Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
Presentation for Partnership in the New
Amsterdam History Center
February 2005
Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
Haff Associates, Inc.
with the assistance of
Frank J. Sypher, Jr.
and
American History Workshop
Draft Report
Presentation for Partnership in the
New Amsterdam History Center
Prepared for
Collegiate Church Corporation
Submitted by
Haff Associates, Inc.
February 21, 2005
P.O. Box 226
Great Barrington, MA 01230
212 246 3024
[email protected]
1
Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
Table of Contents
Pages
Introduction: Dutch Colonial History Should Be Preserved and
Protected
Chapter One: History of the Shoemakers' Pasture, 1644-1724
2
8
Chapter Two: Market Value Survey
12
Chapter Three: Historical Visual Images of Shoemakers Field
31
Chapter Four: Plan for the New Amsterdam History Center
46
Chapter Five: Deeds Related to Van Tienhoven Documents and
Shoemakers Field Partition Agreement
65
Appendix A: Biography of John Harberdinck
102
Appendix B: The New Amsterdam History Center Preliminary
Concept
130
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
Dutch Colonial History Should Be Preserved and Protected
Half Moon and the Corbin Building Partnership for the Development of the
New Amsterdam History Center
The Corbin Building, envisioned as part of the Fulton Street Transit Center
in Lower Manhattan, is owned by the Collegiate Church Corporation, who
believes it is also an ideal location for the planned New Amsterdam History
3
Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
Center. For over 360 years, dating back to 1644, this location has been part of
an unbroken chain of private ownership and use in “Dutch” hands. It is part of
the oldest legacy of New York City’s colonial history still remaining. It predates
the establishment of the City of New York (then called New Amsterdam) as a
municipal government in 1653.
The Corbin Building is currently one of four Collegiate properties in an
area currently under consideration as the John Street/ Maiden Lane Historic
District. These properties, a part of New York’s colonial history and a major part
of the Collegiate Church heritage, have been in privately-owned Dutch hands
since 1644 when the Director General of New Netherland, William Kieft granted a
patent to Cornelius van Tienhoven for a parcel of land bound by Broadway on
the west, Maiden Lane on the south, Ann street on the North and Pearl Street on
the east for his “bouwerie” or farm. Upon the disappearance of van Tienhoven in
1656, this same property was soon turned over to five New Netherland citizens
who used the area for the tanning of leather and the area was then called
“Shoemakers Field.”
One of these owners, John Harberdinck, left in his will, 39 properties
within Shoemakers Field (now reduced to 21 properties through lot consolidation)
to the Collegiate Church Corporation in 1723. Four of the twenty-one properties
are still held by the church as a source of their endowment and as the oldest
legacy of New York’s Dutch colonial history still remaining in “Dutch” hands.
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
Shoemakers Field
Mention was made earlier of the Shoemaker's Pasture, of which
Harberdinck was an original landholder in 1691. Chapter One discusses that the
original grantees were Harberdinck, Heiltje Clopper, Charles Lodwick, Abraham
Santford, and Carsten Luersen. The tract was bounded on the west by
Broadway; on the north it extended beyond present-day Fulton Street; on the
south it was bounded by Maiden Lane; and on the east it extended beyond
present-day William Street. When the streets were laid out, Nassau Street and
William Street were cut through the property to run north-south, approximately
parallel with Broadway. At the same time, John Street and Fair Street (later
Fulton Street) were cut through the property in an east-west direction. A concise
history of this property is given in Valentine's Manual for 1865:
After being used in common for many years, the property was mapped off in
1715, at which time, as the record curiously states, the owners, "finding the said
land to be rentable for building of houses for an enlargement of the city, projected
and laid out said lands into one hundred and sixty-four lots." John Harberding, a
venerable craftsman, and one of the original members of the shoemakers'
association, lived and plied his trade on Broadway, near Maiden lane. In a
division of the property, some years after, the along-Broadway portion was
allotted to him, extending the whole front, being five hundred and eighty feet
along Broadway, and one hundred and sixty feet in depth. The plot is described
as a garden then in occupation of said Harberding. Mr. Harberding emigrated to
this city about the year 1660, while it was still under Dutch rule. He was a
shoemaker by trade, and though rather a wild youth, became in his maturer
years a pillar of the Church, and lived to a venerable age. He died in 1723,
leaving a handsome fortune, a considerable portion of which he bequeathed to
the Dutch Reformed Church, which they still enjoy. The streets as laid out
originally through the property still exist (although both have been widened in
recent times) under the names of John street (after the proprietor) and Fulton
street, formerly Fair street. A house and lot, apparently the homestead of John
Harberding, on the corner of Broadway and Maiden lane, was sold soon after his
death (viz. 1732) for one hundred and twenty pounds. . .
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
Understanding Market Value and Location of Properties in the
Harberdinck Will
Chapter Two describes the total 2004 market value of property that was
donated by John Harberdinck to the Collegiate Church Corporation and is worth
approximately $454 million, representing 21 total properties as currently laid out
on the City’s 2003 base map. Collegiate still owns four of these properties and
has owned them since 1723. Their current market value is $23 million according
to City of New York estimates. Collegiate believes the approximate value of
these properties is about $70 million according to their recent appraisal. The
clear difference in current market value between church owned property and
property sold by the church to others, demonstrates that the property retained by
the church continues to have cultural and historical value to its owner, apart from
its obvious development potential.
Chapter Three demonstrates the importance of the Shoemakers Field
location through maps. They prove visually the unbroken chain of Dutch related
ownership in private use since 1644. Where there is a direct match between the
current New York City lot and the lot that Harberdinck donated, it has not
changed hands since 1723, a period of 281 years. In other cases, a number of a
Harberdinck lots are combined after being sold to others.
Maintaining the soul and purpose of New York’s oldest community should
be taken very seriously, and every effort should be made to preserve this
heritage. Among other priorities, the Church wishes to carry out its plan to use a
6
Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
portion of the Corbin Building for a museum of Dutch Colonial history to be
integrated with the current plans to make the World Trade Center area a more
vital part of New York’s cultural center. The mission and vision statement for the
museum is described below and further developed in Chapter Four.
Mission Statement:
“The New Amsterdam History Center will encourage public exploration of the
early history of New Amsterdam and New York, its diverse peoples, landscapes,
and institutions, and its legacy for all the people of the world today.” (Vision
Statement, 12/15/04)
The Vision:
The planned components are:
 Permanent home for the replica of Captain Henry Hudson’s ship, Half
Moon;
 Accommodation for collaborative visiting tall ships and other visiting ships;
 A museum and archive of Dutch historical documents;
 Educational outreach with an electronic field trip, study visits and other
forums;
 An annual fund raising event featuring a festival of Dutch history; and
 A reading room of Dutch Colonial history and a restaurant with Dutch
cuisine.
The Project:
The build-out of the museum site, development of the Interpretive Museum, and
rental of docking space represent primary Project expenditures. The museum
site is within the historic Corbin Building located at the northeast corner of John
Street and Broadway since 1889. Site control by Collegiate Church, a museum
partner, ensures access and continuity beginning with the development phase.
Proof of Unbroken Ownership
Chapter Five and the Appendix, through a survey of various documents,
provide the proof of the stream of Dutch-related ownership of this property from
1644 to today. The Appendices contain a biography of John Harberdinck and
includes his will and a vision statement for the New Amsterdam History Center.
7
Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
Chapter One
History of the Shoemakers' Pasture, 1644-1724
The term "Shoemakers' Pasture," or "Shoemakers' Field" dates from the period
after about 1675, and refers to a tract of property of about 17 acres, in lower
Manhattan, bounded approximately by Broadway on the west, by Fulton Street
on the north, by Maiden Lane on the south, and by William Street on the east.
The property was at that time owned by a group of four shoemakers, hence the
name. At this site, during a period of about 20 years or more, they carried on
leather-tanning operations.
The area was originally part of a land grant bounded on the west by
Broadway, and on the east by Dock Street (later Queen Street, or Pearl Street),
which, as the name suggests, at one time marked the shore of the East River
(the shoreline was extended by landfill, beginning in the 1690s). On the south,
the shoemakers' land was bounded by the Maiden Path (or "Magde Patie," later
Maiden Lane), and on the north by land along a boundary roughly corresponding
to present-day Ann Street.
The original land grant, dated June 14, 1644, was issued by the Dutch
Governor of New Netherland, William Kieft (1597-1647), to Cornelijs Van
Tienhoven, who in 1638 had been appointed secretary of the colony of New
Netherland. Van Tienhoven also held office as public prosecutor, and as sheriff
of New Amsterdam. On this property Van Tienhoven had his residence and farm
(or "bouwerie"). As a government official he was powerful but unpopular, and in
1656 he was removed from office. Soon afterward, around June 1656, he
8
Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
disappeared; it was concluded at the time that he had committed suicide by
drowning.
Upon Van Tienhoven's disappearance and presumed death, his property
came under the authority of administrators, and it was conveyed in portions to his
creditors and heirs. A major portion passed to his widow, Rachel Damen Van
Tienhoven (daughter of Jan Jansen Damen). Gov. Richard Nicolls in 1667 issued
letters of confirmation of the original grants (see below, for transcripts from
Albany County records, Liber 2, 1667-1671, pp. 113-115).
Upon the death of the grantee's widow, Rachel Van Tienhoven, her
executors, Peter Stoutenberg, and Jan Vinge, conveyed on July 1, 1671 a
substantial portion of the Van Tienhoven farm to Jan Smedes, a carman (i.e., a
licensed operator of horse-drawn carts, as used for hauling goods around the
city). He in turn, by instruments of 1673 and 1675, conveyed to a group of four
shoemakers and tanners the property that became known as the Shoemakers'
Pasture, or Field. The shareholders were: Conraet Ten Eyck, Caarsen Leerson,
Jacob Abrams, and John Harpending. The land was considered to be held by
them in four equal but undefined shares (see below for transcript of conveyance
from Smedes, as recorded in Albany County deeds, Liber 1, 1674-1677, p. 126).
The purpose of the shoemakers in acquiring the land was to use it
primarily for industrial activities. To this end, they constructed tanning pits located
in the the marshy area near the Maiden Path, where there was a brook that ran
down into the East River. The pits functioned as vats that held chemical mixtures
in which hides were soaked as part of the tanning process. The shoemakers had
9
Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
previously had their tanning facilities near Broad Street, where there was a
source of water (Broad Street had originally been a canal). But by 1675
residential housing was being built in that area, which was consequently
becoming unsuitable as a place for conducting smelly, polluting industrial
operations, such as processing animal hides into leather.
By 1695 the city had grown further northwards to such an extent that the
shoemakers had their jointly-held property surveyed and divided into building lots
in blocks separated by city streets. The laying out of the lots and streets was
ordered August 27, 1695 by the mayor and the Common Council (see Minutes of
the Common Council of New York City, 8 vols., 1905, vol. 1, p. 380; see also
below, photocopy of a map or chart of the survey by James Evetts, City
Surveyor).
In 1696 a deed of partition was drawn up specifying the distribution of the
lots (numbered from 1 to 164) among the surviving original grantees, their heirs
and assigns. (Note that there seems to be no record of lot 85, so the actual
number of lots appears to be 163). Jacob Abrams had died, and his son, who
went by the name Abraham Santvoort, came into possession of his share.
Cornelius Clopper had earlier merged property of his with the Shoemakers' land,
and his widow Heyltie Clopper inherited his share. Conraet Ten Eyck's share had
evidently come under the ownership of Charles Lodwick, a merchant. Thus the
deed of partition of 1696 names five shareholders: Charles Lodwick, John
Harberdinck (an original shareholder), Caster Lieuerson (an original
shareholder), Abraham Santvoort, and Heyltie Clopper. (See transcript of deed of
10
Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
partition, dated September 14, 1696, and recorded in New York county deeds,
Liber 28, pp. 128-145.)
According to the terms of the partition, John Harberdinck in 1696 became
proprietor of 40 of the lots. Harberdinck (born 1643 or earlier), by his will, dated
April 8, 1722, probated February 7, 1723 (old style; 1724 new style), bequeathed
to his widow Mayken Harberdinck the lots that at that time were in his
possession. However, as a condition of his bequest he provided that immediately
upon her death the same property was to be conveyed to the "minister, elders
and deacons of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of the City of New York
and their lawfull successors" to their sole and only proper use benefit and behoof.
Mayken Harberdinck evidently died not long after 1724, and the former
Harberdinck holdings then became the sole property of the corporation of the
Reformed Protestant Dutch Church.
Additional sources, not cited in above text: Manual of the Corporation of the City
of New York for 1860, by D. T. Valentine (New York, 1860), pp. 534-537. I. N.
Phelps Stokes, The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 6 vols. (New York, 19151928), vol. 1, pp. 236-239; see also pp. 60-61, on Van Tienhoven.
11
Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
Chapter Two
Market Value Survey
Land Area and Market Value of Properties in the Harberdinck Will
The total 2004 market value of property that was donated by John
Harberdinck to the Collegiate Church Corporation is worth approximately $451
million according to City of New York estimates, representing 21 total properties
as currently laid out on the City’s 2003 base map. Collegiate still owns four of
these properties and has owned them since 1723. Their current NYC market
value is $23 million. Collegiate has recently appraised these same four
properties and believes their market value is approximately $70 million.
The overlay of streets on the maps that have been produced for Lower
Manhattan in 2004 compare favorably to those that have been produced as early
as 1644. A Map of New Amsterdam compiled from Dutch and English records by
J.H. Innes in 1902 for the 1644 period shows the location of Broadway and
Maiden lane in approximately the same place and scale as today.1 With this
relationship as a starting point, the approximation of lot sizes for the 39 lots
donated by John Harberdinck (J.H. parcels) as shown on the Shoemakers field
map developed by the City Surveyor James Evetts2 can utilize the current lots
size dimensions available from New York City records.3 Harberdinck adjacent
lots are consolidated to reflect current block and lot numbers that correspond
1
Innes, New Amsterdam and Its People, 1902.
The 16 lots in red shown on the map of Shoemaker Field dated September 14, 1696 called the
Shoemakers Field by James Evetts, City surveyor, is recorded in the Registers Office Liber No. 28 of
conveyances page 145,
3
Drawn from CITI project of the Municipal Art Society located at www.oasisnyc.net using the source The
bytes of the Big Apple ™ PLUTO and Tax Block and Tax lot files copyrighted by the New York City
Department of City Planning (2003)
2
12
Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
with the New York City tax maps. In some cases there is a direct match
between the current lot and the lot than Harberdinck donated. In other cases, a
number of a Harberdinck lots are combined to reflect a current lot dimensions.
Current lot sizes are adjusted and footnoted with a star (*) based on a
percentage of lot frontage if there is not a direct match with the Harberdinck lot.
The initial 39 lots donated by Harberdinck in 1723 represent 21 lots in 2004 due
to consolidation and merging of various lots.
The following Table 1 shows the lot numbers for the Harberdinck (J.H)
parcels, their current address and block and lot numbers, the current lot area, lot
frontage and lot depth. The total land area for the combined JH parcels is
206,134 square feet.
Table 1
13
Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
Lot Size and Total Area for the Harberdinck Lots
J.H Lot
Number
Current Block and
Lot Number
1,2,3
11,1216
19,20
44,45
54
62-65
86-92
82-84
95,96
126
140-141
147-148
160
161
162
162
163
163
164
164
164
164
Blk 91
Lot 13
8830
117.75
74.17
94
Blk 91
Blk 93
Blk 78
Blk 77
Blk 78
Blk 78
Blk 78
Blk 77
Blk 65
Blk 65
Blk 67
Blk 89
Blk 79
blk 79
Blk 79
Blk 79
Blk 79
Blk 65
Blk 65
Blk 65
Blk 65
Lot 1
Lot 1
Lot 21
Lot 24
Lot 4
Lot 10
Lot 28
Lot 8
Lot 10
Lot 6
Lot 23
Lot 12
Lot 21
Lot 19
Lot 18
Lot 16
Lot 15
Lot 19
Lot 18
Lot 17
Lot 16
23298
8895
3992
5202
11710
21960
8189
8162
4792
4231
8258
33340
9991
7690
3754
7579
5542
4739
2732
11960
1288
206134
196.17
74.28*
49.67*
51*
130
122
75.08
94.12*
56.5
50.42
106.9*
117
62.67
48.25
23
47.25
20
41
26
75
25.67
118.5
119.75
81*
102*
90.08
180*
113.58
86.71*
88
82.25
77.25*
237
160.17
160
162
162
162.92
137
103
135
50.17
101
81
104
82
123
111
49
110
9
21
56
212
204
200
198
194
192
182
180
176
174

Lot
Area
Frontage
(in ft.)
Depth
(in Ft.)
Current
Address
Zipcode
Nassau
Street
10038
Fulton
Fulton
Fulton
Fulton
William
William
John
William
Maiden
Maiden
Nassau
Broadway
Broadway
Broadway
Broadway
Broadway
Broadway
Broadway
Broadway
Broadway
Broadway
Street
Street
Street
Street
Street
Street
Street
Street
Lane
Lane
Street
10038
10038
10038
10038
10038
10038
10038
10038
10038
10038
10038
10038
10038
10038
10038
10038
10038
10038
10038
10038
10038
Frontage and depth measurements that are followed by a star (*)
represent those J.H. lots that don’t fit current block and lots and need their
dimensions adjusted. The approximations are based on adjustments
between the new and old maps without the use of a survey to determine
exact dimensions.
Table 2 shows the current market value as estimated by the City of New
York of Harberdinck properties still owned by Collegiate Church Corporation as
$22,640,000 and properties formerly owned by Collegiate Church Corporation by
now owned by others as $454,151,000.
Table 2
14
Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
Market Value of Harberdinck Properties in 2004
Current
Address
94
101
81
104
82
123
45
111
110
9
21
56
212
204
200
198
194
192
182
180
176
174
Nassau
Fulton
Fulton
Fulton
Fulton
William
John
William
William
Maiden
Maiden
Nassau
Broadway
Broadway
Broadway
Broadway
Broadway
Broadway
Broadway
Broadway
Broadway
Broadway
Street
Street
Street
Street
Street
Street
Street
Street
Street
Lane
Lane
Street
J.H Lot
Number
Current Ownership
1,2,3
11-16
19,20
44,45
54
62-65
82-84
86-92
95,96
126
140-141
147-148
160
161
162
162
163
163
164
164
164
164
Other
Other
Other
Other
Other
Other
Collegiate Church
Other
Other
Other
Other
Other
Other
Collegiate Church
Other
Collegiate Church
Other
Collegiate Church
Other
Other
Other
Other
Market
2004
Collegiate
Value
Other
4,000,000
14,700,000
35,555,555
1,290,000
21,700,000
49,400,000
7,130,000
6,140,000
107,000,000
6,480,000
7,460,000
89,100,000
82,000,000
6,470,000
3,000,000
4,580,000
6,080,000
4,460,000
2,555,555
2,710,000
13,300,000
1,670,000
22,640,000
454,141,110
Source: Compiled by Haff Associates from records of the City of New York
Each individual Harberdinck lot, property attributes and 2004 market
values are shown below in a series of maps for the 15 of the 21 consolidated
Harberdinck properties.
