7. Foley Square
Foley Square in Lower Manhattan’s Civic Center was the location of Werpoes Village, a settlement on the banks of the Collect Pond. The pond was the main city water supply system for the first two centuries of European settlement. The Munsee lived by the pond until Dutch settlement, and to the west of the pond was Kalck Hoek, where many oyster shell middens were left.
Werpoes was the southernmost village on the Wequaesgeek Road. Archaeologists posit that the residents of this village may have sold the island to European settlers in 1626, not those living at the northern tip of modern-day Manhattan. Werpoes was known for its fertile land on which crops grew easily.