March 1st, 1660, Tilman Van Vleck petitioned for permission to found a
village near the maize land, a clearing and Indian corn field at and
around what is now the junction of Montgomery street and Bergen avenue.
He was refused and again asked, to be again refused, April 12th. A
third application upon August 16th of the same year was successful. It
was granted upon the following conditions: "The site should be selected
by the Governor and Council; it must be a place easily defended; the
land to be distributed by lot, and work on each plot begun within six
weeks. Each owner of a lot to send one man able to bear arms. The
houses were to be within a fortified village, and the farms were to
be outside." It is highly probable that Governor Stuyvesant planned
the new village, which was surveyed and laid out by Jaques Cortelyou,
Surveyor of Nieu Netherland. This, the first village in New Jersey,
was named Bergen, after a small town in Holland, the most important of
the provinces constituting the United Netherlands. A square of eight
hundred feet on each side was cleared and crossed with two streets that
intersected at right angles. A plot in the centre of 160 by 220 feet
was reserved for public use. On the exterior of the outer streets now
known as Vroom, Idaho, Tuers and Newkirk, surrounding the entire plot,
the stockade was erected, with gates at the cross streets, which are
now known as Academy street and Bergen avenue. This was completed in
1661. Tradition states that on the corner of Vroom and Tuers streets
was built a block house as a protection against the Indians. It was
near the first church. Winfield thinks that the houses were of logs and
probably thatched with cattails. It is an interesting fact that the
first lot taken in the new village, now known as 201 Academy street,
was bought by Cornelis Van Reypen, 1st. The house now occupied by Mr.
Cornelius Van Reypen, 3d, is the second upon the lot, which has always
been in the possession of and the home of the lineal descendants of the
founder of the family in Bergen. It is also true of the Van Wagenens,
Romeyns, and Van Winkels on Academy street, that they are living on the
lands allotted to their ancestors at the founding of Bergen, which have
never passed from the family possession. Representatives of the Sip
and Newkirk families also still hold ancestral lands. In this respect
Bergen has quite an exceptional record for an American town.