New Amsterdam History Center Project

146 Pages·2005·3.63 MB·English

by  Courtney Haff

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]
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Collegiate Church Corporation: Vision for Corbin Building

Table of Contents

Pages

Introduction: Dutch Colonial History Should Be Preserved and 2
Protected

Chapter One: History of the Shoemakers' Pasture, 1644-1724 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 65
Shoemakers Field Partition Agreement

Appendix A: Biography of John Harberdinck 102

Appendix B: The New Amsterdam History Center Preliminary 130
Concept

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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
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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 (cid:147)Dutch(cid:148) hands. It is part of
the oldest legacy of New York City(cid:146)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(cid:146)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 (cid:147)bouwerie(cid:148) 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
(cid:147)Shoemakers Field.(cid:148)
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(cid:146)s Dutch colonial history still remaining in (cid:147)Dutch(cid:148) 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(cid:146)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(cid:146)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
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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(cid:146)s cultural center. The mission and vision statement for the
museum is described below and further developed in Chapter Four.

Mission Statement:
(cid:147)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.(cid:148) (Vision
Statement, 12/15/04)

The Vision:
The planned components are:
 Permanent home for the replica of Captain Henry Hudson(cid:146)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.
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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
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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
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