EVIDENCE OF FIRST HUMAN INHABITANTS IN THIS REGION. THEIR ORIGIN IS HOTLY DEBATED, BUT THEORIES INCLUDE MIGRATIONS FROM SOUTHERN SIBERIA ON FOOT VIA THE BERING LAND BRIDGE AND MIGRATIONS BY BOAT FROM WESTERN EUROPE VIA THE ATLANTIC.

APPROXIMATELY 1000 BCE - 1626 CE  

POPULATED AND STEWARDED BY THE MUNSEE-SPEAKING LENNI LENAPE PEOPLES. THERE WERE AN ESTIMATED 15,000 LENAPE IN THE GREATER N.Y. AREA. THE LANDSCAPE WAS GREEN AND DAMP—WITH TREES, BERRY BUSHES, BIRDS, TURTLES, RODENTS AND SOME LARGE MAMMALS. IT’S UNLIKELY THAT THERE WERE DWELLINGS IN THIS AREA, BUT LOWER LENAPEHOKING WAS A PREFERRED PLACE TO HUNT, FISH AND GATHER OYSTERS. ATTUNED HORTICULTURALISTS, THE LENAPE USED STRATEGIES LIKE CONTROLLED BURNING TO PERIODICALLY CLEAR LAND ON OTHER PARTS OF THE ISLAND FOR FARMING.

THE DUTCH WEST INDIA COMPANY “PURCHASED” LENAPEHOKING IN A SERIES OF SNEAKY TRANSACTIONS. ONE ACCOUNT, WRITTEN BY THE DUTCH, REPORTS THAT THEY PURCHASED THE SOUTHERN 23,000 ACRES OF THE ISLAND— FOR 60 GUILDERS (ABOUT $1000 TODAY) IN TRADED GOODS. HISTORIANS BELIEVE THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE WITH WHOM THEY NEGOTIATED WERE THE CANARSEE-SPEAKING LENAPE FROM BROOKLYN, RATHER THAN THE MAIN INHABITANTS OF THE ISLAND — THE MUNSEE-SPEAKING LENAPE AND WECKQUAESGEEK JUST NORTH OF HERE. IT IS ALSO DEBATED WHETHER OR NOT THE IDEA OF PRIVATE AND PERMEANT LAND OWNERSHIP WAS CLEAR TO THE INDIGENOUS NEGOTIATORS. IT IS POSSIBLE THAT THEY BELIEVED THEY WERE GRANTING THE DUTCH COMPANY ACCESS TO — RATHER THAN OWNERSHIP OF — THEIR CHOICE FISHING AND HUNTING SPOTS.

 

THE DUTCH WEST INDIA COMPANY SET UP FARMS AND HOMESTEADS SOUTH OF WHAT WOULD SOON BECOME WALL STREET AND CALLED IT NEW AMSTERDAM.

 

AFTER REPEATED AND VIOLENT DISPLACEMENT, LENAPE PEOPLE NOW LIVE PRIMARILY IN OKLAHOMA, KANSAS, WISCONSIN, NEW JERSEY AND ONTARIO, CANADA

 

THIS PLOT WAS PART OF A LARGER AREA GRANTED TO “BASTIAEN NEGRO”, BORN SEBASTIAEN DE BRITTO, A FORMERLY ENSLAVED MAN OF AFRICAN DESCENT WHO HAD BEEN KIDNAPPED IN SANTO DOMINGO BY THE DUTCH WEST INDIA COMPANY. ONCE A SHIP CAPTAIN, DE BRITTO HELD A CAPTAIN STATUS AMONGST THE OTHER ENSLAVED PEOPLE IN NEW AMSTERDAM. HE WAS GIVEN THIS LAND AND HIS FULL FREEDOM, ALONGSIDE SEVERAL OTHER ENSLAVED PERSONS WHO WERE GRANTED ADJACENT LAND AND PARTIAL FREEDOM UNDER THE “HALF-FREEDOM PLAN”. THESE BLACK FARMERS WERE POSITIONED NORTH OF WALL STREET (WHERE A WALL WAS SOON BUILT) AND USED AS A BUFFER BETWEEN THE DUTCH TO THE SOUTH AND THE LENAPE TO THE NORTH.