15
Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
192 Broadway
Borough: Manhattan Block: 79 Lot: 15 Police Precinct: 1
Address, ZIP Code: 192 BROADWAY, 10038
Owner: COLLEGIATE REF DUTCH
Lot Area: 5542 sq. feet Lot Frontage: 20 feet Lot Depth: 162.92 feet
Number of Buildings: 1 Year Built: 1910:
Number of Floors: 9 Building Gross Area: 57527 sq. feet
Residential Units: 0 Total # of Units: 0
Landuse: Commercial and Office Buildings
Zoning: C5-5: Commercial
Commercial Overlay: none Zoning Map #: 12B
Floor Area Ratio: 10.38 Max. Allowable Floor Area Ratio: 15
Market Value History
Tax Year Market Value
2004/05 4,460,000
2003/04 5,330,000
2002/03 5,000,000
2001/02 4,490,000
2000/01 4,380,000
16
Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
204 Broadway
Borough: Manhattan Block: 79 Lot: 21 Police Precinct: 1
Address, ZIP Code: 204 BROADWAY, 10038
Owner: PROTESTANT DUTCH CH
Lot Area: 9991 sq. feet Lot Frontage: 62.67 feet Lot Depth: 160.17 feet
Number of Buildings: 1 Year Built: 1942:
Number of Floors: 2 Building Gross Area: 29973 sq. feet
Residential Units: 0 Total # of Units: 13
Landuse: Commercial and Office Buildings
Zoning: C5-5: Commercial
Commercial Overlay: none Zoning Map #: 12B
Floor Area Ratio: 3 Max. Allowable Floor Area Ratio: 15
Market Value History
Tax Year Market Value
2004/05 6,470,000
2003/04 5,420,000
2002/03 5,160,000
2001/02 6,111,111
2000/01 6,200,000
17
Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
45 John Street
Borough: Manhattan Block: 78 Lot: 28 Police Precinct: 1
Address, ZIP Code: 49 JOHN STREET, 10038 Owner: MINISTER,ELDERS &
DEA Lot Area: 8189 sq. feet Lot Frontage: 75.08 feet Lot Depth: 113.58
feet Number of Buildings: 1 Year Built: 1908:
Number of Floors: 12 Building Gross Area: 98915 sq. feet
Residential Units: 0 Total # of Units: 69 Landuse: Commercial and Office
Buildings Zoning: C6-4: Commercial
Commercial Overlay: none Zoning Map #: 12B
Floor Area Ratio: 12.08 Max. Allowable Floor Area Ratio: 10
Market Value History
2004/05
7,130,000
2003/04
7,555,555
2002/03
5,070,000
2001/02
5,450,000
2000/01
5,240,000
18
Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
198 Broadway
Borough: Manhattan Block: 79 Lot: 18 Police Precinct: 1
Address, ZIP Code: 198 BROADWAY, 10038
Owner: PROT DUTCH CHURCH
Lot Area: 3754 sq. feet Lot Frontage: 23 feet Lot Depth: 161.83 feet
Number of Buildings: 1 Year Built: 1904: Number of Floors: 12 Building Gross
Area: 40726 sq. feet Residential Units: 0 Total # of Units: 0
Landuse: Commercial and Office Buildings Zoning: C5-5: Commercial
Commercial Overlay: none Zoning Map #: 12B
Floor Area Ratio: 10.85 Max. Allowable Floor Area Ratio: 15
Market Value History
Tax Year Market Value
2004/05 4,580,000
2003/04 4,300,000
2002/03 2,790,000
2001/02 2,970,000
2000/01 2,850,000
19
Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
94 Nassau St.
Borough: Manhattan Block: 91 Lot: 13 Police Precinct: 1
Address, ZIP Code: 94 NASSAU STREET, 10038
Owner: COALITION FOR THE HOM
Lot Area: 8830 sq. feet Lot Frontage: 117.75 feet Lot Depth: 74.17 feet
Number of Buildings: 1 Year Built: 1929:
Number of Floors: 4 Building Gross Area: 38320 sq. feet
Residential Units: 0 Total # of Units: 6
Landuse: Commercial and Office Buildings
Zoning: C5-5: Commercial
Commercial Overlay: none Zoning Map #: 12B
Floor Area Ratio: 4.34 Max. Allowable Floor Area Ratio: 15
Market Value History
Tax Year
Market Value
2004/05
4,000,000
2003/04
3,950,000
2002/03
5,240,000
2001/02
2000/01
5,100,000
4,800,000
20
Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
101 Fulton St.
Borough: Manhattan Block: 91 Lot: 1 Police Precinct: 1 Address, ZIP Code:
101 FULTON STREET, 10038 Owner: 151 WILLIAM L.L.C. C/ Lot Area: 23298
sq. feet Lot Frontage: 196.17 feet Lot Depth: 118.5 feet Number of Buildings:
1 Year Built: 1940: Number of Floors: 7 Building Gross Area: 165628 sq. feet
Residential Units: 0 Total # of Units: 18 Landuse: Commercial and Office
Buildings Zoning: C6-4: Commercial Commercial Overlay: none Zoning Map
#: 12B Floor Area Ratio: 7.11 Max. Allowable Floor Area Ratio: 10
Market Value History
Tax Year
Market Value
2004/05
14,700,000
2003/04
13,900,000
2002/03
13,100,000
2001/02
14,200,000
2000/01
12,900,000
21
Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
81 Fulton St.
Borough: Manhattan Block: 93 Lot: 1 Police Precinct: 1
Address, ZIP Code: 81 FULTON STREET, 10038 Owner: 150 WILLIAM ST
ASSOCS
Lot Area: 30332 sq. feet Lot Frontage: 260.42 feet Lot Depth: 119.75 feet
Number of Buildings: 1 Year Built: 1927: Number of Floors: 20 Building
Gross Area: 463679 sq. feet Residential Units: 0 Total # of Units: 5 Landuse:
Commercial and Office Buildings Zoning: C6-4: Commercial Commercial
Overlay: none Zoning Map #: 12B Floor Area Ratio: 15.29 Max. Allowable
Floor Area Ratio: 10
Market Value History
Tax Year Market Value
2004/05 35,555,555
2003/04 26,600,000
2002/03 32,100,000
2001/02 35,500,000
2000/01 33,333,333
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
104 Fulton St.
Borough: Manhattan Block: 78 Lot: 21 Police Precinct: 1 Address, ZIP Code:
104 FULTON STREET, 10038 Owner: 102-104 FULTON REALTY Lot Area:
3992 sq. feet Lot Frontage: 49.67 feet Lot Depth: 81 feet Number of
Buildings: 1 Year Built: 1910: Year Built is an Estimate Number of Floors: 7
Building Gross Area: 25055 sq. feet Residential Units: 0 Total # of Units: 14
Landuse: Commercial and Office Buildings Zoning: C6-4: Commercial
Commercial Overlay: none Zoning Map #: 12B Floor Area Ratio: 6.28 Max.
Allowable Floor Area Ratio: 10
Market Value History
Tax Year
Market Value
2004/05
N/A
2003/04
1,290,000
2002/03
1,430,000
2001/02
1,490,000
2000/01
1,370,000
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
82 Fulton St.
Borough: Manhattan Block: 77 Lot: 24 Police Precinct: 1 Address, ZIP Code:
82 FULTON STREET, 10038 Owner: CATHERINE CONSALVAS C Lot Area:
20890 sq. feet Lot Frontage: 102 feet Lot Depth: 219.75 feet Number of
Buildings: 2 Year Built: 1900: Year Built is an Estimate Number of Floors: 8
Building Gross Area: 159000 sq. feet Residential Units: 195 Total # of Units:
203 Landuse: Mixed Residential and Commercial Buildings Zoning: C6-4:
Commercial Commercial Overlay: none Zoning Map #: 12B Floor Area Ratio:
7.61 Max. Allowable Floor Area Ratio: 10
Market Value History
Tax Year
Market Value
2004/05
21,700,000
2003/04
24,600,000
2002/03
22,300,000
2001/02
2000/01
24,200,000
21,800,000
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
123 William St.
Borough: Manhattan Block: 78 Lot: 4 Police Precinct: 1
Address, ZIP Code: 123 WILLIAM STREET, 10038
Owner: WILLIAM STREET ASSOCI
Lot Area: 28365 sq. feet Lot Frontage: 130.5 feet Lot Depth: 89.42 feet
Number of Buildings: 1 Year Built: 1912:
Number of Floors: 26 Building Gross Area: 608582 sq. feet
Residential Units: 0 Total # of Units: 56
Landuse: Commercial and Office Buildings
Zoning: C6-4: Commercial
Commercial Overlay: none Zoning Map #: 12B
Floor Area Ratio: 21.46 Max. Allowable Floor Area Ratio: 10
Market Value History
Tax Year
Market Value
2004/05
49,400,000
2003/04
46,300,000
2002/03
40,700,000
2001/02
2000/01
43,700,000
42,800,000
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
111 William
: Borough: Manhattan Block: 78 Lot: 10 Police Precinct: 1 Address, ZIP
Code: 111 WILLIAM STREET, 10038 Owner: JOHN STREET HOLDINGS Lot
Area: 10551 sq. feet Lot Frontage: 122 feet Lot Depth: 90.08 feet Number of
Buildings: 1 Year Built: 1909: Number of Floors: 9 Building Gross Area:
88733 sq. feet Residential Units: 0 Total # of Units: 13 Landuse: Commercial
and Office Buildings Zoning: C6-4: Commercial Commercial Overlay: none
Zoning Map #: 12B Floor Area Ratio: 8.41 Max. Allowable Floor Area Ratio:
10
Market Value History
Market Value
2004/05
6,140,000
2003/04
5,790,000
2002/03
5,420,000
2001/02
5,310,000
2000/01
5,100,000
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
110 William St.
Borough: Manhattan Block: 77 Lot: 8 Police Precinct: 1 Address, ZIP Code:
110 WILLIAM STREET, 10038 Owner: TRIZECHAHN REGIONAL P Lot Area:
32511 sq. feet Lot Frontage: 188.25 feet Lot Depth: 173.42 feet Number of
Buildings: 1 Year Built: 1956: Number of Floors: 31 Building Gross Area:
788241 sq. feet Residential Units: 0 Total # of Units: 0 Landuse: Commercial
and Office Buildings Zoning: C6-4: Commercial Commercial Overlay: none
Zoning Map #: 12B Floor Area Ratio: 24.25 Max. Allowable Floor Area Ratio:
10
Market Value History
Tax Year
Market Value
2004/05
107,000,000
2003/04
88,100,000
2002/03
71,400,000
2001/02
68,400,000
2000/01
62,200,000
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
9 Maiden Lane
Borough: Manhattan Block: 65 Lot: 10 Police Precinct: 1 Address, ZIP Code:
9 MAIDEN LANE, 10038 Owner: PHOENIX EQUITY VENTUR Lot Area: 4792
sq. feet Lot Frontage: 56.5 feet Lot Depth: 88 feet Number of Buildings: 1
Year Built: 1900: Number of Floors: 15 Building Gross Area: 58354 sq. feet
Residential Units: 65 Total # of Units: 69 Landuse: Multi-Family Elevator
Buildings Zoning: C5-5: Commercial Commercial Overlay: none Zoning Map
#: 12B Floor Area Ratio: 12.18 Max. Allowable Floor Area Ratio: 15
Market Value History
Tax Year Market Value
2004/05 6,480,000
2003/04 6,200,000
2002/03 5,415,000
2001/02 5,830,000
2000/01 5,700,000
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
21 Maiden Lane
Borough: Manhattan Block: 65 Lot: 6 Police Precinct: 1 Address, ZIP Code:
21 MAIDEN LANE, 10038 Owner: 21-23 MAIDEN LANE REA Lot Area: 4231
sq. feet Lot Frontage: 50.42 feet Lot Depth: 82.25 feet Number of Buildings:
1 Year Built: 1900: Number of Floors: 9 Building Gross Area: 37800 sq. feet
Residential Units: 23 Total # of Units: 24 Landuse: Mixed Residential and
Commercial Buildings Zoning: C5-5: Commercial Commercial Overlay: none
Zoning Map #: 12B Floor Area Ratio: 8.93 Max. Allowable Floor Area Ratio:
15
Market Value History
Tax Year
Market Value
2004/05
7,460,000
2003/04
7,160,000
2002/03
4,000,000
2001/02
1,300,000
2000/01
1,200,000
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
56 Nassau Street
Borough: Manhattan Block: 67 Lot: 23 Police Precinct: 1 Address, ZIP Code:
56 NASSAU STREET, 10038 Owner: BBV US REAL ESTATE FU Lot Area:
23382 sq. feet Lot Frontage: 178.17 feet Lot Depth: 128.75 feet Number of
Buildings: 1 Year Built: 1986: Number of Floors: 27 Building Gross Area:
550000 sq. feet Residential Units: 0 Total # of Units: 10 Landuse:
Commercial and Office Buildings Zoning: C5-5: Commercial Commercial
Overlay: none Zoning Map #: 12B Floor Area Ratio: 23.52 Max. Allowable
Floor Area Ratio: 15
Market Value History
Tax Year Market Value
2004/05 89,100,000
2003/04 72,600,000
2002/03 82,700,000
2001/02 86,800,000
2000/01 82,800,000
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
Chapter Three
Historical Visual Images of Shoemakers Field
The detailed maps below show a series of images of Harberdinck’s
Shoemakers Field in direct correlation with the Van Tienhoven farm from the
period of 1644 to the present. The time periods of interest are 1644, 1723, 1850
and 2003. The map overlays demonstrate by the use of the visual techniques of
geographic information systems, that the Shoemakers Field site has not changed
its location throughout these 360 years of New York City history. They prove
visually the unbroken chain of Dutch-related ownership in private use since 1644.
The first images show the original layout of New Amsterdam as it
appeared in 1644 with the Van Tienhoven farm in the location bounded by
Broadway, Maiden Lane, Ann Street and Pearl Street, as these streets remain
today as they are shown on the 2003 base map. The later maps show that the
outline of the Shoemakers Field and the Harberdinck owned properties are all
within, and nearly the same as the outline of the Van Tienhoven farm.
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
Figure 1: Map of New Amsterdam in 1644
Source: J.H. Innes, New Amsterdam and Its People, 1902
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
Figure 2: Lower Manhattan 2003 Base Map
Source: Haff Associates and CMAP 2004
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
Figure 3: Overlay of 1644 Map of New Amsterdam on 2003 Base Map
Source: Haff Associates and CMAP 2004
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
Figure 4:
Van Tienhoven Farm
Source: Haff Associates and CMAP 2004
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
Figure 5: Shoemakers Field Properties
Source: Haff Associates and CMAP 2004
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
Figure 6:
Shoemakers Field Area in 1850
Source: Haff Associates and CMAP 2004
Figure 7: Current 2003 New York City Base Map in Shoemakers Field Area
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
Source: Haff Associates and CMAP 2004
Figure 8: Van Tienhoven Farm Overlay onto New York City Base Map
38
Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
Source: Haff Associates and CMAP 2004
39
Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
Figure 9: Shoemakers Field Properties Overlay onto New York City Base
Map
Source: Haff Associates and CMAP 2004
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
Figure 10: 1850 Map Overlay onto New York City Base Map
Source: Haff Associates and CMAP 2004
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
Figure 11: John Harberdinck Properties Overlay onto Van Tienhoven Farm
Source: Haff Associates and CMAP 2004
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
Figure 12: Shoemakers Field Properties with Outline of
Harberdinck Properties in Red within Van Tienhoven Farm
Outline on New York City Base Map
Source: Haff Associates and CMAP 2004
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
Figure 13: Harberdinck Properties Overlay onto New York City Base Map
with Outline of Van Tienhoven Farm.
Source: Haff Associates and CMAP 2004
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
Figure 14: Van Tienhoven Farm Outline Overlayed on 1850 Map and NYC
Base Map
Source: Haff Associates and CMAP 2004
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
Chapter Four
Plan for the New Amsterdam History Center
Mission Statement
The disaster of 9/11 has made the Dutch community pause and consider
what it can do today to memorialize the Dutch contribution to New Netherland,
and to express its feelings of re-commitment to downtown, the area in which the
400 year journey began. The celebration of Henry Hudson’s discovery of the
Hudson River is an event that provides inspiration for the creation of a Dutch
memorial that can fit into the current cultural revitalization plans for Lower
Manhattan (the “Mission”). More specifically, it is planned to create a living
museum and to celebrate Dutch colonial history in the place in New York where
the Dutch community can best share its rich history with the City, a location near
the old New Amsterdam Fort, just up the “Weckquaesgeck Trail” now called
Broadway.
The Collegiate Church Corporation has selected the Corbin Building with
its access to the nearby World Financial Center harbor as the suitable place to
accomplish the Mission, a living museum that will initially celebrate the beginning
of New Netherland’s Dutch history. The Corbin Building, at the corner of
Broadway and John Street in the heart of the proposed Fulton Street Transit
Center within the John Street and Maiden Lane Historic District, recently
designated as a national landmark and historic site, has been offered by the
Collegiate Realty as an ideal location to create the museum to celebrate the unity
between the Dutch, New York and America. The New Amsterdam History
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
Center, a 501.c (3) non-profit entity, coordinated by the Holland Society, the New
Netherland Museum and Collegiate Church Corporation, will be seeking partners
for the project and raising funds to establish an endowment to create the
museum and maintain it in perpetuity.
The energy being created by this new downtown museum, assures that
the New York of the future will know about its Dutch beginnings. The Corbin
Building provides a place for the museum and the New Netherland Museum’s
“Half Moon” ship provides a venue in which to experience and educate about the
Dutch experience in a real way today.
The Vision
The New Amsterdam History Center has completed its Visioning Process and
developed a Concept Document as a result of its December 15, 2004 meeting at
the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council led by the American History Workshop.
In addition it has secured space for its planned operations at the Corbin Building
in a historic building and on hallowed lands going back to the 1640’s in an area
called Shoemakers’ Field. It has developed an innovative financing strategy to
generate development funding through an RFP process soliciting developer
contributions and generation of possible equity contributions from historic tax
credits applied to expected eligible redevelopment costs of the Corbin Building.
Current Programming:
I. Program Components
To achieve its mission, the NAHC’s facilities will spatially support, in both for-pay
and free zones, its stated goals for unique visitor hospitality, interpretive content,
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
program delivery, and staffing as well as earned revenue. These functions, with
approximate square-foot needs, are estimated as follows:
FREE ZONE
Orientation Area 500 sq ft
Offering welcome and front-line visitor services; ticketing options; a
graphic or media overview emphasizing the chronological origins of New
York City and Dutch contributions to that history; basic amenities
The Coffeehouse / Tavern & Shop 1,000 sq ft
An
atmospheric
Coffeehouse
/
Tavern
(possibly
leased
to
a
concessionaire,) serving Dutch-style refreshments. Local residents,
desiring to make downtown a 24-7 community, will have opportunities to
use the Coffeehouse as an evening performance venue at the conclusion
of the tourist day. A small shop adjacent to it will stock books, maps, CDs,
posters, games and other material pertinent to early New York history and
the Dutch framing of the New Netherland endeavor.
PAY ZONE
Introductory Program 3,000 sq ft
Embarkation area into an experientially rich survey of New York’s colonial
past. Employing innovative interactive media rather than conventional or
static museum display systems, this section of NAHC seeks to more
deeply implant key historical themes and ideas. The block of interpretation
attractions will include (1) a more detailed introductory or “core” exhibit
about New Amsterdam; (2) a film or “virtual reality” trip backwards into
17th-century New York, customized for presentation in different languages,
and according to varying user-age groups. (3) engaging, “history
detective” style exercises encouraging first-hand inspection of historical
documents and artifacts, and possibly computer simulations of various
events, places, and lingering mysteries about New York’s 17th-century
past.
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
Temporary Exhibits 2,500 sq ft
This continuation of the “Walk Back in Time” will showcase changing
topical exhibitions and singular loans of original historical evidence
borrowed from, or developed with NAHC’s partnering institutions, private
collectors, and other noted repositories. A dedicated, climate control
space,
flexible
and
secure,
will
accommodate
these
offerings.
Components may include: 1) “Featured Soloists: Treasures of the Past,” a
regularly rotating display of loan archival documents and artifacts, which
carry the power to persuade visitors that they are seeing something
enormously valuable, irreplaceable, intelligent, and “real.”
2) Special
Topical Exhibits, curated with or by, borrowed, or adapted from outside
institutions participating in NAHC’s advisory consortium. 2-3 such
exhibitions mounted annually would be a manageable expectation.
Programmatic Attractions (*Grant-Supported)
Teaching and Learning Laboratory of. 2,000 sq. ft
(750 sq ft for teacher center; 1,250 sq ft for student workshops & gallery)
A capstone of NAHC will be its Teaching and Learning Laboratory,
equipped to accommodate both school and adult groups of 40 by
appointment. It will feature a reference library, the latest aids for
instructional support - including computer kiosks which are internet
accessible, self-curated gallery boards, comfortable break-out/activities
alcoves, and opportunities for docent-led field investigations in lower
Manhattan. NAHC will strive to build sustainable bridges to educators,
school systems, and allied historical agencies to insure that NAHC’s
workshops, exhibits and programs serve core curricular needs and assist
teachers’ wishing to craft customized lesson plans and field studies that
are exciting, participatory, rigorously researched, and tied to actual 17th
century documents, artifacts, maps and evidence found in lower
Manhattan’s cityscape.
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
The Teaching and Learning Laboratory will also accommodate special
programs developed for youth groups like the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts,
for special groups visiting from the Netherlands, and for renewable
Elderhostel and other lifelong learning courses.
Mini-Archeology Laboratory
400 sq ft
Because the South Street Seaport Museum recently closed its on-site
archaeology lab due to curtailed funding, a portion of those 17th-century
era collections might be transferred on loan to NAHC, for teaching and
didactic purposes and to secure the participation of New York City’s
community of professional urban archeologists, often in search of meeting
and conference venues.
Internet Portal: NAHC on the Web
NAHC will maintain an animated, “sticky” and content-rich electronic
presence on the world wide web, with connecting links to other relevant
history-information sites internationally.
Annual Public Program Cycles & History Fair Event
NAHC will fortify its niche in New York’s crowded cultural community
through a lively, seasonally attuned calendar of distinctive programs
consisting of talks by noted historians, authors and dignitaries, genealogy
workshops, family learning projects, book discussions, film screenings,
and field trips, including sails on “the Half Moon.” An opportunity to
transcend
routine attendance at such programs (estimated at 25-50
participants each) will arise through a signature Annual Dutch History Fair
–
a
well-promoted
weekend
featuring scholarly
papers,
popular
presentations, performances, and special thematic tours -- which NAHC
will co-sponsor (potentially) with CUNY’s Gotham Center, the Holland
Society, and the New Netherland Museum / Half Moon.
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
6.
Support Spaces (Offices; Supplies Storage; Restrooms) 1,250 sq ft
Estimated Total NAHC Space Requirements: 10,650 sq ft
The New Netherland Museum’s current programming will add tremendous
value to the planned programming for the NAHC.
The New Netherland
Museum’s programs are implemented primarily aboard the Half Moon ship
and its on-going curriculum development efforts.
Why Locate in Lower Manhattan
Proximity to the genuine historical fabric is important to the success of a cultural
heritage-based entity. Thus, no other location than Lower Manhattan could serve
as the locus of the New Amsterdam History Center. The site is located within the
original settlement of New Amsterdam, in a building owned by an entity (the
Collegiate Church) that traces its ownership to an inheritance from original
settlers of New Amsterdam.
Beyond this, Lower Manhattan presents a unique opportunity for public
interpretation of the history of New Amsterdam. Lower New York is seen by the
world as the locus of market oriented economy, success based upon merit, the
opportunity for immigrants to come penniless and succeed, and tolerance for
ethnic and cultural diversity and religious persuasion.
These are the very
characteristics that typified New Amsterdam, and provide a consistency in telling
the story of New Amsterdam in the context of the modern world.
