Jersey City's statue of Peter Stuyvesant will be restored and returned to its original location at School 11

Tuesday, October 19, 2010
By KARINA L. ARRUE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

After several months of uncertainty, Jersey City officials have decided that a restored century-old Peter Stuyvesant statue will be returned to its original location on Bergen Avenue in front of School 11.

Dozens of people wearing "Bring Him Home" stickers assembled in front of the school yesterday morning to hear the official announcement.

Under the mistaken impression that the statue of the man who founded the permanent settlement of Bergen, now Jersey City, belonged to the Jersey City Board of Education, school officials had Burns Bros. Monuments remove the statue in February.

The intention was to have Burns Bros. rebuild a foundation for the statue and then lend the statue to the Hudson County Community College and place it at the Culinary Arts Plaza on Sip Avenue and Newkirk Street.

But after it was removed, Jersey City officials quickly informed the school officials that the city owned the statue, not the school district.

It was an honest mistake that the city was "happy to correct," said Maryanne Kelleher, director of city's Division of Cultural Affairs.

City historian Bob Leach unearthed several documents, including an Oct. 18, 1913 program for the official unveiling ceremony of the statue, created by famed American sculptor John Massey Rhind, that prove the statue belongs to the city.

Paula Christen, spokeswoman for the school district, was unavailable for comment.

The city now intends to restore the statue and recreate the original foundation with original inscriptions at an estimated cost of $40,000 to $50,000, Kelleher said, noting the project won't cost taxpayers a dime.

A fund-raiser is in the works for early 2011, Kelleher said.

John Hallanan III, president of the Jersey City Landmarks Conservancy, presented a $2,500 check toward the project yesterday morning.

The Stuyvesant statue should be back in Bergen Square by May, just in time for Preservation Month, Kelleher said.

Anybody interested in this subject, if you're on Facebook, come over to Uptown Crew, a group for people interested in the upper and outer reaches of Jersey City. I've posted the article and the op-ed, and there are some photos and other things.

I have a sponsor for the statue . . . No-one will complain and don't you just love it being erected at a school !!!

Revisionist history and cultural vandalism. Peg-leg Pete *BELONGS* in Bergen Square. There has been another statue of him in NYC in Stuyvesant Square. I don't see that statue being removed.

If HCCC wants to deny American history and disregard the founding place of New Jersey, that's they're business, but how dare they remove the Stuyvesant statue.

There is *PLENTY* of room for a Dr. Martin Luther King statue at Bergen Square.

Why was the Stuyvesant Statue removed?

Who's making money from this?

This is very sad and disheartening.

Ya' don't remove statues unless there is a d--n good reason. What was the good reason here?

I have to agree with JCFrankie. I hold most accountable city officials who allowed this to happen.

aoao, I'm not sure when, but it has been for a long time. What is today Jersey City used to be part of the Township of Bergen. The word "Bergen" comes from the Dutch "berg", in English "mountain". The highlands here have been referred to as the Bergen since the 1600s. Don't know when the Square part started, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was whenever the stockade came down. Again, not sure when but I would guess early in European settlement times.

it was not "well intentioned" it was just a cynical looting of our cultural heritage by the college. It does not benefit the community, it just goes to enhance the "park" the school invented for itself in front of one of their buildings. I'm cynical too. I don't believe the sculpture they claim will be coming to replace the stolen statue will be anywhere near as well made or as appropriate, if it ever materializes at all. Also, if there is realistic funding available for a new sculpture, why didn't they just buy themselves a new statue instead of looting ours?

http://www.nj.com/hudson/voices/index ... vesant_statue_belong.html

By Colin Egan

The recent thought to find a "better" place for the historic statue of Peter Stuyvesant in Jersey City may have been well-intentioned -- but was misguided. The statue was cast 100 years ago to stand at Bergen Square precisely because Bergen Square was the literal center (in New England, it would have been called the "Common") of the first permanent European settlement in New Jersey.

In 1660, the Village of Bergen was created around the Square as part of the Dutch colony of New Netherland. Stuyvesant, director general of the colony, had personally approved the location and layout of the village. The first government, court and school in our state were all organized around Bergen Square.

This is nothing less than the looting of our cultural heritage by Hudson County Community College. I have no problem with the college intending to make their school look better and I have no problem with them installing a fine monumental bronze statue in a park they invented for themselves. I suggest they go about it in the normal way, which is to buy one. Stealing one from the local community and moving it to a place that suits them is reprehensible. Where are the elected officials looking after the well being of the community? How is it that this organization can just walk in and steal the statue? Who makes up the ?County Open Space Committee? and who do they purport to represent? They clearly don?t represent the community from which the bronze has been looted!
Also, on a side note: there are artists out there that make a living making bronze sculptures. These people deserve to play a roll in this sort of process. Stealing a bronze from one end of town and moving it to another is also taking money out of the pockets of some artists somewhere.

Ahh thanks. i know Indian Square, on Kennedy and Newark. It's where the Indians settled in the 1980s and 1990s.








Btw, has it always been called Bergen Square?

The intersection of Bergen Avenue and Academy Street is also known as Bergen Square. It was the center of the Dutch settlement on this side of the Hudson in the 1600s and 1700s.

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where is bergen square?

1djcview....


Hudson Reporter link about MLK in JC

******

NJCU link about PS # 11

(the piece about the pamphlet is at bottom of page)

(great site has some interesting stuff about JC)

take care

Excellent, Neverleft! Thank you. I did not know about that brochure or that quote.

Do you have that brochure? If you do, please PM me.

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Hey 1djcview don?t know if you know this about MLK and JC. MLK gave a few speeches in JC. The last one was a week before his death.

Also found this interesting piece about the MLK school dedication....