 

LAND GRANTED BY PETRUS (PETER) STUYVESANT TO PAULUS HEYMANS, REFERRED TO AS “OVERSEER OF NEGROES”

TRANSFERRED TO RYCK HENDRICKS

TRANSFERRED TO CORNELYS AARTSEN, A FRIEND OF STUYVESANTS, AND A MAJOR DONOR TO THE CITY’S DEFENSE BUDGET.

 

THE BRITISH CONQUERED AND TOOK OVER THE COLONY. NEW AMSTERDAM BECAME

NEW YORK.

 

REGRANTED BY GOVERNOR FRANCIS LOVELACE TO THE CHILDREN AND HEIRS OF CORNELYS AARTSEN — ARIAEN CORNELISSEN, HENDRICK CORNELISSEN, LYSBETH CORNELISSEN

PURCHASED BY JOHN BERRY, A BRITISH ROYAL NAVAL CAPTAIN WHO WAS ALSO GRANTED A LARGE PARCEL OF LAND BY OFFICIALS IN NEW JERSEY, THOUGH THAT LAND WAS OCCUPIED BY THE LENAPE. BERRY LATER SERVED AS DEPUTY GOVERNOR OF NEW JERSEY

 

VESTED IN (INHERITED BY?) HENRY BREVOORT. THE BREVOORT FAMILY WAS ONE OF THE FIRST DUTCH FAMILIES TO ARRIVE, AND FIRST SETTLED IN BUSHWICK

 

TRANSFERRED TO BREVOORT’S HEIRS, JACOMINTIE BREVOORT, ELIAS BREVOORT,

ABRHAM BUCKEY

 

PURCHASED BY MAY BICKLEY, THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE PROVINCE.  BICKLEY HAD PROSECUTED THE ALLEGED "NEGRO PLOT OF 1712" IN WHICH 28 BLACK INDIVIDUALS WERE TRIED WITHOUT A JURY AND 21 SENTENCED TO BARBARIC DEATHS VIA TORTURE.

 

BICKLEY BUILT A MANSION ON THE PROPERTY, ABOUT A BLOCK NORTHWEST OF HERE.

 

TRANSFERRED TO MAY BICKLEY’S BROTHER BRUNE BICKLEY

PURCHASED AS PART OF A LARGER PARCEL BY JAMES DE LANCEY SR, THE CITY’S LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR AND CHIEF JUSTICE. THIS BLOCK WAS PART OF HIS WEST FARM, WHICH INCLUDED HIS PADDOCKS AND ORCHARDS.

 

JAMES SR. EITHER REBUILT OR EXPANDED ON BICKLEY’S MANSION.

 

INHERITED BY JAMES DE LANCEY JR., POLITICIAN. WHILE THIS LAND WAS IN HIS POSSESSION, HE CREATED THE STREET GRID THAT STILL EXISTS IN THE LOWER EAST SIDE TODAY, AND CONSTRUCTED A “GREAT SQUARE” A FEW BLOCKS SOUTHEAST.

 

THE COLONIES DECLARE INDEPENDENCE FROM ENGLAND.

BECAUSE DE LANCEY SIDED WITH THE BRITISH DURING THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, HE WAS FORCED TO FORFEIT HIS LAND AFTER THE WAR. THIS PART OF THE ESTATE WAS PURCHASED BY JOSEPH STRINGHAM, PART OWNER OF CADLE & STRINGHAM, A MERCANTILE FIRM

PURCHASED BY JOHN AND SARAH APPLEY. JACOB WAS THE SON OF A GERMAN IMMIGRANT, HE WAS A BUTCHER AND BECAME RICH BY CORNERING THE MUTTON MARKET, HE INVESTED IN PROPERTIES AROUND THE LOWER EAST SIDE. THE ESTATE CONTAINED AROUND 40 HOMES AND WAS VALUED AT $1 MILLION DOLLARS IN 1910

PURCHASED BY BENJAMIN AND MARIA BENSON

PURCHASED AGAIN BY JOHN AND SARAH APPLEY

 

STREET RENAMED FORSYTH AFTER LT. COLONEL BENJAMIN FORSYTH, A HERO OF THE WAR OF 1812

 

A PUBLIC LAWSUIT INVOLVING THE APPLEYS’ ESTATE RESULTED IN THE SALE OF THE LAND TO L & S CONSTRUCTION COMPANY

 

PURCHASED BY CHAS I. WEINSTEIN REALTY COMPANY,

 

THE CURRENT BUILDING WAS ERECTED IN THE SPAN OF 6 MONTHS, COSTING $45,000

 

PURCHASED BY MAX FINE

 

PURCHASED BY FORSYTH HOLDING COMPANY, INC.