Further, the attacks on the World Trade Center and development of memorials to
the victims of these attacks heighten the importance today of understanding the
nature of tolerance, diversity, and an understanding of the historical importance
of these characters in a successful society.
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
While the New Amsterdam History Center does not envision attendance that
would rival or expand the attendance at the major memorials in Lower
Manhattan, it can provide a unique conceptual contribution and interpretive
experience to visitors to the area. Themes interpreted at the New Amsterdam
History Center can reinforce and magnify through historical presentations the
experience gained at other sites in Manhattan.
Public Value, Institutional Character, and Key Audiences
The New Amsterdam History Center focuses on a single powerful idea: The
history of NYC, which has been enormously important in shaping the lives
of everyone alive today, begins HERE. Making that point forcefully will provide
a unique service to New Yorkers and their guests. No other interpretive site
offers a quick, conveniently accessible, and engaging public orientation to the
history and historic character of the city. Unlike more general visitors’ centers,
this will not be primarily a place for advertising attractions, restaurants, shopping,
and accommodations. This one says that here, in 1626 as in 2001 and in any
future we can imagine, is where the action is.
The concept for the New Amsterdam History Center is to focus on a 55 year
period between 1609 and 1664 – the Dutch period in New Netherland – because
it would be unique in the regional and national marketplace, along with New
York’s Colonial period in general.
Although many of the Vision’s project components will be replicas, there will
be a strong commitment to historical accuracy. Archeology has provided a
reasonably vivid picture of New Netherland in the New York area, so that a
satisfactory level of historical accuracy can be achieved in replication. Recent
archeological findings in Lower Manhattan and information documented by the
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
planned Fulton Transit Center, the Collegiate Church Corporation archives and
the New Netherland Institute in Albany provide a rich resource. The recent
popular best selling non-fiction book “Island at the Center of the World” by
Russell Shorto drew its inspiration from the 25 years of translation of Dutch
history by the New Netherland Institute, that was initially and continuously
supported by the Holland Society’s efforts along with its own. Social history
resources are even more rewarding, giving us the potential to recreate daily life
with a high degree of fidelity to actual social conditions of the time, particularly as
they relate to cultural, commerce and water-bound activities.
The synergy created by the close neighborhood access to such other
museums as the George Washington Memorial at the Federal Hall on Wall
Street, the Museum of the American Indian at the foot of Bowling Green, the
South Street Seaport Museum, the archives of the Collegiate Church and the
planned cultural attractions at the World Trade Center (WTC) site provides a
context for collaboration and generation of tourist, business community and local
resident interest. The museum Vision builds upon New York’s goal of a 24-7
Lower Manhattan community and the development of a cultural focus near the
World Trade Center site.
The Project
Due to the availability of a donated 10,000 square foot space at the historic
Corbin Building, without major investment requirements in the build-out of the
interior space, and the availability of the nearby World Financial Center harbor for
docking of the Half Moon, actual implementation of the Vision should be
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
accomplished without difficulty. Negotiation with the MTA to insure that the
Corbin Building remains in hands of the Collegiate Realty, and the time needed
to stabilize the building for the construction of the Fulton Transit Center provide
sufficient time and opportunity to generate the necessary seed money to launch
the museum project (the “Project”). Components of the Project are:
1. Phase One - to be operational between 2005 and 2006, and will include
securing the location of the Half Moon, tall/visiting ship accommodation
and the renovation of museum space.
2. Phase Two - to be implemented in 2007 and 2008, and will involve the
development of various concepts for the Interpretive Museum and the
opening of a year-round Interpretive Museum to provide orientation and
thematic exhibitions as well as temporary exhibitions and visitor amenities.
3. Phase Three - to open in 2009, the 400th anniversary of the arrival of
Henry Hudson, the first of an annual Henry Hudson Festival 2009 fund
raising event.
The following sections provide a summary of the major points covered in the
development of the museum concept.
Site Issues
Site Characteristics and Design: The site is an optimal location for a
museum housed in a historic building within an historic district at the Fulton
Transit Hub maximizing historic character, visibility and accessibility. A
forerunner of modern skyscrapers, the Corbin Building, a Romanesque style
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
structure with elaborate terra cotta details designed by Francis H. Kimball, has
stood at the northeast corner of John Street and Broadway since 1889. Site
control by Collegiate Church Corporation, a museum partner, ensures access
and continuity during the development phase.
Infrastructure: With the availability of the World Financial Center (WFC)
harbor within a few blocks of the museum, by passing through the Fulton Transit
Center and its passage way to WFC, the link between the ship and the museum
will be an indoor, protected route that is usable during all seasons and weather
conditions; creating no additional infrastructure requirements.
Environmental Features: The entire Project presents no environmental
impacts, and is expected to fit in with the overall goals of an historic district.
Architecture: The area surrounding the Corbin building includes a
number of buildings of various vintages, styles and conditions representing the
area’s more than 350 years of urban occupation. The nearby area is of such
historical significance that it has recently been designated as the John Street/
Maiden Lane Historic District and New York State has declared the district as
eligible for inclusion in the State and National Registers of Historic Places. The
determination helps protect the area against appropriate or damaging
development. It is an area of early skyscraper and office building development
constructed during the late 19th and early-20th centuries. These buildings were
built on speculation to house the many collateral businesses attracted by the
concentration of wealth and business in the nearby Financial District.
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
The Corbin Building is located on the former site of the Bouwerie of
Cornelius Van Tienhoven, secretary to Peter Stuyvesant. John Street, is named
after John Harberdinck, a New Netherland pioneer who arrived from Germany in
1663, just prior to the British take over of New Amsterdam. Harberdinck left 39
lots in his will from the area then called “Shoemaker Field” to the Dutch
Reformed Church in 1722. During the Revolutionary War period, Thomas
Jefferson lived in this area. The Corbin Building is built on a lot that remains as
one of those 39 lots and has been owned by the Collegiate Church Corporation
for a period of 282 years.
Transportation: New York City Transit (NYCT) is planning to construct
the Fulton Street Transit Center (FSTC) in the vicinity of Fulton Street and
Broadway, with connections at Fulton, Dey, Church & Williams Streets and
Broadway. The project is designed to improve access and connections to 12
existing subway lines. These lines provide service for hundreds of thousands of
daily commuters, Lower Manhattan residents and visitors to the downtown area.
The project will also link with NYCT facilities, the Port Authority Trans-Hudson
(PATH) and the WTC site.
Assessment of Heritage Resources
Artifact Resources: There are opportunities for the long-term loan of
artifacts, and for the modeling of working replicas of authentic materials. New
Amsterdam materials are located at the Museum of the City of New York. Fort
Orange materials are located in the collection of the New York State Office of
Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, and the South Street Seaport
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
Museum. The collections of the New York State Museum, the artifacts collected
by the excavations of archaeological sites in Lower Manhattan, the New York
Historical Society, the Museum of the American Indian and various private
collections and houses celebrating early Dutch history maintained by the New
York City Department Parks and Recreation provide significant resources.
Buildings: The museum is expected to provide a base of educational
materials that could serve as useful models for the replication of houses and
barns, including documentation on the unique features of Dutch farms.
Half Moon : Half Moon is the name of Captain Henry Hudson’s ship that
sailed up the Hudson River in 1609. A replica ship already operates very
successfully, and the related docking sites would become its permanent home.
Because the ship’s seagoing life will extend for only another 10-15 years, a
working replica shipyard is to be included on a nearby site to provide an on-going
demonstration of 17th century ship-building techniques in New Netherland, and
over several years would result in an actual seaworthy vessel that could replace
the Half Moon as the project’s sailing vessel. The shipyard might also produce a
boat that could take visitors across the Hudson River to other historic sites such
as Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.
Walking Tours: Walking tours of Lower Manhattan will begin at the
museum and take advantage of the Dutch influence that remains in Lower
Manhattan, particularly the street pattern of colonial New York laid out by the
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
early settlers of New Amsterdam. A map collection will point out the important
features and provide a basis for discussion and experience.
Educational Forums: The museum will explore a range of present-day
topics against the background of Dutch Colonial history along the lines of the
Renssalyrwyk conferences held by the New Netherland Institute, the Gotham
Institute, and the Holland Society. The Halve Maen magazine, published by the
Holland Society will assist in creating a museum magazine that will feature
exhibits and events at the museum and the schedule for educational aspects of
the Living Museum and its Half Moon ship and working shipyard.
Study Visits: Teacher-led student study visits to the Dutch Colonial
Living History Museum will take hundreds of thousands of students back in time
more than 350 years.
Contextual and Market Analysis
Contextual Analysis: In recent years, a “museum boom” has led to a
great increase in the number of museums and related attractions throughout the
United States. However, research has shown that historic museums experience
the lowest average and median attendance levels of all museum types simply
because there are so many of them and potential visitors have difficulty
differentiating among them. Hence the focus must be on Dutch colonial history.
Museums operate on the basis of income from earned, contributed, government
and endowment sources. The data confirm the need for realistic projections with
respect to the percentage of operating income that might be generated from
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
earned sources by the New Amsterdam History Center. A 50% ratio of earned
income should be considered an extremely successful operation.
Comparable Analysis: Analysis confirms that a museum linked with the
appeal of ships as a component of living history development such as the
Plimouth Plantation site near Boston attract greater number of tourist visitors.
Potential Resident Markets: The Lower Manhattan residential market
was the fastest growing market in the City prior to 9/11. It appears that the
growth rates are again reaching prior levels.
Potential School Markets: Public and private schools are within walking
distance of the museum and harbor site. The History Center should fit in well
with New York State curriculum needs with regard to Colonial New York history.
The Half Moon is expected to be a strong interest component, but the cost of
admission should be low so that it does not deter school visits.
Potential Tourist Markets: Lower Manhattan is a tourist destination,
particularly near the World Trade Tower site. The tourist market is huge with
over five million tourists visiting Lower Manhattan on an annual basis, many of
them seeking history related attractions.
The Visitor Experience
The Visitor Experience consists of exhibitions, amenities and programs.
Programs: Curriculum-related programs will serve various schools, with
more general programs for all other visitors. Special events and festivals will
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replicate the Dutch 17th century calendar, with major celebrations in the holiday
season each year.
Exhibitions: the History Center, to be opened in Phase Three, will
include permanent and temporary exhibitions. The permanent exhibitions will
include an orientation gallery and a thematic gallery illustrating many aspects of
Dutch colonial history and its contemporary relevance. An electronic field trip will
be developed and broadcast around the world from the museum web site.
Governance and Staffing
Governance: The Board of Directors of the New Amsterdam History
Center, a private, not-for-profit organization created to oversee the fiduciary
responsibilities, membership, policies and operations of the History Center, will
be drawn from the not-for-profit and corporate contributors. Initial directors have
been selected from the Collegiate Church Corporation, the Holland Society of
New York and the New Netherland Museum.
Staffing Plan: Four divisions will be created which organize the primary
functions of the Museum and Half Moon locations;

public programs,

interpretive history,

development and marketing, and

administration and operations.
Operations and Marketing
Name: New Amsterdam History Center
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Seasonality Operating Schedule: Operating on a year round basis with
seasonal events and festivals organized throughout the year.
Admission charges: Nominal charge.
Membership: A traditional membership program, with a modest rate
structure.
Retail Operations: Small retail operation and a larger-sized gift shop and
book store.
Food Service: A separate concession focused on Dutch food and
beverages.
Other Earned Income: Birthday parties, contributions to donations boxes
and for photo opportunities will help to provide other sources of earned income.
Capital Costs
Estimated capital costs for the entire project is in the range of $1,000,000
to a $2,000,000 primarily for the interior renovations within the Corbin Building
and the replication of authentic materials for the Interpretive Museum.
Attendance, Operating Revenue and Expense Projections
A similar museum concept funded by the State of New York concluded
that stabilized attendance levels after completion of three phases of Living
History Development would be in the range of 145,000 visitors per year in a
normal year of operation and would be about 200,000 in 2009, the 400th
anniversary of Henry Hudson’s voyage up the Hudson River. This Development
would operate within the normal range of earned income levels for museum-
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related attractions and, as is the norm, would require annual support from
contributed, endowment and grant sources. It is expected that the New
Amsterdam History Center will exceed these estimates because of its superior
location and combined attraction with other cultural activities in the nearby WTC
area.
Implementation Plan
The opening of the interpretive Center at the beginning of Phase Three, is
timed for the four hundredth anniversary of the arrival of Henry Hudson in 2009.
Phases One and Two will accomplish the site work, installation of the history
attractions, and operations. The implementation process begins immediately.
Philanthropic Support
Annual Cash contribution to the New Amsterdam Fund is projected to be
approximately $440,000 per year including an annual income-in-kind contribution
of $240,000 from Collegiate Church Corporation representing free rent within the
Corbin Building and corporate and individual contributions of $200,000. The
following table represents a five year projection of estimated cash flows based on
specified revenue and expenditure assumptions over the period 2004-2008.
Initial Project capital expenditures are for renovation of interior museum space
within the Corbin Building and the development of the History Center programs
and exhibits at the Corbin Building. A portion of these capital expenditures may
be eligible for public financing, including Liberty Bonds through various New York
City agencies. The creation of new jobs may also enable the New Amsterdam
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History Center to benefit from other financing programs in Lower Manhattan.
Operating revenues begin in 2006 with the operating Half Moon ship at its World
Financial Center harbor dock. During 2008 operating revenues increase with
opening of the History Center. The growing fund balance is established to kickoff the full opening of the museum and ship operations and the implementation of
plans to hold the first Henry Hudson Festival 2009.
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Table 1: New Amsterdam History Center Forecasted Revenues,
Expenditures and Fund Balances (2004-2008)
Cash Flow
(in $000
Forecast
of Dollars)
Year
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
$0
$0
$1004
$1005
$8506
$2857
$2,4408
$4409
$44010
$44011
$0
$740
$840
$1040
$540
$285
$740
$840
$1,140
$1,390
Total
Expenditures
$0
$74012
$94013
$1,14014
$1,39015
Operating
Surplus
(Deficit)
$0
$0
$0
$0
$0
Fund Bal.
$285
$1,985
$1,485
$785
$685
Operating
Revenues
Henry
Hudson
Fund
Annual
Contributions
Annual
Endowment
Draw
Total
Revenues
4
Operating revenues from Half Moon site ($100,000)
Ibid
6
Operating revenues from Half Moon site ($100,000) and Museum based on $5 fee for 150,000 visitors
($750,000)
5
7
Donations of museum space from Collegiate Realty and value of volunteer in-kind-contribution from
Holland Society and the New Netherland Museum
8
Donations and rent free museum space and $2,000,000 loan
9
Ibid
10
Ibid
11
Ibid
12
Expenditures for renovation of museum space ($500,000) the value of donated space ($240,000)
13
Expenditures for Living Museum development ($500,000), value of donated space $240,000, dock fees
($100,000) and captain and crew salary ($100,000)
14
Expenditures for Living Museum development ($500,000), value of donated space ($240,000) dock fees
($100,000) and captain and crew salary ($100,000) and debt service ($200,000)
15
Expenditure for operations ($500,000), value of donated space ($240,000) dock fees ($100,000) captain
and crew salary ($100,000) and debt service ($200,000) and museum staff ($250,000)
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Chapter Five
Deeds Related to Van Tienhoven Documents and Shoemaker Field Partition
Agreement
Documents
Two sets of documents describing the ownership of the Shoemakers Field
beginning first with:
(1) Deeds Van Tienhoven Documents related to Shoemakers Field; and
(2) Partition Agreement between Charles Lodwick, John Harberdinck, Caster
Lieuersen, Abraham Santvoort and Heyitie Cloppers for Shoemaker Field
Properties (164 Lots on 16 Acres)
ABSTRACTS OF DOCUMENTS RELATED TO Van Tienhoven:
Abstracts and transcripts of documents relating to the original grant to Van
Tienhoven, 1644, and conveyance of property to the shoemakers in 1675
1. Abstract: Records of confirmation of four grants by Governor William Kieft.
Source: Patents (Albany County records), Liber 2 (1667-1671), pp. 112-115
(capitalization normalized in transcript).
a) Record of confirmation to creditors and heirs of Cornelys van
Tienhoven of a parcel of land in Manhattan originally granted to van Tienhoven
by Governor Keift, dated June 14, 1644. Confirmation dated October 3, 1667.
b) Record of confirmation to creditors and heirs of Cornelys Van
Tienhoven deceased for a lot of ground originally granted by Governor Kieft to
Thomas Hall, dated May 15, 1647, and later acquired by van Tienhoven.
Confirmation dated October 3, 1667.
c) Record of confirmation to creditors and heirs of Cornelys Van
Tienhoven deceased for a lot of ground originally granted by Governor Kieft to
Oloffe Stevens van Cortlandt, March 12, 1647, and later acquired by van
Tienhoven. Confirmation dated October 4, 1667.
d) Record of confirmation to Claes Jans of a conveyance dated November
10, 1662 by Rachell van Tienhoven to Claes Jans Ramaacker for land outside
the city.
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2. Abstract: Conveyance by John Smedes of the City of New York, to Coenraet
ten Eyck, Carsten Leersen, Jacob Abrams, and John Harberding of a farm of
about 17 acres (later known as the Shoemakers' Pasture, or Field). Dated March
20, 1675. Source: Albany County deeds, Liber 1 (1674-1677), p. 126
(capitalization normalized in transcript).
3. Descriptive text transcribed from photo-reproduction of survey by James
Evetts, City Surveyor, dated September 14, 1696 and recorded in New York
deeds on May 3, 1778 in Liber 28, pp. 128-144 and 145A (map or chart).
TRANSCRIPTS OF DOCUMENTS:
1. Record of confirmation of the original grants by Governor William Kieft. Dated
October 3, 1667. Source: Patents (Albany County records), Liber 2 (1667-1671),
pp. 112-115 (capitalization normalized; the letter "y" is here in certain places a
short form that stands for "th," thus the word "ye" should be read as "the," and
"yt" should be read as "that").
I do hereby certify the aforegoing to
Be a true copy of the orginal record
Compared therewith by me
Lewis A: Scott. Secretary.
A confirmacion graunted unto ye creditors & heires
of Corenlijs van Tienhoven decd. for a parcell of land
on this Island Manhatans.
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Richard Nicolls Esqr. &c whereas there as a patent or ground briefe heretofore
graunted by ye Dutch Governor Wm. Keift unto Cornelijs van Tienhoven for a
certaine parcell of land lying & being upon this Island Manhatans towards ye East
River betweene ye said Ryver & ye common highway on ye north side of ye land
heretofore belonging to Jan Damen being seperated by ye Waggon way & ye lott
of ffrederick Lubberts then going to yt of Lawrence Cornelus it stretcheth alongst
ye strand of th'aforenamed East River east & by north somewhat more easterly &
containes six & forty rod one foot then along by ye land of Philip de Truy north
somewhat westerly thirty rod so further to ye aforemencioned highway northwest
& northwest & by north one hundred & two rod fower foot alongst ye same way
southwest somewhat more westerly eight & thirty rod two foot & five inches
ffurther along ye waggon path south south south west twenty rod south & by west
eighty rod south & by east five rod south south east thirty rod south east nyne &
twenty rod four foot & further to ye first descent ten rod & five foot in all
amounting to about twenty foure acres of twelve margen two hundred thirty fower
rod & eight foot out of wch. said patent or groundbreife so graunted as aforesaid
bearing date ye 14th: day of June 1644 there hath beene part of ye land
transported to other persons as by ye endorsmt. on ye backside thereof doth
appeare Now ye said Cornelius Van Tienhoven being deceased & ye right &
interest in ye remaindr. of ye lands aforemencioned being devolved upon ye
creditrs. & heires of ye said Cornelijs van Tienhoven ffor a confirmacion unto ye
said creditors & heires of so much of ye prmisses as remaines untransported as
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also for a confirmacion of ye transports afore specefied &c the patent is dated ye
3d of Octobr: 1667.
I do hereby certify the aforegoing to
Be a true copy of the original record.
Compared therewith by me
Lewis A: Scott, Secretary
A Confirmacion graunted to ye creditors & heires of
Cornelys Van Tienhoven decd. for a lott of ground within
this citty.
Richard Nicolls Esqr &c Whereas there was a patent or groundbreife heretofore
graunted by ye Dutch Governor Willm Kieft unto Thomas Hall for a certaine lott of
ground lying & being within this citty towards ye water syde having on ye west
syde Augustine Hermans & on ye east ye house & lott heretofore belonging to
Arnoldus van Hardenburgh conteyning in breadth before on ye southside one rod
& a halfe two foot & four inches & behinde ye like in length six rod four inches
which said patent or groundbreife so graunted as aforesaid bearing date ye 15th
day of May 1647 was by ye said Thomas Hall upon ye 26th day of Aprill 1648
transported & made over unto Jacob Haoij who upon ye 13th day of May 1653
conveyed ye same to Cornelijs van Tienhoven now ye sd. Cornelijs van
Tienhoven being deceased whereby ye title & interest in ye prmises is devolved
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upon his creditors & heires ffor a confirmacon unto them ye creditors & heires of
ye said Cornelijs van Tienhoven &c the patent is dated ye 3d of October 1667.
I do hereby certify the aforegoing to
be a true copy of the original record
compared therewith by me
Lewis A. Scott, Secretary.
A confirmacion graunted to ye creditors & heires of
Cornelijs van Tienhoven decd. for a lott of ground
within this citty.
Richard Nicolls Esqr &c Whereas there was a patent or groundbreife heretofore
graunted by ye Dutch Governor Wm. Kieft unto Oloffe Stevens van Cortlandt for
a certain lott of ground lying & being wthin this citty towards ye water syde of ye
East Ryver having to ye west ye house heretofore belonging to ye West India
Company commonly called the Old Church to the east the housing & lott wch.
