Monument to Mayor de Peyster, Bowling Green, New York City

The Monument to Abraham de Peyster, New York mayor, was installed in Bowling Green, in 1896, and removed in 1972.

Abraham de Peyster was born in New Amsterdam, on July 8, 1657, during the Dutch rule, son of James (Jacobus) de Peyster and Sarah Reade, a wealthy family which had a tradition of military service and office-holding under successive administrations. In 1664, the English took control of the city and renamed it New York.

Abraham de Peyster was the mayor of New York City from 1691 to 1694 and governor of New York in 1700-1701. Around 1699, Peyster donated part of his garden for the construction of a new city hall, later the Federal Hall, which served as the first capitol of the United States, and the site of the first inauguration of George Washington as President, in 1789. Peyster died on August 3, 1728.

The statue was commissioned by Peyster’s great-great-great-grandson John Watts de Peyster. He donated the statue to the City of New York to honor his ancestor’s legacy. The bronze statue, over life-size, was modeled by George Edwin Bissell (1839–1920) and installed on Bowling Green, in 1896. The Monument to Abraham de Peyster was removed from Bowling Green, in 1972, and placed in Hanover Square from 1976 until 2004. Then it was placed in a warehouse until 2013, when the statue was placed in Thomas Paine Park near the Supreme Court building.