Green-Wood cemetery and the Daniel L. Crommelin mausoleum (in Queens near 46th Avenue entrance)
where over 40 family members are buried - all descendents of Robert Crommelin (1772-1815).
Louis Armstrong is also buried in the Flushing Green-Wood cemetery.
(Picture Source / Green-Wood Cemetery)
Flushing Cemetery and the 46th Avenue entrance is near Colden St. & Juniper Ave.
(Map Source:)
Crommelin Street borders the Queens Botanical Garden.
A Vanished Railroad, a Vanished Creek, and a Botanical Garden
This 1928 Rand McNally map of southwestern Flushing bears only a passing resemblance to today's map. Crommelin and Peck have been severely truncated; Flushing (Ireland Mill) Creek, which once connected the Flushing River to Kissena Lake, has been rerouted underground; and the Queens Botanical Garden now occupies most of the center of the map. Elder and Peck Avenues still twist as they once did along the creek. Crommelin and Peck Avenues once bordered the Central Railroad of Long Island, built in 1873 by department store magnate Alexander T. Stewart to connect the Flushing and North Side Rail Road (now the Port Washington LIRR branch) to a new development of Stewart's in central Nassau (still Queens County when built) Stewart named Garden City. Few remnants of the CRLI remain--it ran passenger service between Flushing and Garden City for only 6 years before just a short spur to Creedmoor was retained from the 1870s through the 1950s. The only reminders are street layouts and the shape of Kissena Corridor Park.
Crommelin Street, now the northern end of the Queens Botanical Garden, defines the old path of the Central Railroad. Queens Botanical Garden
The Garden, accessible from gates on Main Street and Elder Avenue and also from a pedestrian ramp from Flushing Meadows-Corona Park over College Point Blvd., got its start (as did the park) at the 1939-40 World's Fair. Smallish compared to the New York Botanical Garden (in the Bronx) Staten Island Botanical Garden (in Snug Harbor) and Brooklyn's Botanic Garden (no -al, thank you) Queens' official garden nonetheless features bee, bird and woodland gardens, an herb garden and pinetum, an arboretum, a wedding garden and seasonal displays of tulips, roses, annuals and mums. It's open six days a week and is free of charge. It has been in its present location, atop the landfilled Flushing Creek, since 1963.
The Gardens remind us of Flushing's long horticultural heritage. In 1735, father and son Robert and William Prince established the first commercial plant nursery in the USA and built it into a thriving business; the then-unpolluted Flushing River enabled the Prince family to ship plants all over the East Coast. The nursery later became the Linnaean Gardens, named for Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus, who established the Latin nomenclature used to classify plants and animals. The Bloodgood, Parsons, King and Murray families also operated plant nurseries in Flushing in the 1800s. These businesses were gone by the 20th Century as Flushing became more built-up, but the named streets, starting with Ash Avenue and ending with Rose Avenue, recollect Flushing's former horticultural glory, and the arrival of the QBG in 1963 was the final piece.
This page was written in June 2006 when the Jackson and Perkins Rose Garden is in full swing. from the website:
"The company's mail order business resulted from a garden exhibit Jackson & Perkins set up at the 1939 World's Fair in New York. Entitled "A Parade of Modern Roses," the display was a huge success, and visitors from all over the nation purchased roses but didn't want to carry them home. They asked the company to mail the roses instead, and told their friends back home of the convenience offered in receiving roses by mail. Orders began to pour in from all over the nation, which Jackson & Perkins began to fill by mail. A new way of commerce in plants was born."
When Bulova, which is still located in Queens (along the BQE on the border of Astoria and Jackson Heights) presented this sundial to the QBG it still had its gnomon, but by now, well, it's been good to gnomon you. Source:
How "Flushing" in New York Got Its Name...
Vlissingen, HollandThe name "Flushing" in New York is an Anglicized derivative of the name "Vlissingen" in southwestern Holland. Vlissingen was an important seaport for the Dutch West Indies Company at the time when the town of Flushing began.
