Site Walter Bowne, 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's nearby
Broadway station would expedite trips to
Manhattan. 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.
Park establishment On March 13, 1925, Walter Bowne's house burned down in a fire. During this era, Bowne Pond was designated as an official skating pond, and was a popular venue for boat races. By the end of
World War II, the stream entering Bowne Pond was infilled. The first modular playground in New York City was opened within Bowne Park in June 1969 and included large fiberglass cubes. 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, During this restoration, some of Bowne Pond's fish were relocated to
Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, while others ended up in the refrigerators of nearby homes; Mayor
John Lindsay 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 the following years, large
algal blooms 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 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. Furthermore, in August 2011, two 200-year-old trees in Bowne Park were knocked down during
Hurricane Irene. 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. A renovation of Bowne Park began in March 2021. The work involved constructing a pipe from a groundwater well to the pond, dredging the pond, replacing granite around the pond's edge, repaving paths, and adding plants. == References ==