Friends of Historic New Utrecht

Were you able to join us last week for our cemetery tours? If not or you want to return to hear more, we're having two additional tours this weekend. This is the only time of year that the Historic New Utrecht Cemetery is open to the public - we look forward to seeing you!

Did you catch last night's episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit? Did that last scene look familiar? Yes, it was filmed in the New Utrecht Cemetery with Metropolitan Baptist Church in the background!
If you missed it, watch it here: http://bit.ly/2WuFvOW

Honoring our veterans this Memorial Day: Henry J. Zeltman was a WWI veteran who was wounded while serving in the Argonne Forest and received the Purple Heart.
Thank you to him and all who have served and are currently serving.

Conservation group Respect Brooklyn began the process in December with an official request to the city’s Landmark Preservation Commission, urging them to grant landmark status to the Presbyterian Church at 494 East 23rd St.

“It would be an incredible shame to lose this architecturally and historically significant building and church, especially since other works by the same notable architects have been preserved in other parts of NYC,” read the petition. “This part of Brooklyn remains woefully without individual landmarks and therefore valuable historic resources in this area such as this over century old church are vulnerable to insensitive alteration and even demolition.”

An LPC representative recently responded to that request, saying that while the issue warranted further analysis to determine the church’s cultural significance, it remained a low priority.

“The agency has reviewed the church’s architectural and historical qualities, and has determined that more study is needed to determine its significan­ce,” said Kate Lemos McHale. “Such a study is not currently among the agency’s citywide priorities. Please understand that in a city the size of New York, with its many religious structures, the Commission must be very selective in choosing examples of this building type for considerat­ion.”

The church, which was first constructed in 1898, is currently owned by the Presbytery of New York, but is listed for sale as a development site by Colliers International real estate agency, leaving neighbors to fear its impending destruction by a potential buyer.

Livin’ on a prayer: Local group fights to save Flatbush church from destruction They’re praying to save this church.

Holding the title for the oldest surviving structure in New York City, the Pieter Claesen Wyckoff House (commonly known as the Wyckoff House) in Canarsie is the oldest example of Dutch saltbox-frame houses in America. The saltbox house is a traditional New England style of architecture marked by a long, pitched roof that slopes down to the back of the house, making it so the back is one story tall but the front is two. The Wyckoff House, almost 400 years old, is one of the first structures built by Europeans on Long Island.

Pieter Claesen Wyckoff arrived in the Dutch colony New Netherland in 1637 and worked as an indentured farm hand until he became a tenant farmer and married the Dutch-born Grietje van Nes, siring eleven children with her. The Wyckoff house, originally a simple structure with a packed earth floor and open hearth, expanded to six rooms and held the family for eight generations. In 1982 the house was restored and reopened as The Wyckoff Museum.

Fun fact: The Wyckoff surname is so unique that the majority of Americans with the Wyckoff last name, and any of its variations, can trace their descendants to one of Pieter and Grietje’s eleven children!

The Wyckoff House is located at 5816 Clarendon Rd, Brooklyn.

The Top 11 Oldest Buildings in Brooklyn, NYC From Dutch colonial farmhouses to buildings that played a major role in the American Revolution, here’s a list of the top 11 oldest structures in Brooklyn.

Not related to Historic New Utrecht or the History of Brooklyn for that matter but very interesting to say the least given the relevance of the General to the American Revolutionary War.

Researchers from Georgia Southern University say they have made a startling discovery about the Revolutionary War general for whom the Pulaski Skyway is named.

An examination of the skeleton of General Casimir Pulaski, a polish nobleman who was known as the “Father of the American Cavalry,” shows that he may have actually been biologically female, according to a release from the university.

Georgia Southern Assistant Professor of Anthropology Virginia Hutton Estabrook told the Chicago Tribune that their research showed that Pulaski had an intersex condition known as congenital adrenal hyperplasia.

The condition makes women produce large amounts of male steroid hormones that can make their ge****ls look more masculine, according to Mayo Clinic.

"That’s pretty much the only way to explain the combination of features that we see,’ Estabrook said in the Chicago Tribune report.

She added that the remains had a feminine pelvis, facial structure and jaw angle.

