1610–1672

In the 17th Century, New York was still called New Amsterdam, and Peter Stuyvesant was its first real mayor, from 1647 until 1664. The city was just a fort with some surrounding farms; Stuyvesant’s estate was called “Whitehall” and stretched from 4th to 17th streets. (The current Whitehall Street is named after this farm, and Stuyvesant Street, located where his manor house once stood, is named after him.) As mayor, Stuyvesant’s main priorities were keeping Jews out of the colony, fighting with the Spanish, protecting the interests of the Dutch East India Company, and promulgating the Dutch Reformed Church. He was buried on the site of St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery, and local legend says you can sometimes hear his peg leg scraping the church’s cobblestones at night.