{{citation needed|date=September 2019}}
• Lenny Lipton (born 1940), songwriter who was co-author of Peter, Paul & Mary's classic hit "Puff, the Magic Dragon".[https://lennylipton.wordpress.com/2009/12/13/m-y-life-at-popular-photography/ "My Life At Popular Photography"], Lenny Lipton, December 13, 2009. Accessed September 5, 2019. "When I lived in Queens between the ages of 15 and 18, attending Flushing High School, I lived on a street called Kisenna Boulevard."
• George Maharis (1928–2023), actor best known for his role on the TV show Route 66.Larson, John. [https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/221810815/ "Under Twenty"], Courier News, March 9, 1962. Accessed December 20, 2020. "George Maharis didn't start out to become an actor. His interests led more to a singing career, simply because he loved to sing. At Flushing High School he had often sung in the assembly and fellow students remember him as a fine singer."
• Paul Meltsner (1905–1966), WPA-era artistBoyce, Heather Karlie. [http://www.papillongallery.com/paul_meltsner_jayne.html Paul Meltsner], Papillon Gallery. Accessed September 5, 2019. "Paul Raphael Meltsner was born in New York City in 1905. A native New Yorker Mr. Meltsner attended Flushing High School and graduated in 1922."
• Joshua Prager, physician who specializes in pain medicine{{citation needed|date=September 2019}}
• Harold Rosenbaum (born 1950), musician, conductor, founder of The New York Virtuoso Singers.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}}
• Vincent Sardi Jr. (1915–2007), restaurateurGrimes, William. [https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/05/nyregion/05sardi.html "Vincent Sardi Jr., Restaurateur and Unofficial ‘Mayor of Broadway,’ Dies at 91"], The New York Times, January 5, 2007. Accessed September 5, 2019. "In 1926, the Sardis moved to Flushing, Queens, where Vincent graduated from Flushing High School. He entered Columbia University intending to become a doctor, but failed the chemistry examination, in part because, short of pocket money, he had sold his textbook at Barnes & Noble so he could attend a dance. He transferred to Columbia Business School and earned a degree in 1937."
• Andy Shernoff (born 1955), songwriter and rock musicianCost, Jud. [http://magnetmagazine.com/2011/11/14/qa-with-andy-shernoff/ "Q&A With Andy Shernoff"], Magnet (magazine), November 14, 2011. Accessed September 5, 2019. "Then my parents moved a few miles down the road to Whitestone, Queens, where I went to Flushing High School."
• George Spitz (1912–1986), Olympic high jumper{{Cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1310&dat=19310209&id=CO00AAAAIBAJ&sjid=hOgDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3413,2706424|newspaper=Eugene Register-Guard|date=February 9, 1931|title=Backyard Style Accounts for New High Jump Record|access-date=June 19, 2013}}
• Webster Tarpley (born 1946, class of 1962), historian and political commentatorJacobson, Mark. [http://nymag.com/news/features/16464/index.html "The Ground Zero Grassy Knoll A new generation of conspiracy theorists is at work on a secret history of New York’s most terrible day."], New York magazine, March 27, 2006. Accessed September 5, 2019. "September 11 was the true face of corporatized terror, said Tarpley, graduate of Flushing High School, class of 1962 (also Princeton), and author of an 'unauthorized' biography of George Herbert Walker Bush."
• Mary van Kleeck (1883–1972), social feminist active as a proponent of scientific management and a planned economy.[https://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/sophiasmith/mnsss150_bioghist.html Mary van Kleeck Papers, 1849-1998: Biographical Note] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190608140644/http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/sophiasmith/mnsss150_bioghist.html |date=June 8, 2019 }}, Five College Consortium. Accessed September 5, 2019. "Following her father's death in 1892, her family moved to Flushing, New York, where van Kleeck attended Flushing High School."
• Dave Von Ohlen (born 1958), former Major League Baseball relief pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals and the Oakland AthleticsWinzelberg, David. [https://www.nytimes.com/1998/04/05/nyregion/they-re-over-the-hill-but-still-on-the-field.html "They're Over the Hill, but Still on the Field"], The New York Times, April 5, 1998. Accessed September 5, 2019. "Unlike most players in the league, Dave Von Ohlen never left the game. One of a handful of former professional ballplayers in the senior league, Von Ohlen, a pitcher, was signed out of Flushing High School by the New York Mets in 1976."
• Lawrence Walsh (1912–2014), Deputy Attorney General in Eisenhower Administration and Iran-Contra special prosecutor, 1986-1993Lewis, Neil A. [https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/21/us/politics/lawrence-e-walsh-iran-contra-prosecutor-dies-at-102.html "Lawrence E. Walsh, Prosecutor in Iran-Contra Scandal, Dies at 102"], The New York Times, March 20, 2014. Accessed September 5, 2019. "After graduating from Flushing High School, he worked his way through Columbia College (class of 1932) and Columbia’s law school, spending summers as a seaman in the merchant marine."
• Peter Zaremba, member of the band The Fleshtones.{{citation needed|date=September 2019}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category}}

• [http://www.flushinghighschool.org/ Flushing High School website]
• [http://www.fhsgrads.com/ Flushing High School alumni website]

{{Flushing, Queens}}

{{Education in Queens}}

{{New York City Historic Sites}}

{{National Register of Historic Places listings in Queens}}

{{authority control}}

Category:Public high schools in Queens, New York

Category:Educational institutions established in 1875

Category:School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in New York City

Category:New York City Designated Landmarks in Queens, New York

Category:Flushing, Queens

Category:National Register of Historic Places in Queens, New York

Category:1875 establishments in New York (state)