Stuyvesant Farm

{{Overlay

|image=Manatvs gelegen op de Noot Riuier-closeup-N01-to-N17.jpg

|width=300

|height=300

|legend1title=Manatus Map of 1639 under Willem Kieft (north to right)

|legendbox=no

|float=right

|overlay1 = Bowery No. 1

|overlay1left = 290

|overlay1top = 165

|overlay2form = color

|overlay2 = Fort Amsterdam

|overlay2top = 95

|overlay2left = 85

|overlay2colour = saddlebrown

}}

Prior to Dutch colonization, the land where Stuyvesant Farm sat was most likely used or inhabited by Native Americans. The Wappinger and Lenape peoples inhabited Manhattan, using the land as seasonal hunting grounds and also establishing permanent villages there.[http://www.americanheritage.com/content/24-swindle Benchley, Nathaniel. "The $24 Swindle: The Native Americans who sold Manhattan were bilked, all right, but they didn't mind – the land wasn't theirs anyway."] American Heritage, Vol. 11, no. 1 (Dec. 1959). The Dutch Republic formed the colony of New Netherland in the early 17th century, and Cryn Fredericks of the Dutch West India Company set out six estates north of New Amsterdam to be farmed to support the commanding officers of the colony. The land which made up Stuyvesant Farm was formerly part of two of these estates, the entire Bowery No. 1 and parts of Bowery No. 2 (bowery is an anglicization of the archaic Dutch word for "farm", spelled bouwerie or bouwerij).{{Cite web|date=March 12, 2019|title=Peter Stuyvesant's Bouweries and their Legacy Today|url=https://www.villagepreservation.org/2019/03/12/peter-stuyvesants-bouweries-and-their-legacy-today/|access-date=May 10, 2021|website=Village Preservation|language=en-US}} These boweries were laid out along a Native American footpath, part of the Northeastern Great Trail and later the Boston Post Road, that would become known as the Bowery Lane after its destination at the Great Bowery.

In 1632, Wouter van Twiller took control of Bowery No. 1 when he became Director of New Netherland. During his stewardship over the farm he oversaw many improvements, including adding a house, a brewery, and barns. The largely self-sufficient farm's primary product is thought to have been the staple wheat, rather than a cash crop like tobacco. The building that would become Stuyvesant's Bowery Mansion was most likely a structure originally erected by the Dutch West India Company's carpenters in 1633. Van Twiller was fired in 1637 and when his replacement, Willem Kieft, arrived in 1638, he found the colony in disarray outside of the impressive Bowery No.1. The Manatus Map of 1639 indicates only half of the six company boweries were in operation, referring to Boweries 2–6 as “five run down bouweries of the Company, which stand idle whereof now, [in] 1639, 3 are again occupied.”{{Cite web|last=Culhane|first=Kerri|date=2011|title=National Register of Historic Places Registration Form "The Bowery Historic District"|url=https://twobridges.org/wp-content/uploads/bowerynrn.pdf|access-date=May 22, 2021|website=Two Bridges Neighborhood Council}}

File:Stuyvesant Farm from The Plan of the City of New York in North America by Ratzer 1770.jpg, surveyed in 1766 and 1767, printed in 1770]]

In 1645, Peter Stuyvesant was selected to replace Kieft as Director of New Netherland, and took on the role in 1647. On March 12, 1651, the company directors in Amsterdam authorized the sale of the farm with its dwelling house, barns, woods, six cows, two horses and two African slaves for ƒ6,400 to Stuyvesant, acting through his agent Jan Jansen Damen.{{Cite book|last=Stokes|first=Isaac Newton Phelps|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z5lQAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA122|title=The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498–1909|date=1922|publisher=R. H. Dodd|pages=122–123|language=en}}{{Cite book|last=Esther Dilliard|first=Maud|title=An album of New Netherland Hardcover|year=1963|pages=77}} By the mid-17th century, an estimated 40 people were enslaved on Stuyvesant Farm. Stuyvesant was the largest private slaveholder on Manhattan; only the company of which he was director held more. Stuyvesant diminished free African-owned properties in the neighboring Land of the Blacks settlement by appropriating some of them to himself, through both purchases and fiat, though most stayed intact.{{Cite book|last1=Burrows|first1=Edwin G.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mObQCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA56|title=Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898|last2=Wallace|first2=Mike|date=November 19, 1998|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-972910-4|language=en}}

