When Peter Stuyvesant became director-general of New Netherlands in 1647 by appointment of the Dutch West India Company, he resided on his farm, or bowery, which name the place retains to this day, though the scent of roses has long since left it. Later this same bowerland was the center of fashion, the Bowery Street a popular driveway, wealth and gaiety crowding its borders while yet the Broadway was a country road winding among humble farms and odorous stockyards.