Repairs at the Quaker Meeting House in Flushing have hit another snag.
More than two years after the city provided $500,000 and the state gave $100,000 to make vital repairs to the 313-year-old building, located at 137-16 Northern Blvd., the work has still not begun. Quaker representative Gerald Pollack said he had hoped the project would be done this fall, but it was delayed because the contractor’s estimate “significantly exceeds our budget.”
In addition to the $600,000 of combined government money, the group has raised nearly $60,000 to replace the building’s roof, install a modern fire alarm and sprinkler system and repair the porch.
Pollack said the city is negotiating with the contractor on the group’s behalf, and if necessary, the porch and alarm system can be cut from the plan. The roof and sprinklers are the highest priorities, because the building already has an older alarm system.
Pollack considers the sprinklers vital to the building’s future. “This is the oldest religious structure in continuous use in New York City,” he said, “and it’s because all the others have burned down.”
Despite this latest problem, Pollack is optimistic that work will begin in the spring.
“The original hurdles have been pretty well surmounted,” Pollack said, referring to the many levels of both city and state bureaucracy that the plan has passed through in the last two years. “It’s more delay than we thought, but it’s progressing.”
He is currently waiting for approval from the city’s Office of Management and Budget, and has been told “reply is imminent.”
The building’s landmark status adds significant expense to the project because it restricts the materials which can be used. The roof must be constructed with cedar shingles, which Pollack said have to be imported from British Columbia, Canada.
The project is still relatively small compared to most city-funded construction,and Pollack believes this makes it a lower priority and could explain some of the delays.
The meeting house was built on land bought by Flushing farmer John Bowne and enlarged in 1717. It has remained basically unchanged since then, although the overall property has been reduced from three acres to about three-quarters of an acre, over the years.
Pollack called it, “an oasis in this urban center.”
One woman contributed $10,000 to the repair fund because she believes one of her ancestors is buried in the property’s backyard. The yard contains other early graves, including that of Bowne.
According to Pollack, the last major repairs were done 35 years ago, when the current roof was installed.
The group, whose membership has dipped below 30, meets every Sunday morning. They offer guided tours and the house was part of Sunday’s Flushing Historic House Tour.
