Bowne Park is a park in
Broadway–Flushing, Queens, New York, east of downtown
Flushing
Flushing may refer to:
Places
* Flushing, Cornwall, a village in the United Kingdom
* Flushing, Queens, New York City
** Flushing Bay, a bay off the north shore of Queens
** Flushing Chinatown (法拉盛華埠), a community in Queens
** Flushing ...
. It is bordered by 29th Avenue on the north, 32nd Avenue on the south, 155th Street on the west, and 159th Street on the east. The park consists of a playground,
basketball court
In basketball, the basketball court is the playing surface, consisting of a rectangular floor, with baskets at each end. Indoor basketball courts are almost always made of polished wood, usually maple, with -high rims on each basket. Outdoor sur ...
s,
bocce
(, or , ), sometimes anglicized as bocce ball, bocci or boccie, is a ball sport belonging to the boules family. Developed into its present form in Italy, it is closely related to British bowls and French , with a common ancestry from ancien ...
court, and a
kettle pond
A kettle (also known as a kettle lake, kettle hole, or pothole) is a depression/hole in an outwash plain formed by retreating glaciers or draining floodwaters. The kettles are formed as a result of blocks of dead ice left behind by retreating gla ...
. The area immediately surrounding the park, developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, was originally also marketed as "Bowne Park" and is part of modern-day
Murray Hill and Broadway–Flushing.
Bowne Park was named for New York City mayor
Walter Bowne
Walter Bowne (26 September 1770 – 31 August 1846) was the 59th Mayor of New York City from 1829 to 1833.
Walter Bowne was born in Flushing, Long Island, Province of New York, New York, the son of James Bowne and his wife Caroline Rodman. He wa ...
, whose summer residence was located at the site until a fire destroyed it in March 1925. The land was bought by the city and designated as a park by 1927. Bowne Park contained the first modular playground in New York City, dedicated in 1969. The park was given a major renovation in 1994. It is operated by the
New York City Department of Parks and Recreation
The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, also called the Parks Department or NYC Parks, is the department of the government of New York City responsible for maintaining the city's parks system, preserving and maintaining the ecolog ...
.
Description
Bowne Park is located on part of the Bowne Farm and covers .
Its borders are 29th Avenue on the north, 32nd Avenue on the south, 155th Street on the west, and 159th Street on the east.
The park is located in a subsection of
Flushing
Flushing may refer to:
Places
* Flushing, Cornwall, a village in the United Kingdom
* Flushing, Queens, New York City
** Flushing Bay, a bay off the north shore of Queens
** Flushing Chinatown (法拉盛華埠), a community in Queens
** Flushing ...
and is variously considered to be in
Broadway–Flushing; Murray Hill; North Flushing;
or even
Bayside, located to the east. The area immediately surrounding the park is primarily low-density residential: most homes in the region were built in the 20th century to one of several styles, including the
Tudor,
American colonial
American colonial architecture includes several building design styles associated with the colonial period of the United States, including First Period English (late-medieval), French Colonial, Spanish Colonial, Dutch Colonial, and Georgian. T ...
, or
ranch
A ranch (from es, rancho/Mexican Spanish) is an area of land, including various structures, given primarily to ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle and sheep. It is a subtype of a farm. These terms are most often ...
styles.
Bowne Park serves as a gathering place for residents of the surrounding area. The Bowne Park Civic Association, a neighborhood group founded in 1979, is active in advocacy for the park and nearby neighborhoods.
The western section of Bowne Park contains a
kettle pond
A kettle (also known as a kettle lake, kettle hole, or pothole) is a depression/hole in an outwash plain formed by retreating glaciers or draining floodwaters. The kettles are formed as a result of blocks of dead ice left behind by retreating gla ...
, an oval-shaped
fresh water
Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does include ...
body covering
or .
It is an
aerated lagoon
An aerated lagoon (or aerated pond) is a simple wastewater treatment system consisting of a pond with artificial aeration to promote the biological oxidation of wastewaters.
There are many other aerobic biological processes for treatment of waste ...
with two fountains.
The shore is surrounded by a concrete retaining wall.
On the southern shore is a flagpole whose design is similar to those found at marinas.
