Olde Towne of Flushing Burial Ground Conservancy

News


Passing of Conservancy Founder and Bayside's One of a Kind

Dear Friends,

I regret to inform you that Mandingo Osceola Tshaka passed away on May 10, 2022, two days before his 91st birthday. He passed at Hillside Manor Nursing Home in Jamaica where he had lived for a number of years. His home on 46th Avenue in Bayside has been in his family for over one hundred years.

Mandingo was a strong advocate for his community, president of his civic association, Bayside Clear Spring, a former member of Queens Community Board 11, and the Co-Chair of the Olde Towne of Flushing Burial Ground Conservancy. He spent many years working to get the 19th century cemetery, where up to one thousand people rest, treated with the dignity and respect it deserved. He and the Conservancy made great progress in doing so, however, there is still much work to be done.

Mandingo liked to refer to himself as Bayside's One of a Kind. That he truly was!

May he rest in peace. He now sings with the angels!

-Henry Euler

  • Read More About Mandingo Tshaka

    Conservancy Spring Event Success

    Seeking replacement for the four marble headstones destroyed when the WPA paved over the cemetery has been a longtime mission of the Conservancy.

  • This Spring (2022) the Conservancy hosted an event celebrating the memorial with the names and burial dates of the four people associated with the destroyed headstones.
  • The names of 399 of the interred are engraved on the face of the memorial.

    Names of Interred

    Looking for the resting place of an ancestor?

  • We have published the known names of those interred at the cemetery.
  • You may also download the spreadsheet which includes more details on the burials.
  • Visit our Interred page for more information.

    Announcement

    Artwork of Alexandria Smith exhibited at Queens Musuem

    Alexandria Smith’s Monuments to an Effigy takes the histories of The Olde Towne of Flushing Burial Ground and the Macedonia A.M.E. Church in Flushing, Queens as points of departure for an exhibition that evokes an altar or commemorative space.

    Exhibition Info


    OTFGBC In the News

    See the write up and photos of the Burial Ground on the Queens Memory website.
  • Mandingo Tshaka - 1960s Portrait Black and White Photo

    Conservancy group meeting with Jennifer Betworth in Albany for Historic Preservation Status