Flushing Council on Culture and the Arts, located at historic Flushing Town Hall, was founded in 1979 to be a revitalizing force for its community, a catalyst for developing and promoting the visual and performing arts in Queens, and a bridge to promote intercultural understanding through the arts in the most culturally diverse county in the United States. Flushing Town Hall, built in 1862, is designed in the Romanesque Revival style popular at that time. During the Civil War, thousands of conscripts from all over Long Island were sworn into the Union Army in Town Hall's upstairs assembly hall, while the ground floor housed Flushing's civic offices. During the late 19th Century, a modest extension was added to the original building and Flushing Town Hall became a venue for light opera and traveling theatrical productions. For a time, the legendary P.T Barnum was its impresario and Tom Thumb was its star performer.