BusTalk

NorthShore · Age: 76 Joined: 18 Mar 2012 Posts: 113

North Shore Bus Co. Flushing Garage is being demolished for new construction. The building is currently vacant.
Central Bus Terminal on Roosevelt Ave., Flushing was demolished in 1950 for the Gertz Dept. Store (now Macy*s).
The last remainig North Shore facility is the MTA NYCTA Jamaica Depot. It was built circa 1940 to house the southeast Queens routes North Shore acquired from Bee Line in the late '30's.

N4 Jamaica · Joined: 16 Apr 2007 Posts: 858 Location: Long Island

Where is the garage in question? Was it the site of an older streetcar barn?
Thanks!!!
Joe

Mr. Linsky · Posted: Fri Nov 15, 2013 2:09 pm Post subject:

N4 Jamaica,

I Believe that NorthShore refers to one of three North Shore facilities which were at Lawrence Street, State and Farrington Streets or Prince Street and Roosevelt Avenue in Flushing (Lawrence was owned and the others were leased).

Pictured below was the company's main garage for many years but I'm unsure of which location it was.

Photo courtesy of the Motor Bus Society

Regards,

Mr. 'L'

Hart Bus · Age: 74 Joined: 24 Apr 2007 Posts: 1150

According to a post on another board about this topic, that member said it was Farrington Street

NorthShore · Age: 76 Joined: 18 Mar 2012 Posts: 113

The only North Shore garage in Flushing I am aware of is on 35th Ave. at the corner of Farrington St. in Flushing. That's the building in the photo. The other nearby streets that are referred to may have been lots to store additional buses. Roosevelt Ave. was the bus terminal.

Q65A · Posted: Thu Nov 21, 2013 8:08 pm Post subject:

That area in Flushing just north of Northern Blvd. has a lot of history. Besides the old North Shore garage, that area was the site of one of the first plant nurseries in the U.S., and (if I recall correctly) was also the home of Louis Latimer (for whom nearby Latimer Gardens housing project is named). Mr. Latimer was an early African-American scientist and inventor.

NorthShore · Age: 76 Joined: 18 Mar 2012 Posts: 113

Yes. The Prince Nurseries (America's first nursery) was along the nearby Flushing River . George Washington visited it and purchased fruit trees for Mount Vernon. Hence the name Prince Street. Also nearby was the Parsons Nursery on the current site of Flushing High School. Hence the name Parsons Blvd. Many of Parsons unusual ornamental trees still exist in Flushing, especially Kissena Park.

Mr. Linsky · Posted: Fri Nov 22, 2013 1:17 pm Post subject:

NorthShore,

The obvious question here is;

Is that where George Washington bought his famous Cherry tree?

Only kidding but the history of the area is very interesting.

Thanks for sharing.

Regards,

Mr. 'L'

frankie · Posted: Fri Nov 22, 2013 4:03 pm Post subject:

Mr. Linsky · Posted: Tue Nov 26, 2013 2:11 pm Post subject:

In a photo taken sometime in very early 1946, we see the 'business end' of North Shore Bus Company's Flushing Terminal at Roosevelt Avenue only a few feet from the intersection of Main Street which was built in 1929.

Dating of this image was made simple considering that the post war Twin Coach Model 41-S with fleet# 300 in the foreground was a demonstrator and, while it was never purchased, it led to the company's first post war 41'S's numbered 150 to 159 delivered in late 1946

A subsequent order in 1947 for 40 more 41-S's numbered 160 to 199 was diverted in pipe line and were delivered to North Shore's facility in their livery but carried the City of New York Board of Transportation's flags for the newly formed Queens Bus Division.

Once a fleet of nearly 200 GM TDH 4507's arrived in 1948 to replace the company's pre war equipment, all 50 of the 41-S's were sent to Brooklyn.

The Flushing Terminal was closed in January of 1951 at which time nearby curbside access was provided to terminal passengers.

Photo borrowed for educational purposes only (and because I forgot where I got it!).

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, New York