In 1660, as the last Dutch Director-General of the colony of New Netherland, Peter Stuyvesant was instrumental in the establishment of the Village of Bergen, which was near this site. While Stuyvesant was important local historical figure, his legacy includes the facts that he built his prosperity on the labor of many enslaved people, and that he promoted the vicious prosecution of people not of his faith, especially Quakers and Jews. This raises important questions about how we remember historic figures, and how we come to terms with their complicated legacies. The Scottish-American sculptor J. Massey Rhind was commissioned to create this statue to mark the 250th anniversary of the village’s founding. The statue was unveiled to the public in 1913. It has been loaned to the Hudson County Community College by the City of Jersey City and was moved to this location in 2014. Thank you the City of Jersey City for the Gracious Loan of this work.