DID YOU KNOW? Jan Jansen Bleecker was a Dutchman who arrived in the US in 1658 and promptly installed himself as Mayor of Albany, the capital of New York state. Jan’s son Rutger married into the wealthy Lispenard family of Manhattan, and they resettled there on his wife’s estate to raise their children. By the mid-1700s their eldest son, Anthony Lispenard Bleecker, was a prominent and wealthy shipping merchant and auctioneer and he was a close friend and confidant of George Washington. The father of 13 children, Anthony Bleecker amassed an extensive real estate portfolio, including a 20-acre summer home in Lower Manhattan. The property had a public thoroughfare running through it that the locals called “Bleecker Street”. The home and grounds may not be there anymore, but the name of that pathway endures today.
Posted on: Thu, 21 Aug 2014 15:21:18 +0000
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