Thomas Hall sould unto Jacob Haeij & he to Cornelys van Tienhoven conteyning
in breadth before on ye south side one rod nyne foot & halfe an inch in length
seaven rod & ye sixteenth part of a rod wch said patent or groundbreife so
graunted as aforesaid bearing date ye 12th day of March 1647 was upon ye 1st
of May 1649 transported & made over by Oloff Stevens van Cortlandt unto
Arnoldus van Hardenergh & by him on ye 16th of July following to Jacob
Hendricks van Vanger who upon ye 25th day of May 1655 conveyed & sould ye
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
same to Cornelijs van Tienhoven now ye said Cornelijs being deceased whereby
ye interest & title in ye prmisses is devolved upon his creditors & heires ffor a
confirmacion unto them ye creditors & heires of ye said Cornelijs van Tienhoven
&c The patent is dated ye 4th of October 1667.
I do hereby certify the aforegoing to be
a true copy of the original record
Compared therewith by me
Lewis A: Scott, Secretary.
A Patent graunted upon a transport bearing date ye 10th day of November 1662
made by Rachell van Tienhoven unto Claes Jans Ramaacker for a certaine lott of
ground lying and being without ye land port of this citty having to ye south ye lott
belonging to ye widdow of Pieter Rudolphus deceased to ye west ye highway to
ye north ye house & lott of ye Blew Bores containing in breadth alongst
th'aforsaid highway six rod eight foot on ye east syde six rod nyne foot & ye
fourth part of a foot on ye south side twelve rod & ye 16th part of a rod & on ye
north side twelve rod & ye eighteenth part of a rod Now for a confirmation unto
him ye sd. Claes Jans &c the patent is dated October ye 3d, 1667.
I do hereby certify the aforegoing to be
a true copy of the original record
compared therewith by me
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
Lewis A: Scott, Secretary.
2. Conveyance by John Smedes of the City of New York, to Coenraet ten Eyck,
Carsten Leersen, Jacob Abrams, and John Harberding of a farm of about 17
acres (later known as the Shoemakers' Field). Dated March 20, 1675. Source:
Albany County deeds, Liber 1 (1674-1677), p. 126 (capitalization normalized).
A Deed of sale made to Coenraet ten Eyck, Carsten Leersen &c,
for some land near the Smiths Valley
To all Xpian [i.e." Christian"; the first two letters are Greek, chi, and rho, the first
letters of the name "Christ" in Greek] People, to whom this p'sent [i.e. present]
writing shall come John Smedes of the City of New Yorke, sendeth greeting,
whereas the said John Smedes, by vertue of a bill of sale under the hands and
seals of Peter Stoutenbergh, Luycas van Tienhovan, and John Vinge, bearing
date the first day of July, 1671, stands possest of a certain farme or bowery,
heretofore belonging to Cornelys van Tynhoven deceased, together with the
dwelling house, barne, orchard, cornfield, pasture ground and appurtenances,
lying and being neare the Smiths Valley, of this city, abutting wth [i.e. with] the
north side, on the land of William Beekman, with the east, upon the houses and
lotts in the Smiths Valley, wth the south on the pasture of Oloffe Stevens, and the
land called the Magde Patie, and with the west upon the highway: now know yee,
that hee the said John Smedes, out of the purchase afore mentioned, for a
valuable consideracion, hath given, graunted, transported, assigned and sett
over, and by these presents, doth hereby, give, graunt, transport, assigne and
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
sett over, unto Coenraet ten Eyck, Caarsen Leersen, Jacob Abrams, and John
Harberding, their heirs and assignes, a certaine parcell of the land herein
mencioned, lying and being towards the land called the Magde Patie, containing
in length alongst the said lane, and Oloffe Stevens van Cortlands field, eighty six
rod, and two
foot; [blank space thus in original] on the northwest side,
alongst the highway, eight and forty rod, seven foote; on the north east, eighty six
rod, and on the south east side, sixty eight rod, eleven foote, containing in all,
about seventeen acres, or eight margen, and two hundred, ffifty two rod, as by
the returne of the surveys under the hand of the surveyor genall doth and may
appeare: to have and to hold the said parcel of land and premisses, with its
appurtenences, unto the said Coenraet ten Eyck, Caarsten Leersen, Jacob
Abrams, and Jan Harberding, their heirs and assignes, to be equally divided into
four proporcions or shares, amongst them unto the proper use and behoofe of
them the said Coenraet ten Eyck, Caarsten Leersen, Jacob Abrams, and Jan
Harberding, their heirs and assignes forever. In testimony whereof, hee the said
John Smeedes, hath hereunto put his hand and seale, in New Yorke, this 20th
day of March, in the 27th yeare of his Maties [i.e. Majesties] reigne, Annoque
Domini, 1675.
Jan Smedes (seal)
Sealed and delivered
in the p'sence of
Matthias Nicolls Secr:
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3. Text from map or chart of a survey of the Shoemakers' land, by James Evetts,
City Surveyor. Text portions as follows, where readable (reproduction in Stokes,
Iconography, vol. 1, 1915, plate 24):
A Map or Chart of the pasture part of land commonly called the Shoemakers
Land lying in the North Ward in the City of New York by date the 14th day of
September 1696 and recorded by the Office of Town Clerk of the City of New
York the 3d day of May 1778 to Book no 28, pages 128 to 144, survey'd and laid
out by James Evetts City Surveyor.
This chart is signed by these persons:
Jan Harberding
Caster Leuier
Abra: Stanford
Chas: Lodwick
Heyltie Clopper
in the presence of
Cmll. Young
Ham. Traganna
C Valle
Chas Schmit [last name not entirely distinct]
By deed of partition and division of the proprietors dated the 1st of September
1696 the following lots did belong to vizt.
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
To Charles Lodwick lots no. 17, 18, 26, 27, 30, 31, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 103,
104, 105, 106, 142, 143, 151, 152, 113 114, 40, 41, 42, 43, 46, 47
To John Harpending, No. 1, 2, 3, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 44, 45, 62, 63,
64, 65, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 82, 83, 84, 95, 96, 54, 140, 141, 147, 148, 136,
160, 162, 163, 164, 165 [161 seems to have been inadvertently omitted]
To Charles Lieuerson, No. 6, 7, 8, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 55, 56, 69, 70, 101,
102, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 137, 138, 139, 144, 149, 150, 153, 154, 155, 156
To Abraham Stanford, No. 4, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 32, 33, 34, 35, 60, 61, 66, 67,
77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 93, 94, 97, 98, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 157, 158
To Heyltie Clopper, No. 9, 10, 36, 37, 38, 39, 57, 58, 59, 68, 99, 100, 115, 116,
117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 145, 146,
159
[NB these lists seem in general to correspond with the portions assigned in the
deed of partition, 1696; note that there is no mention of lot 85]
The following lots belonging to the Ministers Elders & Deacons of the Reformed
Protestant Dutch Church Vizt, No. 1, 2, 3, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 44, 45,
54, 62, 63, 64, 65, 82, 83, 84, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 96, 140, 141, 147, 148: The
vacant piece of ground is bought from Messrs. Lodwick, Harpending, Leurse,
Stanford, & Clopper for 50 £ lots fronting the Broadway leased to John Cur back
lot 29 feet broad and 160 feet long; 2 lots also fronting the Broad Way and John
Street leased to Evert Pells each lot 25 feet broad and 100 feet long. The lot No.
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
96 mentioned in the will of Harpending given to the Minister, Elders and Deacons
of the . . . [a line and a half not legible in available reproduction]
(2) A transcript of a New York County deed as follows:
(1) Conveyance between Charles Lodwick, John Harberdinck, Caster
Lieuersen, Abraham Santvoort, and Heyltie Cloppers
New York Co. deeds, Liber 28, pp. 128-145, and map p. 145A
dated September 14, 1696, recorded May 2, 1715
________________________________________________________________
Abstract: Agreement of partition between the above named parties dated
September 14, 1696, in which five joint owners of the Shoemakers Field (on the
northeast side of Maiden Lane, and leading to Queen Street, containing about 16
acres) agree to a division of the property into 164 individual lots, with the lots
being apportioned equally among the five owners,
(1) Conveyance between Caster Lieurson, John Harberdinck, Caster Lieuersen,
Abraham Santvoort, and Heyltie Cloppers, New York Co. deeds, Liber 28, pp.
128-145 (18 pages), and map p. 145A, dated September 14, 1696, recorded May
2, 1715 (capitalization normalized).
[p. 128]
Recorded for Charles Lodwick, John Harberdinck Carster Lyerse Abraham
Santvoort and Heilke Cloppers the second day of May Anno Domini 1715
This indenture quinque partite made the fourteenth day of September in the year
of our Lord God one thousand six hundred ninety and six and in the eighth year
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
of the reign of our now sovereign lord William the third by the Grace of God of
England Scotland France and Ireland King Defender of the Faith &c: between
Lieut. Coll. Charles Lodwick of the City of New York in America merchant of the
first part, John Harberdinck of the said city cordwainer of the second part, Caster
Lieurson of the same place cordwainer of the third part Abraham Santvoort of the
same place cordwainer of the fourth part and Heyltie Cloppers of the same place
widdow of the fifth part Whereas the said Charles Lodwick John Harberdinck
Caster Lieurson and Abraham Santvoort and Heyltie Cloppers by good and
sufficient conveyances in the law are and standeth joyntly seized to them and
their heirs and assigns for ever of all that tract or parcell of lands situate lying and
being upon Manhattons Island within the said City of New York called and known
by the name of the Shoemakers Field or Land upon the north east side of Maiden
Lane or path which leads into a certain street now called Queen Street and lately
heretofore the smyths office the which said tract or parcel of land contains by
estimation about sixteen acres and # # # the said parties to these presents
being fully minded and agreed that the said tract or parcel of land shall be
equally divided and that a just partition thereof by consent of all the said parties
may be made between them so as each of them may have an equal share
thereof in certainty respect being had to quantity and quality as his and their own
part and portion to do and dispose thereof as to them or any of them shall seem
meet and to that end the said parties to these presents with an unanimous
assent and consent by the advice and assistance of James Everts one of the
said cityes
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
[p. 129]
surveyors finding the said land to lye suitable for building of houses thereupon for
an inlargement of the said city have projected and laid out the said land into 164
lotts with convenient streets and lanes to accommodate the same as may fully
and amply appear by the mapp or chart thereof hereunto annexed signed by the
said parties & the said surveyor and the said parties to these presents have also
with an unanimous assent and consent by the advice and assistance aforesaid
made a full and perfect division separation and partition of the said tract and
parcel of land (which is laid out in lotts as aforesaid) in manner and form
following (that is to say) That he the said Charles Lodwick shall have hold and
enjoy to him and his heirs and assigns for ever in severalty as his equal fifth part
and portion belonging to him of the said premises the severall lotts and pieces of
ground following (to witt) one piece of ground bounded on the north west side by
a certain street called the William Street and containes in length one hundred &
seventeen foot and on the south west side by another street called the Fair
Street containing in breadth fifty foot and on the south east side bounded by
another peice of ground belonging to John Harberdinck and containes one
hundred and seventeen foot and containes in the rear or north east side fifty foot
along the ground belonging to William Beekman, and is computed two lotts and
which is numbred in the said mapp or chart 17, 18 as also one other peice of
ground lying on and fronting to the north west side of the Nassau Street and
bounded by the said Nassau Street containing in a direct line from the Fair Street
to the John Street two hundred and eighty two foot and on the north east side
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
bounded by the said Fair Street containing in length one hunded sixty three foot
and a half and in the south west side bounded by the John's Street containing
one hundred fifty three foot and bounded on the north west side or the rear by
one other peice of ground belonging to Abraham Santvoort and one other peice
belongon to Caster Leiurson containing in a direct line one hundred thirty three
foot three quaters of a foot and is computed twelve lotts marked in the said mapp
or chart No. 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76 # as also one other
peice of ground bounded on the north east side by the south west side of the
John's Street and containes one hundred and one foot and on the south east by
the north west side of the Nassau Street containing along said Nassau Street
seventy nine foot and bounded on the north west side by an other peice of
ground belonging to Caster Leiureson and containes in length seventy nine foot
and on the . . . [corner of page of record torn away here]
[p. 130]
south west side by another peice of ground belonging to the said Lodwick and
one other peice belonging to John Harberdinck and containes one hundred foot
and a half and is computed four lotts marked in said mapp or chart No. 103, 104,
105, 106, as also one other peice of ground bounded on the west south west
side by a street called the Maiden Path and containes from the corner of the
aforesaid Nassau Street running along the said Maiden Path north west northerly
fifty foot and bounded on the south east side by the aforesaid Nassau Street and
containes along said street one hundred foot & on the north east side bounded
by another peice of ground also belonging to the said Charles Lodwicke and
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containes fifty foot and in the north west side bounded by another peice of
ground belonging to John Harberdinck and containes ninety three foot three
quarters of a foot and is computed two lotts marked in said mapp or chart No.
142, 143, as also one other peice of ground bounded on the west south west
side by the east north east side of the aforesaid Maiden Path and being distant
from the corner of the aforesaid Nassau Street one hundred seventy five foot and
so running south south east along said Maiden Path fifty foot and bounded on the
north west side by a peice of ground belonging to Carsen Leirson and containes
one hundred and twenty foot and one half of a foot and on the south east side
bounded also by another peice of ground belonging to the said Caster Leirson
and containes one hundred twenty six foot and one half foot and on the rear or
north east by east side bounded by a peice of ground belonging to said Charles
Lodwicke and one other peice of ground to Heyltie Clopper and containes fifty
foot and is computed two lotts marked in said mapp or chart No. 151, 152, as
also one other peice of ground fronting to and lying on the south west side of the
John's Street haveing on the north west side of said peice of ground the
aforesaid Nassau Street distant from it one hundred & fifty foot and containes in
breadth along said John's Street fifty feet and bounded on the northwest side by
another peice of ground belonging to Abraham Santvoort and containes in length
ninety five foot five eights of a foot and on the south east bounded by another
peice of ground belonging to Heylties Clopper containing in the length ninety
eight foot and the half of one foot and bounded in the rear or southwest by west
side side by a peice of ground belonging to Caster Leirson and one other peice
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of ground belonging to said Charles Lodwicke and containes fifty foot and is
computed two lotts marked in said mapp or chart No. 113, 114, as also one other
peice of ground bounded by and lying on the south west side . . . [corner of page
torn away; street name probably Nassau ] . . . u Street being on the northwest
side distant from
[p. 131]
the Nassau Street two hundred foot and containes in breadth along said Fair
Street one hundred foot and bounded on the north west side by another peice of
ground belonging to Heyltie Clopper and containes in length one hundred foot
and bounded on the south east side by a peice of ground belonging to John
Harberdinck and containeth also one hundred foot and bounded on on [sic] the
rear or southwest side by a vacant peice of ground left undivided and containes
also one hundred foot and is computed four lotts marked in said mapp or chart
No. 40, 41, 42, 43, as also one other peice of ground bounded on the north east
side by the south west side of the aforesaid Fair Street containing fifty foot and
on the south east side bounded by the William Street and containes along said
William Street one hundred foot and bounded on the northwest side by another
peice of ground belonging to John Harberdinck containing in length one hundred
foot and in the rear or southwest side bounded by a passage going from the
William Street into the afore mentioned vacant peice of ground and containes fifty
foot and is computed two lotts marked in said mapp or chart No. 46, 47, and that
the said John Harberdinck shall have hold and enjoy to him and his heires and
assignes for ever in severalty as his equal fifth part and portion belonging unto
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him of the said premises the several lotts and peices of ground following (to witt)
one parcel of ground bounded on the north west side by a street called the
Nassau Street and containes along said street one hundred and seventeen foot
and on the south west side bounded by another street called the Fair Street and
containes in breadth along said street seventy five foot and the south east side
bounded by one other peice of ground belonging to Abraham Santvoort and
containes in length one hundred and seventeen foot and on the rear or north east
side bounded by the ground belonging to William Beekman and containes along
said ground seventy five foot and is computed three lotts marked in the said
mapp or chart No. 1, 2, 3, as also one other peice of ground bounded on the
south east side by a street called the William Street and containes in breadth
along said street and containes in breadth along said street one hundred and
seventeen foot and on the south west side bounded by the north east side of the
Fair Street and contains along said street one hundred and fifty foot on the north
west side bounded by one other peice of ground belonging Heyltie Cloppers and
containes in length one hundred and seventeen foot and on the rear or north east
side bounded by the ground of William Beekman and containes one hundred and
fifty foot and is computed six lotts and marked in said mapp or chart No. 11, 12,
13, 14, 15, 16 as a . . . [corner torn away; last word probably "also"]
[p. 132]
one other peice of ground bounded on the south west side by the Fair Street and
containes along said street fifty foot and on the north west side bounded by one
other peice of ground belonging to Charles Lodwicke and containes in length one
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hundred and seventeen foot and on the south east side bounded by one other
peice of ground belonging to Abraham Santvoort and containes also one
hundred and seventeen foot and on the rear or north east side bounded by the
ground of William Beekman containing fifty foot and is computed two lotts
marked in said mapp or chart No. 19, 20, as also one other peice of ground
bounded on the north east side by the south west side of the Fair Street and
containes along said street fifty foot and on the south east side bounded by one
other peice of ground belonging to Charles Lowicke and containes in length one
hundred foot and on the north west side also bounded by one other peice of
ground belonging to Charles Lodwick and containes in length one hundred foot
and on the rear or south west side bounded by a small passage going into a
vacant peice of ground and containes in breadth along said passage fifty foot and
is computed two lotts marked in said mapp or chart No. 44, 45, as also one other
peice of ground bounded on the south east side by a street called the William
Street and containes along said street one hundred foot and on the north east
side bounded by a small passage going into a vacant peice of ground containing
in breadth along said passage one hundred foot and on the south west side
bounded by one other small passage going into said vacant vacant [sic] peice of
ground and containes along said passage also one hundred foot and on the rear
or north west side bounded by a vacant peice of ground left undivided and
containes along said ground one hundred foot and is computed four lotts marked
in said mapp or chart No. 62, 63, 64, 65, as also one other peice of ground
bounded on the south east side by a street called the William Street and
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containes along said street one hundred thirty nine foot and on the south west
side bounded by a street called John Street and containes along said street one
hundred seventy five foot and on the north west side bounded by a passage or
street of twenty five foot broad running from the John Street almost north east
into a vacant undivided peice of ground and containes one hundred twenty two
foot along said passage or street and on the rear or north east side bounded by
the aforementioned . . . [corner torn away] . . . peice of ground and small
passage into it and . . . [corner torn away] . . . in breadth along said ground and
passage
[p. 133]
one hundred seventy five foot and is computed seven lotts marked in said map or
chart No. 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, as also one other peice of ground bounded
on the southeast by the aforementioned street or passage and containes along
said street or passage one hundred and nineteen foot and one half of a foot and
on the south west side bounded by the street called the John Street containing
along said street seventy five foot and on the north west side bounded by
another peice of ground belonging to Abraham Santvoort and containes in length
one hundred and twelve foot and the three sixteenths of a foot and on the rear or
north east side bounded by the aforementioned vacant undivided peice of ground
containing along said ground seventy five foot and is computed three lotts
marked in said map or chart No. 82, 83, 84, as also one other peice of ground
bounded on the south west side by a street called John Street and containes
along said street fifty foot and on the south east by one other peice of ground
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belonging to Abraham Santvoort and containes in length one hundred and five
foot two thirds of one foot and on the north west side bounded by one other peice
of ground also belonging to Abraham Santvoort and containes in length ninety six
foot and one third of a foot and in the rear or north east side bounded by another
peice of ground also belonging to Abraham Santvoort and containes in breadth
along said ground fifty foot and is computed two lotts marked in said map or chart
95, 96, as also one other peice of ground bounded on the north east side by the
street called the Fair Street and containes in breadth along said street twenty two
foot and on the south east bounded by the ground belonging to Geesie Van Clyff
containing one hundred foot and on the north west side bounded by one other
peice of ground belonging to Caster Leirson and containes in length one hundred
foot and on the rear or southwest side bounded by one other peice of ground
belonging also to Caster Leiurson and containes in breadth eight foot and is
computed one lott marked in said map or chart 54, as also one other peice of
ground bounded on the west south west side by the street called of Maiden Path
containing along said street fifty foot and on the south east side bounded by
another peice of ground belonging to Charles Lodwick containing ninety three
foot three fourths of one foot and on the north west side bounded by one other
peice of ground belonging to Caster Leiurson containing eighty seven foot & one
half foot and on the rear or north east side bounded by another peice of ground
belonging to Charles Lodwick containing in breadth fifty foot and one half foot
and is
[p. 134]
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computed two lotts marked in the map or chart 140, 141 (said lott being distant
from and on the north west side of the Nassau Street fifty foot) as also one other
peice of ground bounded on the west south west side by the street called
Maidens Path and containes along said street fifty foot and on the south east
side bounded by one other peice of ground belonging to Caster Lieurson
containing in length one hundred and fourteen foot three eighths of one foot and
on the north west side bounded by one other peice of ground belonging to
Heyltie Clopper and containes also in length one hundred and eight foot and one
quarter of one foot and on the rear or north east side bounded by one other peice
of ground belonging to Abraham Santvoort containing fity [sic] foot and is
computed two lotts marked in said map or chart No. 147, 148, said peice of
ground being distant from and on the south east side of the Nassau Street
seventy five foot as also one other peice of ground bounded on the west south
west side by the street called Maiden Path and containes along said street
twenty five foot and on the south east side bounded by one other peice of ground
belonging to Caster Leiurson and containes along said ground seventy eight foot
one eighth of a foot and on the north west side bounded by several gardens lying
between that and the street called the Broad Way and containes along said
gardens seventy five foot and in the rear or north east side bounded by one other
peice of ground belonging to Heyltie Clopper containing also twenty five foot and
is computed one lott marked in said map or chart No. 136, as also one other
peice of ground bounded on the north west by the street called the Broad Way
and containes along said street as it is now fenct in five hundred and eighty foot
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and on the north east bounded by that ground commonly called Collo Dungands
Garden and some part of the Common and containes along said Garden and
Common one hundred and sixty foot and on the south west side bounded by the
street called Maiden Path aforesaid and containes in length along said street one
hundred and sixty foot and in the rear or south east side bounded by several lotts
belonging to the several persons here above named and is computed five lotts
marked in said map or chart No. 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, two streets to be
