"As far as I know the plan of extending Riverside Park by roofing over the tracks of the Hudson River Railroad Company was first broached by Peter B. Sweeney, who was Park Commissioner in 1870; and according to report Mr. Sweeney conducted a very vigorous movement for this extension. He, however, proposed to provide a shore front drive to extend only as far north as Ninety-sixth Street. At present, with the extensive filling operations at both Seventy-ninth street and 129th street, as well as at the intermediate point at Ninety-sixth street, the prospect is that the extension of the park over and beyond the railroad tracks to the bulkhead line will skirt almost entirely the shore front of Riverside Park from end to end."

KUYTER PARK, NEW YORK.

The Naming of the Park.

Under date of March 14, 1912, the Hon. Charles B. Stover, Commissioner of Parks of the Boroughs of Manhattan and Richmond, invited recommendations from this Society concerning the naming of a new park at Third Avenue and 129th Street, in the Borough of Manhattan, expressing a predilection for the name of Kuyter, the first white proprietor of the land of which the park is a part. In reply, we recommended four names, any one of which we regarded as appropriate: Kuyter, the name of the first white proprietor; Zegendal (meaning Vale of Blessing), the name which Kuyter gave to his property; Schorakin, the Indian name for that tract of land; and Muscoota, the Indian name applied to flat land in that vicinity. Commissioner Stover decided upon the name of Kuyter.

The full name of the pioneer after whom the park has been named is Jochem Pietersen Kuyter, although the name appears under various forms in the early records. The flats which he owned in Harlem were called Jochem Pieter's Flats, and the Hills of Washington Heights were called Jochem Pieter's Hills.

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Captain Kuyter was 42 years old and married his wife being Leentie Martens when, in 1639, he chartered the armed ship Fire of Troy at Amsterdam, and came to this country. He was a native of Holstein and as a sea captain had seen service under the King of Denmark. He was a man of means for those times. In the same ship there came with him his friend, Jonas Bronck,

both bringing farmers, herdsmen and laborers to open up the land.

new

Arriving at New Amsterdam, the pioneers explored toward the northward to select sites for their future homes. Bronck was attracted to the territory on the east side of the Harlem River and subsequently acquired property in the Borough which now bears his name. Kuyter was attracted to the meadow land on the west side of the Harlem called by the Indians Schorakin. Here and there were clearings in the forests in which Indian women were at work in the patches of maize, beans, pumpkins and tobacco. The men of the tribe were still hunting deer with their bows and flint-headed arrows. Pleased with the aspect of the land, Kuyter sought and obtained from Director General Kieft a grant of 200 morgen or 400 acres of land at Schorakin. This tract extended along the Harlem River from 125th Street to Gloudie's Point at 145th Street. At about where 125th Street runs the settler built a house with thatch roof. The dwelling and the outbuildings were enclosed by palisades as a means of protection in case the Indians caused trouble. There were underground huts for the poor farmers.

The first few years brought happiness to Kuyter and his wife on this plantation. His men cleared away much of the forest and obtained bountiful crops of rye, barley and peas, but the chief staple raised was tobacco.

Kuyter found the Indians peaceful neighbors at first, which was fortunate, as he had few white neighbors during the early years of his occupancy. But the massacre in February, 1643, of more than forty defenceless Indians at Corlcar's Hook by order of Director General Kieft brought fearful consequences to the Harlem settlements. Kuyter severely condemned the act, and when Stuyvesant assumed control Kuyter was put on trial for "slandering a ruler." Having been found guilty, the bold Dutchman. who dared criticise Director General Stuyvesant was sent to Holland in 1647, but the Lords States General reversed the DirectorGeneral's edict and sent the settler back in triumph over the exercise of arbitrary power. He returned to his bouwery on the Harlem and early in March, 1654, he was murdered by the Indians, who were determined to exterminate the Dutch for the

Indian massacre. Bands of red men spread over the settlements and killed fifty of the men and burned the farms.

Kuyter's death made a deep impression upon the Colony, in which his ability, his fearlessness in the cause of right, and his good judgment in Stuyvesant's Council made him invaluable to the community. The bestowal of his name upon the new park is in accordance with the principle long advocated by this Society, namely, that historic names should be used when possible for public parks and places.

STRAUS PARK, NEW YORK.

Name of Bloomingdale Square Changed.

On July 2, 1912, the Board of Aldermen of New York City adopted the following resolution:

"Resolved, That the triangular space on Broadway, at the termination of West End Avenue, and extending from 106th to 107th Street in the Borough of Manhattan, be and the same is hereby named and shall hereafter be known and designated as 'Straus Park.'”