COMPRISED OF THEODORE F. VAIL AND HIS FAMILY, L GROVENE CONVERSE, JAMES V CONVERSE, GEORGE V ARANYI. BY 1921 IT ENDED UP IN THE HANDS OF THEODORE GUY CONVERSE

 

FOR THE NEXT FEW DECADES, RENTERS INCLUDED A RUSSIAN TEA HOUSE/CABARET ON THE SECOND FLOOR (1920s-1960s), A TEXTILE INSPECTION COMPANY, A SCULPTOR AND A MANUFACTURER OF METAL ORNAMENT.

 

THE MORTGAGE WAS TRANSFERRED TO THE “SUCCESSOR TRUSTEE” OF THE TRUDEAU SANITORIUM, A TUBERCULOSIS NURSING FACILITY NEAR SARANAC LAKE IN THE ADIRONDACKS

 

THE BUILDINGS ACROSS THE STREET WERE TORN DOWN AND SARAH D. ROOSEVELT PARK WAS CREATED. SARAH D. ROOSEVELT WROTE TWO TELEGRAMS TO THE CITY REQUESTING THAT THE PARK NOT BE NAMED AFTER HER, EVEN PROPOSING AN ALTERNATIVE.

 

PURCHASED BY ORIGINAL MANNEQUIN STUDIO, INC. / F.G.I. REALTY CORPORATION

 

THE BUILDING BECAME A COOP WITH AN A.I.R. DESIGNATION, AND OWNERSHIP SPLIT SEVEN WAYS, DIVIDED BY FLOOR.

 

1972  ALL STATE METAL STAMPING

? LUIS FRANGELLA AND RUSSELL SHARON

1990 ­ RUSSEL SHARON

? MATTHEW CRANE

2008 MATTHEW CRANE + ROBIN T CHRISTOPHER

2010  EMMA HACOHEN

2015 TAUBA AUERBACH / DIAGONAL PRESS

.............

EVIDENCE OF FIRST HUMAN INHABITANTS IN THIS REGION. THEIR ORIGIN IS HOTLY DEBATED, BUT THEORIES INCLUDE MIGRATIONS FROM SOUTHERN SIBERIA ON FOOT VIA THE BERING LAND BRIDGE AND MIGRATIONS BY BOAT FROM WESTERN EUROPE VIA THE ATLANTIC.

APPROXIMATELY 1000 BCE - 1626 CE  

POPULATED AND STEWARDED BY THE MUNSEE-SPEAKING LENNI LENAPE PEOPLES. THERE WERE AN ESTIMATED 15,000 LENAPE IN THE GREATER N.Y. AREA. THE LANDSCAPE WAS GREEN AND DAMP—WITH TREES, BERRY BUSHES, BIRDS, TURTLES, RODENTS AND SOME LARGE MAMMALS. IT’S UNLIKELY THAT THERE WERE DWELLINGS IN THIS AREA, BUT LOWER LENAPEHOKING WAS A PREFERRED PLACE TO HUNT, FISH AND GATHER OYSTERS. ATTUNED HORTICULTURALISTS, THE LENAPE USED STRATEGIES LIKE CONTROLLED BURNING TO PERIODICALLY CLEAR LAND ON OTHER PARTS OF THE ISLAND FOR FARMING.

THE DUTCH WEST INDIA COMPANY “PURCHASED” LENAPEHOKING IN A SERIES OF SNEAKY TRANSACTIONS. ONE ACCOUNT, WRITTEN BY THE DUTCH, REPORTS THAT THEY PURCHASED THE SOUTHERN 23,000 ACRES OF THE ISLAND— FOR 60 GUILDERS (ABOUT $1000 TODAY) IN TRADED GOODS. HISTORIANS BELIEVE THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE WITH WHOM THEY NEGOTIATED WERE THE CANARSEE-SPEAKING LENAPE FROM BROOKLYN, RATHER THAN THE MAIN INHABITANTS OF THE ISLAND — THE MUNSEE-SPEAKING LENAPE AND WECKQUAESGEEK JUST NORTH OF HERE. IT IS ALSO DEBATED WHETHER OR NOT THE IDEA OF PRIVATE AND PERMEANT LAND OWNERSHIP WAS CLEAR TO THE INDIGENOUS NEGOTIATORS. IT IS POSSIBLE THAT THEY BELIEVED THEY WERE GRANTING THE DUTCH COMPANY ACCESS TO — RATHER THAN OWNERSHIP OF — THEIR CHOICE FISHING AND HUNTING SPOTS.