deducted out of these last lotts as by agreement one thirty three foot the other
thirty foot broad and that he the said Caster Leiurson shall have hold and enjoy
to him and his heirs and assignes for ever [paper repaired here; partially covered
word is probably "severally"] . . . erally as his equal fifth
[p. 135]
part and portion belonging unto him of the said premisses the several lotts and
peices of ground following (to witt) one peice of ground fronting to and bounded
by the north east side of the Fair Street containing along said street one hundred
foot and on the northwest side bounded by another peice of ground belonging to
Abraham Santvoort containing one hundred and seventeen foot and bounded on
the south east side by another peice of ground belonging to Heyltie Clopper
containing also one hundred and seventeen foot and in the rear or north east
side bounded by the ground of William Beekman containing one hundred foot
said ground lying distant from the Nassau Street one hundred foot and is
computed four lotts marked in said map or chart No. 5, 6, 7, 8, as also one other
peice of ground bounded on the north east by the south west side of the Fair
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Street and containes along said Fair Street one hundred and fifty foot and on the
north west side bounded by the south east side of the William Street containing
along said William Street one hundred foot and on the south east side bounded
by one other peices of ground belonging to John Harberdinck and containes one
hundred foot and on the south west side by one other peice of ground belonging
also to said Caster Leiurson containing one hundred and fifty foot and is
computed six lotts marked in said map or chart No. 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, as also
one other peice of ground bounded on the north east by the last before
mentioned peice of ground computed six lotts belonging to said Caster Leiurson
and one samll peice of ground belonging to John Harberdinck and contains in
length one hundred fifty eight foot and on the north west by the south east side of
the William Street containing in breadth along said William Street fifty foot and on
the south west side by one other peice ground belonging to Heyltie Clopper
containing one hundred fifty six foot and the one half of one foot and on the rear
or south east side bounded by the ground of Geesie Van Clyff containing fifty foot
and is computed two lotts marked in said mapp or chart No. 55, 56, as also one
other peice of ground bounded on the north west side by a garden now in
occupation of John Harberdinck and one other garden in occupation of said
Caster Leiurson containing along said gardens one hundred twenty five foot and
on the north east side bounded by one other peice of ground belonging to
Abraham Santvoort containing fifty two foot and the three fourths of one foot and
on the south east side bounded by one other peice of ground belonging to
Charles Lodwick and contains in length along said ground one hundred thirty
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three foot and three fourths of one foot and on the south west side bounded by
the north east side of the John Street containing along said street fifty one foot
and is computed two lotts marked in said
[p. 136]
mapp or chart No. 69, 70, as also one other peice of ground bounded on the
north east side by the south west side of the John Street and containes along
said street fifty foot and one half of a foot and on the north west side bounded by
one other peice of ground belonging to Heyltie Clopper and containes in length
seventy nine foot and on the south east side bounded by one other peice of
ground belonging to Charles Lodwick containing seventy nine foot and on the
south west side bounded by one other peice of ground belonging to said Castor
Leiurson containing fifty foot and the half of one foot said peice of ground lying
distant from the Nassau Street along the John Street one hundred and one foot
and is computed two lotts marked in said mapp or chart No. 101, 102, as also
one other peice of ground bounded on the north west by the south east side of
the William Street containing one hundred twenty two foot and on the south west
side by the tann pitts containing in length on said tann pitts one hundred ninety
two foot and on the north east bounded by one other peice of ground belonging
to Heyltie Clopper containing one hundred seventy two foot and in the rear or
south east side bounded by the ground of Geesie Van Clyff containing along said
ground one hundred and sixteen foot and is computed five lotts marked marked
[sic] in said map or chart No. 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, as also one other peice of
ground bounded on the west south west side by a street called the Maiden Path
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and containing along said street seventy five foot and on the south east side
bounded by one other peice of ground belonging to John Harberdinck containing
eighty seven foot and the one half of a foot and on the north west side bounded
by one other peice of ground belonging to John Harberdinck containing seventy
eight foot and the one eight part of a foot and on the rear or north east side
bounded by one other peice of ground belonging to said Caster Leiureson and
one other peice of ground belonging to Heyltie Clopper said peice of ground lying
to the north west of and being distant from the Nassau Street one hundred foot
and is computed three lotts marked in said map or chart No. 137, 138, 139, as
also one other peice of ground bounded on the north west by the south east side
of the Nassau Street and containes in length ninety nine foot and on the south
west bounded by one street called the Maiden Path and containes in breadth
along said street twenty five foot and on the south east side bounded by one
other lott or peice of ground belonging to Heyltie Clopper and containes in length
one hundred & two foot and bounded on the rear or north east side by one other
lott or peice of ground belonging to Abraham Santvoort and containes along said
ground twenty five foot and is computed one lott marked in said mapp or chart
No. 144, as also his other peice of ground being bounded on the
[p. 137]
west south west side by the street called Maiden Path and containes breadth
along said street fifty foot and on the south east side bounded by one other lott or
peice of ground belonging to Charles Lodwick and containes in length one
hundred & twenty feet and the half of one foot and on the north west side
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bounded by one other peice of ground belonging to John Harberdinck and
containes in length one hundred and fourteen foot and the three eights of one
foot and on the rear or north east side bounded by one other peice of ground
belonging to Abraham Santvoort and other [sic] peice of ground beloning [sic] to
Charles Lodwick and containes in breadth along said grounds fifty foot and is
computed two lotts marked in said map or chart No. 149, 150, as also one other
peice of ground lying on and being bounded on the west south west side by the
street called Maidens Path and containes in breadth along said street one
hundred foot and on the south east side bounded by one other peice of ground
belonging to Abraham Santvoort and containes in length one hundred thirty eight
foot & seven eights of one foot and on the north west side bounded by one other
peice of ground belonging to Charles Lodwick and containes in length one
hundred twenty six foot and one half of a foot and on the rear or north east side
bounded by one other peice of ground belonging to Heyltie Clopper & containes
in breadth one hundred foot and is computed four lotts marked in said mapp or
chart No. 153, 154, 155, 156, and that he the said Abraham Santvoort shall have
hold and enjoy to him his heirs and assignes for ever in severalty as his equal
fifth part and portion belonging unto him of the said premises the several lotts
and peices of ground following (to witt) one peice of ground bounded on the
south west side by a street called the Fair Street and containes in breadth along
said street twenty five foot and on the south east side bounded by one other
peice of ground belonging to Caster Leiurson containing in length one hundred
and seventeen foot and on the north west side bounded by one other peice of
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ground belonging to John Harberdick containing in length also one hundred and
seventeen foot and in the rear or north east side bounded by the ground
belonging to William Beekman containing along said ground twenty five foot and
is computed one lott marked in said map or chart No. 4, as also one other peice
of ground bounded on the south west side by a street called the Fair Street and
containing along said street seventy four foot and on the south east side
bounded by the ground of Geesie Van Clyff and
[p. 138]
containes in length one hundred and seventeen foot and on the north west side
bounded by one other peice of ground belonging to John Harberdinck containing
in length also one hundred & seventeen foot and on the rear or north east side
bounded by the ground of William Beekman and containes along said ground
eighty one foot and is computed three lotts marked in said mapp or chart No. 21,
22, 23, as also one other peice of ground bounded on the north east side by the
street called the Fair Street and containes along said street fifty four foot and the
one half of one foot and on the north west side by one other peice of ground
belonging to John Harberdinck containing one hundred twenty five foot & on the
south west side by one other peice of ground belonging to Caster Leiurson
containing fifty two foot and three fourths of one foot and on the south east by
one other peice of ground belonging to Charles Lodwick containing one hundred
twenty five foot said peice of ground lying distant from and on the north west side
of the Nassau Street one hundred sixty three foot and the one half of one foot
and is computed two lotts marked in said map or chart No. 24, 25, as also one
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other peice of ground bounded on the north east by the street called the Fair
Street containing along said street one hundred foot and on the north west side
bounded by a street called the Nassau Street containing also along said street
one hundred foot and on the east bounded by one other peice of ground
belonging to Heyltie Clopper containing in length one hundred foot and in the
rear or south west side bounded by a small passage that goes into a
beforementioned undivided vacant peice of land and containes along said
passage one hundred foot and is computed four lotts marked in said map or
chart No. 32, 33, 34, 35 as also one other peice of ground bounded on the north
west side by a street called the William Street and containes in breadth along
said street fifty foot and on the south west side bounded by one other peice of
ground belonging to John Harberdinck and two other peices of ground belonging
to said Abraham Santvoort and containes along said grounds one hundred fifty
four foot and on the north east bounded by one other peice of ground belonging
to Heyltie Clopper containing along said ground one hundred fifty four foot seven
eights of one foot and in the rear or south east side bounded by the ground of
Geesie Van Clyff containing fifty foot said lott lyes distant and on the south west
side of the Fair Street two
[p. 139]
hundred twenty five foot and is computed two lotts marked in said map or chart
No. 60, 61, as also one other peice of ground bounded on the north west side by
the street called the Nassau Street and containes in breadth along said street
fifty foot and on the north east bounded by a small passage going into a
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beforementioned undivided vacant peice of ground and containes along said
passage one hundred foot and on the south west side bounded by one other
small passage going into the beforementioned undivided vacant peice of ground
and containes along said passage one hundred foot and in the rear or south east
side bounded by said undivided vacant peice of ground and containes along said
ground fifty foot and as computed two lotts marked in said map or chart No. 66,
67, as also one other peice of ground bounded on the north west side of a street
called the Nassau Street and containes along said street one hundred foot and
on the south west side by a street called the John Street containing along said
street one hundred & twenty five foot and on the north east side bounded [ by a
small passage into a beforementioned undivided vacant peice of ground
containing along said passage one hundred twenty five foot and on the southeast
side bounded ] [preceding lines inserted in the margin] by one other peice of
ground belonging to John Harberdinck containing along said ground one hundred
and twelve foot three sixteents of one foot and is computed five lotts marked in
said map or chart No. 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, as also one other peice of ground
bounded on the north west by a street called the William Street and containes
along said street eighty seven foot and on the south west side bounded by one
other street called the John Street containing along said street fifty foot and on
the north east side bounded by one other peice of ground belonging to said
Abraham Santvoort and containes along said ground fifty foot and in the rear or
south east side bounded by one other peice of ground belonging to John
Harberdinck and containes along said ground ninety six foot and one third of one
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foot and is computed two lotts marked in said mapp or chart No. 93, 94, as also
one other peice of ground bounded on the south west side by a street called the
John Street and containes along said street fifty foot and on the north west side
bounded by one other peice of ground belonging to John Harberdinck and
containes along said ground one hundred and five foot and two thirds of one foot
and on the south east side bounded by the ground belonging to Geesie Van Clyff
and containes along said ground one hundred & fifteen foot and in the rear or
north east side bounded by one other peice of ground belonging also to said
Abraham Santvoort and containes
[p. 140]
along said ground fifty foot and is computed two lotts marked in said mapp or
chart No. 97, 98, as also one other peice of ground bounded on the north west by
a street called the Nassau Street and containes along said street eighty seven
foot and on the north east side bounded by another street called the John Street
and containes along said street one hundred and fifty foot and on the south west
side bounded by another peice of ground belonging to Caster Leiurson one other
peice of ground belonging to Heyltie Clopper one other peice of ground
belonging to John Harberdinck and one other peice of ground belonging to
Caster Leiurson & containes along said grounds one hundred and fifty foot and
on the south east side bounded by one other peice of ground belonging to
Charles Lodwick and containes along said ground ninety five foot five eights of
one foot and is computed six lotts marked in said mapp or chart No. 107, 108,
109, 110, 111, 112, as also one other peice of ground bounded on the west
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south west side by a street called the Maiden Path and containes along said
street fifty feet and on the south east side bounded by one other peice of ground
belonging to Heyltie Clopper containing along said ground one hundred forty five
foot and one [sic] the north west side bounded by one other peice of ground
belonging to Caster Leiurson & containes along said ground one hundred thiry
eight foot seven eights of one foot and in the rear or north east side bounded by
one other peice of ground belonging to Heyltie Clopper and containes along said
ground fifty foot and is computed two lotts marked in said map or chart No. 157,
158, and that she the said Heyltie Clopper shall have hold and enjoy to her and
her heirs and assignes for ever in severalty as her equal fifth part & portion
belonging unto her of the said premises the several lotts and peices of ground
following (to witt) one peice of ground bounded on the south west side by a street
called the Fair Street containing along said street fifty foot and on the south part
bounded by one other peice of ground belonging to John Harberdinck and
containes along said ground one hundred and seventeen foot and on the north
west side bounded by one other peice of ground belonging to Caster Leiurson
and containes along said ground one hundred and seventeen foot and in the rear
or north east side bounded by the ground of William Beekman and containes
along said ground fifty foot said peice of ground being distant from and lying on
the north west side of the William Street one hundred and fifty foot and is
computed two lotts marked in said mapp or chart
[p. 141]
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No. 9, 10, as one other peice of ground bounded on the north east by a street
called the Fair Street and containes along said street one hundred foot and on
the south east bounded by one other peice of ground belonging to Charles
Lodwick and containes along said ground one hundred foot and on the north east
side bounded by one other peice of ground belonging to Abraham Santvoort and
containes along said ground one hundred foot and in the rear or south west side
bounded by a beforementioned undivided vacant peice of ground & containes
along said ground one hundred foot the said lott is distant on the north west side
from the Nassau Street one hundred foot and on the south east from the William
Street two hundred foot and is computed four lotts marked in said map or chart
No. 36, 37, 38, 39, as also one other peice of ground bounded on the north west
side by a street called the William Street containing in breadth along said street
seventy five foot and on the south west side bounded by one other peice of
ground belonging to Abraham Santvoort and containes along said ground one
hundred fifty [ four foot seven eights of one foot and on the north east side by
one other peice of ground belonging to Caster Luerson and contains along said
ground one hundred fifty ] [preceding passage is inserted from the margin] six
foot and one half of a foot and in the rear or south east side bounded by the
ground of Geesie Van Clyff and containes along said ground seventy five foot
said peice of ground on the north east side lying distant from the Fair Street one
hundred and fifty foot and is computed three lotts marked in said mapp or chart
No. 57, 58, 59, as also one other peice of ground bounded on the northwest side
by a street called the Nassau Street and containes along said street twenty five
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foot and on the south west side bounded by a small passage going into a
beforementioned vacant undivided peice of ground containing along said
passage one hundred foot and on the north east side bounded by one other
peice of ground belonging to Abraham Santvoort and containes along said
ground one hundred foot and in the rear or south east side bounded by the
beforementioned undivided vacant peice of ground containing in breadth along
said ground twenty five foot and is computed one lott marked in said mapp or
chart No. 68, as also one other peice of ground bounded on the north east side
by a street called the John Street & containes along said street fifty one foot and
on the south east side bounded by one other peice of ground belonging to Caster
Leiurson containing along along [sic] said ground seventy nine foot and on the
north west side by one other lott ground [sic] now in the occupation of her said
Heyltie Clopper and one other . . . [corner of paper torn, apparently the missing
word is "peice"] of ground belonging to John Harberdinck & . . . [corner of paper
torn, apparently the missing word is "containes"]
[p. 142]
along said ground also seventy nine foot and in the rear or south west side
bounded by one other peice of ground belonging to Caster Leiurson and one
other peice of ground belonging to John Harberdinck containing along said
grounds fifty foot and is computed two lotts marked in said mapp or chart No. 99,
100, as also one other peice of ground bounded on the north east side by the
street called the John Street & containes along said street two hundred foot and
on the south east side bounded by one other street called the William Street
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containing along said street one hundred and ten foot and on the south west side
bounded by one other peice of ground belonging to Charles Lodwick one other
peice of ground belonging to Caster Leiurson one other peice of ground
belonging to Abraham Santvoort and one other peice of ground belonging to said
Heyltie Clopper containing along said grounds two hundred foot and on the north
west side bounded by another peice of ground belonging to Charles Lodwick
containing along said ground ninety eight foot and one half and is computed eight
lotts marked in said map or chart No. 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, as
also one other peice of ground bounded on the north west side of a street called
the William Street containing along said street one hundred and fifty foot and on
the north east side bounded by one other street called the John Street containing
along said street one hundred forty six foot and on the south west side bounded
by one other peice of ground belonging to Caster Leiurson containing along said
ground one hundred seventy two foot and on the south east side bounded by the
ground belonging to Geesie Van Clyff and containes along said ground therein a
quite direct line one hundred fifty one foot and is computed eight lotts marked in
said map or chart No. 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, as also one other
peice of ground bounded on the west south west side by a street called the
Maiden Path containing in breadth along sd. street fifty foot and on the south east
bounded by one other peice of ground belonging to John Harberdinck & contains
along said ground one hundred and eight foot and one quarter and on the north
west side bounded by . . . [corner of paper torn away] peice of ground belonging
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to Caster Leiurson . . . [corner of paper torn away] along said ground one
hundred and two
[p. 143]
foot and the one sixteenth of a foot and in the rear or north east side bounded by
one other peice of ground belonging to Abraham Santvoort containing along said
ground fifty foot lying distant from and on the south east side of the Nassau
Street twenty five foot and is computed two lotts marked in said mapp or chart #
145, 146, as also one other peice of ground bounded on the south east side by a
street called the William Street containing along the said street one hundred #
forty eight foot and on the west south west side bounded by one other street
called the Maiden Path containing along said street twenty five foot and on the
north west side bounded by one other peice of ground belonging to Abraham
Santvoort containing along said ground one hundred and forty five foot and in the
rear or north east side bounded by one other peice of ground belonging also to
said Heyltie Clopper and containing in breadth twenty five foot and is computed
one lott marked in sd. mapp or chart No. 159, Now this Indenture wittnesseth that
the said partyes to these presents Charles Lodwick John Harberdinck Caster
Leiurson Abraham Santvoort and Heyltie Clopper are fully satisfied & contented
and agreed with the said partition and division so made as aforesaid and do
hereby for them selves severally and their several heirs & assignes assent
consent and agree unto the same accordingly and for a sure ratification and
confirmation of the said partition and provision so made as aforesaid and for
avoiding all ambiguities doubts variances and contentions which might hereafter
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chance to arise touching and concerning the same it is hereby covenanted
granted promised and agreed by and between the said partyes to these presents
for them selves severally and for their several and respective heirs exrs. admrs.
in manner and form following (that is to say) that the said partition & division of
the premises so made as aforesaid shall be and enure and shall be adjudged
deemed and taken to be as good effectual and available in the law to all intents
constructions and purposes whatsoever as any division or partition might or
could have been made in any manner of wayes whatsoever and howsoever and
the said partyes to the intent aforesaid do by these presents for them selves
severally and for their several and respective heirs and assignes release and
confirm to each other and their respective heirs assignes the said several peices
and lotts of ground and all their estate right title interest which they or any of
them
[p. 144]
hath or may or ought to have in all and every part share and portion of each other
in the aforesaid premisses according to the true intent and meaning of the
aforesaid partition to have and to hold to each of the said partyes to these
presents and to their several and respective heirs and assignes for ever in
severalty their several & respective lotts peices and parcells of land according to
the true intent and meaning of these presents and the said Charles Lodwick John
Harberdinck Caster Leiurson Abraham Santvoort and Heyltie Cloppers doe
hereby mutually covenant promise grant and agree to and with each other for
themselves and for the several heirs exrs. admrs. of each of them that the said
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streets and passages as they are particularly mentioned and exprest in these
presents and as they are laid down in the map or chart hereunto annexed shall
forever be and remain as such for the use of the publick without any let
hindrance or molestation of the said Charles Lodwick John Harberdinck Caster
Leiurson Abraham Santvoort and Heyltie Cloppper or any of them or the heirs or
assignes of them or any of them in witness whereof the said partyes to these
presents have hereunto set their hands and seals the day & year first above
written Charles Lodwick (seal) John Harberdinck (seal) Caster Leiurson (seal)
Abraham Santoort (seal) Heyltie Cloppers (seal) sealed & delivered in the
presence of Emll. Younge Henr: Tregenna C. Veile Memordandum [sic] that on
the twentieth day of January Anno Dom: 1700 personally came before me Isaac
De Riemer Esqr. Mayor of the City of New York Corneilus Veile of the said city
chirurgeon and one of the witnesses to the within written instrument who
deposed upon the holy Evangelists of Almighty God that he was present and did
see Heyltie Cloppers Abraham Santvoort Caster Leiurson John Herberdinck and
Charles Lodwick seal an [sic] deliver the same as their voluntary act and deed to
the uses therein mentioned J D Riemer Mayor
[end of page 144; page 145 is blank except for the number "145" in the upper
right corner; on the next page, which is a large fold-out page, numbered 145A, is
the map or chart referred to in the deed]
[The map shows the Shoemaker's Field or Pasture, as subdivided into 164
numbered lots, with streets cut through; see photocopy.]