When England moved to take over New Netherland in 1664, a delegation of twelve met at Stuyvesant Farm to negotiate the Articles of Surrender of New Netherland, and papers were later signed by Johannes de Decker on an English ship in the harbor.{{Cite book|last=Shorto|first=Russell|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1G5o9bzMvt4C&pg=PA304|title=The Island at the Center of the World|date=April 12, 2005|publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group|isbn=978-1-4000-9633-6|pages=304|language=en}} Terms were generous enough that Stuyvesant kept his estate and lived the rest of his life there, after a three-year trip back to the Netherlands until the Peace of Breda.{{Cite web|title=Peter Stuyvesant|url=https://www.newnetherlandinstitute.org/history-and-heritage/dutch_americans/peter-stuyvesant/|access-date=August 31, 2021|website=www.newnetherlandinstitute.org}}

File:Blue Book Page 04 publ. 1868.jpg from Maps of Farms Commonly Called the Blue Book by Otto Sackersdorff, updated in 1868]]

The property was inherited in Stuyvesant family, sometimes with new land acquisitions.{{Cite web|title=Bowery Number One {{!}} A Tour of New Netherland|url=https://www.newnetherlandinstitute.org/history-and-heritage/digital-exhibitions/a-tour-of-new-netherland/manhattan/bowery-no-1/|access-date=May 10, 2021|website=www.newnetherlandinstitute.org}}{{Cite web|title=Stuyvesant Farm Grid|url=http://www.oldstreets.com/index.asp?title=Stuyvesant%20Farm%20Grid|access-date=May 10, 2021|website=www.oldstreets.com|archive-date=October 20, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211020002718/http://www.oldstreets.com/index.asp?title=Stuyvesant%20Farm%20Grid|url-status=dead}} The family continued to hold slaves into the early 19th century.{{Cite web|last=Brazee|first=Christopher|date=2012|title=East 10th Street Historic District – Designation Report|url=http://www.villagepreservation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/East-10th-Street-Historic-District-NYC-LPC-Designation-Report.pdf|website=villagepreservation.org}} The family land area gradually declined into the 19th century as pieces were sold off, both commercially and in some cases to local institutions for a nominal price. The tract of land that comprised Stuyvesant Farm covered what is today's East Village and Stuyvesant Town.{{Cite web|title=Peter Stuyvesant's NYC: From the Bouwerie Farm to That Famous Pear Tree|url=https://www.6sqft.com/peter-stuyvesants-nyc-from-the-bouwerie-farm-to-that-famous-pear-tree/|access-date=May 10, 2021|website=6sqft|language=en-US}}

