Petrus Stuyvesant’s Great House Marker

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New York in New York County, New York — The American Northeast (Mid-Atlantic)

Petrus Stuyvesant’s Great House
Birth of a City: Nieuw Amsterdam & Old New York

Petrus Stuyvesant’s Great House Marker Photo, Click for full size

By Bill Coughlin, November 4, 2009

1. Petrus Stuyvesant’s Great House Marker

Inscription.
PETRUS STUYVESANT'S GREAT HOUSE
Location: Whitehall Street between Pearl & State Streets
Dutch Name: Opt Waeter

Near this site stood the “Great House” of Petrus Stuyvesant (c. 1612-1672), Nieuw Nederland’s last director. A colonial administrator who had lost his right leg to a Spanish cannonball in the Caribbean, Stuyvesant arrived on Manhattan in 1647 to impose order on the Dutch West India Company’s diverse and outspoken colonists.

Stuyvesant encouraged the trade in enslaved Africans, and opposed giving rights to Jews, Lutherans, and Quakers. But under his capable rule, the town of Nieuw Amsterdam began to acquire the trappings of a city. Stuyvesant reluctantly surrendered the colony to an invading English fleet in 1664. He retired to his farm, or Bouwerie, in the country (today’s East Village.)

Stuyvesant’s mansion was built here in 1658 close to the shore. The house was located near the town’s first wharf (1648), at what is now the corner of Pearl and Broad Streets. Later generations of New Yorkers added new land and pushed the waterfront out to South Street. An archeological dig on Pearl Street in 1983 unearthed Dutch artifacts, including imported pottery and glassware.

Erected 2009 by City Lore & NY 400.

Location.

Marker on Whitehall Street Photo, Click for full size

By Bill Coughlin, November 4, 2009

2. Marker on Whitehall Street

40° 42.153′ N, 74° 0.78′ W. Marker is in New York, New York, in New York County. Marker is on Whitehall Street, on the right when traveling south. Click for map. Marker is located on Whitehall Street between Pearl & State Streets. Marker is in this post office area: New York NY 10004, United States of America.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker. Watson House (within shouting distance of this marker); New York Unearthed / The Shrine of Elizabeth Ann Seton (within shouting distance of this marker); This Ancient Cannon (about 300 feet away, in a direct line); Birthplace of Herman Melville (about 400 feet away); First Church on Manhattan Island (about 400 feet away); Fraunces Tavern (about 500 feet away); Fraunces Tavern Tallmadge Memorial (about 500 feet away); Fraunces Tavern Block Historic District (about 600 feet away). Click for a list of all markers in New York.

More about this marker. A portrait of Petrus Stuyvesant, painted in Nieuw Amsterdam C. 1660 appears at the upper left of the marker. Next to this is a picture depicting ships approaching the shore of Nieuw Amsterdam. It has a caption of “Stuyvesant’s Great House is one of the buildings on the Nieuw Amsterdam waterfront, to the left of the pier jutting into the East River.” A map in the lower left of the marker shows lower Manhattan Island and the route of the Nieuw Amsterdam Trail.

Marker in Lower Manhattan Photo, Click for full size

By Bill Coughlin, November 4, 2009

3. Marker in Lower Manhattan

Related markers. Click here for a list of markers that are related to this marker. Learn about New York City’s colonial Dutch heritage by taking a virtual tour of the Nieuw Amsterdam Trail though lower Manhattan.

Also see . . . City Lore website. City Lore's mission is to foster New York's - and America's - living cultural heritage. (Submitted on November 4, 2009, by Bill Coughlin of North Arlington, New Jersey.)