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Appendix A
Biographical Data on Johannes Harberdinck
by Francis J. Sypher
According to the notation dated December 8, 1667 in the record book of the
Reformed Dutch Church, New York City of his declaration of intent to be married,
Johannes Harberdinck was originally from Bocholt, in Westphalia, Germany. The
town is close to the border with the Netherlands, and is about 40 miles west of
the German city of Münster, and about 80 miles east of Amsterdam. The town
name means "beech wood." There exist other towns with similar names:
Boekhoute, and Bocholt, both in Belgium; and Bocholtz, in the Netherlands.
However, the original record specifically indicates this region of Germany: "Jan
Harberding, j.m. Van Boeckholdt in Westphalen."1
The word "Van" of course means "of" or "from." The abbreviation "j.m."
stands for "jonge man" ("young man"), in this context specifically meaning a
bachelor--a man who has never been married. Thus it was to be his first (and
only) marriage (the marriage took place a little over two weeks later, on
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December 25, Christmas Day, as noted in the church book). One may infer that
the groom was in fact a relatively young man at the time, perhaps in his twenties
(note that in the census taken around 1703, one member of Harberdinck's
household, probably himself, is designated as over 60, therefore born circa 1643
or earlier). There are no indications of his exact birthplace (as opposed to the
place he emigrated from), but it would not be unreasonable to infer that he was
born somewhere in the general region of the border country of the eastern
Netherlands and western Germany. This inference is supported by the mention in
his will of family members in the eastern Netherlands, near the German border.
In Harberdinck's will (dated 1722; see full text at end of this biographical
account), he mentions descendants of a cousin "Dirck Tenhagen deceased" who
lived "at Brevoort in the county of Sutphen within the united Belgick Provinces."
(The word "Belgick," from the Latin name for the region, Belgia, is here used as
an equivalent to "Netherlandic."2 Modern Belgium came into existence as a
nation in 1830.) Harberdinck also mentions descendants of "Hendrick Tenhagen
deceased," of "Genderingen & Elten near Emerick in Overysell within the limitts
of the said United Provinces." Research into Netherlandish sources might shed
light on these family connections, and point the way toward indications of
Harberdinck's parentage, about which there is no presently available information.
The surviving records show Harberdinck's name spelled in various ways.
Spelling of names at the time was not considered fixed and invariable, as it is
today, but depended upon the customary language and usage of the clerk who
happened to be writing down the name, which was normally recorded in an
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approximately phonetic transcription. Some of the spellings in which this
surname appears are: Haberdinck, Harberding, Harbendingck, Harberdinck,
Harpendinck, Harpending, Harperdinck, Harperding, Harperdink, Herparding,
Herpendinck, Herperdinck. The reason for these variations is simply that the
phonetic components of the name could be represented in various ways
according to the spelling systems in use at a time when Netherlandish usage and
English usage were often intermingled. For example, in this surname the second
syllable would have had the indeterminate sound of the last syllable in the
English word papa. In eighteenth-century New York, this sound was often spelled
either -en or -er, as in the surname Vandenberg, alternate spelling Vanderberg.
The spelling used in this discussion, Harberdinck, is the spelling used by the
testator in his will, and so it presumably reflects his preference. Certainly it is by
definition a spelling by which his name was publicly known at the time.
A recent scholarly work3 offers the suggestion that Harberdinck arrived in
New York (then New Amsterdam) on September 27, 1663, on board the ship de
Statyn, but no source is given for this information, and in fact there are
substantial grounds for questioning whether it pertains to the subject of this
biography. In a printed collection of ship passenger lists, 1657 to 1664, there is
reference to the arrival of the ship Stetin, in September 1663, carrying "Grietje
Hargeringh, Jan Hargeringh, from Newenhuys" (Neuenhaus, Germany, is close
to the Netherlandish border).4 In another source, there is record of the arrival of
the ship De Statyn, on September 29, 1663.5 The names Statyn and Stetin
apparently represent alternate spellings of the same ship-name.
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However, it seems quite clear that the name Hargeringh is an entirely
distinct family name, and not by any means a variant spelling equivalent to
Harberdinck (and variant forms). Other individuals by the name of Hargeringh
(and variants) are recorded at this time, and there appears to be no connection
with the Harberdinck family. Furthermore, we know that Harberdinck came from
Bocholt, in Westphalia; whereas Jan Hargeringh is stated to have come from
Newenhuys (or Neuenhaus). Furthermore, there is record of Gerrit Hargerinck,
also from Newenhuys, and two sons, aged 15, and 9, who arrived on the ship
Hope on May 24, 1662.6 Gerrit Hargering (spelled thus) was inscribed as a
member of the Reformed Dutch Church, January 6, 1663.7 Evidently he was
intending to settle at Fort Orange, near Albany; there is also record of this family
name in the area of Esopus (Kingston).8
The membership list of the Reformed Dutch Church lists a certain "Jan
Harberding" as a member with date April 6, 1664 (place of origin not stated).9
This entry could refer to the subject of this biography; however, the identification
is not entirely certain, since there is record of a contemporary person (no precise
record of family connection) named Hans Jacobszen Harberding, who married
Geertie Lamberts; they had a child Frena, baptized August 26, 1671, at the
Reformed Dutch Church. Since "Jan," "Hans," "Johannes," and "John" are all
equivalent names, it seems impossible to tell for certain without further
information which person is being referred to in the membership list.
There is, however, no doubt about the identity of the persons concerned in
the above-cited inscription of Johannes Harberdinck's marriage intention dated
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December 8, 1667. The bride is named as "Maÿ ken Barents, j.d. Van Haerlem."
Harberdinck's wife survived him, and she is named in his will (1722) as his
"loving wife" Mayken Harberdinck. (There are no other contemporary couples
with these names.) Mayken Barents had been inscribed as a member of the
Reformed Dutch Church in New York on January 2, 1661.10
In the name "Maÿ ken," the two dots over the letter y were part of the
customary scribal form of the letter at that time; its equivalent in present-day
Netherlandic usage is written as ij. The Netherlandish name Mayken is a
diminutive of the name Maria, English Mary.
The reference to "Haerlem" may refer to the town in upper Manhattan, but
it could also refer to the original Haarlem, in the Netherlands (to clarify the point
would require further research into her family background). Barents was a
familiar name in New Amsterdam and colonial New York, as in the name of
Geesje Barents, wife of a contemporary and neighbor of Harberdinck's, the
merchant and New York City alderman Thomas Lewis (b. 1627-1628; d. 1684).11
Lewis's house was immediately north of Stone Street (also known as High
Street), where Harberdinck at one time resided.
Only one child is recorded of the marriage of Jan Harberdinck and Mayken
Barents: born November 18, 1668, and baptized (according to the printed record)
"Assudius."12 The spelling may reflect a misreading of the manuscript, since the
name was undoubtedly a Netherlandish form of the biblical name Ahasuerus (as
in the English-language version of the Old Testament book of Esther), or
Asuerus (as in the Latin version). This is derived from the Hebrew equivalent of
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the name of a Persian king, better known by the Greek form, Xerxes; the Old
Persian form is Khshayarshan. New York records at this time contain
Netherlandish forms such as "Assurus," or "Assuris." This child apparently died
young, since there are no further records of him.
A relative mentioned (as a "kinsman," without specification of the exact
relationship) in Harberdinck's will, is John Harberdinck, Junior. His marriage to
Lea Cousart is recorded at the Reformed Dutch Church, March 28, 1716, and
they had a son baptized Ahasuerus, January 17, 1717.13 This child is specifically
mentioned for a bequest; there were evidently other children of the marriage,
also mentioned for bequests in the will (referred to as brothers and sisters, but
not named). This John Harberdinck, Jr. was made a freeman of the city on
November 15, 1715, under Mayor John Johnston, thus entitling Harberdinck, Jr.
to engage in retail trade in the city. Like his elder kinsman, he was a cordwainer
(i.e. a shoemaker).14 He was elected a constable, and was sworn into office on
February 13, 1722 (new style).15
The trade of John Harberdinck (Senior) is identified in a record of 29
September 1670, when he appeared in the Mayor's Court of New York, as one of
several shoemakers bringing in a complaint about two men who, it was claimed,
were not fulfilling the conditions of their contract for use of tanning facilities.16 His
activity in business affairs in the early 1670s is indicated in several court
appearances by him relating to debts, and relating to a guardianship case of an
orphan.17
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His status as a prosperous citizen is indicated in frequent references to
him in the Minutes of the Common Council, from 1675 on. For example, on July
24, 1676, the guild of tanners of the City of New York petitioned the Common
Council to appoint two new tradesmen to membership in the guild.18
Harberdinck's name was on a list of four proposed members, and he was one of
two chosen by the council on August 25, 1676 for membership in the guild.19 As
a member of the guild, he would share exclusive rights to carry on tanning
operations in New York.
What, one might ask, did the tanning business involve? Tanners were
manufacturers of leather; they would take animal hides, as from animals killed at
local slaughter houses (steers, sheep, horses, pigs, etc.), and process the hides
into finished leather, by treating them with various chemical formulas, and by
scraping and polishing them. Leather was widely used in the colony, not only for
shoes, but for other articles of clothing, such as belts, bags, jackets, trousers,
workmens' aprons, etc.; for harness and tackle used with horses and oxen on the
farm, and for saddlery of all kinds; for bookbinding, and for countless industrial
uses, as for hinges. Tanning was a vital industry, and evidently a profitable one
for those who worked in it. Thus by joining the tanners' guild, Harberdinck, who
was earlier mentioned as a shoemaker, became a professional tanner.
Although tanning was a profitable business, it had undesirable side-effects
as an industrial activity. Tanning required large amounts of water, for use in
preparing the mixtures in which hides were soaked in outdoor vats; it was a
smelly, and polluting process. Normally, tanneries were set up at a considerable
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distance from residential neighborhoods, and often in a special area set aside for
them by a sort of early equivalent of the urban zoning system. Later on, in 1691,
a group of five shoemakers, of whom Harberdinck was one, were authorized by
the city to purchase the sixteen-acre tract called the Shoemakers' Pasture, on
Maiden Lane, outside the main part of the city, which was bounded on the north
by the wall at Wall Street. As the city expanded northward, this property
eventually became valuable urban real estate, and in 1715 it was divided up into
164 variously-sized building lots, which were severally apportioned among the
shareholders, one of whom was Harberdinck. (See below for further details.)
In 1674, a census and assessment was taken of all citizens who owned
property valued at over 1000 guilders. Harberdinck's worth was estimated at
2,000 guilders.20 As of 1676 Harberdinck's assets are indicated in the list of
accounts of a special property assessment made by the Common Council. The
list is headed: "An Assesmt and Tax made the 10th Day of November 1676 for ye
defrayinge of the Charges of the New docke & Payinge the Citty debts and other
Publique dutyes at One Penny halfe Penny per Pounde."21 Harberdinck's
property was valued at £250 and he was assessed at .625% (or 5/8 of one
percent), for tax of £1 11s. 3d. At the time, £250 represented a considerable
sum; in Harberdinck's case, it included at least the value of a city house, city lot,
personal property, and perhaps additional real estate. In the following year
another assessment list shows John Harberdinck as owner of one house on the
High Street (later known as Stone Street), and of a vacant lot on Mill Street
Lane.22
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During the1670s Harberdinck was an active member of the Reformed
Dutch Church, and the esteem he was held in by fellow-members is evident in
his and his wife's many appearances as sponsors of baptisms at the church, from
1674 on.23
Similarly, Harberdinck often was nominated by testators as a witness or as
an executor to wills, a circumstance which shows that he was regarded as a
competent businessman, whom people trusted to carry out legal and financial
responsibilities with conscientious care.24
Harberdinck's status as a substantial businessman and citizen of the city
is further indicated in his election by the Common Council in 1691 as one of two
city assessors for the Dock Ward, where his house was located. The Dock Ward,
one of seven wards in the city, encompassed the region along the East River
docks between Broad Street and William Street, and included the inland blocks
north to Wall Street.25 This area included High (or Stone) Street. In ensuing
years, Harberdinck was regularly re-elected an assessor, at least through 1696.
In a census of the city taken around 1703, Harberdinck was head of a
household consisting of himself, 1 female, 1 female child, and 1 female Negro
child; one member of the household was listed as aged over 60 (thus born before
circa 1743; this was probably John Harberdinck).26
Mention was made earlier of the Shoemaker's Pasture, of which
Harberdinck was an original landholder in 1691. The original grantees were
Harberdinck, Heiltje Clopper, Charles Lodwick, Abraham Santford, and Carsten
Luersen. The tract was bounded on the west by Broadway; on the north it
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extended beyond present-day Fulton Street; on the south it was bounded by
Maiden Lane; and on the east it extended beyond present-day William Street.
When the streets were laid out, Nassau Street and William Street were cut
through the property to run north-south, approximately parallel with Broadway. At
the same time, John Street and Fair Street (later Fulton Street) were cut through
the property in an east-west direction. A concise history of this property is given
in Valentine's Manual for 1865:
After being used in common for many years, the property was mapped off in
1715, at which time, as the record curiously states, the owners, "finding the said
land to be rentable for building of houses for an enlargement of the city, projected
and laid out said lands into one hundred and sixty-four lots." John Harberding, a
venerable craftsman, and one of the original members of the shoemakers'
association, lived and plied his trade on Broadway, near Maiden lane. In a
division of the property, some years after, the along-Broadway portion was
allotted to him, extending the whole front, being five hundred and eighty feet
along Broadway, and one hundred and sixty feet in depth. The plot is described
as a garden then in occupation of said Harberding. Mr. Harberding emigrated to
this city about the year 1660, while it was still under Dutch rule. He was a
shoemaker by trade, and though rather a wild youth, became in his maturer
years a pillar of the Church, and lived to a venerable age. He died in 1723,
leaving a handsome fortune, a considerable portion of which he bequeathed to
the Dutch Reformed Church, which they still enjoy. The streets as laid out
originally through the property still exist (although both have been widened in
recent times) under the names of John street (after the proprietor) and Fulton
street, formerly Fair street. A house and lot, apparently the homestead of John
Harberding, on the corner of Broadway and Maiden lane, was sold soon after his
death (viz. 1732) for one hundred and twenty pounds. . . .27
John Harberdinck wrote his will on April 8, 1722. He is said (in the source
just quoted) to have died in 1723, and according to information in the census
taken about 1703 (when he was evidently at least 60), he must have been at
least 80 years old at the time of his death. His will was proved in February 1724
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(new style; in the record, the date of probate is given as February 7, 1723 old
style).28 In the will Harberdinck mentions bequests (of money and securities) to
cousins in the Netherlands (as mentioned above). He also provides for an
allowance to be paid for education expenses to "Asurris Harberdinck the son of
my kinsman John Harberdinck Junr of the City of New York cordwainer." This
support is to continue until Asurris Harberdinck reaches the age of 15, with
further allowances to him until the age of 25. There is also a bequest of £50 to be
divided among "all the brothers and sisters" of Asurris Harberdinck. To the
"Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of the City of New-York" the testator
bequeaths his interest (35 lots) in the "Shoemakers ffields or Land," to revert to
their sole possession immediately after the decease of his wife Mayken
Harberdinck. All other property he bequeaths to his wife, Mayken Harberdinck,
until her decease, after which said property (not including the Shoemakers
Pasture) is to be divided into four equal parts among various relatives of the
testator's wife, as specified in the will.
Mayken Harberdinck is named as executrix, and upon her decease,
Barnet Van Kleeck (of Dutchess County, New York), and Johannes Hardenbrook
(of New York City), are named executors. In the probate proceedings, Mayken
Harberdinck is stated to have renounced being executrix, in favor of Barnet Van
Kleeck, and Johannes Hardenbrook.
The full text of the will follows below. Note that in the transcription given
here, capitalization has been normalized according to present-day usage;
spelling is given as in the original; deletions in the original are indicated by angle
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brackets; page numbers of the present liber are enclosed in square brackets.
