The next time we come together to talk about street safety with our friends will be at the Old Quaker Meeting House in Flushing.  Our meeting will be on Monday, March 20th at 7:30 PM.

137-16 Northern Boulevard,
Flushing, New York 11354

The new meeting location is at the intersection of Main Street and Northern Boulevard, two of the heaviest used streets in Eastern Queens.  It’s walking distance from the subway (7 train), LIRR (Port Washington) and bus routes to all areas of Eastern Queens and beyond.

The building our group will come together in was erected in 1694 for Quakers meetings (with additional structures added later). A few decades earlier John Bowne was hosting these Quaker Meetings in his home, an action for which he was later banished to Holland (even though he was English and did not speak Dutch). In response to this religious oppression, supporters drafted the Flushing Remonstrance which Bowne brought to the Dutch West India Company. The Flushing Remonstrance is considered a precursor to the United States Constitution’s provision on freedom of religion in the Bill of Rights. From this petition the Dutch West India Company ordered Peter Stuyvesant to end religious persecution in the colony in 1663.

With reaffirmed freedom of religion, the Quakers constructed this building for meetings of worship. Although there have been gaps in service (in 1776 it was seized during the Revolutionary War by British soldiers) the building is still used for Quaker Meetings and is now considered the oldest place of worship still standing in New York City.

We truly appreciate the generosity of those willing to let us use this historic, centrally located space for our meetings.