He’s the famed general for whom the Pulaski Skyway is named. He may also have been a woman. Georgia Southern University researchers said that Revolutionary War General Casimir Pulaski was biologically female and after an examination of his skeleton.

Copy of the orignal Lenape/Nayack/Canarsee Deed for the Town of New Utrecht dated November 22nd, 1652.

From the New York State Archives.

Originally posted by Kathy Baldassare to the History of Brooklyn page.Many thanks for this find Kathy!

This is an English Translation of the Deed:

Today the 22d of November 1652 the honorable Cornelis van Werkhoven has made over in full, and the Indians called Sei ]seu and Mattano, chiefs and owners, have received for themselves and as delegates of their friends and all other claimants to their entire satisfaction and accepted from the aforesaid Sr. van Werckhoven in the presence of Claes Carstens, as their interpreter and [attorney] in this matter, the following merchandise, to wit:

6 shirts, two pair of shoes, six pair of stockings, six adzes, six axes, six knives, two scissors, six combs, in full and satisfactory payment for the land located east of the North River at the Heads, just as the same land had previously been bought on behalf of the honorable Company and for which payment is still due. The said land extends from behind Mr. Paulus's land called Gowanis obliquely through the hills until Me[ ch ]wanienck, being situated on the southeast side of Amersfoort, inclusive, and from there past Gravesant to the sea, as a parcel of trees are marked; and that with all the land, whether hills, woods, thickets, marshes, streams, rivers and the like, then southward toward the bay, extending to the same bay and right into the sea; without the aforesaid Indians retaining or reserving for themselves and for other co-claimants, successors and heirs, any right or claim in least to the aforesaid land and its dependencies, but renounce and resigning now and forever to the benefit of the aforesaid lord Werckhoven all ownership, rights, title and proprietary interest therein; hereby having done and enacted everything in good faith,with promises never to act or let anyone act against this, at New Amsterdam, Manhattans in New Netherland, and was signed [ by the Indians and Claes Carstens in the presence of myself, Dirck ] van Schelluyne, notary public, admitted to practise by their high and mighty lords the States General, residing at New Amsterdam in New Netherland, and in the presence of Jonckheer Arent van Hattem, Jan Vinge and Nicolaes Grauwert as witnesses who signed the original entry hereof deposited with me, together with the aforesaid Indians and Claes Carstensz.

Below was written: Agrees with the entry signed by me, signed: D. V. Schelluyne, Nots. Pub. 1652.

Untapped Cities’ Chief Experience Officer and leader of our Remnants of Dutch New Amsterdam Tour Justin Rivers believes that this artifact is the oldest European artifact in Manhattan, meaning the oldest item that was built here by Europeans, not brought over from Europe.

The Battery Cannon was dug up in 1892 at Exchange Alley and Broadway during construction. A plaque on the cannon’s mount notes that Exchange Alley was formerly used as the path to British fortifications called “Oyster Pasty.” Rivers says that the Oyster Pasty mount can be seen on the Castello Plan which dates back to Dutch New Amsterdam in 1660.

The cannon was donated to the City of New York by William Henry Mairs and relocated to Battery Park in 1914. You will find the cannon at the perimeter of park on State Street between Bridge and Pearl Streets. It is not uncommon to find people using it as an unconventional seat (though we advised against this!).

8 Remnants of Colonial NYC That You Can Touch From 18th century stone walls to ancient cannons, there are still remnants of colonial NYC that you can actually touch!

Department of Parks and Recreation leaders this month are hosting a free tour of Gravesend Cemetery that focuses on the neighborhood’s female founder, who also helped develop much of the southern swath of Kings County.

Lady Deborah Moody, the first woman to establish and run a colonial town, and a proponent of religious freedom during an era of sectarianism, was a 17th-century trailblazer whose legacy deserves to be honored as part of Women’s History Month, according to the park ranger who led similar tours in years past.

“Lady Moody was way ahead of her time as a progressive and accomplished leader, so she is a perfect historical role model to highlight for Women’s History Month,” said Andrew Brownjohn.

Woman about town: Free tour of Gravesend Cemetery will pay tribute to neighborhood’s female founder She’s a Lady among Kings!