NYU Washington Square College - Album Yearbook (New York, NY)

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reenwich Village by RBUBEN RAB1Nov1Tc1-I Forty years back when much had place Tbat since has perished out of mind . . . I - THOMAS HAILDY. 1. F TWO score years may obliterate out of man's mind that which has been, what, then, remains after the passing of three centuries? To understand, to feel the myriad of events which took place in that tiny portion of the globe's surface now called Greenwich Village, man's memory must travel far, far back to the year 1600- back to the days of blunderbusses and buckskin suits, of sea-faring adventurers and native Americans. , Let all of our skyscraping sentinels of steel and stone become animated in the middle of a very, very dark night. Let these tall, powerful giants stoop down, pick up all of our concrete creations under their arms, let them arise again and march off, Brobdignagian-like, into the Catskill Mountains. Let them join the companions of Rip Van Winkle in a game of nine-pins, while they are gone, let us survey what remains after they have stepped off the soil of Manhattan Island. Let us find Greenwich Village as it was some three hundred years ago. The tribe of Indians of the Village of Sappokanikan had lived through many winters and many summers ere Henry Hudson sailed up the river Hudson in his vessel, the Half-moon. Their leader was Keeya-Meeka, the greatest of all warriors in time of battle, the gentlest of rulers in time of peace. Keeya-Meelufs glory had lived for many moons, when a great adventure befell the Red . Man of Sappokanikan. It happened in the season of short days and long nights, this great adventure of Keeya- Meeka and the Moose-that-talked. Snow had fallen for many days-the cone-topped pines seemed to bow under their white mantles-the hillsides showed ghostly gray faces to the cold moon-the frosty, gleaming stars were indeed the eyes of the many Gods of the Red Man. Deep and powerful, the Voice was heard call- ing through the night, D010-Utclo . . . Dol:-Utah . . . D019-Utclo. None but Keeya-Meeka dared to step forth from the great tepee of the chief- tains to seek the caller in the night. He had arisen and had declared himself to be the chosen 513 45444 V flow NIL? J 0 z L - Y . i . 5 EBF!! 'lfiilgiiifl E T 0 C c A: x 1- 'Q

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one. Wrapping his buckskins tightly about him, Keeya-Meeka stepped bravely forth from the tent of his fathers, gone in the snows of many moons, alone in the wailing wind, alone with that Voice in the night. Alone he had gone, and alone he returned, after much time had passed in anxious waiting. And after he returned, the voice was heard no more, for both wind and night had fled to other worlds, Keeya-Meeka had met the Moose-that-talked, and strange was the tale he brought back to the Sappokanikans. The voice had spoken of a new race of men, the Doh-Utch, that was soon to come from the land of sunriseg a race that would be favored by the Gods in its battles with the Sappokanikans. And when the final peace pipe would grow cold, the Sappokanikans would be no more. The many mighty warriors believed the word of their leaderg packing their sleds, they turned their faces towards the Land of Eternal Snows and departed into a country where none could follow . . . departed into a land where they dwell to this day in happiness and joy, guided by the great spirit of Keeya-Meeka. However, a few Red Men remained behind, for they did not believe the prophecy of the Voice that spoke in the night. They remained in the Village of Sappokanikan until the year of 1600, when the Doh- Utch, or Dutch adventurer, Peter Minuit, traded Manhattan Island away from them for some sixty guilders or twenty-four dollars' worth of glittering little trinkets. ' This Peter Minuit, a bustling believer in progress and the supremacy of the white man's civilization, set himself up as the first governor of the Island. From the day he set apart Sappokanikan Village as a farm for the Dutch West India Company until this thirty-fourth year of the twentieth century, that little bit of the world extending from the North River to University Place and from Fourteenth Street to Canal Street in New York City has indeed witnessed 'much which since has perished out of mind . . . Thirty-three years after Peter Minuit's shrewd transaction, Van Twiller, the second governor of New York, looking over his new domain, cast eyes upon the Village of Sappokanikan and saw that it was good. So he took it unto himself and soon turned the village into a private tobaccofarm, building his first house at Bossen Bouerie. The days of the Dutch, however, were numbered. In 1664 an English fleet, sent out by Charles II's brother, the Duke of York, followed the course traced by the Half-Moon and, sailing into New York Harhor, demanded the surrender of the feebly garrisoned Dutch fort on Manhattan Island. Outnumbered in every way, Peter Stuyvesant, director general of the Dutch colony of New Netherland and commander of the fort surrendered. In 1664, then, the English flag was hoisted aloft, and with that mania which inspires all conquerors to re-label the spoils of their victory, New Arnsterclam became New York and the Village of Sappokanikan became Grinnich, or Greenwich. 2. ROM THE time of the British conquest until nearly a century later the village of Greenwich slept in peaceful obscurity. During this period, which historians sometimes phrase as The Eftahlishment of the English, New York was slowly growing 44 fl-41 40,4 vN,,,?v 3 'tx 4 ' - -5 I-l :LL P 5-l'Q??f.f.'f A Cccv.Y-+