The pond is fed by water from the
New York City water supply system
A combination of aqueducts, reservoirs, and tunnels supplies fresh water to New York City. With three major water systems ( Croton, Catskill, and Delaware) stretching up to away from the city, its water supply system is one of the most extens ...
, though it was previously fed from a natural spring.
Within the park are turtles and fish, as well as a cement carving of a turtle. There are two
weeping willows
Weeping Willows is a Swedish indie rock group that started in 1995.
History
The band's first two albums are primarily influenced by the popular music of the late 1950s to early 1960s. With their third album ''Into the Light'', Weeping Willows ...
near the pond.
The central section of the park is mostly composed of
old-growth forest
An old-growth forestalso termed primary forest, virgin forest, late seral forest, primeval forest, or first-growth forestis a forest that has attained great age without significant disturbance, and thereby exhibits unique ecological featur ...
, mainly
oak tree
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably '' ...
s dating to at least the late 19th or early 20th centuries.
Bowne Park also contains
American elms. Benches and lighting are located along the park's curving paths.
The eastern section contains an ovoid play area with a playground, bocce court, and basketball court.
On the western side of the play area, NYC Parks maintains a
Tudor-style park building that contains restrooms and storage closets. The building measures and has a
gable roof
A gable roof is a roof consisting of two sections whose upper horizontal edges meet to form its ridge. The most common roof shape in cold or temperate climates, it is constructed of rafters, roof trusses or purlins. The pitch of a gable roof ca ...
, brick
facade, and brick chimney.
The park building also has space that is used as a children's
nursery. A weather vane is located atop the roof.
History
Site
Walter Bowne
Walter Bowne (26 September 1770 – 31 August 1846) was the 59th Mayor of New York City from 1829 to 1833.
Walter Bowne was born in Flushing, Long Island, Province of New York, New York, the son of James Bowne and his wife Caroline Rodman. He wa ...
, mayor of New York City from 1829 to 1833, built his summer house on the site of the modern-day park in the early 19th century.
The house had more than 15 rooms spread across two stories.
By 1890, the neighborhood around the Walter Bowne house, specifically north of Broadway (now Northern Boulevard) and east of Murray Street, was being developed as a suburban area called "Bowne Park" or "Murray Hill Park". Initially, development was slow, with "less than a dozen houses" being built there in the next decade, despite claims that the
Long Island Rail Road
The Long Island Rail Road , often abbreviated as the LIRR, is a commuter rail system in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, stretching from Manhattan to the eastern tip of Suffolk County, New York, Suffolk Co ...
's nearby
Broadway station would expedite trips to
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
.
The Bowne Park neighborhood had been laid out in plots by 1906. However, the Bowne house and the adjacent Bowne Pond remained undeveloped, and the latter was a popular skating area during winters.
In 1906, the Hudson Realty Company bought the Walter Bowne house, as well as the associated Bowne Farm. The areas to the north and south were developed in the subsequent years. The McKnight Realty Company announced the construction of 25 houses in the Bowne Park neighborhood in 1910, and George C. Meyer's Bowne Park Realty Company bought the remaining developed land around the house three years later.
North of 33rd Avenue, the area was nominally owned by the Broadway-Flushing Company. That region remained underdeveloped because the William and Robert Bowne house was still occupied by the Bedells (or Beadles), who moved in 1923.
Park establishment
![Bowne Park Lake, Flushing, NY](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Bowne_Park_Lake%2C_Flushing%2C_NY.jpg)
On March 13, 1925, Walter Bowne's house burned down in a fire.
There are conflicting dates about when the city acquired the land around the pond and the house site. The
New York City Department of Parks and Recreation
The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, also called the Parks Department or NYC Parks, is the department of the government of New York City responsible for maintaining the city's parks system, preserving and maintaining the ecolog ...
says that the land was
condemned
Condemned or The Condemned may refer to:
Legal
* Persons awaiting execution
* A condemned property, or condemned building, by a local authority, usually for public health or safety reasons
* A condemned property seized by power of eminent domain
...
and acquired in June 1925.
The
National Park Service
The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...
