In 1657 a “company of traveling ministers of the Society of Friends from England, first landed at New Amsterdam,” according to the February 1872 issue of The American Historical Record. Their arrival did not sit well with Governor “Peg Leg” Peter Stuyvesant who passed an ordinance imposing a fine of 50 pounds on any person harboring a Quaker. In 1892 The Sun’s Guide to New York added that Stuyvesant “used to banish their co-religions from New York after having them beaten and dragged at the tails of carts.”
By 1681 Quakers were openly worshiping and in 1734 they were granted the same civil rights as other British subjects. The Militia Act of 1755 exempted the pacifist group from serving in the military.
In an ironic twist that would have infuriated the governor, in 1860 the “Hicksite” Friends began construction of a three-story brick meeting house at 15 Rutherford Place and East 15th Street, formerly part of Stuyvesant’s farm. The building was completed in 1864, it was erected by congregation member Charles T. Bunting, a builder, and he is presumed to have been the architect as well. The Greek Revival style was out of date by now, but the simple lines and unadorned lintels and sills spoke to the simplicity of the lifestyle of the Society. A seminary building was erected next door.. It faces Stuyvesant Square, a four-acre section of the former farm which Peter Gerard Stuyvesant, the governor’s great-great-grandson, sold to the city for $5 in 1836 for use as a park.