This playground and the adjoining street are named for Coenradt Ten Eyck (1617-1686), a settler in the New Amsterdam colony. He was born in 1617 in Moers, Germany, to Wilhelm Ten Eyck (c.1590 – c.1645) and Michel Puitzen (1592- c.1623). He married Maria Boele (b. 1622), in Amsterdam in June 1645, and the marriage intention, dated May 12, 1645, indicates that he worked as a shoemaker’s helper. In approximately 1651, they immigrated to New Amsterdam.
Records indicate Ten Eyck remarried, and his second wife was named Antje (b. 1629). He worked as a tanner and shoemaker near his home on what is now Coenties Slip, a corruption of the Dutch nickname Coentje, meaning “Coenradt’s and Antje’s.” He died on April 5, 1686.