• 1625 Six Company Bouweries surveyed, Willem Verhulst controls Bouwerie No. 1
• 1626 Peter Minuit controls Bouwerie No. 1{{Cite book|last=Van Winkle|first=Edward|url=https://archive.org/details/manhattan162416300vanw|title=Manhattan, 1624–1639|publisher=The Knickerbocker Press|year=1916|location=New York}}
• 1632 Sebastiaen Jansen Krol controls Bouwerie No. 1
• 1633 Wouter van Twiller controls Bouwerie No. 1
• 1638 Willem Kieft controls Bouwerie No. 1, and continues to lease it to Van Twiller
• 1647 Peter Stuyvesant controls Bouwerie No. 1, Original pear tree planted
• 1651 Peter Stuyvesant purchases outright
• 1660 Stuyvesant family chapel
• 1664 Dutch surrender negotiated at Bouwerie House, Peter Stuyvesant departs
• 1667 Peter Stuyvesant returns and retires to farm
• 1778 Bouwerie House burns down{{Cite web|last=Walsh|first=Kevin|date=October 1, 2000|title=Mr. Stuyvesant's Garden. The story of Stuyvesant Street|url=https://forgotten-ny.com/2000/10/mr-stuyvesants-garden-one-of-the-few-diagonal-streets-in-nyc-between-8th-street-and-central-park-points-the-way-to-an-estate-with-a-17th-century-lineage/|access-date=August 31, 2021|website=Forgotten New York|language=en-US}}
• 1787 Stuyvesant Street laid out{{Cite web|date=June 26, 2012|title=Map It! Stuyvesant Street|url=https://www.villagepreservation.org/2012/06/25/map-it-stuyvesant-street/|access-date=August 31, 2021|website=Village Preservation|language=en-US}}
• 1793, 1795–1799 Stuyvesant family chapel land sold, St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery built{{Cite web|title=New York Architecture Images- St. Mark's in the Bowery Church|url=https://www.nyc-architecture.com/LES/LES021.htm|access-date=August 31, 2021|website=www.nyc-architecture.com}}
• 1811 Commissioners' Plan of 1811 laid out streets through all of Manhattan above Houston Street to 155th Street including the land once belonging to Stuyvesant FarmAugustyn & Cohen, pp.{{nbsp}}100–06
• 1829, 1834 Peter Gerard Stuyvesant sells Stuyvesant Meadows, becomes land for Tompkins Square Park{{Cite web|last=Walsh|first=Kevin|date=January 29, 2012|title=Five Squares Part 2: Stuyvesant to Tompkins|url=https://forgotten-ny.com/2012/01/five-squares-part-2-stuyvesant-to-tompkins/|access-date=August 31, 2021|website=Forgotten New York|language=en-US}}
• 1836 Peter Gerard Stuyvesant sells land for Stuyvesant Square{{Cite book|last=Commission|first=New York (N Y. ) Landmarks Preservation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5XaQzQEACAAJ|title=Stuyvesant Square Historic District, Borough of Manhattan|date=1975|publisher=Landmarks Preservation Commission|language=en}}
• 1847 Stuyvesant Square fence built{{Cite web|title=Stuyvesant Square Highlights : NYC Parks|url=https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/stuyvesant-square/history|access-date=August 31, 2021|website=New York City Department of Parks and Recreation}}
• 1867 Original pear tree toppled following a storm{{Cite web|title=Peter Stuyvesant's pear tree|url=https://kottke.org/09/01/peter-stuyvesants-pear-tree|access-date=August 31, 2021|website=kottke.org|language=en}}
• 1969, 1974 St. Mark's Historic District designated by New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission and added to National Register of Historic Places{{Cite web|title=Saint Mark's Church in-the-Bowery|url=https://www.nypap.org/preservation-history/saint-marks-church-in-the-bowery/|website=nypap.org|date=April 16, 2016 }}
• 2003 New pear tree planted

Stuyvesant Square and Tompkins Square Park are both within the limits of the Stuyvesant farm.{{Cite book|last=Wilson|first=Rufus Rockwell|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/613205402|title=New York: old & new its story, streets, and landmarks|date=1909|publisher=J.B. Lippincott|oclc=613205402}}

The Bouwerie House was a manor house perhaps originally built for Van Twiller, that became the personal property of Stuyvesant and later of his family until it was burned on October 24, 1778.{{Cite book|last=Council|first=New York (N Y. ) Common|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3QsAAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA656-IA3|title=Manual of the Corporation of the City of New York|date=1862|publisher=The Council|language=en}} An informal settlement, known as Stuyvesant Village or Bowery Village, grew up adjoining the house to its west.{{Cite book|last=Hemstreet|first=Charles|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TL43AQAAIAAJ|title=Nooks & Corners of Old New York|date=1899|publisher=Charles Scribner's sons|language=en}} The Bouwerie House is to be distinguished from the governor's house downtown at what became known as Whitehall Street.{{cite book|last=Feirstein|first=Sanna|title=Naming New York : Manhattan places & how they got their names|publisher=New York University Press|year=2001|isbn=978-0-8147-2712-6|publication-place=New York|page=31|oclc=45209072}}{{harvnb|Burrows|Wallace|1998|ps=.|p=50}}

Other residences of Stuyvesant family members in the area included Petersfield, a newer "Bowery House", 44 Stuyvesant Street, Hamilton Fish House, and 19 Gramercy Park South.{{cite nycland}}, p.67Gray, Christopher [https://www.nytimes.com/2000/02/20/realestate/streetscapes-19-gramercy-park-south-an-1880-s-house-that-asks-what-s-in-a-name.html "Streetscapes/19 Gramercy Park South; An 1880s House That Asks, 'What's In a Name?'"] The New York Times (February 20, 2000)

The estate included a wetland known as Stuyvesant Meadows, part of which was later filled and converted to form Tompkins Square Park. Two creeks, noted for their eel populations, passed through the wetland, Stuyvesant Creek and a feature later called Ninth Street Creek.{{Cite book|last=Sanderson|first=Eric W.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iURDAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT306|title=Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City|date=December 1, 2013|publisher=Abrams|isbn=978-1-61312-573-1|language=en}} Stuyvesant Creek also passed by the Bouwerie House and was used in winter for ice skating.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qvJHAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA236|title=Historic New York ...|date=1899|publisher=G.P. Putnam's Sons|language=en}} The creeks emptied into the East River on Stuyvesant Cove, between Kip's Bay and Corlears Hook.

