Saturday, June 23, 2012

NYC Walking Tour - Bowery/Peter Stuyvesant


New Amsterdam (lower Manhattan) ca. 1660

Peter Stuyvesant (c.1612 – August 1672), served as the last Dutxh Director-General of the colony of New Nwthwrland from 1647 until it was ceded provisionally to the English in 1664, after which it was renamed New York. He was a major figure in the early history of New York City. Stuyvesant's accomplishments as director-general included a great expansion for the settlement of  New Amsterdam beyond the southern tip of Manhattan. Among the projects built by Stuyvesant's administration were the protective wall on Wall Street, the canal that became Broad Street, and Broadway.

Although conventionally referred to in English today as "Peter Stuyvesant", Stuyvesant's given name was actually "Pieter" or "Petrus"; "Peter" is not found in historical records.

In April 1644, he attacked the Spanish-held island of Saint Martin and lost the lower part of his right leg to a cannon ball. He returned to the Netherlands, where his right leg was amputated and replaced with a wooden peg. Supposedly, Stuyvesant was given the nickname "Old Silver Leg"

In May 1645 he was selected by the Dutch West India Company to replace Willem Kieft as Director-General of the New Netherland colony. He arrived in New Amsterdam on May 11, 1647. In September 1647, he appointed an advisory council of Nine Men as representatives of the colonists.

Stuyvesant and his family were large land owners in the northeastern portion of New Amsterdam, and the Stuyvesant name is currently associated with the Stuyvesant Town housing complex as well as Stuyvesant Square, a park in the area. His farm, called the "Bouwerij" – the seventeenth-century Dutch word for farm – was the source for the name of the Manhattan street The Bowery, and the chapel facing Bouwerie's long approach road (now Stuyvesant Street) became St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery. The contemporary neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn includes Stuyvesant Heights and retains its name. Also named after him are the hamlets of Stuyvesant and Stuyvesant Falls in Columbia County, NY, where descendants of the early Dutch settlers still live and where the Dutch Reformed Church remains an important part of the community, as well as shopping centers, yacht clubs and other buildings and facilities throughout the area where the Dutch colony once was. More modestly, Peter Island in the British Virgin Islands was also named after Stuyvesant during the Dutch West India Company's administration of that Territory.

Stuyvesant was a great believer in education. In 1660 he was quoted as saying that "Nothing is of greater importance than the early instruction of youth." In 1661, New Amsterdam had one grammar school, two free elementary schools, and had licensed 28 masters of school. To honor Stuyvesant's dedication to education and New Amsterdam's legal-cultural tradition of toleration under Stuyvesant, Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan was named after him.
Map of New Amsterdam 1668

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

NYC Walking Tour - Battle of Brooklyn


General Howe's map of the Battle of Brooklyn

The Battle of Brooklyn or the Battle of Brooklyn Heights, fought on August 27, 1776, was the first major battle in the American Revolutionary War following the United States Declaration of Independence, the largest battle of the entire conflict, and the first battle in which an army of the United States engaged, having declared itself a nation only the month before.

After defeating the British in the Siege of Boston on March 17, 1776, General George Washington, Commander-in-Chief, brought the Continental Army to defend the strategic port city of New York, then limited to the southern end of Manhattan Island. Washington understood that New York City's Harbor would provide an excellent base for the British Navy during the campaign. There he established defenses and waited for the British to attack. In July the British, under the command of Genera William Howe, landed a few miles across the harbor on Staten Island, where over the next month and a half they were slowly reinforced by ships in Lower New York Bay, bringing their total force to 32,000 men. With the British fleet in control of the entrance to the harbor, Washington knew the difficulty in holding the city. Believing Manhattan would be the first target, he moved the bulk of his forces there.


On August 22, the British landed on the southwest tip of Brooklyn, across The Narrows from Staten Island, more than a dozen miles south from the East River crossings to Manhattan. After five days of waiting, the British attacked American defenses on the Gowanus Heights. Unknown to the Americans, however, Howe had brought his main army around their rear and attacked their flank soon after. The Americans panicked, although a stand by 400 Maryland troops prevented most of the army from being captured. The remainder of the army fled to the main defenses on Brooklyn Heights. The British dug in for a siege but, on the night of August 29–30, Washington evacuated the entire army to Manhattan without the loss of materiel or a single life. Washington and the Continental Army were driven out of New York entirely after several more defeats and forced to retreat through New Jersey and into Pennsylvania.
Washington's Retreat - August 29, 1776

Sunday, June 17, 2012

NYC Walking Tour - Brooklyn Bridge/Steve Brodie


Steve Brodie in his swimsuit

Steve Brodie (December 25, 1861 – January 31, 1901) was an American from New York City who claimed to have jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge and survived on July 23, 1886. The resulting publicity from the supposed jump, whose veracity was disputed, gave Brodie publicity, a thriving saloon and a career as an actor.
Brodie's fame persisted long past his death, with Brodie portrayed in films and with the slang terms "taking a Brodie" and "Brodie" entering the language for "taking a chance" and "suicidal leap."

The bridge, then known as the East River Bridge, had opened just three years before Brodie's claimed jump. A swimming instructor from Washington, DC named Robert Emmet Odlum (August 31, 1851 – May 19, 1885), the brother of women's rights activist Charlotte Odlum Smith, was killed while attempting the same stunt in May 1885.

The jump supposedly made by Brodie was from a height of 135 feet (41 m), the same as a 14-story building. The contemporary New York Times account said the jump was from a height of about 120 feet (37 m).



The New York Times backed his account of the jump and said that Brodie practiced for the leap by making shorter jumps from other bridges and ships' masts, and that it was witnessed by two reporters. He leaped into the East River, feet first, and emerged uninjured, though with pain on his right side. He was jailed after the jump. The Times described Brodie as a "newsboy and long distance pedestrian" who jumped from the bridge to win a $200 bet. In other accounts he is described as a bookmaker and gambler. A Bowery storekeeper named Isaac Meyers claimed that he encouraged Brodie to jump off the Brooklyn bridge after Brodie said that he wanted to be famous. Another account holds that Moritz Herzber, a liquor dealer, offered to back a saloon for Brodie if he made the jump and lived.
Robert Emmet Odlum's jump May 19, 1885 

Friday, June 8, 2012

NYC Walking Tour - Schermerhorn Row


Schermerhorn Row ca. 1900
The Schermerhorn Row Block is now part of South Street Seaport in lower Manhattan in New York City. The first buildings, Schermerhorn Row on Fulton Street, were built in 1811.
Peter Schermerhorn built these sixcounting houses in 1811 to serve the growing New York seaport. The buildings were purchased in 1974 by the State of New York.

During the 2003 redevelopment, these buildings, located on Fulton Street, were linked to the A.A. Low Building, which faces John Street, to create gallery space. The permanent exhibits include paintings by the maritime artist James E. Buttersworth. The block was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 18, 1971
Schermerhorn Row 2012