Borough President Marshall Wants Bowne House to be a National Landmark by Connor Adams Sheets - YourNabe.com

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Borough President speaks at a press conference at the Bowne House last year.

One of Queens’ most historic structures, the Bowne House in Flushing may have federal protection soon if Borough President Helen Marshall gets her way.

Marshall has asked that the 1661 house, believed to be the best-preserved example of Anglo-Dutch vernacular architecture in the United States, be designated a National Historic Landmark.

The house at 37-01 Bowne St. is currently listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has been designated a New York City landmark, but the national recognition would make the building eligible for grant money, free inspections and other protections that only federal landmark status can bestow.

“The house embodies how a 17th century early settler in the colony of New Amsterdam lived and serves today as a window into the past for young and old to appreciate and enjoy,” Marshall wrote in a letter to Director Paul Loether of the National Historic Landmark Program at the National Register of Historic Places. “Today, more than ever, we need to keep in mind what has happened in the past, so that we build a better future.”

The house, the oldest building in Queens and one of the oldest in New York City, was home to John Bowne, a Quaker who established the principles of religious freedom later codified in the Bill of Rights.

In 1662, while New York was under the rule of Dutch Gov. Peter Stuyvesant, John Bowne openly defied a ban on practicing any religion other than that of the Dutch Reformed Church and allowed Quakers to hold services in his home.

Bowne was arrested and jailed and when he refused to pay a fine or plead guilty, Stuyvesant banished him to Holland, where he successfully argued his case before the Dutch West India Co. Stuyvesant was ordered to permit dissenting faiths to worship freely and Bowne returned to the Bowne House in 1664.

Despite its illustrious history, the home — a museum since 1947 filled with its original furniture — needs extensive work to be restored to its full glory. Plans for a three-phase restoration are under city review and work should begin next year, according to Anne Pal, the Bowne House’s volunteer coordinator.

“We’re really excited about getting National Landmark Status. It will help us finish the restoration because we will have access to federal funds,” Pal said. “Bowne House is an important place historically and this is a big step forward.”

The house was transferred to the city in 2009. Once the drawings are complete, the work will be put out for bids and the exterior improvements will begin, followed by plumbing, electric, fire safety and other interior renovations.

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Funding for the project has come from the city and state and more than $1 million in private donations has been raised by the Bowne House Historical Society.

For more information about the Bowne House or to plan a visit, log on to bownehouse.org, e-mail office at office@bownehouse.org or call 718-359-0528.

Bowne House Rehab Will Proceed Despite Funding Threats, Says Parks Commissioner by Nicholas Hirshon - NY Daily News

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Flushing’s historic Bowne House, a symbol of religious freedom from the 17th century, may soon reopen its doors. Farriella for News

The long-awaited restoration of a 17th-century Flushing home will proceed "full speed ahead" despite funding woes that had threatened to derail rehabilitation, city Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said Tuesday.

Plans to construct a visitor's center beside the Bowne House - the oldest structure in Queens and a symbol of religious freedom that was recently donated to the city - are also on target for 2012, Benepe said.

"We probably have a pretty good shot," Benepe said of finishing the restoration and the new visitor's center on time.

The project is funded with $5 million from the city, state and private groups.

Repairs to the Colonial-era home seemed headed for delays when the city announced it was deferring $628,000 allocated by Councilman John Liu until 2013.

But Benepe said the city will "have enough money to do all the pressing work."

He also hailed the stability that comes with the site's transfer from the private Bowne House Historical Society to the city - a move which will be feted today at an 11:30 a.m. ceremony.

"Going under the umbrella of the Historic House Trust will afford all kinds of services and protection and sort of a backstop for bad times," Benepe said.

The wood-frame landmark is known as a symbol of religious freedom because its owner, John Bowne, was arrested in 1662 for allowing Quakers, a banned faith, to worship there in defiance of New Amsterdam law.

Bowne successfully fought to overturn the rule.

Last fall, experts studying the timber-frame design said parts of the house appeared to have been built years before the long-accepted 1661 start date, perhaps making it the city's oldest building.

Rosemary Vietor, president of the Bowne House Historical Society, viewed the handover to the city as the dawn of a new age for the edifice, which has been closed to visitors since 2000.

"I hope we'll be able to have something available to the public before [2012], if not the whole house," Vietor said.

