Stuyvesant Farm, also known as the Great Bowery, was the estate of Peter Stuyvesant, the last Dutch director-general of the colony of New Netherland, as well as his predecessors and later his familial descendants. The land was at first designated Bowery No. 1, the largest and northernmost of six initial estates of the Dutch West India Company north of New Amsterdam, used as the official residence and economic support for Willem Verhulst and all subsequent directors of the colony.
In 1651, while serving as director, Stuyvesant purchased the land from the company. He capitulated the colony to the English in 1664 and went to Europe for three years, returning to retire to his farm in 1667. The land was kept in the Stuyvesant family for many generations into the American period, and was the namesake of numerous local sites and institutions.