"St. George's Church is an intercultural, multilingual Episcopal congregation in Flushing, Queens, New York City. With members from over twenty different nations of origin, it has served an ever-changing congregation since the 18th century"
Location
135-32 38th Avenue, Flushing, Queens, New York 11354
Coordinates
40°45′37″N 73°49′52″W
"As church attendance and membership began to decline and the population of Flushing changed
with the influx of immigrants from Latin America and Asia,
St. George's began to reach out to the new immigrants. "
Want to play tennis? It's a mile away.
"The US Open tennis tournament has been held at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, Queens, New York City since 1978. The center is located at Flushing NY 11368.
The tournament's main stadium is Arthur Ashe Stadium, which is the largest tennis stadium in the world with a capacity of 23,771. The center also includes Louis Armstrong Stadium and other courts. "
Wikipedia
Yeeho Tower 38th St, Flushing Central Hotel 38th St
The project site originally was part of the Bloodgood family homestead, which was
acquired, probably by early Flushing settler Franz (or Francis) Bloodgood
the second half of the 1600s (1659)
Bloodgoods purchased the land, though, a house was constructed on the east side of what
would become Main Street, within modem Block 4978. This house, later known as the
Garretson House, after descendant Eliza Bloodgood's husband, Garret R. Garretson, stood
just north of the project site, within modem Lots 104 and 107, until its demolition in 1911.
The core of the house was a small structure, presumably dating to the original construction,
but over time the house was lengthened and rooms added, as need warranted. The length of the house paralleled Main Street.
A description of the house during the 1880s, which by
then had become one story with a garret, indicated the first floor had seven rooms
(including two kitchens, three bedrooms, a parlor, a living room, a dining room, and a large
hall) and the second floor had three large bedrooms and a garret.
The front of the house,
facing Main Street, originally had a sloping lawn, but this feature was truncated when Main
Street was widened, and a low retaining low retaining wall was built in front of the house to hold back the
cut bank, with steps leading up from the street. A thick hedge capped the retaining wall,
and rose vines obliterated much of the house's facade (Lawson 1952:163-165). A photograph of the house illustrates these features
Although the Garretson house was just outside the project site, the homestead associated
with the house covered all of Lot 101, as well as portions of modem 39th Avenue and 38th Street.
It appears that Eliza Bloodgood's father, Daniel Bloodgood, headed a household and
occupied the property by 1800 and until at least 1830. Federal census records made in
1800, 1810, 1820, and 1830 list Daniel Bloodgood as the head of a household that included
from six to eleven people, depending on the year.
Daniel Bloodgood was a fruit grower,
specializing in cherry trees (Lawson 1952:163-165). The 1820 federal census, however,
indicates three members of Daniel Bloodgood's household were engaged in manufacturing
suggesting that the Bloodgoods may have held other occupations as well.
Occupation of 'the homestead during the remainder of the nineteenth century is well
documented, owing primarily to the success of Garret Garretson, who married Eliza Bloodgood and took over her family's land.
Garretson was born in New Jersey in 1807, and
moved to New York at age 16 to work as the overseer for William R. Prince's nursery,
which later became one of the largest nurseries in the country, if not the world.
In 1836, Garretson opened his own business growing and selling seeds. At the time, there were only
three other seed businesses in the country.
Garretson had a 100-acre farm, where he grew
most of the seeds, on Jamaica Road, east of Flushing. His business flourished, and he
ultimately sold his seeds allover the world. Within the project site, along 38th Avenue,
Garretson had a seed store, or warehouse, from which he sold and stored his stock. It was a
long frame building, known as Garretson's Seed House, which endured until 1910, when it
was razed (Chapman Publishing Co. 1896:1191-1192; Flushing Evening Journal March 24,
1910). The Garret Garretson household is documented in federal censuses from 1840 through 1880. The household included Garretson, listed variously as a seedsman or seeds
merchant, his wife Eliza, and their children:
Alonzo, Imogene, Susannah, Charles, Frank,
and Jane. The household also usually included one or two female servants, who were often
Irish immigrants.
Several other structures were present on the Garretson estate, as evidenced by nineteenth
century maps. A map made by Elijah Smith in 1841 is the first to show the estate in detail
(Figure 6). Here, three buildings are shown on the property: the larger structure set back
from Main Street is the Garretson house, the seed store building is shown along Liberty
Street (later Lincoln Street, and now 38th Avenue), and a third small structure, south of the
house along Main Street, may be what a 1859 map refers to as an "office" (Walling 1859;
Figure 7). Lawson (1952:77) suggests that this structure was one story high, and removed
in 1867, in anticipation of laying out Locust Street (now 39th Avenue), which had been
proposed as early as 1859, but not carried out until 1875 (Kearns et al. 1988:16). Thus, the
former footprint of this structure appears to lie under the roadbed of 39th Avenue, and not
within the project site. The 1873 Beers map shows that the structure south of the house had
been removed by this time; no other buildings besides the house and the seed store were
present on the Garretson property (Figure 8).