On October 3, 1966 a fire destroyed Public School No. 11; it was rebuilt, the sixth school on the historic site, and named for Martin Luther King, Jr., the civil rights leader. At the dedication of the school on April 2, 1969, the statue of Peter Stuyvesant was placed near the entrance of the school. The pamphlet from the ceremony gives homage to the two men with whom the school is today associated: ". . . Martin Luther King, Jr., . . . like Peter Stuyvesant knew when to fight and when not to fight. Dr. King chose to wage his war by non-violent means. Hopefully his followers will, as the Dutch settlers did, choose the peaceful way; and in this manner, assure to all peoples the benefits of the centuries of work and dedication which have continued on this site."

Yes, Stuyvesant was intolerant, even by Dutch standards of the time. That's why his weirdo ideas about restricting religious practice in New Netherland failed.

Martin Luther King Jr. has been my hero all of my life. Peter Stuyvesant has not.

In 1650, Peter Stuyvesant was Director General of New Netherland, having taken over from Willem Kieft, an incompetent, wrong-headed man who fueled the Dutch-Indian wars. Stuyesant attempted to bring order to the thriving, growing settlement and mandated that a fort be built in the western highlands between the rivers. The outline of that fort's center stockade can still be seen in the cut-outs at Bergen Square, the intersection of Bergen Avenue and Academy Street.

The impact of the Dutch settlement of this area is alive today, though few people understand its extent. For that reason alone, Stuyvesant's statue should have stayed at Bergen Square.

Seventy years ago and longer, developers tore down 17th century Dutch houses, one after another, to build new buildings. No one had the vision to establish archeological sites, much less value history for the sake of itself.

I cannot imagine why the statue of Peter Stuyvesant needed to be removed. The fact of the history of that place remains.

MLK worked to undo the legacy of the slave trade that the Dutch exploited to the fullest. Only through understanding history can we hope not to repeat it. These men are linked through history. Could have been a great academic project for the students of P.S. 11.

Yes... I have seen him at the intersection of Westside and Comunipaw. I think the tax prep place is there. He ..err I mean she is great!!

Maybe they could just pay someone to dress up and stand there - might well be cheaper. By the way, has anyone seen the guy dressed up like the "Statue of Liberty" around McGinley Square?

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Peter link

The above link contains two pictures. One has the statue and base as it appeared recently. The other picture shows the statue with its original base. I remember playing on the original base as a kid but for the life of me can?t remember where it was located. I think it may have been in the middle of the square. On an island in the street? Any old-timers remember?

Anyway in 1966 some asshole kids broke into the old PS # 11. For fun they put books on the stoves in the Home Economics classroom and turned on the gas. The school burned down not much was left. After the new school was finished they moved the statue to it current (as of 2 weeks ago) location. I recall there was some outrage because of the crappy location it was placed. They didn?t like the old building in the background.

Interesting that Epps wants to replace Peter with a statue of MLK. There is a beautiful bronze bust of MLK in the main lobby of the school. It is situated (notice how much that word is being used now) at the top of the main staircase. At night it had lights shining on it so it could be seen from the street. Why is there a need for a full statue of MLK decades after the school was dedicated????? Especially with all of the money cuts just announced!!!

I'm with you that he was a bad man - but many would say that about Columbus as well -- Regardless you should know better than to talk about destroying old statues...

How about demolishing the statue or commissioning one of Adolf Hitler, Stuyvesant's soulmate??


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Blame Hudson County Community College...


"Hudson County Community College and the county Open Space Committee to move the Stuyvesant statue"

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Beautify Journal Square by robbing Bergen Square?Huh? I?m guessing it?s too much to ask to just put it back.

Political Insider: Will historic statue get ornamental use?

By Agustin C. Torres/The Jersey Journal
February 13, 2010, 12:35AM


The statue of Peter Stuyvesant is under a tarpaulin on a platform truck at the Burns Bros. memorials and markers firm on Tonnelle avenue in Jersey City.

Since being taken Feb. 5 from its base in front of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. School in Jersey City, the century-old Peter Stuyvesant statue has been sitting on a platform truck at the Burns Bros. monuments firm's snow-covered lot on Tonnelle Avenue. The base was jackhammered into powder.
The bronze statue has a big tarpaulin covering it.

Where the great director-general of the New Netherlands colonies of the Dutch West Indies Company finally calls home may be a subject of debate. For those behind the whisking away of peg-leg Pete, the destination has been several years in the making.

At a Jersey City Board of Education meeting on Dec. 20, 2007, a request was made by the Hudson County Community College and the county Open Space Committee to move the Stuyvesant statue. Old Pete would travel about 1,000 feet from School 11 to a new pocket park, Culinary Arts Plaza, at Sip Avenue and Newkirk Street, according to the school panel's Facilities Committee minutes.

In the meeting minutes of the school board's March 13, 2008 session, approval was given to "loan" Stuyvesant as the centerpiece of the new park.

The justification is that the relocation would give the leader of the first settlement in New Jersey better public exposure than at the school. In return, the Board of Education, on recommendation of Superintendent of Schools Charles Epps, would use $50,000 of county Open Space Trust funds to commission a statue of School 11's namesake, Martin Luther King Jr.

John Burns Jr., of Burns Bros., feels he's caught in the middle of a controversy. Burns says he questioned HCCC officials about who actually owns the statue. He was told everything was above board.

A spokesman for the administration of County Executive Tom DeGise said the HCCC or any county agency did not demand the statue but they were happy to do anything to "beautify the Journal Square area."

As noted, local historians are unhappy that the statue will be relegated outside the original Bergen settlement. Perhaps the Christopher Columbus statue can point out peg-leg Pete's new home.