Maple Playground

Kissena Blvd. bet. Maple Ave. and Franklin Ave.

Queens

Directions via Google Maps

This text is part of Parks’ Historical Signs Project and can be found posted within the park.

What was here before?
This property was once home to the Matinecock people until European settlers arrived in the early 17th century, dispossessing the natives of their land. In 1645, Flushing, then known as the town of Vlissingen, received a charter from the Dutch West India Company. English immigrant and Quaker, John Bowne (1627–1695), and his family settled in this region. After New Netherland’s Director General Peter Stuyvesant banned colonists from hosting Quakers in their homes, Bowne lead the struggle for religious freedom, which led to the creation of the 1657 Flushing Remonstrance, often considered the precursor to the Constitution’s First Amendment.

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