"Captain Frans Jansen Bloetgoet
(anglicized to Francis Bloodgood)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frans_Jansen_Bloetgoet
( 1632 – 29 December 1676) was a Netherlander who immigrated to Flushing, Queens,
He is the ancestor of the American Bloodgood family."
______
"Francis Bloctgoct was chosen
magistrate, and in March 1674 a commission was given by the governor- general to
him as chief of the inhabitants of the Dutch nation residing in the villages
Vlissingen, Heemstede, Rusdorp and Middleburgh, and the places belonging to
these districts; by which he is commanded to communicate to said inhabitants
that they on the first notice of the enemy’s arrival, or on the arrival of
more ships than one, shall at once march well armed toward the city."
http://bklyn-genealogy-info.stevemorse.org/Queens/history/flushing.html
__
HISTORY OF QUEENS COUNTY
with illustrations, Portraits & Sketches of Prominent Families and Individuals.
New York: W.W. Munsell & Co.; 1882
___
"The first entry of British troops was about 2 o’clock on a fine day
in the last of August 1776, when a body of light horse galloped into the village
and inquired at Widow Bloodgood’s for her sons. On being told they had already
fled one of the troop seized a firebrand and threatened to burn the house, but
was prevailed on to desist. "
*
___
" The Bloodgoods are of purely Knickerbocker origin, Francis Bloctgoct
being the earliest settler of the name in Flushing, and, being recognized by the
Dutch authorities as "chief of the inhabitants of the Dutch nation residing
in the villages of Vlissingen, Heemstede, Rudsdorp and Middleboro," was
made their commander and ordered to march with them toward the city should a
hostile fleet appear in the sound. This was in 1674. In the year previous he was
made a magistrate, was one of the privy council who advised with the governor on
the surrender of the territory to the English, and was appointed a commissioner
to visit the Sweedish settlement on the Delaware. Of his immediate descendants
but little can be learned, although it is reasonably certain that some one of
the name has ever since resided in Flushing. Two of his grandchildren, Abram and
James, were left orphans under the care of a relative; but preferring to make
their way in the world for themselves emigrated to Albany, where they became
successful business men and amassed handsome fortunes. Abraham was born in
Flushing, in 1741. He became also a merchant in Albany, and married Mrs. Lynott,
one of whose daughters by a former husband became the wife of the celebrated
Simeon De Witt. Abraham Bloodgood was for years a councilman of the city, was a
member of the convention that accepted the constitution of the United States,
and one of the famous ten who, in the old Vanden Heyden house, founded the
Democratic party of the State. He left four sons, the younger of whom, Joseph,
graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1806, and was appointed trustee
of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York in 1811. Invited by a
large number of the most prominent citizens of Flushing to settle here, he came
to this village in 1812, and was for many years an eminent physician and a
public spirited citizen. He died March 7th 1851, aged sixty- seven years. He had
twelve children, four daughters and eight sons. Isaac, a prominent merchant, is
now living in Flushing. Mrs. G.R. Garretson is a descendant of the branch
of the family claiming continuous residence here, and resides on the old home
farm, now in the heart of the village, in a house dating back to the early part
of the last century."
*
"G.R. Garrettson, seedsman, has the only seed farm in Flushing. It
comprises about one hundred acres, and is on the Jamaica road, about a mile from
the village. Mr. Garrettson was a pupil of Grant Thorburn, and was afterward
with Prince & Co. He established his present business on a small scale in
1836, and for many years did a large and flourishing trade. Increased
competition has, however, induced him to curtail its dimensions, and it is now
confined to the supply of his old customers, and the sale of seeds in bulk. Mr.
Garrettson married a daughter of Daniel Bloodgood, Eliza Bloodgood, and lives on the old
Bloodgood homestead, which has been in the family since 1659"
*
'The water
front was a disagreeable swamp, and near the foot of Main street, where is now
the Town Hall, was a noisome frog pond. The entrance to Prince’s nursery was
at what is now the southeast corner of Broadway and Prince street, and Bloodgood’s
nurseries were a long way out of town. The old guardhouse at the corner of Union
street and Broadway was the eastward terminus of the village. Main street had
perhaps a dozen buildings on it, and in the radius of a mile might have been
counted fifty dwellings, not one in five of the streets now crowded with human
habitations having at that date any existence save perhaps in the imagination of
some enthusiast whose vagaries were frowned upon as unwise and reckless."