Bowne House Funds on Hold by John Lauinger - NY Daily News

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Photo by WallyG on Flickr

THE BULK of the funding for the long-overdue restoration of the historic Bowne House in Flushing remains in place, but a portion will be held back until 2013, city officials said last week.

The Colonial-era relic - one of the city's oldest homes and an important symbol of religious freedom - has been surrounded by controversy amid a series of anonymous e-mails lambasting the city for yanking the funds.

The city is in the process of acquiring the house from the Bowne House Historical Society.

The $628,000 that City Councilman John Liu (D-Flushing) allocated for the restoration has been pulled by the city, the Parks Department confirmed to Queens News.

That money won't be available until 2013, but department officials appeared to quash fears that the restoration project was doomed.

"We currently have $1.7 million available for the restoration of the roof, siding, windows and doors, as well as structural stabilization of the house," Parks said in a statement.

The Historic House Trust of New York City, a nonprofit preservation group that works with Parks, issued a similar statement.

The Bowne House, where John Bowne defied Dutch Colonial law and allowed members of the outlawed Quaker faith to meet, will become the Trust's 23rd site once the handover is complete.

The historical society's board of trustees signed over the home to the city in March, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.

All that remains is for state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to sign off on the transfer.

"Capital restoration work can begin after the transfer," the Parks Department said in its statement, without providing a timeline.

The funding scuttlebutt prompted some preservationists and a state lawmaker to charge that the pullback would jeopardize the continued existence of the home, whose roof is covered by little more than a tarp.

"Bowne House is in desperate need of the funds to continue with the building repairs," state Sen. Frank Padavan wrote to Mayor Bloomberg on May 18. Padavan has allocated $100,000 to build a visitor center at the site.

Members of the Bowne House board learned of the funding issue in an e-mail that Mikel Travisano, an architectural conservator with the Trust, sent to some members on March 24, shortly after the board signed away the property, a source said.

That e-mail, obtained by Queens News, included a message that could prove ominous for the project's future.

"Because of current and continuing budget problems, future changes to the Parks budget will be funding cuts rather than moving funds to a future fiscal year," Travisano wrote.

"Sorry for the bad news," he concluded.

jlauinger@nydailynews.com

Historic Sites to Get Setting They Deserve by John Lauinger - NY Daily News

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THE BOWNE House and the Kingsland House - two of the city's oldest homes - are crammed into opposite ends of a Flushing park as if they wouldn't fit anywhere else.

The historical importance of the Colonial-era relics is obscured by a hodgepodge of playgrounds and an asphalt walkway that serves as a shortcut from Parsons Blvd. west to the No. 7 train.

"People walk through here and don't recognize what they are seeing," Marisa Berman, executive director of the Queens Historical Society, said last week.

Parks Department planners have devised a new master plan to revitalize Weeping Beech Park, built by Robert Moses in the 1960s and later expanded.

"There is too much asphalt, not enough green and nothing respecting the history of the site," said Kevin Quinn, who heads Queens capital projects for the Parks Department.

The first phase of that plan is to start in January, Quinn told Community Board 7 late last month. Funded with $850,000 from Borough President Helen Marshall and Mayor Bloomberg, it will replace a now-defunct wading pool with playground equipment, a spray shower for kids and plantings.

The rest of the plan is far more ambitious, but it can't become reality unless it gets a $5 million cash infusion from elected officials in coming years.

Plans call for ways to remember the land's history as the birthplace of religious freedom in America and, later, as a prominent nursery owned by the Parsons family.

Landscaped areas will be expanded around the Bowne House, which is original to the site, and the Kingsland House, which was moved to the area in the 1960s and now houses the Queens Historical Society.

"That will give the houses more breathing space," Quinn said.

The centerpiece of the long-term plan is a design that would unearth the long lost Fox Lane, which once ran just north of the Bowne House, roughly where the concrete walkway is today. It was named after Quaker founder George Fox, who preached in the late 1600s under two large oak trees on the Bowne farm. The road was later used by the Parsons family to display plants grown in their nursery.

"This is where some of the first exotic trees were grown in the nation, so we want to respect that history," Quinn said, noting the area will be recreated as a leafy pathway.

A tai chi space will also be added that will double as an outdoor classroom - a feature that embraces the Quaker tradition of outdoor meetings.

Berman and Community Board 7 District Manager Marilyn Bitterman said the plans will give the two homes their due.

"They should have an appropriate surrounding to depict the history of the area," Bitterman said.

jlauinger@nydailynews.com