, in its report for the Broadway-Flushing Historic District, says that the land was bought by the city in 1927, though in real estate advertisements as early as 1923, the land was erroneously described as having been already purchased by the city.
The
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...
installed a paved path and a concrete shoreline on the pond during the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
in the 1930s.
Free plays were also hosted in the park during 1934 as part of the Actors Project,
and the park building was built in 1935. During this era, Bowne Pond was designated as an official skating pond, and was a popular venue for boat races.
One such race in 1937 drew 1,500 observers, such as parks commissioner
Robert Moses
Robert Moses (December 18, 1888 – July 29, 1981) was an American urban planner and public official who worked in the New York metropolitan area during the early to mid 20th century. Despite never being elected to any office, Moses is regarded ...
as well as torpedo experts from the U.S. government. By the end of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, the stream entering Bowne Pond was infilled.
Later years
Funds for park renovations were proposed in the New York City governmental budget in the early 1960s but were then dropped. The first modular playground in New York City was opened within Bowne Park in June 1969 and included large fiberglass cubes.
After a hurricane in 1968 felled over fifty trees in the park,
several neighborhood groups approved a $500,000 renovation for Bowne Park in 1970. However, a restoration was not announced until 1973, when NYC Parks announced $430,000 in repairs, which included replacing the drainage system.
At that time, the park was rundown: the pond was being used as a dump for various objects, including abandoned cars,
while vandalism was rampant and much of the northern section was often flooded.
During this restoration, some of Bowne Pond's fish were relocated to
Flushing Meadows–Corona Park
Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, often referred to as Flushing Meadows Park, or simply Flushing Meadows, is a public park in the northern part of Queens, New York City. It is bounded by I-678 (Van Wyck Expressway) on the east, Grand Central Par ...
, while others ended up in the refrigerators of nearby homes; Mayor
John Lindsay
John Vliet Lindsay (; November 24, 1921 – December 19, 2000) was an American politician and lawyer. During his political career, Lindsay was a U.S. congressman, mayor of New York City, and candidate for U.S. president. He was also a regular ...
jokingly stated that, if residents wanted to eat the fish, "In view of what's happening to meat prices, we'll understand that." The renovation was completed by 1975.
In 1994, a $800,000 fund was provided by Queens borough president
Claire Shulman
Claire Shulman (née Kantoff; February 23, 1926August 16, 2020) was an American politician and registered nurse from New York City. She served as director of community boards and deputy president of Queens Borough, before becoming interim boro ...
for the renovation of the park. The project started in April 1994 and included renovating paths, draining and cleaning the pond, and adding, restoring, or replacing landscape features.
In the following years, large
algal bloom
An algal bloom or algae bloom is a rapid increase or accumulation in the population of algae in freshwater or marine water systems. It is often recognized by the discoloration in the water from the algae's pigments. The term ''algae'' encompas ...
s accumulated in Bowne Pond, so in 2002, the state gave a $250,000 grant toward cleaning the pond.
By the 2010s, residents were complaining about algal blooms and trash in the pond.
Some of the more notable issues included a bloom of
red algae
Red algae, or Rhodophyta (, ; ), are one of the oldest groups of eukaryotic algae. The Rhodophyta also comprises one of the largest phyla of algae, containing over 7,000 currently recognized species with taxonomic revisions ongoing. The majority ...
in the pond in August 2012, a flood in the park pavilion in February 2014, and another flood in May 2014 after the pond's drainage stopped working.
There were also fears of poaching, due to reports of missing fish and turtles. Furthermore, in August 2011, two 200-year-old trees in Bowne Park were knocked down during
Hurricane Irene
Hurricane Irene was a large and destructive tropical cyclone which affected much of the Caribbean and East Coast of the United States during late August 2011. The ninth named storm, first hurricane, and first major hurricane of the 2011 At ...
. Borough officials announced in mid-2014 that they had allotted $2.45 million for renovation of the park's playground and cleanup of the pond. Work on the playground and basketball court was started in October 2016 as part of a $1.5 million project, and was completed the following August.
References
*
External links
NYC Parks websiteBowne Park Civic Association website
{{New York City waterways
Flushing, Queens
Historic district contributing properties in New York City
Parks in Queens, New York