*
'two or three enterprising men were building to meet
this growing want. Among these we have reason to mention Cyrus Peck and the
senior Parsons, as well as Dr. Samuel Bloodgood, who became the village
physician in 1812. "
*
"The present postmaster is John W. Rickey. Among early incumbents
were Curtis Peck, William Peck, Dr. Joseph Bloodgood, Dr. Asa Spaulding, Francis Bloodgood and Charles W. Cox."
*
"The most important mercantile house of to- day is that of Clement & Bloodgood;
while in specialties there are a number of houses..."
*
"The earliest known physician here was Dr. Henry Taylor, an Englishman, at one
time an ardent advocate of royalty. A court record of 1675 relates his complaint
against Francis Bloodgood and Myndert and Coerter for seditious words. In 1707
his barns at the village were destroyed by fire. The term of his residence and
the time of his death are alike unknown; but, as his name appears prior to 1675
and after 1707 as that of a physician in practice, more than thirty years of his
life must have been passed here. Very nearly cotemporaneous with him was the
well and widely known Rodman, physician, minister, farmer and Friend.
A community having in it such families as the Lawrences, Bownes and
Bloodgoods was not at a loss for legal advice on the simple real estate titles
of the day; but for some years the business of conveyancing seems to have been
delegated to Edward Hart, the clerk of the town"
*
Above
___
HISTORY OF QUEENS COUNTY
with illustrations, Portraits & Sketches of Prominent Families and Individuals.
New York: W.W. Munsell & Co.; 1882.
pp.
37-98 Main St
https://maps.app.goo.gl/7yDQG6BfMFvs47mY9
(How the neighborhood's changed. )
______
Garret R. Garretson
(This section is from the book "The Gardener's Monthly And Horticulturist V29", by Thomas Meehan. "
"This famous seedsman died at his home in Flushing, Long Island, New York, on the 28th of August, in his 74th year.
He may be said to be one of the great fathers of the modern seed trade.
Possibly the Shaker community was earlier in starting the method of selling garden seeds on commission in country stores, but if so, the Shakers must have been soon followed by Garretson, who established these agencies all over the land.
Willliam and Grant Thorburn kept stores together; William in the grocery, and Grant seeds.
Garretson was employed in the grocery with William, but fancying the seeds better, went over to Grant. He was born at Blackwell's Mills, Somerset Co., New Jersey.
Subsequently he became foreman in the establishment of W. R. Prince till 1836, when he commenced to grow seeds on his own account.
His wife was a Miss Bloodgood, a niece, we believe, of James Bloodgood, the nurseryman who introduced the famous Bloodgood Pear. Only last year they celebrated their golden wedding.
Of a rather modest disposition, he continued to the last opposed to showy advertising bills and picture cuts on his seed bags.
The result was that the competition of Rochester, Detroit and Philadelphia became so severe that he had to withdraw from the commission seed business he had inaugurated and finally gave it up altogether for the business of a market gardener.
While in the seed business he paid especial attention to the improvement of the cabbage, and the writer of this notice well remembers when Garretson's Flat Dutch was deemed all that any good gardener needed.
This variety had an enormous run, especially in the Southern States. When he gave up seeds and took to vegetable growing the cabbage was one of his staple crops, and
his farm on the Jamaica Road was more like a fair ground with its
hundreds of men and wagons coming and going
with the crops in the cabbage season.
We believe of late years Mr. G. has not taken an active interest in the labor of this work, the management being under his son Alonzo.
Mr. Garretson was not a demonstrative man, but was fond of quiet study and experimenting. If it cannot be said of him that he died leaving many thousands of dollars, there is a satisfaction in knowing that he experienced little of the disquieting vicissitudes which the terrible struggle for mere wealth so often brings, and that his life, so far as the outer world knows, was one of continuous pleasure and enjoyment. "
https://chestofbooks.com/gardening-horticulture/Gardener-Monthly-V29/Garret-R-Garretson.html
"The Swedes settled their own colony, New Sweden, in what is now Delaware, southeastern Pennsylvania, southeastern New Jersey, and northeastern Maryland. The first Swedish settlers (and a few Finns) arrived aboard the Kalmar Nyckel in 1638 to settle along the Christina River near what is modern-day Wilmington. After purchasing land from the Lenni-Lenape Indians, the Swedes set up a thriving community based on fur-trading and farming. Today, visitors can step back into this forgotten period of American History with a trip to two of the oldest surviving buildings in the region: Old Swedes Church, built in 1698 "
(Different neighborhood)
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