in 1625 to the new colony. The Civic Center was known as the commons and the first recorded building was a windmill built by Jan de Wit and Denys Hartogveldt in 1663. The next year, the colony was renamed New York and the state seal was created the following year. Farms continued to grow and slavery expanded rapidly. The slaves built a burial ground in the north area of the Civic Center. The slaves would bury people at night even though it was illegal, to ensure their brethren had a proper burial service. Because of the slaves’ sneaking out and racism, the Trinity Church banned African burial ceremonies in 1697. This rule was then overturned in 1773. The city continued expanding and the government system became increasingly powerful. The local government decided to finance their first public works building through public funding. In 1735, the Almshouse was built as a center to house the ill and impoverished, a jail, a workhouse and infirmary. A score later another jail was built called New Gaol, which was a debtor prison. Soldier barracks were built on the western border of the commons. Property development During the Civil War, the old British soldiers’ barracks were used as temporary barracks. Between 1869 and 1880, the City Hall Post Office and Courthouse was erected at the southern end of City Hall Park; the building was not well received and was destroyed in 1939. The Tweed Courthouse was also built at the north end of City Hall Park at the same time, being completed in 1881. Though the building had begun construction in 1861, work on the building stopped between 1872 and 1877 after the downfall of its patron Boss Tweed and the death of its primary architect. By the 1880s, the city of New York was rapidly growing; the population had increased to more than a million residents, and the government was outgrowing its offices. The mayor, Franklin Edson, recognized the need for more space for government offices and was reluctant to add onto the original City Hall building. Instead, between the years of 1888 and 1907, the city organized a series of competitions to choose designs for several new structures. On the western edge of the Civic Center, several buildings were completed in the 1890s. The first buildings to be completed were the Home Life and Postal Telegraph Buildings at Broadway and Murray Street, constructed