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Headquartered in the historic house known as Kingsland Homestead, the Queens Historical Society explores the history of the borough from its aboriginal roots up to the present day. It offers a lively exhibition program, slide presentations, house- and walking-tours and a lecture series. The society maintains a library and archive of primary and secondary source materials such as maps, atlases, manuscripts, photographs, documents, family papers and ephemera covering every aspect of the borough’s history. The archive is accessible by appointment.

Kingsland Homestead (circa 1785), a two-and-a-half-story farmhouse typical of its time but rare today, stands in historic Weeping Beech Park, just two blocks from downtown Flushing. As the home of the Queens Historical Society, it features exhibitions that explore historical aspects of New York City's largest borough as well as tours and displays that reveal the history of the house and the lives of its people.

The society also collaborates with local preservation groups and historical societies. In 1980, for example, the society took temporarily control of the troubled Poppenhusen Institute and put it on the road to recovery. It played a similar role with Latimer House, helping to bring about the relocation and stabilization of that historic house. In 1990 the society assisted the New York City Landmarks Commission in saving the landmarked Cornell Cemetery in Far Rockaway. The society’s Queensmark program honors those structures and sites that deserve special recognition due to outstanding architectural, cultural or historical significance.

The society was established in 1968 at a meeting held at the First Unitarian Church, Ash Avenue, Flushing. That same year Kingsland Homestead (1785) was moved from its original site in Murray Hill, Manhattan, to Weeping Beech Park, Queens, near the Bowne House. After a long restoration, the gambrel-roofed structure, former home of the family for whom Murray Hill was named, was opened to the public in 1973. It has been the permanent home of the society ever since.

• Directions: By subway: #7 train to the last stop, Main Street, Flushing. Walk two blocks east on Roosevelt Avenue to Bowne Street. Turn left, continue walking until Margaret Carman Green Park. Walk through the park. QHS is the first house on the left hand side.
  
  
  
  By bus: Q13 or Q28 to Parsons & Northern Blvds. Q12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 26, 27, 28, 44, 48, 65, 66, to Main Street, Flushing and follow the above subway directions.
  
  
  
  By car: Take the Long Island Expressway from the Queens Midtown Tunnel to the Van Wyck Expressway. Get on the Van Wyck going north. Exit the Van Wyck at the Northern Blvd. East exit. Travel along Northern Blvd. past Main Street for three traffic lights until Parsons Blvd. Turn right on Parsons Blvd. Make a right on 37th Avenue. The Kingsland Homestead is at the right at the end of the cul-de-sac.

• Disability Access: 1st floor fully accessible
• Gift Shops: Books, keychains, quill pens, bookmarks, postcards

Get involved with Queens Historical Society

• Donations through NYCharities.org
• Memberships