The New Amsterdam History Center presents

A Walk Through Haarlem, New Netherland

 Guided Walking Tour Led by Prize-winning Author 

Painting by Len Tantillo of the de Forest/Montagne bouwrie

Sara Cedar Miller

The northern end of Central Park was once the earliest uptown settlement of the Dutch era. On this 1.5-hour walking tour, historian Sara Cedar Miller, author of Before Central Park, explains why Hendrick and Isaac de Forest and their brother-in-law, Dr. Johannes de la Montagne, chose to live far north of New Amsterdam. You’ll stroll through the land that once was the family’s tobacco bouwerie, and learn about the tragedy and aftermath of Kieft’s War. Miller will enchant you with stories about the residents, their intermarriages, their engagement with slavery, as well as their scandals and tavern life, which lasted up to the taking of the land for Central Park. The Dutch way of life continued to 19th century Harlem.

Sara Cedar Miller has been the Historian emerita of the Central Park Conservancy since 2017. She was the Conservancy photographer from 1984 and also its historian from 1989 to 2017. Her recent book, Before Central Park, (Columbia University Press, 2022) just received the 2023 Landscape Studies Initiative Book Award. Ms. Miller is also the author of Central Park: An American Masterpiece (Abrams, 2003), Strawberry Fields, Central Park’s Memorial to John Lennon (Abrams, 2011), Seeing Central Park: The OfficialGuidebook, Updated and Expanded (Abrams, 2021)

Sara Cedar Miller spoke on "Before Central Park" on a separate date on a lecture on May 19, 2022