 

THE DUTCH WEST INDIA COMPANY SET UP FARMS AND HOMESTEADS SOUTH OF WHAT WOULD SOON BECOME WALL STREET AND CALLED IT NEW AMSTERDAM.

 

AFTER REPEATED AND VIOLENT DISPLACEMENT, LENAPE PEOPLE NOW LIVE PRIMARILY IN OKLAHOMA, KANSAS, WISCONSIN, NEW JERSEY AND ONTARIO, CANADA

 

THIS PLOT WAS PART OF A LARGER AREA GRANTED TO “BASTIAEN NEGRO”, BORN SEBASTIAEN DE BRITTO, A FORMERLY ENSLAVED MAN OF AFRICAN DESCENT WHO HAD BEEN KIDNAPPED IN SANTO DOMINGO BY THE DUTCH WEST INDIA COMPANY. ONCE A SHIP CAPTAIN, DE BRITTO HELD A CAPTAIN STATUS AMONGST THE OTHER ENSLAVED PEOPLE IN NEW AMSTERDAM. HE WAS GIVEN THIS LAND AND HIS FULL FREEDOM, ALONGSIDE SEVERAL OTHER ENSLAVED PERSONS WHO WERE GRANTED ADJACENT LAND AND PARTIAL FREEDOM UNDER THE “HALF-FREEDOM PLAN”. THESE BLACK FARMERS WERE POSITIONED NORTH OF WALL STREET (WHERE A WALL WAS SOON BUILT) AND USED AS A BUFFER BETWEEN THE DUTCH TO THE SOUTH AND THE LENAPE TO THE NORTH.

 

LAND GRANTED BY PETRUS (PETER) STUYVESANT TO PAULUS HEYMANS, REFERRED TO AS “OVERSEER OF NEGROES”

TRANSFERRED TO RYCK HENDRICKS

TRANSFERRED TO CORNELYS AARTSEN, A FRIEND OF STUYVESANTS, AND A MAJOR DONOR TO THE CITY’S DEFENSE BUDGET.

 

THE BRITISH CONQUERED AND TOOK OVER THE COLONY. NEW AMSTERDAM BECAME

NEW YORK.

 

REGRANTED BY GOVERNOR FRANCIS LOVELACE TO THE CHILDREN AND HEIRS OF CORNELYS AARTSEN — ARIAEN CORNELISSEN, HENDRICK CORNELISSEN, LYSBETH CORNELISSEN

PURCHASED BY JOHN BERRY, A BRITISH ROYAL NAVAL CAPTAIN WHO WAS ALSO GRANTED A LARGE PARCEL OF LAND BY OFFICIALS IN NEW JERSEY, THOUGH THAT LAND WAS OCCUPIED BY THE LENAPE. BERRY LATER SERVED AS DEPUTY GOVERNOR OF NEW JERSEY

 

VESTED IN (INHERITED BY?) HENRY BREVOORT. THE BREVOORT FAMILY WAS ONE OF THE FIRST DUTCH FAMILIES TO ARRIVE, AND FIRST SETTLED IN BUSHWICK

 

TRANSFERRED TO BREVOORT’S HEIRS, JACOMINTIE BREVOORT, ELIAS BREVOORT,

ABRHAM BUCKEY

 

PURCHASED BY MAY BICKLEY, THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE PROVINCE.  BICKLEY HAD PROSECUTED THE ALLEGED "NEGRO PLOT OF 1712" IN WHICH 28 BLACK INDIVIDUALS WERE TRIED WITHOUT A JURY AND 21 SENTENCED TO BARBARIC DEATHS VIA TORTURE.

 

BICKLEY BUILT A MANSION ON THE PROPERTY, ABOUT A BLOCK NORTHWEST OF HERE.

