Flushing is home to a number of Hindu temples, and others exist all over Queens and the rest of the city, but the Ganesh Temple holds special historical and religious significance to New York Hindus. Nestled into a third of an otherwise residential block, the Hindu Temple Society of North America (more commonly known as the Ganesh Temple) was the first of five traditional Hindu temples built in North America and the most prominent in the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut area.
Following the Hart Celler Act’s extensive changes to US immigration policy, the largest new immigrant group to arrive in Queens in the late 1960s came from South Asia. A core group of South Indian professionals settled in Flushing, and their success in the neighborhood helped attract more South Asian immigrants to the area. Other South Asian enclaves formed in Jackson Heights and Richmond Hill, Queens, as well as parts of Manhattan and New Jersey. Hindu immigrants worshipped wherever they could—in homes, churches, and other places—until a small group gathered in the house of Dr. Alagappa Alagappan in Jamaica Estates in 1970 to plan for the construction of a traditional Hindu temple in Queens.
Flushing was chosen to house the Ganesh temple for three reasons: nearly all Indian immigrants to the U.S. came through New York, and there was a strong Hindu community in the tristate area; it was within walking distance for many and accessible by public transit; and property for the temple was affordable. Today, the temple thrives as a place of worship and community center, hosting weddings and a host of activities. The Canteen restaurant, housed in its basement, serves some of the best Indian food in the city. The highly popular restaurant serves vegetarian food to about 4,000 people per week, but during the Diwali season, it feeds as many as 10,000.