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Wally Ballou interviews a visitor from Vermont on the streets of Manhattan, 1959
Early Manhattan Attacked by Pigs
Honorable, Dear and Distinguished [Friends].
We see with great grief the damages, done to the walls of the fort by hogs, especially now again in the spring, when the grass comes out. We made an order concerning it last year at the request of the Select Men, who promised properly to fence in the fort and to keep the hogs meanwhile from the walls. But seeing after the lapse of a year, that nothing or at least only little has been done and that what has been done at the fort has again been destroyed by the pigs, as may daily be learned, we are compelled to enter a protest about the nonfulfilment of the promise, being told, that the failure of it, the destruction of the walls and all our works, is caused by the Select Men having been superceded and their authority and duties transferred to Burgomasters and Schepens, who had accepted to do the work. How this is, we do not know, but we see to our trouble and shame the pigs daily on the walls, busy with their destruction. Therefore we request Burgomasters and Schepens to give an order in accordance with the beforementioned promise and prevent the pigs. Else we shall be compelled to carry out our former order. Relying thereon we remain, Honorable, Dear, Distinguished [Friends]
Your well meaning friend N. Amsterdam, P. Stuyvesant.
ult° March, 1653
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Respected and Very Dear [Friends] :—We cannot, consistently with duty, omit calling your Worships’ attention to the injurious and intolerable destruction, which we, to our great dissatisfaction, daily behold the hogs committing on the newly finished works of the fort, whence the ruin thereof will certainly ensue.
And whereas Burgomasters and Schepens, in violation of their solemn promises made both in writing and orally, will not lend a hand to repairing and strengthening the same, we can certainly expect, they will adopt measures and take care, that what we with great pains and labor have brought so far will not again be destroyed by hogs, and thus all our labor be rendered useless, it being certainly the practice in no place to permit cattle to run at large to the injury and damage both of individuals and the public. Without more remonstrance then, in case this matter is not speedily and promptly attended to by your Worships, we hereby protest, that necessity compels us to provide therein by the following Ordinance and Placard, whereof we by these presents, do first notify the Burgomasters and Schepens, and clear ourselves of all damage and injury that may follow therefrom. Done at Fort Amsterdam in New Netherland the 12th August, 1653.
(Signed) P. Stuyvesant.
Knickerbockers Regulate Beer
ORDINANCE of the Director and Council of New Netherland… Passed 11 April, 1641
WHEREAS complaints have been made to us that some of the Inhabitants here are in the habit of Tapping Beer during Divine Service, and of making use of small foreign Measures, which tends to the dishonor of Religion and the ruin of the State, We being desirous to make provision herein, do, therefore, Ordain that no person shall attempt to tap Beer or any other Strong drink during Divine service, or to use any other Measure than that which is in common use at Amsterdam in Holland, or to tap for any person after Ten o’clock at night; neither sell the Vaen, or four pints, at a higher price than Eight Stivers; all on pain of forfeiture of the Beer and Five and Twenty guilders for the benefit of the Fiscal, with three months’ exclusion from the privilege of Tapping.
Fly Market Hucksters: Street vendors have been controversial in Manhattan for over 200 years. Click through for more…
Depeyster’s Lane once served several Depeyster farmsteads in what is now Morningside Heights. The lane was mostly obliterated by the street grid as it moved north, however a small portion of the lane survives in the form of a trapezoidal building at 2869 Broadway.
Congress Street was partly obliterated when 6th Avenue was extended southward in the early 20th Century. A portion of it remains as a turn lane onto West Houston. The outline of the original 5-sided block east of Congress Street is shown by the dashed line. The block was truncated by the widening of Houston and the extension of 6th Ave.
The Collect was a large pond in lower Manhattan that was filled in 1811. There are conflicting accounts of the origin of the name.
Jacob Street once connected Frankfort and Ferry Streets just south of the present Gold Street. It is named for Jacob Lorillard, who owned property in the street.
Gothamist: 21 Buildings of Old New York Being Demolished