 

TRANSFERRED TO MAY BICKLEY’S BROTHER BRUNE BICKLEY

PURCHASED AS PART OF A LARGER PARCEL BY JAMES DE LANCEY SR, THE CITY’S LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR AND CHIEF JUSTICE. THIS BLOCK WAS PART OF HIS WEST FARM, WHICH INCLUDED HIS PADDOCKS AND ORCHARDS.

 

JAMES SR. EITHER REBUILT OR EXPANDED ON BICKLEY’S MANSION.

 

INHERITED BY JAMES DE LANCEY JR., POLITICIAN. WHILE THIS LAND WAS IN HIS POSSESSION, HE CREATED THE STREET GRID THAT STILL EXISTS IN THE LOWER EAST SIDE TODAY, AND CONSTRUCTED A “GREAT SQUARE” A FEW BLOCKS SOUTHEAST.

 

THE COLONIES DECLARE INDEPENDENCE FROM ENGLAND.

BECAUSE DE LANCEY SIDED WITH THE BRITISH DURING THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, HE WAS FORCED TO FORFEIT HIS LAND AFTER THE WAR. THIS PART OF THE ESTATE WAS PURCHASED BY JOSEPH STRINGHAM, PART OWNER OF CADLE & STRINGHAM, A MERCANTILE FIRM

PURCHASED BY JOHN AND SARAH APPLEY. JACOB WAS THE SON OF A GERMAN IMMIGRANT, HE WAS A BUTCHER AND BECAME RICH BY CORNERING THE MUTTON MARKET, HE INVESTED IN PROPERTIES AROUND THE LOWER EAST SIDE. THE ESTATE CONTAINED AROUND 40 HOMES AND WAS VALUED AT $1 MILLION DOLLARS IN 1910

PURCHASED BY BENJAMIN AND MARIA BENSON

PURCHASED AGAIN BY JOHN AND SARAH APPLEY

 

STREET RENAMED FORSYTH AFTER LT. COLONEL BENJAMIN FORSYTH, A HERO OF THE WAR OF 1812

 

A PUBLIC LAWSUIT INVOLVING THE APPLEYS’ ESTATE RESULTED IN THE SALE OF THE LAND TO L & S CONSTRUCTION COMPANY

 

PURCHASED BY CHAS I. WEINSTEIN REALTY COMPANY,

 

THE CURRENT BUILDING WAS ERECTED IN THE SPAN OF 6 MONTHS, COSTING $45,000

 

PURCHASED BY MAX FINE

 

PURCHASED BY FORSYTH HOLDING COMPANY, INC.

COMPRISED OF THEODORE F. VAIL AND HIS FAMILY, L GROVENE CONVERSE, JAMES V CONVERSE, GEORGE V ARANYI. BY 1921 IT ENDED UP IN THE HANDS OF THEODORE GUY CONVERSE

 

FOR THE NEXT FEW DECADES, RENTERS INCLUDED A RUSSIAN TEA HOUSE/CABARET ON THE SECOND FLOOR (1920s-1960s), A TEXTILE INSPECTION COMPANY, A SCULPTOR AND A MANUFACTURER OF METAL ORNAMENT.

 

THE MORTGAGE WAS TRANSFERRED TO THE “SUCCESSOR TRUSTEE” OF THE TRUDEAU SANITORIUM, A TUBERCULOSIS NURSING FACILITY NEAR SARANAC LAKE IN THE ADIRONDACKS

 

THE BUILDINGS ACROSS THE STREET WERE TORN DOWN AND SARAH D. ROOSEVELT PARK WAS CREATED. SARAH D. ROOSEVELT WROTE TWO TELEGRAMS TO THE CITY REQUESTING THAT THE PARK NOT BE NAMED AFTER HER, EVEN PROPOSING AN ALTERNATIVE.

 

PURCHASED BY ORIGINAL MANNEQUIN STUDIO, INC. / F.G.I. REALTY CORPORATION

 

THE BUILDING BECAME A COOP WITH AN A.I.R. DESIGNATION, AND OWNERSHIP SPLIT SEVEN WAYS, DIVIDED BY FLOOR.

 

1972  ALL STATE METAL STAMPING

? LUIS FRANGELLA AND RUSSELL SHARON

1990 ­ RUSSEL SHARON

? MATTHEW CRANE

2008 MATTHEW CRANE + ROBIN T CHRISTOPHER

2010  EMMA HACOHEN

2015 TAUBA AUERBACH / DIAGONAL PRESS

.............