Although nominally a carpenter or gunstockmaker, he entered the fur trade, using the profits to buy land, beginning with the house he built in about 1659 on the corner of today's State and Pearl Streets in Albany.

[5] On 1 November 1667 Philip Pietrse was commissioned Captain (Kapitein) in the Albany militia in army of the Dutch Republic.

After he bought "the Flats", he built a new home on North Pearl Street, for winter use, in which he died.

He also owned property in New Amsterdam, several hundred acres east of the Hudson below Rensselaerswyck, and lots in Wiltwyck and at Halfmoon as well.

[5] In 1656, he was appointed by Governor Stuyvesant to the office of vice-director of Fort Orange until it was captured by the English in 1664.