Die Braak

Die Braak is a large, rectangular grassy square defined by the low, whitewashed walls and thatched roofs of the surrounding historic buildings. Dutch settlers laid out this commonage in the late seventeenth century to serve as a parade ground and a site for military exercises. During the nineteenth century, the space hosted circuses, traveling troupes, and local markets. An itinerant performer named John Joseph built a wooden theater here in eighteen forty, a structure that vanished after a fire leveled it years later.