The stockade was built in three weeks and stood 14 feet high. The settlers, about 70 took their houses and barns apart log by log, carted them uphill and rebuilt them inside the Stockade Area. The walled village was called Wiltwyck. Gates gave the men access to their fields, but women and children were confined to life within the 1200 by 1300-foot perimeter of the wall. The original c. 1660 portion of the Hoffman House stood on the Stockade Area's northwest corner, and there was evidence it may have also served as a fort. On June 7, 1663 the second of two wars started when the Esopus Indians set the village on fire. After a peace treaty signed in 1664, the Esopus Indians gradually migrated from the area. From 1658-77, the Stockade Area was expanded three times to a perimeter just under a mile. Now a National Historic District, it contains one of the largest clusters of 17th and 18th c. Dutch style stone houses in the U.S.
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