Watergraaf or Diemen lake was pumped dry in 1629 using four windmills. Besides subduing a dangerous lake, the project also provided Amsterdam’s rich with an excellent investment opportunity. The draining was done entirely at the behest and with funding from the city of Amsterdam. Wealthy merchants and public figures were the first to build estates there. Reigersburg, owned around 1671 by François de Vicq Jr, an Amsterdam patrician, was the finest of these country houses in the seventeenth century. Over the years, De Meer developed into a popular recreation area for Amsterdam’s well to do. Around 1750, there were fifty large country houses in Watergraafsmeer, thirty smaller dwellings and over fifty pleasure gardens. All that remains of that verdant paradise today is Frankendael.