The Voelker Orth Museum, Bird Sanctuary and Victorian Garden commemorates three generations of the Voelker Orth families, promotes Flushing cultural heritage and history, and serves as a backyard horticultural sanctuary and education center.

The museum originated as the family home of German immigrants Conrad (1861-1930) and Elizabeth Voelcker (neé Maibach, 1875-1919), and their daughter Theresa Voelcker (1898-1992). Conrad Voelcker immigrated to the United States from Edenkoben, Germany and eventually settled in Flushing's newly established middle-class neighborhood, Murray Hill, in 1899. He was a printer by trade and published the German language newspaper "Der Pfalzer in Amerika" from 1884 until 1917, at which point anti-German sentiment was at its peak in the wake of the First World War.

Theresa Voelker (who changed the spelling of Voelcker to Voelker), her husband Rudolph Orth (1887-1948) and their daughter Elisabetha (1926-1995) moved into the house upon Conrad Voelcker's death. Soon after, the family adopted a second child, Barbara (c. 1926). Orth was a surgeon who practiced in the army during WWI and later as a police surgeon for the city. Theresa and Elisabetha Orth were active in the Flushing community, both served on local philanthropic boards and organized events in the area.

Elisabetha Orth, who worked as a teacher, was the last of the family to live at the site, where she passionately maintained the grounds as a Victorian garden. Orth died as a result of a car accident in 1996, and bequeathed the home in her will for the purpose of it becoming a nonprofit educational resource, thus establishing the Voelker Orth Museum, Bird Sanctuary and Victorian Garden.

The building was designated as a landmark of New York on October 30, 2007, and was placed on the National Register of Historic sites in 2020 (under the name Conrad Voelcker House).