Existing comment:
Remnant of tree planted by Peter Stuyvesant, preserved in 1867
Nearly 400 years ago, Peter Stuyvesant planted a baby pear tree from the Netherlands on his rustic 62-acre farm. The spot where it stood is now the corner of Third Avenue and 13th Street.
Stuyvesant, the last director-general of what was then New Amsterdam, arrived in 1647, determined to transform the primitive trading outpost into an orderly and prosperous Dutch community. When the colony fell to British rule 17 years later, becoming New York, Stuyvesant retired to his bouwerie, or farm, which spanned today's East Village and Stuyvesant Town. The pear tree flourished there for two centuries until a wayward horse-drawn carriage sent it crashing to the ground in 1867. A Stuyvesant descendant preserved this fragment and presented it to the New-York Historical Society. |