File:Pear Tree planted by Peter Stuyvesant in Manhattan NYC 1863.jpg tree, 1863|alt=Stuyvesant pear tree, 1863]]

In 1647, Stuyvesant brought a pear tree from the Netherlands and planted it on his farm. The tree stood at the corner of Thirteenth Street and Third Avenue until 1867, where it lived for two hundred years, with New York City growing around it.{{Cite web|last=Shah|first=Vivek|date=August 22, 2013|title=Getting Into the Roots of Manhattan Through a History of its Famous Trees|url=https://untappedcities.com/2013/08/22/getting-into-roots-of-manhattan-through-history-famous-trees/|access-date=January 10, 2021|website=Untapped New York|language=en-US}} The 1811 street grid covered over the farm but spared the Stuyvesant Pear Tree. The tree remained there, through the founding of Kiehl's Pharmacy at the same corner in 1851, until February 1867 when, weakened by a massive winter storm, it toppled by a wagon collision.{{Cite news|last=O'Grady|first=Jim|date=November 9, 2003|title=Neighborhood Report: East Village; A New Pear Tree Will Pay Homage to Old New York|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/09/nyregion/neighborhood-report-east-village-a-new-pear-tree-will-pay-homage-to-old-new-york.html|access-date=August 31, 2021|issn=0362-4331}}

A plaque marking the Stuyvesant tree's spot remains at the corner of 13th Street and Third Avenue. In this neighborhood, pear trees are still planted to commemorate the original pear tree planted by Stuyvesant.{{Cite web|date=February 22, 2017|title=The Stuyvesant Pear Tree: New York City Mourns the Loss of its "Oldest Living Thing"|url=http://blog.nyhistory.org/the-stuyvesant-pear-tree-new-york-city-mourns-the-loss-of-its-oldest-living-thing/|access-date=January 10, 2021|website=New-York Historical Society|language=en-US}} A Stuyvesant descendant gifted a cross-section of the original trunk to the New-York Historical Society. Kiehl's planted a new pear tree at the same spot in 2003.{{Cite web|last=AM New York Metro|title='Stuyvesant's pear tree' replanted on 13th St. {{!}} amNewYork|url=https://www.amny.com/news/stuyvesants-pear-tree-replanted-on-13th-st/|access-date=May 16, 2021|website=AM New York Metro|date=November 25, 2003 |language=en-US}}{{Cite book|last1=Scheltema|first1=Gajus|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7CVyDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA43|title=Exploring Historic Dutch New York: New York City * Hudson Valley * New Jersey * Delaware|last2=Westerhuijs|first2=Heleen|date=October 17, 2018|publisher=Courier Dover Publications|isbn=978-0-486-83552-5|language=en}}

• The BoweryJackson, Kenneth L. "Bowery" in {{cite enc-nyc2}}, p. 148
• St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery
• Stuyvesant Street
• Stuyvesant Square
• Stuyvesant Town–Peter Cooper VillageOser, Alan S. [https://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/28/realestate/the-upscaling-of-stuyvesant-town.html "The Upscaling of Stuyvesant Town"], The New York Times, January 28, 2001. Accessed December 18, 2016. "There are 11,250 apartments within 110 buildings in the two projects.... Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village house an estimated 25,000 to 30,000 people in 11,250 apartments on {{convert|80|acre}} of land from First Avenue to the East River between 14th Street and 23rd Street."
• Stuyvesant Cove Park{{cite web|title=Stuyvesant Cove Park|url=http://solar1.org/park/|access-date=July 2, 2010|work=Solar 1|archive-date=July 6, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100706224824/http://solar1.org/park/|url-status=dead}}
• Stuyvesant High School (original building){{Cite web|title=New York Architecture Images- Old Stuyvesant High School|url=http://www.nyc-architecture.com/GRP/GRP010.htm|access-date=September 1, 2021|website=www.nyc-architecture.com}}

{{reflist}}

Category:1860s individual tree deaths

Category:Establishments in New Netherland

Category:Farms in New York City

Category:Former governors' mansions in the United States

Category:History of agriculture in the United States

Category:Historic farms in the United States

Category:Stuyvesant family