The sad tale of the Prince House exemplifies this in- difference. It was built in the mid-1700s by the son of Robert Prince, the founder of Prince Nurseries, one of the most important nurseries of early America. Surrounded by orchards, vineyards and flower gardens, it became a mecca for agricultural enthusiasts. During the Revolutionary War, some 3000 cherry trees were chopped down for firewood by British troops.
This historic significance of the home became even greater when it was visited by President George Washington in 1789 in an attempt to learn more about agricultural conditions in the new nation. Prince Nurseries was the first to import Japanese trees into the U.S. after Commodore Perry visited that country in the 19th century.
"After all William Prince and his sons did to beautify Flushing and the country at large, it seems unbelievable, as the town has grown into a city, no care has been taken to protect the fine old homestead and garden or keep it as a landmark," it was written in 1929. "Today it is a sad sight, going to rack and ruin."A note attached to this description reads: "Unoccupied and being vandalized 1941 demolished."
The Prince House was located on the corner of what are today College Pt. Blvd. and Northern Blvd.
- Bob Bobster
15 comments:
You can kind of understand why this would have happened back then. The stock market crashed, there was the Great Depression and then the entering of a world war.
Today - no excuse for it. Except unmitigated greed.
The rewriting of history can only be accomplished after the older history is first destroyed !
And just take a look at Flushing today (not that I wish to live its colonial past) !
Bustling hordes (constantly bumping into each other and over-running the sidewalks like a human river), filth, stench, scurrying delivery carts of unsanitary goods being wheeled about (even down the middle of Main Street) creating pedestrian and traffic nightmares......with its junkyard surplus of overpriced and overvalued real estate just waiting for the next greedy speculator to, unwittingly, snap up!
This is no longer a town and is certainly not even a growing city !
I'm not sure just what the hell it has become !
It is certainly not what the Flushing Chamber of Commerce and the "local real estate lads" are promoting it to be (mainly to foreign investors) !
Nobody "local" will swallow their line of PR/BS so it's got to be marketed to those overseas who live in much more horrible conditions and will view Flushing as a placid "golden land" !
All that "gold", however goes to the pockets of the developers (who certainly don't live there) while the buyer gets to hold a bag of what's ever been flushed down Flushing's sewers that day !
I used to live right in its midst, 12 years ago, but I've moved on to a better quality of life further east !
Now, Downtown Flush is just a transportation hub for me..... a point of departure on the way to the real "golden land" where I work .....Manhattan....the real "big apple" !
Flushing has become a rotten plum .....I'm afraid !!!
Trashing our history has always been a New York thing.
Exhausting the land then moving on has always been an American thing.
No more! We have no longer have the room.
We "moved" native peoples off their land then choked it up with people who had no regard for it or anything else natural and wonderful !
Then we built our cities belching smoke and filed them with the crowded masses and called it good !
Now, on the "Seventh Day" we seem to be resting and looking for more people to fill even the smallest spaces that are left to "live" in....after all isn't that called "progress" ? !!!
The day will soon come.... that living in a Manhattan shoe box sized apartment will seem luxurious and spacious !
As for Flushing....it's apocalypse now !!!
In Flushing, it seems, an Asian real estate developer (like Tommy Huang) thinks they can always find another Asian somewhere in the world to pay way in excess of $700,000 just to live in a space smaller that a micro-dot !
Boy.... will they be surprised what they'll find when they take up residence in their new Huang house !!!
It's really time to hang bastards like these by their legal nuts !!!
Flushing is crowded but so is Manhattan. The differenc is Flushing is a bargain compared to Manhattan, and only a subway train, railroad, or bus ride away.
Yes but Manhattan is not full of "filth, stench, scurrying delivery carts of unsanitary goods being wheeled about (even down the middle of Main Street) creating pedestrian and traffic nightmares." Their nuisances are certainly nowhere on the upper east or west sides.
Manhattan not having pedestrian and traffic nightmares? Have you been there recently? It is one of the most congested places in the world. So congested that the Mayor is considering setting up a congestiong pricing system to keep cars out. Also, have you been to Herald Square recently? You can barely walk on the sidewalks and there are food vendors hawking all types of "unsanitary goods." The best example are the ubiquitous dirty water hotdog carts which also sell week old pretzels. Flushing doesn't have any more problems than any other major congested area.
A SORRY commentary on the state of journalism in our fair borough! You would think that Schenkler, Schnepps, Blank, Weidler, Barsamian, Sanchez et al. would have done some research on the Prince nursery building...but no-o-o-o we read about and see it, thanks to Mr. Bobster, on a REAL journalistic venue: Queens Crap!
"have you been to Herald Square recently? You can barely walk on the sidewalks and there are food vendors hawking all types of "unsanitary goods." Flushing doesn't have any more problems than any other major congested area."
Herald Square is not a residential neighborhood. Flushing was and is.
It seems like our "old friend" (maybe from the Flush Chamber Pot of Commerce?) is resurfacing and seems to feel the need to defend Flushing's image once again !
Sorry old boy.....THE TRUTH HAS BEEN TOLD !
You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear !
All the Clorox in New York cannot wash Flushing's filthy image clean !!!
Have you tried going back to its original name and promoting it as the original Dutch settlement of Vlissingen ?
That might help take the curse off of things a little bit.....but I sincerely doubt !!!
The Flushing Chamber of Commerce... Whatta joke! That organization hasn't accomplished anything in more than a decade. Other than getting the co-presidents name in the newspapers. Myra Baird Herce should give it up already.
"Herce".....why it ought to be spelled "Hearse" !
Didn't she help drive Flushing to its grave....let's see....starting about 20 plus years ago with the Donald Manes "inspired".... "Downtown Flushing Development Corp. (corpse)" ? !!!
Wasn't that about the time of the start of the the real estate "inv-Asian" promoted by the "Cauc-asian" olde tyme real estate moguls of Flushing ? !!!
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