John Bowne House

rdf:langString John Bowne House

rdf:langString John Bowne House

rdf:langString John Bowne House

rdf:langString yes

rdf:langString NY-523

rdf:langString Anglo-Dutch Colonial

rdf:langString ca. 1661

rdf:langString John Bowne House in 2018

rdf:langString NYCL

rdf:langString #ffe978

rdf:langString New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission

rdf:langString NYC Landmark

rdf:langString ny0659

rdf:langString New York City

rdf:langString Bowne House, 37-01 Bowne Street, Flushing, Queens County, NY

rdf:langString 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. 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. 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. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977, and is also a New York City designated landmark.