{{short description|Historic house in Queens, New York}} {{Use American English|date=June 2022}} {{Use mdy dates|date=June 2022}} {{Infobox NRHP | name = John Bowne House | nrhp_type = | image = File:Bowne House 2018.JPG | caption = John Bowne House in 2018 | coordinates = {{coord|40.762894| -73.824948|region:US-NY_type:landmark|display=inline,title}} | locmapin = New York City | location = 37{{hyphen}}01 Bowne Street, Flushing, New York, U.S. | district_map = {{Maplink|frame=yes|plain=yes|frame-align=center|frame-width=250|frame-height=250|zoom=14|type=point|marker=|title=John Bowne House}} | area = {{convert|9|acre}} | built = {{Circa}} 1661 | architecture = Anglo-Dutch Colonial | added = September 13, 1977 | refnum = 77000974<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|2009a}}</ref> | designated_other1 = New York State Register of Historic Places | designated_other1_abbr = NYSRHP | designated_other1_number = 08101.000010 | designated_other1_date = June 23, 1980<ref name="Cultural Resource Information System">{{cite web |title=Cultural Resource Information System (CRIS) |publisher=New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation |date=November 7, 2014 |url=https://cris.parks.ny.gov/ |access-date=July 20, 2023 |archive-date=April 4, 2019 |archive-url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20190404141934/https://cris.parks.ny.gov/ |url-status=live }}</ref> | designated_other2 = New York City Landmark | designated_other2_date = February 15, 1966<ref name="NYCL-0143"/> | designated_other2_number = 0143 }}
thumb|View of Flushing, John Bowne House, 1825 The '''John Bowne House''' is a house at 37{{hyphen}}01 Bowne Street 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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Glenn |first=Thomas Allen |date=1898–1900 |title=Some Colonial Mansions and Those Who Lived in Them |location=Philadelphia, Pa. |publisher=H. T. Coates}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Bowne House: A Shrine to Religious Freedom|last=Haynes|first=Trebor|date=c. 1952|publisher=Flushing Savings Bank|location=New York}}</ref><ref>{{Cite enc-nyc |page=133}}</ref><ref name="nrhpinv_ny">{{cite report|type=none|url=https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75321062 |title=National Register of Historic Places Registration: New York SP Bowne, John, House|publisher=National Archives and Records Administration |author= Elizabeth K. Ralph|date= March 1974| access-date=November 21, 2025 }} ({{NationalArchivesNote}})</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite conference|last=Moore|first=James A.|date=2004|title=Putting People in the House: Bowne House Archaeology, 1997–2000|conference=New Perspectives on the Bowne House: Archaeology and Architecture|publisher=Queensborough Public Library, Flushing Branch}}</ref>
The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977,<ref name="nris"/> and is also a New York City designated landmark.<ref name="NYCL-0143">{{cite web|url=http://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/0143.pdf|title=John Bowne House|date=February 15, 1966|publisher=New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission|access-date=2020-01-20}}</ref>
==See also== * List of the oldest buildings in New York * Flushing Remonstrance * List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Queens * National Register of Historic Places listings in Queens
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{Commons category-inline|John Bowne House}} * {{Official website |http://www.bownehouse.org/}} * {{HABS |survey=NY-523 |id=ny0659 |title=Bowne House, 37-01 Bowne Street, Flushing, Queens County, NY |photos=33 |dwgs=18 |supp=yes}}
{{Flushing, Queens}} {{New York City Historic Sites}} {{National Register of Historic Places listings in Queens}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bowne, John, House}} Category:1661 establishments in the Dutch Empire Category:1947 establishments in New York City Category:African-American history in New York City Category:Flushing, Queens Category:Historic American Buildings Survey in New York (state) Category:Historic house museums in New York City Category:Houses completed in 1661 Category:Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Queens, New York Category:Houses on the Underground Railroad Category:Museums established in 1947 Category:Museums in Queens, New York Category:New York City Designated Landmarks in Queens, New York Category:New York State Register of Historic Places in Queens County Category:Quaker meeting houses in New York City Category:Saltbox architecture in New York Category:Underground Railroad in New York (state)