Source: New York County wills, Liber 8, pp. 440-446 (old liber), pp. 509-517
(present liber), dated April 8, 1722; probated February 7, 1723 (old style; 1724
new style).29
In the name of God amen know all men by these presents that I John
Harbardinck, of the City of New York cordwainer being indisposed in body but of
sound and perfect minde memory and understanding praised be God for the
same do hereby make publish and declare this my last will and testament in
manner and form following that is to say I bequeath my soul into the hands of
Almighty God my heavenly ffather from whom I received it and by whose meer
mercy I trust to be saved and received into his eternal joyes through the merrits
of our dear Saviour and redeemer Jesus Christ my body in hopes of a joyfull
Resurrenction I commit to the earth to be buried in such decent
[p. 510]
manner and form as my executorix or executor hereafter named shall think fit
and touching the distribution of such temporal estate it hath pleased God to
endow me with all in this world I dispose of the same as followeth, that is to say
Imprimis I will that such debts as I shall happen to owe at my decease shall be
duly paid Item I give and bequeath unto Joost Christian Towile and to his two
sisters all children of Gertruies Tenhagen one of the daughters of my cousin
Hendrick Tenhagen deceased in the time of his life commsses at Brevoort in the
county of Sutphen within the united Belgick Provinces one certain obligation of
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one thousand guilders Hollands money equally to be divided between them put
out at interest on the provinces of Holland and West ffriesland at the offices of
the receiver general at Seravanhagen on the name of the Weesmasters of
Amsterdam bearing date the eleventh day of July Anno Domini one thousand six
hundred ninety six bought of Jonas Jonassen which obligation is under the
custody & management of Mr William Vannuys merchant of Amsterdam Item I
give and bequeath unto Jan Scholten cherurgion residing in the province of
Holland and to his two sisters all children of one of the daughters of my cosen
Dirck Tenhagen statholder and schaltner at Genderingen & Elten near Emerick in
Overysell within the limitts of the said United Provinces & in case of their
decease to their lawfull issue equally to be divided between them one other
obligation of one thousand gelders Hollands money att interest on the United
Belgick Provinces at the office of the General Steyt in Seravenhagen aforesaid at
the named of O bearing date the tenth day of August one thousand six hundred
eighty eight bought of Dirck Rewyck which <is> obligation is <under> in the care
and custody and under management of the aforesaid William Van Nuys Item I
give and bequeath unto Alida Sarah widow Ficke living at Amsterdam one of the
daughters of my aforesaid cosin Hendrick Tenhagen and in case of her decease
to her lawfull issue equally to be divided between them one other obligation of
one thousand gilders at interest on the United Belgick Provinces at the office of
Ellemeet to the use in blank marked with the letter A bearing date the ninth day
of June one
[p. 511]
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thousand six hundred eighty five bought of Margreta Vanderdoor widow of
Hybert Pollim which obligation is also under the care and in the custody and
management of the aforesaid William Van Nuys Item I give and bequeath unto
Sarah Tenhagen widow Kulst also living at Utrecht and also one of the daughters
of my aforesaid cosin Hendrick Tenhagen and in case of her decease to her
lawfull issue equally to be divided between them one other certain sum of one
thousand gilders which and sum of one thousand gilders was heretofore in the
hands of Levenus Van Schaick merchant at Amsterdam deceast with orders and
directions to put out the same at interest and is now also in the care and custody
and under the management of the said William Van Nuys which aforesaid ffour
thousand gilders I the said testator do by this my last will and testament order
and direct to be paid to my several before mentioned legatees or their issue by
lawfull representation without any interest for the time past or immediately after
my decease and the decease of my wife Mayken Harberdinck and not at any
time before Item I the said John Harberding do hereby give devise and bequeath
after the decease after my loving wife and Asurris Harberdinck the son of my
kinsman John Harberdinck Junr of the City of New York cordwainer the sum of
ffifty pounds current money of New York which said sum of ffifty pounds it is my
will and direction my executor shall pay into the hands of the minister elders and
deacons of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church in the City of New York for to
be by them put upon interest and the said interest by them applyed untill the said
Asurris shall attain to the age of ffifteen years and no longer to the education of
him the said Asurris but what interest shall be received of the aforesaid ffifty
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pounds after that date untill the said Asurris shall attain to the age <of> twenty
five years at which time and not before its my will order and direction neither the
principal nor received interest to be paid
[p. 512]
nor to be received by him but in case the said Asurris shall happen to depart this
life before he attain to the age of twenty-five years then I give devise and
bequeath the aforesaid ffifty pounds with all the interest unto all the brothers and
sisters of him the said Asurris Harberdinck equally to be divided between them
Item I the said John Harberdinck do hereby give devise and bequeath unto the
said minister elders and deacons of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of
the City of New-York and their successors forever all that my testator right title
interest and property in and to and equal ffifth part share and proportion of all that
tract or parcell of land situate lying and being upon Manhattan Island within the
City of New-York called or known by the name of the Shoemakers ffields or Land
on the north east side of Maiden Lane or path which heads with a certain street
called Queens Street the which said tract or parcell of land contains by
estamation about sixteen acres and by mutual consent agreement and
approbation of all the proprietors and past owners their in concerned some years
past was surveyed and laid out into one hundred and sixty four lotts with
convenient streets and lanes to accomodate the same as may fully and amply
appeare by a certain instrument of indenture with the major charter therewith
annexed under the hands and seals of all the said proprietors part owners (vizt)
Charles Lodwick Caerston Luerson Abraham Sanford Heltie Clopper and the
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said testator John Harberdinck as by the said indenture with the chart or map
bearing date the ffourteenth day of September one thousand six hundred ninety
six relation therewith being had mora fully and at at large doth and may appear
by which indenture with the chart or map thereunto annexed it is declared
concluded and agreed that the said John Harberdincks propriety share and
dividend in the said in the said one hundred and sixty four generall lotts shall be
and consist in five and thirty lotts described markt and numbered viz number one
two three eleven twelve thirteen fourteen ffifteen sixteen ninety twenty
[p. 513]
forty four, forty five, sixty two, sixty three, sixty four, sixty five, eighty six, eighty
seven, eighty eight, eighty nine, ninety, ninety one, ninety two, eighty two, eighty
three, eighty four, ninety five, ninety six, ffifty four, <one> one hundred and fourty,
one hundred and fourty one, one hundred and fourty seven, one hundred and
fourty eight and one hundred and thirty six, situate lying and being butted
bounded and containing in length and breadth as by the said indenture with the
map or chart amply and largely is described numbered and expressed together
with four other lotts or pieces of ground more out of the five lotts mentioned in the
said indenture and map or chart and markt one hundred sixty, one hundred and
sixty one, one hundred sixty two, one hundred and sixty three, and one hundred
sixty four, which said four lotts or pieces of ground are scituate lying and being
butted and bounded by as followeth viz two of them containing each twenty nine
foot now in the tenure and occupation of John Cura bounded northwest by the
street called the Broadway south east and south west by land formerly belonging
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to Abraham Santford and north east by land formerly belonging to Caesten
Iverson and the other two lotts each of them containing in breadth twenty five foot
now in the tenure and occupation of Evert Pelts bounded northwest by the said
Broadway north east and south east by lotts formerly belonging to Carptin
Iverson & south east by the street called John Street in length one hundred and
sixty foot all which several and respective lotts pieces and parcells of land I the
said testator do hereby give devise and bequeath unto the said minister elders
and deacons of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of the City of New York
and to their lawfull successors forever with all and singular the buildings
messuages edifices improvements emoluments profitts benefits revenues
advantages hereditaments and appurtenances thereunto belonging or in any
wise appertaining or reputed or esteemed as part and belonging to the same to
have and to hold all the
[p. 514]
aforesaid several and respective lotts pieces and parcells of land with the several
and respective premises and appurtenances unto the said minister elders and
deacons of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of the City of New York and
their lawfull successors to the sole and only proper use benefit and behoofe of
the said minister elders and deacons of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church
of the City of New York and their lawfull successors for ever for to be received
and employed by the said minister elders and deacons of the Reformed
Protestant Dutch Church of the City of New York immediately after my decease
and the decease of my wife Mayken Harberdinck and only to the profit use
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benefit and behoofe and for the payment and satifsying of the yearly stipend
salary and maintanance of the respective minister and ministers which from time
to time and at all times hereafter shall be duly and legally called to the ministrie of
the said church and to no other use or uses whatsoever and I the said testator
hereby order and direct that the sole management direction administration and
government of the same after my decease and the decease of Mayken
Harberdinck shall only be and remaine in the hand care management direction
administration and government of the elders of the said church for the time being
or whom they shall nominate constitute and appoint to act in their stead or place
and without being subject or bound to render any account of the same but only to
the minister or ministers elders and deacons of the said Reformed Protestant
Dutch Church of the City of New York for the time being provided always that it
shall not be lawfull nor in the power of the said minister elders and deacons of
the said Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of the City of New York nor their
successors nor the said elders nor managers for the time being nor in the power
of any other person or persons whatsoever for ever hereafter to make sale
disposition or alienate any part of the said lands and premises nor of any of the
profits benefitts revenues
[p. 515]
or advantages accruing or arising out of the same to any other use or uses
whatsoever but that the same shall be forever and remain to the only proper use
benefit and behoof <of the> as above is recited declared and expressed. And I
the said John Harberdinck do further give devise and bequeath unto the said wife
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Mayken Harberdinck all the rest of the temporal estate real and personal none
excepted whether the same shall be and consist in houses lands goods chattels
gold silver moneys Negroes bonds mortgages bills book debts or any other
affects or estate whatsoever none in the world excepted to have and to hold all
the rest and remaining part of my estate except that part as above is bequeathed
and disposed unto my said wife Mayken Harberdinck during her natural life and
after her decease I give devise and bequeath one <quarter> just part and equal
quarter part thereof unto my wife's sister Jannetie Boss widow of John Pieterson
Boss and in case of her decease to be equally divided between all the children of
her the said Jannetie Boss her heirs and assigns for ever one other just and
equal quarter part thereof I give devise and bequeath unto Elsie Sanders widow
of Robert Sanders another of the sisters of my said wife and in case of her
decease to be equally divided between all the children of her the said Else
Sanders their heirs and assigns forever one other just and equal quarter thereof I
give devise and bequeath unto all the children of Baltis Van Cleeck late of
Dutchess County deceased a brother of my wifes to be equally divided between
them and to their heirs and assigns forever and the other equal quarter part
thereof I give bequeath and devise unto all the children of Cartelyntie Van
Benthuysen late of Albany deceased another of my wifes sisters equally to be
divided between them and to their heirs and assigns forever provided always that
all and every of my aforesaid wifes sisters and their children and the children of
my wifes brother to whom I have given devised and bequeathed my estate to and
after the decease of my wife aforesaid do all and
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[p. 516]
every of them justly account and pay what every of them are severally indebted
to my said estate be it by account bill bond mortgage or any other way
whatsoever and I the said John Harberdinck do nominate and appoint my tender
and loving wife Mayken Harberdinck if she shall survive me to be the sole
executor of this my last will and testament and upon her decease to the end a
just and equal dividend may be made of whatsoever may be left of my estate
after the decease of my wife I do order constitute and appoint my two kinsmen
Barnet Van Kloock of Dutchess County planter and Johannes Hardenbroock of
New York tanner to be executors of this my last will and testament revoking all
former wills by me heretofore made and this to be only taken as my last will and
testament and no other and notwithstanding my <the> former gifts grants and
bequests by this my will made I do give devise and bequeath unto my said
kinsman Barnet Van Kleek and Johannes Hardenbroock appointed executors
after the decease of my wife for their trouble in making the dividend amongst my
wifes relations persuant to this my last will and to have each the sum of twenty
five pounds current money of New York beside the charge they shall be at and
accrue on the estate in keeping of books accounts and making the said dividend
in witness whereof I the said John Harberdinck have hereunto put my hand and
seal as also to a true duplicate hereof in New York in America this twenty third
day of April in the eighth year of his majesty's reign Anno Domini 1722.
Jan Harberdinck (LS)
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Signed sealed delivered and declared by the testator John Harberdinck to be his
last will and testament in the presence of
John French Will Walling John Taylor Allane Jaratt
William Burnet Esq. Captain General and Governor in chiefl of the Prinvince of
New York New Jersey and territories thereon depending in America and vice
admiral of the same &c
[p. 517]
To all to whom these presents shall come or may concern greeting know ye that
at New York the seventh day of ffebruary instant the last will and testament of
John Harberdinck was proved approved and allowed of by me having while he
lived and at the time of his death goods chattells and credits on divers places
within this province by means whereof the full disposition of all and singular the
goods chattells and credits of the said deceased and the granting administration
of the also the hearing of account calculation or reckoning and the final discharge
and dismission from the same me soly and not unto any other inferiour judge are
manifested known to belong and the adminstration of all and singular the goods
chattells and credits of the said deceased and his last will and testament in any
manner of ways concerning them is granted unto Barnet Van Kleeck and
Johannes Hardenbroock the executors in the said last will and testament named
Mayken Harberdinck the executrix in the said last will and testament having
renounced the same under her hand and seal chiefly of well and truly
administering the same and of making a true and perfect inventory of all and
singular the goods chattels and credits of the said deceased and exhibiting the
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same into the registry of the prerogative court in the secretary office of the said
Province of New York at or before the seaventh day of August next ensueing and
of rendering a just and true account of said administration when thereunto
required In testimony whereof I have caused the prerogative seal of said
Province of New York to be hereunto affixed at New York this seventh day of
ffebruary Anno Domini 1723
Is Bobin DSecry
Notes
1. Marriages from 1639 to 1801 in the Reformed Dutch Church, New Amsterdam,
New York City, in Collections of the New York Genealogical and Biographical
Society, vol. 9, reprint of work originally published as vol. 1 (New York, 1940), p.
32. For locations of Bocholt and other similarly named towns, see The Times
Atlas of the World, comprehensive edition, produced by The Times of London in
collaboration with John Bartholomew & Son Ltd, Edinburgh (Boston: Houghton
Mifflin Company, 1967), Bocholt (Germany), map 63, location E 9; Bocholtz
(Netherlands), 60 U 17; Bocholt (Belgium), 61 N 2; Boekhoute (Belgium), 61 E 1.
2. Oxford English Dictionary, under the words Belgium, belgic.
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3. David M. Riker, Genealogical and Biographical Directory to Persons in New
Netherland from 1613 to 1674, 4 vols. (Mechanicsburg, Pa., 1999), vol. 2,
unpaged (alphabetical order, under Harpendinck). The article cites no specific
source for the information on the name of the ship, or on the date of immigration.
4. A printed passenger list of the Stetin, September 1663, lists "Grietje
Hargeringh, Jan Hargeringh, from Newenhuys." The German town of Neuenhaus
is next to the Netherlandish border; the closest town of considerable size is
Enschede, about 20 miles to the south. Source: ship passenger lists printed
under heading: "Early Immigrants to New Netherland; 1657-1664," in E. B.
O'Callaghan, The Documentary History of the State of New-York, 4 vols. (Albany:
Weed, Parsons, & Co., 1849-1851), vol. 3 (1850), pp. 52-63; see p. 62.
5. Rosalie Fellows Bailey, "Emigrants to New Netherland," The New York
Genealogical and Biographical Record, vol. 94, no. 4 (October 1963), pp. 189200; see p. 197 on De Statyn.
6. "A List of Early Immigrants to New Netherland," The New York Genealogical
and Biographical Record, vol. 14, no. 4 (October 1883), pp. 181-190 (see pp.
181, 188). The list is continued in vol. 15, no. 1 (January 1884), pp. 34-40; vol.
15, no. 2 (April 1884), pp. 72-77.
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
7. "Records of the Reformed Dutch Church in the City of New York--Church
Members' List," The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, vol. 9, no.
2 (April 1878), p. 76.
8. See note by Rosalie Fellows Bailey, in "Emigrants to New Netherland," The
New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, vol. 94, no. 4 (October 1963),
p. 197.
9. "Records of the Reformed Dutch Church in the City of New York--Church
Members' List," The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, vol. 9, no.
2 (April 1878), p. 77, as "Jan Harberding."
10. "Records of the Reformed Dutch Church in the City of New York--Church
Members' List," The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, vol. 9, no.
2 (April 1878), p. 74, as "Maÿ ken Barents."
11. Howard S. F. Randolph, "The Lewis Family of New York and Poughkeepsie,"
The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, vol. 60, no. 2 (April 1929),
pp. 131-136, on Thomas Lewis.
12. Records of the Reformed Dutch Church in New Amsterdam and New York:
Baptisms from 25 December, 1639, to 27 December, 1730, edited by Thomas
Grier Evans, in Collections of the New York Genealogical and Biographical
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
Society, vol. 2 (New York, 1901; reprinted at Upper Saddle River, N.J.: The
Gregg Press, 1968), p. 92.
13. Marriages from 1639 to 1801 in the Reformed Dutch Church, New
Amsterdam, New York City, p. 124. Records of the Reformed Dutch Church in
New Amsterdam and New York: Baptisms from 25 December, 1639, to 27
December, 1730, p. 395. There is also record of one Hans Jacobszen
Harberding, and his wife Geertie Lamberts, who had a daughter named Frena,
born August 26, 1671; see Baptisms, p. 103.
14. The term "cordwainer" is derived from the word "cordovan," a kind of leather
originally made in the Spanish city of Cordova (as the name is traditionally
spelled in English; Spanish Córdoba).
15. The Burghers of New Amsterdam and the Freemen of New York 1675-1866,
in Collections of the New-York Historical Society for the year 1885 (New York:
The New-York Historical Society, 1886), p. 94 (freeman). Minutes of the
Common Council of the City of New York 1675-1776, 8 vols. (New York: Dodd,
Mead and Company, 1905), vol. 3, p. 279 (constable).
16. The Records of New Amsterdam from 1653 to 1674 Anno Domini, edited by
Berthold Fernow, 7 vols. (New York, 1897; reprint, Baltimore: Genealogical
Publishing Co., 1976), vol. 6, p. 273.
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
17. The Records of New Amsterdam from 1653 to 1674, vol. 6, pp. 282, 284,
288, 290; vol. 7, pp. 115, 119.
18. Minutes of the Common Council of the City of New York 1675-1776, 8 vols.
(New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1905), vol. 1, pp. 21-22.
19. Minutes of the Common Council, vol. 1, p. 24.
20. Valentine's Manual for 1866, pp. 805-809.
21. Minutes of the Common Council, vol. 1, p. 32.
22. Minutes of the Common Countcil, vol. 1, p. 56. July 24, 1677.
23. See Records of the Reformed Dutch Church in New Amsterdam and New
York: Baptisms from 25 December, 1639, to 27 December, 1730: witnesses with
surname Harberdinck, and variant spellings (John, Mayken, or relatives of theirs)
appear on: pp. 85 (1667), 116 (1674 twice), 117 (1675), 119 (1675), 131 (1678),
142 (1680), 147 (1681), 152 (1682), 159 (1683), 184 (1688), 192 (1689), 196
(1690), 199 (1690), 200 (1690), 212 (1693), 218 (1694), 220 (1694), 221 (1694),
227 (1695), 245 (1697), 257 (1699), 272 (1701), 280 (1702), 287 (1702), 385
(1715).
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24. See Abstracts of Wills on File in the Surrogate's Office, City of New York, vol.
1, in Collections of the New-York Historical Society for the year 1892, vol. 25
(New York: New-York Historical Society, 1893), pp. 220 (1693), 221 (1693), 228
(1693), 230-231 (1694), 235 (1694), 242 (1694), 247 (1693), 260-261 (1696),
272 (no date), 351 (1688), 355 (1695), 473 (1684). See also: Abstracts, vol. 2,
Collections, vol. 26 for 1893 (New York, 1894), pp. 23 (1708), 36 (1710), 58
(1704), 165 (1708), 268 (1713), 283-285 (1722), 437 (1684), 465 (ca. 1680?).
See also: Abstracts, vol. 3, Collections vol. 27 for 1894 (New York, 1895), p. 312
(mention of land formerly owned by Harberdinck); Abstracts, vol. 4, Collections,
vol. 28 for 1895 (New York, 1896), p. 226 (mention of land formerly owned by
Harberdinck). In his capacity as executor, Harberdinck is also mentioned in
various estate inventories of the period; see Kenneth Scott, and James A. Owre,
Genealogical Data from Inventories of New York Estates 1666-1825 (New York,
1970), pp. 23 (1694), 93 (1694), 105 (1702), 151 (1700), 158 (1694), 159-160
(1697). Note that in Abstracts, vol. 2, p. 268, the will of Thomas Hooke, Jr.
mentions his "uncle" John Harperdinck, named as an estate administrator. It
would require further research to identify the exact nature of this family
connection; however, the statement given in this record would appear to
constitute a clue to further genealogical information on the family.
25. As of 1727, the seven wards were: West Ward, South Ward, Dock Ward,
East Ward, North Ward, Montgomerie Ward, and Out Ward. See the map titled
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
"A Plan of the City of New York from an actual Survey Made by James Lyne," as
reproduced by Paul E. Cohen and Robert T. Augustyn, Manhattan in Maps 15271995 (New York: Rizzoli, 1997), pp. 54-56.
26. Edmund Bailey O'Callaghan, Lists of Inhabitants of Colonial New York,
Excerpted from the Documentary History of the State of New-York, indexed by
Rosanne Conway (Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1979), p.
34. The author's Documentary History of the State of New-York, 4 vols. was
originally published in 1849-1851.
27. Valentine's Manual for 1865, p. 535.
28. New York City wills, Liber 8, pp. 440-446 (old liber), pp. 509-517 (present
liber). Text seen on microfilm at the library of the New York Genealogical and
Biographical Society. Abstract of will in Abstracts of Wills on File in the
Surrogate's Office, City of New York, vol. 2, in Collections of the New-York
Historical Society for the year 1893, vol. 26 (New York: New-York Historical
Society, 1894), pp. 283-285.
29. Text transcribed from microfilm at the library of the New York Genealogical
and Biographical Society.
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Appendix B
The New Amsterdam History Center
”A First Stop for
Visitors to Lower Manhattan”
Preliminary Concept
American History Workshop
Dr. Richard Rabinowitz
Dr. Jan Seidler Ramirez
January 1, 2005
Introduction
The New Amsterdam History Center is an idea 350 years
overdue. It comes, opportunely, at a moment when greater
attention is being paid to Lower Manhattan than in many
years. The tragedy of 9/11 has also forced many New Yorkers
to ponder the nature of their astonishing city, and to
strengthen their attachment to its past, present, and
future. The rebuilding of the World Trade Center area and
the creation of a memorial and interpretive center for the
victims of 9/11 dovetails with the recent emergence of the
area as a setting for many new and expanding cultural
institutions.16
There are other auspicious signs. The superb scholarly
editing of the long-inaccessible records of the New
Netherland colony by Dr. Charles Gehring has sparked a
reassertion of New York’s key role in the nation’s history.
Russell Shorto’s evocative rendering of that story, The
Island at the Center of the World, has sold more than 60,000
copies in less than a year. For three centuries, New York
has taken a back seat to New England and Virginia in the
16
The restored Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty National Memorial; the National Museum of the
American Indian at the Custom House in Bowling Green; the New York Holocaust Memorial – Museum of
Jewish Heritage; the Museum of American Financial History; the Skyscraper Museum; as well as a new
sports museum; and a woman’s history center. In addition, the plans for a rebuilt Ground Zero include new
buildings for the Joyce International Dance Theatre, the Signature Theatre, the Drawing Center, and a new
International Freedom Center.
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
classroom
history
curriculum.
Boston,
Philadelphia,
Williamsburg, and Charleston have long occupied leading
roles in the popular staging of America’s past. New York has
seemed a place only of the future, not the past. No longer.
The rebuilding of lower Manhattan with an eye to its
powerful role in American history, a skilled celebration of
the quatercentennial of Henry Hudson’s voyage in 2009, and
the work of scholars and public historians, will forcefully
restore New York City and New York State’s centrality to the
national narrative.
Past and future will meet here. The “Shoemaker’s Field”
properties owned by the Collegiate Church since the early
18th century may also be linked to the futuristic facilities
emerging from the reconstruction. The landmark Corbin
Building, for example, may conceivably be integrated into
the new Fulton Street Transit Center. Right at this place, a
flood of new visitors will confront a fresh new gateway to
New York’s past.
Public Value, Institutional Character, and Key Audiences
The New Amsterdam History Center focuses on a single
powerful idea: The history of NYC, which has been enormously
important in shaping the lives of everyone alive today,
begins HERE. Making that point forcefully will provide a
unique service to New Yorkers and their guests. No other
interpretive site offers a quick, conveniently accessible,
and engaging public orientation to the history and historic
character of the city. Unlike more general visitors’
centers, this will not be primarily a place for advertising
attractions, restaurants, shopping, and accommodations. This
one says that here, in 1626 as in 2001 and in any future we
can imagine, is where the action is.
The site of the New Amsterdam History Center suggests that
it has to attract and satisfy at least four kinds of
visitors.
First, there are the pilgrims to Ground Zero,
anticipated by some to number more than ten million per
year when the complex is rebuilt. Confronting a wide
variety of attractions competing for their time, and
eager first to pay their respects at the 9/11 Memorial
and Memorial Center, such visitors are likely to stop
only momentarily at the History Center, get their
(historical and navigational) bearings, and move on.
Second, there are visitors, many of them residents of
the metropolitan area, who are interested in exploring
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
the history of the city and for whom the History Center
can be a gathering place, a jumping-off zone for such
investigations. Some of the pilgrims may join this
stream of visitors after they have toured the 9/11
sites. Of special interest are those sites that are
closely tied to the Core Themes of the History Center —
e.g., the Half Moon and other tall ships moored at the
World Financial Center; the South Street Seaport
Museum, the National Museum of the American Indian –
Heye Center at the Custom House in Bowling Green,
Governor’s Island, and guided tours of downtown. As
with the first group, these are likely to be
heterogeneous in age and levels of experience and
interest. Programs should seek to capitalize on the
desire of such visitors for intergenerational learning
experiences. Only when the whole group is pleased is
the learning likely to be effective.
Third, there are foreign visitors whose experiences in
New York would be much enriched by the city’s public
acknowledgment of its roots in other places. New
Yorkers pride themselves on our cosmopolitanism and
have the possibility, after all, of linking their own
story to those of all the world’s people.
Fourth, there are educational groups, adults and
children, for whom the History Center can provide a
needed resource base for a sustained field study of
this great urban nexus.
In all these cases, the New Amsterdam History Center will be
an informational and experiential port, not a center city in
itself. It will not compete with the other institutions in
the immediate and regional vicinity that collect, preserve,
and interpret the history of New Amsterdam and New York. In
fact, it will serve as a showcase for many such
organizations, giving their work greater visibility and
encouraging downtown visitors to explore further.
In
addition
to
these
audiences,
there
are
smaller
stakeholder groups that are vitally important in laying the
seeds for long-term program growth.
