John Bowne House

The John Bowne House is a house in Flushing, Queens, New York City, that is known for its role in establishing religious tolerance in the United States.

John Bowne House
John Bowne House in 2018
Coordinates40.762894°N 73.824948°W / 40.762894; -73.824948
Area9 acres (3.6 ha)
Builtca. 1661
Architectural styleAnglo-Dutch Colonial
NRHP reference No.77000974[1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHPSeptember 13, 1977
Designated NYCLFebruary 15, 1966[2]

Built around 1661, it was the location of a Quaker meeting in 1662 that resulted in the arrest of its owner, John Bowne, by Peter Stuyvesant, Dutch Director-General of New Netherland. Bowne successfully appealed his arrest to the Dutch West India Company and established a precedent for religious tolerance and freedom in the colony. His appeal helped to serve as the basis for the later guarantees of freedom of religion, speech and right of assembly in the Constitution.

Many of John Bowne’s descendants engaged in abolitionist anti-slavery activism. For example, John’s great-grandson Robert Bowne was an early founder with Alexander Hamilton and others of the Manumission Society of New York in 1784. Some of its residents such as Mary Bowne Parsons’ son William B. Parsons have also been documented as acting as conductors assisting fugitive slaves on the Underground Railroad prior to the American Civil War.

The home is a wood-frame Anglo-Dutch Colonial saltbox, notable for its steeply pitched roof with three dormers. The house was altered several times over the centuries, and several generations of the Bowne family lived in the house until 1945, when the family deeded the property to the Bowne Historical Society.[3][4][5][6] The Bowne House became a museum in 1947. The exterior has since been renovated. Archaeological investigations have been conducted by Dr. James A. Moore of Queens College, City University of New York.[7]

The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977,[1] and is also a New York City designated landmark.[2]

See also

References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. "John Bowne House" (PDF). New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. February 15, 1966. Retrieved 2020-01-20.
  3. Glenn, Thomas Allen (1898–1900). Some Colonial Mansions and Those Who Lived in Them. Philadelphia, Pa.: H. T. Coates.
  4. Haynes, Trebor (c. 1952). Bowne House: A Shrine to Religious Freedom. New York: Flushing Savings Bank.
  5. Jackson, Kenneth T., ed. (1995). The Encyclopedia of New York City. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 133. ISBN 0300055366.
  6. Elizabeth K. Ralph (March 1974). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: John Bowne House". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Archived from the original on 2012-10-18. Retrieved 2011-01-12. See also: "Accompanying six photos". Archived from the original on 2012-10-18.
  7. Moore, James A. (2004). Putting People in the House: Bowne House Archaeology, 1997–2000. New Perspectives on the Bowne House: Archaeology and Architecture. Queensborough Public Library, Flushing Branch.
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