European Colonization: The Dutch "Six Towns" and the Wyckoff House

• 1636Formal privatization and European settlement of Brooklyn commenced
• 15,000 acresPurchased from indigenous leaders as three "flats" of land
• circa 1652Wyckoff House built, the oldest surviving structure in New York City and New York State

The formal privatization and European settlement of Brooklyn commenced in 1636. Recognizing the agricultural potential of the terrain, Dutch officials bypassed the rocky moraine and targeted the fertile outwash plain to the south. Four men in their twenties—including Wouter Van Twiller (the Director-General of New Netherland), Jacobus Van Corlaer, Andries Hudde, and Wolfert Gerritse van Couwenhoven—orchestrated the purchase of three massive "flats" of land from indigenous leaders, totaling roughly 15,000 acres.¹⁸

This area, translating to Keskateuw ("where grass is cut") in the Lenape language, was named Nieuw Amersfoort (after van Couwenhoven's Dutch hometown) and later became known as Flatlands. The official deed, outlining the purchase from the Lenape Indians, was signed by Wouter von Twiller at Manhattan on June 6, 1636, and later reaffirmed by Governor Peter Stuyvesant in 1658. Wolfert Gerritse van Couwenhoven, who had previously served as the director of bouweries (farms) for his cousin Kiliaen Van Rensselaer's estates upstate, established his plantation, "Achervelt," on this land, signaling the dawn of an aggressive agricultural economy that would dominate Kings County for over two centuries.^19,20

Over the following decades, the Dutch established a decentralized network of rural agricultural villages that would collectively become known as the original "Six Towns" of Kings County: Amersfoort (Flatlands), Breuckelen (Brooklyn), Boswyck (Bushwick), Midwout (Flatbush), New Utrecht, and Gravesend.¹⁰

The architectural legacy of this early Dutch colonial period is best preserved in the Pieter Claesen Wyckoff House in modern-day East Flatbush. Built circa 1652, it holds the absolute distinction of being the oldest surviving structure in New York City and New York State. Pieter Claesen Wyckoff arrived in New Netherland in 1637 as an indentured farmhand, eventually ascending to become a prosperous tenant farmer. He married Grietje van Nes, and together they raised eleven children in a home that would remain in the Wyckoff family for eight generations.¹⁷

The Wyckoff House is a premier example of Dutch saltbox-frame architecture. Initially a simple structure with a packed earth floor and an open hearth, it was expanded around 1740 to six rooms. Its structural integrity relies on a framework composed of heavy wooden "H-bents," a traditional Northern European construction method that contrasts sharply with the boxlike designs popular in English colonial architecture. In 1965, the Wyckoff House became the very first structure to be designated a New York City Landmark, and in 1967 it was declared a National Historic Landmark, cementing its status as the foundational anchor of Brooklyn's built environment. Another vital contemporary structure, the Jans Martense Schenck House (built in 1676 in Flatlands), further illustrates this architectural lineage and is now preserved within the Brooklyn Museum.^17,29

An Anomaly of Tolerance: Lady Deborah Moody and Gravesend

• 1645Gravesend founded by Lady Deborah Moody
• approximately 7,000 acresLand patent covering what is now Gravesend and Coney Island
• 1659Year of Lady Moody's death

While five of the Six Towns were established by the Dutch West India Company under strict Dutch Reformed religious principles and organic, decentralized urban growth patterns, the sixth town, Gravesend, was a radical, highly structured exception. Gravesend was founded in 1645 by Lady Deborah Moody, an English widow of immense wealth, noble lineage, and formidable intellect.³¹

Born Deborah Dunch in 1583, her family was steeped in political power; her father was a member of Parliament, and her maternal grandfather was the bishop of Durham. She became Lady Moody upon her marriage to Henry Moody, who was knighted in 1606. Following his death in 1629, she relocated to London and embraced the radical tenets of Anabaptism. Seeking refuge from religious persecution in England, she emigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1639. However, her staunch rejection of infant baptism brought her into direct, hostile conflict with Puritan leaders like Reverend Hugh Peter—who had recently facilitated the excommunication of Anne Hutchinson—and John Endecott, who explicitly branded Moody a "dangerous woman".^31,32

Refusing to renounce her views, and admonished by the church of Salem, Lady Moody fled New England for the relative tolerance of New Netherland in 1643. In 1645, Dutch Director-General Willem Kieft granted Lady Moody a land patent of approximately 7,000 acres, encompassing what is now Gravesend and Coney Island. This charter was revolutionary in two respects: it made Lady Moody the first woman in the New World to receive a land patent and author a town charter in English, and it explicitly guaranteed freedom of religion, prohibiting interference from magistrates or ministers in matters of faith. Consequently, Gravesend became a vital safe haven for persecuted groups, including Quakers.^31,9

Furthermore, Moody's design for Gravesend introduced one of the first rational grid systems in North America, anticipating the highly structured urban planning of the nineteenth century. The town was perfectly bisected by two main roads that intersected at a central town hall, creating four square quadrants. Each quadrant was subdivided into ten equitable plots. To ensure fairness, each plot holder also received a triangular piece of external farmland. The settlement required personal investment: landholders were required to pay one guilder to the common charges, risked forfeiting their land if they failed to build a suitable house, and were incentivized with three guilders for shooting wolves to protect the community.^31,9

The civic design fostered early democratic practices, including the election of a town constable in 1648. Lady Moody's political acumen was highly respected by subsequent colonial administrators; in 1647, she welcomed the new Director-General, Peter Stuyvesant, who later relied on her to mediate tax disputes and nominate local magistrates. Lady Moody died in 1659 and is believed to be buried in an unmarked grave within the Old Gravesend Cemetery, one of the original quadrants of her visionary grid, which remains visible in the street fabric of modern southern Brooklyn.^31,9