The character and culture of Flushing have been profoundly shaped by a distinctive 350-year history of religious freedom.

In 1657, the town fathers of the new community (then known by the Dutch name of Vlissingen) rejected Governor Peter Stuyvesant's demand that they expel "Quakers, Papists, Jews, Turks and other heretics" in a letter now known as the Flushing Remonstrance. In so doing, Flushing became the first town in the history of the Western Hemisphere to guarantee religious freedom to all residents and visitors, and set the tone for everything that followed.

Throughout the 18th Century, the Flushing Friends Meeting House (the oldest house of worship in New York City) was at the forefront of the movement to secure freedom of conscience throughout the American colonies. In the 19th Century, Flushing became a center of the abolitionist movement, and a major stop on the Underground Railroad for freed slaves.

In the 20th Century, Flushing's population steadily grew as long-time residents welcomed waves of newcomers, including thousands of European immigrants, and African-American jazz artists migrating from the rural South, who formed the core of a vital creative community known today as the Queens Jazz Trail. During the 1970's, sizeable numbers of East Asian immigrants began to settle in Flushing; these immigrants and their children now comprise roughly 40% of Flushing's 142,000 residents.

Today, Flushing stands at the center of the post-1989 wave of global immigration that is rapidly transforming the American landscape. In the heart of this remarkable neighborhood stands Flushing Town Hall-a center for the visual and performing arts, where everyone in the community, from lifelong neighborhood residents to recently arrived immigrants, comes to create and experience art.

In 2003, the City of New York designated Downtown Flushing as a regional economic center, and has unveiled a $2 billion redevelopment plan that features a revitalized waterfront, high quality mixed-use development projects, street enhancements, open and green spaces, new transportation links and parking strategies.

For more information, please visit Flushing Revitalization.