Local history enthusiasts are always looking for venues
capable of surprising and fortifying them with new
insights and information; they will supply volunteer
help in greeting and interpreting to visitors, and they
will provide help in expanding the Center’s changing
menu of learning opportunities.
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
Area residents and downtown families are particularly
interested in widening opportunities for lively,
educationally grounded activities for younger children,
after school, on weekends, and during school vacations.
Visitors who want to recognize their Dutch heritage and
their ties to New Amsterdam will be supportive of the
History Center and eager to develop links with other
genealogical resources.
Encountering all these groups, the History Center core staff
should aim to be welcoming, engaging, helpful, responsive,
and versatile. The Center’s public presence is more
important than scholarly or curatorial expertise. The
operation of the History Center should always be driven by a
front-line staff that is “hired for attitude and trained for
skill.”
The physical History Center is paralleled by a virtual one.
Its interpretive and educational mission will be “sticky”
and broad enough to attract links to other museums, historic
sites, repositories, and educational resources. It should
make special efforts to tie its program to Websites in the
Netherlands, in other cities that have emerged from the age
of
waterborne
commerce
and
colonization,
and
to
organizations interested in the history of indigenous
American peoples and local ecology.
Mission
The New Amsterdam History Center encourages the public
exploration of the early history of New Amsterdam and New
York, its diverse peoples, landscapes, and institutions, and
its legacy for all the peoples of the world today.
Core Themes
The New Amsterdam History Center takes as its intellectual
province a broad and inclusive reading of the circumstances,
evolution, and diverse legacies of the Dutch settlement on
Manhattan for American and global history. We are enormously
fortunate to be able to take advantage of the gigantic
scholarly achievement of Charles Gehring of the New York
State Library and the New Netherland Institute and of the
recent gem of popular history, Russell Shorto’s The Island
at the Center of the World.
The History Center will focus on the following areas:
GEOGRAPHY
Reconstructing the initial encounters of
Europeans with the 17th-century landscape of
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Manhattan requires a careful rendering of the
topographical,
botanical,
and
zoological
character of the place. The Center will view
this world from the multiple perspectives of
the
time
(from
a
diversity
of
Indian
viewpoints, as well as from those coming from
Europe),
and
from
a
broad
scientific
perspective (looking at the effects of
glaciation,
climate
change,
species
competition,
and
the
impact
of
human
populations on the ecology). These broad
flowing rivers, fresh water springs, and
hilly, well-wooded areas, were astonishing to
17th-century Europeans coming from a flat
countryside almost denuded of woodlands. In
addition, the economic geography of the
region is a critical determinant in its
subsequent history; the natural abundance of
fur-bearing
animals,
shellfish,
useful
minerals, and a fertile, alluvial soil that
had been conditioned for wheat cultivation by
pre-contact agriculture. As Europeans after
1600 learned that all that glitters in the
New World is not gold or silver, New
Netherland offered much of value.
PEOPLE
New Amsterdam represented one of the most
interesting
confluences
of
humanity
in
history. Europeans and Africans from every
corner of two continents, many of them
veterans of previous settlements in the
Western Hemisphere, brought at least eighteen
different languages and a host of technical,
commercial, and agricultural skills to the
shores of Manhattan. Here they met and
interacted with a wide variety of Indian
peoples, themselves already economically and
militarily competitive and interdependent.
New Amsterdam was indeed Dutch in government
for its half-century of life, but the Dutch
were
themselves
undergoing
a
rapid
transformation. Many of the ways modern
people see the world were being invented in
Holland just as New Amsterdam was being
created – like the words for “landscape” and
“still life,” which were first coined in the
17th-century Netherlands. The idea of a
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community as a collection of gathered souls,
basic to Reformation Protestantism in England
as well as the Netherlands, was critical to
the notion of the body politic living under a
transparent legal system.
A GLOBAL
MARKETPLACE
There
had
been
trade
among
far-flung
populations since ancient times, but the
interconnections that followed the voyages of
Columbus
were
unprecedented.
Within
a
century, there was a worldwide flow of ideas,
capital, peoples, technologies, works of art
and craft, mineral treasures, and botanical
specimens. By the 17th century, the economy of
every local region in Western Europe was
feeling the pressure and the opportunity of
trade beyond the seas. The audacity of the
global
systems
created
in
these
years
astounds us today. Specialty commodities,
especially of tropical crops like sugar,
spices, coffee, tea, cacao, mahogany, and
opium,
became
the
foundation
for
new
agricultural plantations.
In more temperate climates like Western
Europe and North America, locals developed
products that could be exchanged for these
valuable imports — iron and steel goods,
armaments, ships and naval stores, even
trinkets and baubles useful for trade with
indigenous people in Africa, Asia, and the
Americas. New Netherland, which began as a
military outpost, first exploited its access
to furs, but soon turned to the production of
grain and packed meats as its economic
lifeline.
To
all
these
crops,
a
more
nefarious trafficking in human beings was
added. Europeans found themselves unable to
marshal enough emigrants to work the new
plantations of the New World and gradually
built up an enormous slave trade. About
twelve million Africans were transported to
enslavement in the Americas, with many more
lives destroyed as a by-product of the trade.
The Dutch did not introduce trade to the
Hudson Valley. By the time they and other
Europeans
arrived,
native
Americans
had
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fashioned
a
universal
“monetary”
system
through
the
exchange
of
wampum.
Trade
patterns already connected the seaboard to
the Great Lakes and beyond.
PLURALISM
The Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam,
multinational and multilingual, partook of
the mother country’s innovative spirit of
religious toleration and quickly accorded
freedom to worship to a wide variety of
Europeans. Forging a strong national sense of
themselves after an 80-year-long struggle for
independence against Spain, the Dutch saw
themselves tied together ideologically (but
not necessarily ethnically) as God’s “New
Israel.” New Amsterdam was thus radically
different
from
utopian
communities
like
Plimoth
and
Massachusetts
Bay.
In
one
respect,
however,
tolerance
was
sadly
wanting. As the colony tied itself into the
triangular
trade
with
Caribbean
sugar
islands, it supported the enslavement of subSaharan
Africans
and
the
gradual
identification of slavery with skin color, a
process that was completed and rigidified
under British rule by the early 18th century.
POLITICS and
GOVERNMENT
New Netherland started as a military and
commercial outpost of the Dutch West India
Company, akin to other points on the Dutch
map of the world like Curaçao or the East
Indies. As it struggled toward economic
viability as a farming and trading community,
its inhabitants struggled with the Company’s
imperious local leadership. The struggle led
to a more self-consciously self-governing
municipality and, ultimately, to the earliest
chartered cities in North America.
A much broader range of themes may be explored in loan
exhibits, educational programs, film series, and other
public events.
Components of the New Amsterdam History Center
Here is a preliminary outline of the facilities required to
achieve the goals set forth in this concept statement.
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Orientation Area (free zone)
Visitors are welcomed here and provided with a menu of
the History Center’s program and the offerings of its
partner institutions. They may schedule (and purchase)
later tours of the Center, other programs, or of the
city itself. For many visitors, this will be the only
point of contact with the History Center, if they
decide not to visit the exhibits within, but they
should at least be informed through simple graphic or
media displays that “New York begins here.”
Introductory Program (pay zone)
To paraphrase one participant at our December 15
meeting, visitors should be introduced to “the most
compelling untold story in American history.” There are
many different options to explore in the media best
suited for this program, but some criteria are worth
specifying here. It should be experientially rich, that
is, visitors should feel as though they personally are
embarking on a journey through time. The program will
focus primarily on story telling rather than on the
presentation of original objects or documents. It
should, therefore, employ some innovative interactive
media rather than conventional museum displays and seek
to implant a number of key thematic and visual ideas
that can be reinforced in later experiences that day or
subsequently. Since it is emphasizing the early history
of Europeans in the New York area, the introduction
should also present visitors with a clear chronology.
As Russell Shorto’s recent book demonstrates, Americans
are not at all aware of how New Amsterdam and New York
shaped the character of our national life and culture.
Typically, introductory films are designed to play in
small, purpose-built theaters. Often these incorporate
bits of stagecraft — a 3-D “ship” moves across one side
of the room, a doorway opens to reveal another scene
within, or lights play on a variety of displayed
objects. For group visits, such “fill-and-spill”
programs are best, as they get the whole group started
at the same time. In some settings, where visitation
varies widely through the year, a walk-through media
presentation can be more compelling. Visitors would
walk through a sequence of media-rich chambers,
chapters of the story. This approach avoids giving offseason visitors the sense of sitting alone in a largely
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empty room, and it allows for a more even pulsing of
entrants into the program at busier seasons. During the
master planning phase, the History Center will decide
between these two alternatives.
The content of the introductory program will likely be
based on some version of a “trip back in time.” Filming
live actors in realistically re-created settings is
always a bit tricky, but it is possible to populate
historic scenes with the shadowy presence and voices of
people from the past. Powerful landscape cinematography
— of the Dutch landscape, of the open ocean in a wooden
ship, of the astonishingly beautiful valley of the
Hudson — will be a real plus in this program.
New technologies will allow individual visitors to wear
badges (or even sound-receiving helmets) that have
built-in transponders. This enables visitors to pursue
personalized pathways through the program. They can be
customized to present the story in different languages,
or in a manner that caters to the interests and
vocabulary of ten-year-olds. Visitors can follow the
life-story
of
individual
Dutch,
English,
Igbo,
Canarsee, or Delaware characters through the events of
1609-64. Simulation and role-playing can become part of
the script as well, with families making decisions
together about their futures in the New Amsterdam
colony.
Alternately, visitors could play the role of forensic
scientists (“CSI New Amsterdam”), sifting through
archaeological and historical evidence, decoding secret
documents, and creating computer simulations of various
events and places to solve mysteries about the past.
The Coffeehouse / Tavern / Shop
A Coffeehouse / Tavern should be built right into the
middle of the exhibit, offering refreshments but also a
chance for families and groups to share their midcourse impressions of the dramatic program they have
been
experiencing.
(The
major
downside
to
new
personalized guides to museums and historic sites is
that they may isolate family members from one another
during the course of a tour; by allowing them to
regroup midway, this deficiency is overcome.) The
Coffeehouse is also an opportunity to create a densely
atmospheric sense of 17th-century New Amsterdam.
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Through the mock-windows of the establishment, the
ordinary and extraordinary events of the colony’s life,
can be presented on video screens. The Coffeehouse may
be leased to a concessionaire.
The Coffeehouse should also contain a small shop,
focusing on books, maps, CDs, posters, and other
material about early New York history. The shop should
be run by the History Center itself, and will provide a
significant share of its earned income.
Local residents, eager to make downtown into a 24-7
community, will appreciate the opportunity to use the
Coffeehouse as a performance venue after the tourist
day is over. Local artists could also be invited to
participate in creating installation and interpretive
programs designed for visitors.
Temporary Exhibits (pay zone)
“Featured Soloists: Treasures of the Past”
The Walk Back In Time program should be accompanied by
a regularly rotating display of archival documents and
objects, which have the power to convince visitors that
they
are
seeing
something
enormously
valuable,
irreplaceable, and “real.” The power of real objects
and well-attested historical documents can scarcely be
overestimated. A small number of original pieces,
exhibited in a secure, climate-controlled, and flexible
space, must also include well-designed interpretive
aids
(transcriptions,
translations,
enlargements,
opportunities
to
examine
the
object’s
physical
characteristics). This feature also exemplifies the
Center’s
commitment
to
collaboration
with
its
institutional and private collecting partners.
Examples could include:


The charred timbers, swivel deck gun and cannon
from Capt. Adrian Block’s 1613 burned ship “The
Tiger” recovered during successive 20th-century
excavations in lower Manhattan, on deposit at
the Museum of the City of New York
The Beekman kas or kasten, brought to New
Amsterdam by a 17th-century Dutch emigrant and
used to preserve keepsakes and the family’s
cultural identity for eight generations, until
its donation to the New-York Historical Society
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building

The Flushing Remonstrance, a seminal colonial
document from the New York State Archives

Treasures
borrowed
from
libraries
repositories in the Netherlands
Special Topical Exhibits
and
These could be curated with or by, borrowed, or adapted
from outside institutions on the Center’s advising
resource committee such as the Albany Institute of
History and Art; the American Museum of Natural
History; the Collegiate Church Archives; the Dyckman
House in Washington Heights; Historic Hudson Valley;
the Hudson River Museum; the Manhattan Children’s
Museum; the Museum of American Financial History; the
Museum of the City of New York; the Museum of Jewish
Heritage; the National Museum of the American Indian;
the New Jersey Historical Society; the New Netherland
Institute; the New Netherland Museum/Half Moon; the
New-York Historical Society; the New York Public
Library; the New York State Museum and Archives; the
South Street Seaport Museum; the Wyckoff and Lott house
museums in Brooklyn; and others.
Examples, which are endless, could include:
1) “Childhood in New Amsterdam,” to be developed with
the Manhattan Children’s Museum
2) “Slavery and the Dutch,” to be developed with the
Schomburg Center of the New York Public Library and the
African Burial Ground project
3) “Dutch Shipbuilding and Navigation in the 17th
Century,” to be developed with South Street Seaport
Museum, Half Moon, and the Zuider Zee Museum
4) Rotating exhibits investigating the lure and profit
values of specific commodities that drove global
exploration and tensions in the 17th-century
— e.g.,
sugar, salt, timber, cod, spices, animal furs. These
would ideally be launched with a special exhibition
about the fluctuations of the trade in beaver pelts in
colonial New Netherland, developed collaboratively with
the American Museum of Natural History.
5) “The Amsterdam Left Behind,” exploring the culture,
trade, belief systems, and state of “opportunities” in
New Amsterdam’s contemporaneous namesake city in
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Holland, to be developed with the Amsterdam Historical
Museum.
6) “The Mystery and Mining of New Amsterdam’s Forgotten
Documents,” based on Russell Shorto’s discussion of the
records-cleansing by the Dutch West India Company in
the 1700s; the migrations of surviving documents from
early New Netherland settlements to Europe, and
eventually back to Albany; the challenges of preserving
and decoding them; and what recent translation efforts
and new scholarship focused on such records have
revealed about the nature of life in New Amsterdam), to
be curated by the New Netherland Institute.
7) “New Amsterdam North”: 17th-century Fort Orange /
Beaverwyck, a show adapted from Charles Gehring’s 2006
exhibition in Albany
8) “Defending New Amsterdam” would explore the erratic
efforts to sustain fortifications and various military
strategies undertaken to consolidate the colony’s
power; to be developed in partnership with Historic
Battery Park; Governor’s Island Preservation and
Education Corporation; and the National Museum of the
American Indian.
9) “Feeding the Colony” would investigate foodways;
animal husbandry, breweries; melding of old, new, and
native
American “cuisines,” to be developed in
partnership with the Albany Institute of History and
Art, with Peter Rose, the leading culinary scholar of
Dutch foodways in the New World.
10) “The Evolution of Christmas in New York: How the
Dutch Made St. Nicholas into Santa Claus,”to be
developed in partnership with the New-York Historical
Society.
11) “The $24 Myth,” based on the 1999 school-oriented
exhibition at the New-York Historical Society, which
explored
the facts
and fantasy surrounding the
celebrated purchase of Manhattan in 1626; these exhibit
scripts and didactic panels could be recreated.
12) “Testing Tolerance” would investigate the motives
and
realities
of
Dutch
relationships
with
New
Amsterdam’s dissenting immigrants — Jews, Africans,
Native peoples, English pirates and Long Islanders,
Swedes, and other players in the New Netherland saga;
to be developed in collaboration with the Museum of
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Jewish Heritage, the NMIA, and the proposed
Museum to Tolerance/Governor’s Island.
Living
Programmatic Attractions (grant-supported)
Teaching and Learning Center
The New Amsterdam History Center will make a special
effort to accommodate and support the work of
elementary and secondary school teachers and students,
and other developers of educational programs relating
to its Core Themes, across the metropolitan area. The
History Center will develop and offer its own field
study programs. These will involve an active engagement
with the exhibits offered at the History Center, tours
of downtown Manhattan, and special programs that
involve sister institutions. The excellent educational
work of the New Netherland Museum/Half Moon should be a
model for this process.
These educational programs should always aim to
integrate
the
on-site
visit
experience
into
a
curricular program of pre- and post-visit classroom
exercises. The visit to the Center will not, therefore,
be just a day out of school but a special opportunity
to bring the in-school learning experience to life.
There should always be an emphasis on learning
experiences that are not ordinarily available in the
classroom; lecturing and showing slides to children is
not a good use of their precious time away from school.
A school visit “workshop” will provide special in-depth
learning opportunities for student groups coming to the
History Center. It may include hands-on activities like
making maps or models of early New Amsterdam,
investigating
carefully
made
reproductions
of
historical
documents
and
artifacts,
role-playing
historical
situations,
and
gathering
ideas,
information, and images for classroom-based exercises.
Rather than develop its own curricula per se, the
History Center will assist teachers, supervisors, and
administrators
in
creating
curricula
that
adopt
historical and community resources (like historic sites
and geographical features) for use in their educational
programs. Adjoining the student workshop will be a
library/laboratory for teachers to use in development
and training sessions. The Teacher Center should be
stocked with reference materials, computers with access
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building
to Websites with valuable resources, and hard-copy
examples of successful programs developed by other
teachers — all of which can be borrowed or duplicated
by participating teachers. The Teacher Center could
house programs sponsored by the city’s Education
Department, teacher unions, colleges and universities,
and community education specialists.
A special commitment should be made to the sister
cultural institutions of the History Center. Many area
museums and historic sites already have school and
family programs that address aspects of New York’s
Dutch colonial past. Annually, a delegation drawn from
such groups should be invited to show off their
programs to teachers at “A Program Slam” at the History
Center. Here they can distribute their literature and
introduce their sites to people organizing educational
programs for adults and children.
The Teaching and Learning Center will also accommodate
special programs developed for youth groups like the
Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, for special groups visiting
from the Netherlands, and for annual Elderhostel and
other lifelong learning courses.
Annual Cycle of Special Public Programs
These would include talks, workshops, family projects,
book discussions, and field visits that are of
consistently high caliber, seasonally attuned, and
rigorously on topic. Suggestions include an annual St.
Nicholas Day party for downtown families; a narrated,
summer sail on the Half Moon; a Dutch “family
genealogy” workshop co-hosted by the Holland Society or
New York Genealogical and Biographical Library; fall
and winter talks by eminent historians, authors, or
filmmakers.
Annual Dutch History Fair
This weekend event, with scholarly papers, popular
presentations, performances, and
special thematic
tours, could be co-sponsored with CUNY’s Gotham Center,
the New Netherland Institute, the Holland Society, and
the New Netherland Museum / Half Moon.
Mini-archaeology Laboratory
Because the South Street Seaport Museum has shut its
archaeology lab for lack of funds to sustain it, a
portion of those collections might be transferred on
loan to the Center, with a didactic panel exhibit about
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how modern urban archaeology in lower Manhattan is
contributing to our understanding of New Amsterdam.
These “shards” from the past could make an interesting,
interpretive display within the coffee house setting,
too.
Preliminary Summary of Space Requirements
Welcome, orientation, visitor services
Introductory exhibition experience
Changing exhibition gallery
Student workshop
Teacher center/library/conference room
Mini-Archaeology lab
Coffee-house/Tavern/Shop
Offices, support
Total
Long-Term Evolution
500
3,000
2,500
1,250
750
400
1,000
1,250
sq
sq
sq
sq
sq
sq
sq
sq
ft
ft
ft
ft
ft
ft
ft
ft
10,650 sq ft
Once the History Center is up and running, it can consider
expanding its mission. The institution, originating in an
impulse to offer public and educational programs, will be
most strengthened in the long run by enhancing its
intellectual resources. The likeliest direction of future
development, then, would be the creation of a downtown
headquarters for a consortium of historical agencies
concerned with the history of New Amsterdam and the Dutch
legacy
in
New
York’s
evolution.
This
would
entail
collaboration with the New Netherland Institute, the
Collegiate Church Archives, the Holland Society, the New
Netherland Museum/Half Moon, and others. A possible model,
though perhaps more ambitious, is the Center for Jewish
History on 16th Street in Manhattan, which has brought
together five major institutions of Jewish scholarship.
A Strategy for Development
Only a few elemental principles for developing the History
Center can be addressed here. A full strategic master plan
should be undertaken as soon as possible, bringing together
organizational, programmatic, financial, fund-raising, and
design considerations. This plan would test the preliminary
concept outlined here, and elaborate it carefully. The
result would be a vision understood, shared, and strongly
supported by the Center’s key stakeholders, and a road map
that could be confidently followed up through Opening Day
and the first five years of operation.
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It is best to underpromise and overdeliver. Given the
grandeur and monumentality of the surrounding planning
projects, the New Amsterdam History Center should find its
niche as a well-designed response to a narrowly defined set
of questions for a self-selecting audience. It is better to
open with a program of modest scale and excellent execution,
and with a “sticky” concept that will attract donors,
visitors, and partners eager to build on that early success.
Careful
formative
evaluation
is
a
vital
part
of
institutional planning. Such projects may often be diverted
by short-term funding opportunities, or they get stuck on
ineffective and outdated ideas for themes and media
presentations. Only a constant testing of the interest and
support of a variety of stakeholders can keep the History
Center moving forward toward a realization of its deepest
vision.
In the volatile development landscape of lower Manhattan, it
is critical for the History Center to stay attuned to the
plans of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and the
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Similarly, the occasion of
the state’s commemoration of the four-hundredth anniversary
of Henry Hudson’s voyage in 2009 should give the New
Amsterdam History Center a prominent role.
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