The resolution was approved by Mayor Gaynor September 24, 1912. By this action, the historic and euphonious name of Bloomingdale Square which was formerly applied to this little park has been displaced in violation of what we have laid down in former Reports as the principles which should govern these matters. The change was made in response to a natural sentiment which was aroused by the tragic death of Mr. and Mrs. Isidor Straus with others in the Titanic disaster. (See pages 27-28.) Mr. Straus was a highly respected member of this Society, and if anything could predispose our Trustees in favor of this change, it would have been this fact and their knowledge of his character. But when the proposition was brought to the attention of our Executive Committee in the summer of 1912, the members were unanimously of the opinion that the policy of the Society with respect to the continuance of established place-names should not be violated even in this case. The Trustees subsequently voted recommending that the names of Mr. and Mrs. Straus be perpetuated by some other suitable memorial and that the name of

Bloomingdale Square be not changed. The proposed action of the municipal authorities was not widely known at the time, and there was no opportunity for this Society to make suitable representations to the Board of Aldermen on the subject. There are other parcels of park land still unnamed to which the new name might have been applied without displacing another to which much popular sentiment was attached.

Soon after the Titanic disaster, Mr. Jesse I. Straus, Jr., a grandson of Isidor Straus, secured permission from the Supreme Court to change his name to Isidor in honor of his ancestor, and at that time some interesting facts concerning the origin of the name, now applied to a public park of the City, were published.

The name Straus was adopted by Isaac Lazarus when a Napoleonic edict in 1808 compelled the choice of some name not Jewish by the people of that race who were in Alsace-Lorraine or the neighboring Rhenish Palatinate. Mr. Isidor Straus was born in Otterberg in the Palatinate, three years before activity in the 1848 struggle for human liberty drove his father, Lazarus Straus, to America, as a refugee. (See page 22.) At that time the growing fame of Lazare Isidor, author and orator, a native of Lorraine, and later chief rabbi of France, was forcing itself upon the attention of thinking Jews everywhere, and especially upon the attention of those in Alsace-Lorraine and the Palatinate. It was a name that was associated with all that was best and highest in the race development.

The name Bloomingdale which is now displaced is of Dutch origin, being derived from "bloemen" and "dael," meaning vale of flowers. Bloemendael is the name of a charming little town. about three miles north of old Harlem in Holland. As used on Manhattan Island, it was applied to an extensive region on the west side from 23d Street to Morningside Heights, but was more especially associated with the region northward from the first Bloomingdale Square which the Commissioners of 1807 laid out between 53d and 57th Streets, 8th and 9th Avenues. When Central Park was established, the plan for the first Bloomingdale Square was abandoned. By an ordinance approved by Mayor McClellan January 9, 1907, the name was attached to the open space at the junction of West End Avenue and Broadway

between 106th and 107th Streets. This little park is historic ground, for here rested the western end of the fortifications which the British army stretched across the island following their capture of New York, September 15, 1776. Immediately west of the Bloomingdale Church stood the house of Nicholas Jones which was a landmark in its day and is frequently mentioned in the records of the Revolutionary Period. It was here that the American reconnoitering party came upon the British pickets on the morning of September 16, 1776, the day of the Battle of Harlem Heights. Washington Irving, apostrophizing the old Bloomingdale region, referred to "the pastoral scenes of Bloemen Dael, which in those early days was a sweet and rural valley, beautiful with many a bright wildflower, refreshed by many a pure streamlet and enlivened here and there by a delectable little. Dutch cottage, sheltered under some sloping hill and almost buried in embowering trees."

The name Bloomingdale is redolent with sweet memories for old New Yorkers, and its passing is a matter for regret, similar to that which was aroused in 1904 by the change of the name of Long Acre Square to Times Square, and in 1911 by the change of the name of Mulberry Bend Park to Columbus Park.

ISHAM PARK, NEW YORK.

Tree Preservation Urged.

On pages 106-108 preceding, we have referred to the gift and dedication of Isham Park, New York City.

Following upon the gift of this park, the engineers of the City have been advancing their plans for the opening of new streets and avenues on the upper end of Manhattan Island between Broadway and Inwood Hill. Upon this unimproved property are many noble trees which must necessarily be sacrificed; but in Isham Park, Commissioner Stover, sustained by this Society and other civic organizations, is endeavoring to save as many as possible. The street plan in the vicinity of the park includes a curvilinear avenue called Park Terrace West, running through the

*The Bloomingdale Church was the first ecclesiastical society formed in Bloomingdale. Its present house of worship stands on the west side of West End Avenue between 106th and 107th Street.