Nyckidsartscompleteguide
  • Alliance for the Arts
  • Also visit NYC Arts

May 24, 2012

NYC Arts: The Complete Guide to Art and Culture

Voelker Orth Museum

149-19 38th Avenue
(between 149th Place and 149th Street)
Flushing, NY  11354
Tel: (718) 359-6227
Visit Web Site
Map
$2.00 general.
Wed, Sat, Sun: 1 pm – 4 pm

The Voelker Orth Museum is a bird sanctuary and Victorian garden that functions as a museum maintaining the cultural and historical heritage of Queens and Long Island. First purchased by a German immigrant by the name of Conrad Voelker in 1881, the house was bequeathed as an educational institution after the death of Conrad's daughter Theresa in 1993.

Now serving as a bird sanctuary, the museum's distinguishing feature is it garden, which is maintained using gardening methods from the 18th century including hand pruning and the use of natural pesticides. Migrating birds such as orioles, mockingbirds, blue jays and a variety of butterflies are often visable, as are honey bees, a staple of the museum's educational programs.

Docents give tours of the house, which has original period belongingsof the Orth family. Exhibitions of paintings and photography are hung in the parlour and dining room and concerts using the house's Sohlmer piano, made in Astoria, Queens, take place occasionally. 

 

  • Directions: Subway: 7 to Main Street and then go to Roosevelt Avenue for bus Q13, Q15 or Q28 to museum.
    Long Island Railroad: Murray Hill Station on the Port Washington line; walk to 38th Avenue.
  • Disability Access: The ground floor of house and the garden are wheelchair accessible; the house's second floor is not.
  • Space Rental: The garden can be rented for wedding ceremonies and small receptions.

See more at NYC-Arts

Voelker Orth Museum Listings

  • Terrarium Gardening

    Ongoing After a brief introduction to the water cycle and terrarium history, budding environmentalists can try their hand at making their own terrarium to take home. 

  • Designs in Nature: A School Program in Science and History

    Ongoing Students learn about Louis Comfort Tiffany, his nature-based designs and how he affected the area of Queens where his workshop was located. Using colored cellophane, students make their own stained glass window to take home with them as they learn about the place where science and art intersect.

  • Birds, Our Feathered Friends

    Ongoing Imaginations take flight in this workshop where young ornithologists learn about bird habitats and create their own bird feeder to take home.

  • All Voelker Orth Museum Listings