Anonymous

“ We have lately seen how the tradition that Washington Irving used to live in the house on the corner of Irving Place and Seventeenth Street had no foundation in fact, except that he had a nephew who lived next door. And so the story so often repeated in newspapers and guide books that the City Hall was finished in brownstone at the back because the city fathers thought that nobody of any importance would ever live to the north of it might, it seems, be set at rest, although the attempt is not made for the first time. The story reflects on the intelligence of the people of the day. ”

“ Alexander Hamilton, although born in another colony, was identified with the city from boyhood and married into a New York family.42 The genuine New Yorker seems always to have had a certain regard for the memory of Hamilton, ascribable perhaps to his untimely taking off, to a sentiment of having been, as it were, robbed of the services of a great man, and to the strong light thrown upon the contrast between his traits and those of his distinguished and brilliant antagonist. ”

“ When a man has traversed the streets of a city for fifty years, certain buildings become familiar landmarks. He first saw them perhaps on trudging to school with his books, and has seen them nearly every day since. ”

“ It appears from this (the architect’s) estimate that the difference of expense between marble and brownstone will not exceed the sum of $43,750, including every contingent charge. When it is considered that the City of New York from its inviting situation and increasing opulence, stands unrivaled ... we certainly ought, in this pleasing state of things, to possess at least one public edifice which shall vie with the many now erected in Philadelphia and elsewhere ... in the course of a very few years it is destined to be the center of the wealth and population of the city. ”

“ The most attractive feature of the house was the main staircase, which was made in England especially for the house. This staircase was rectangular and of a dark rich colored wood, was beautifully carved and of a very graceful design. It was lighted by a large stained-glass window overlooking Astor Place. The reception rooms were on the left of the main hall with a conservatory in the rear. At the right were the library, staircase,46 dining room, and offices. Mrs. Langdon, however, returned to Europe and continued to reside there until her death. ”

“ There is a small enclosure near your boundary fence within which lie the remains of a favorite child, covered by a marble monument.... The surrounding ground will fall into the hands of I know not whom, whose prejudice or better taste may remove the monument and lay the enclosure open. You will confer a peculiar and interesting favor upon me by allowing me to convey the enclosure to you, so that you will consider it a part of your own estate, keeping it however always enclosed and sacred. There is a white marble funereal urn to place on the monument which will not lessen its beauty. ”

“ An Old Fifth Avenue House
Former Residence of the Late James Lenox
James Lenox was born in New York in 1800, and was the son of Robert Lenox, a wealthy Scotch merchant. He graduated from Columbia College in 1820 and entered upon a business life, but on the death of his father in 1839 he retired and devoted the rest of his life to study and works of benevolence. The collection of books and works of art became his absorbing passion, and eventually he gathered about him the largest and most valuable private collection of books and paintings in America. ”

“ Bank of New York
The oldest bank in the country is the Bank of North America in Philadelphia, incorporated by act of Congress, December, 1781, and by the State of Pennsylvania a few months afterwards. Very great losses had occurred from the repudiation of the Continental bills of credit. All the States had issued bills of their own and kept on “making experiments in finance which did not depend on specie as a basis.” ”

“ During the Revolutionary War the neighborhood was constantly the scene of conflicts. Washington visited the house in 1781, and on the hill to the north disposed part of his army, which lighted camp fires while he was quietly withdrawing the rest of his troops to join Lafayette before Yorktown. There was a bloody engagement near the house on August 31, 1778, between the British, under Lieutenant-Colonel Simcoe, and a body of Stockbridge Indians. ”

“ It was his custom to gather the people of the island once a year on the lawn in front of his house and hold a ‘harvest home.’... Passionately fond of horses, his stable was filled with the finest bred animals in the land. He was a magnificent rider and was very fond of the saddle. He was an expert shot with the pistol, which once saved his life when he was attacked by robbers. Christopher Billop was not a man to take advice unless it instantly met with his favor.... ”

“ Captain Billop married a Miss Farmer, sister of a Supreme Court judge in the neighboring province of New Jersey. They had one child, a daughter, who married her cousin, Thomas Farmer, and he, succeeding to the manor of Bentley, changed his name to Billop. Both died young and their tombstones are to be seen at the house to-day. Christopher Billop, their only son, born 1735, was a prominent man in public affairs throughout his life. In the Revolution he was intensely loyal to the crown, and became a colonel in the British army. ”

“ When at length he tired of a seafaring life, although still young, he decided upon making his home in New York, and proceeded to anchor himself for a time at least by marrying a New York woman, Miss De Lancey. He bought three hundred acres of land at Greenwich, built a house and laid out the grounds like an English park. Here he resided for some years, and then went to England and entered Parliament. ”

“ Fifth Avenue, from Washington to Madison Square, was, in the opinion of the writer, one of the finest residence streets anywhere. At most hours of the day the people on the sidewalks were comparatively few and there was a very small proportion of business wagons and trucks that used the roadway as compared with the numbers that do so to-day. University Place was a street of nearly the same character, as was also Second Avenue from Seventh Street to Stuyvesant Square. ”

“ Bartholomew’s14 Church at Great Jones Street, and from the Langdon (Wilks) house on the west side to the Schermerhorn house opposite the church, almost every building had its individuality. The street was marred by three or four ancient buildings, which for some reason were not removed, such as the stable between the Langdon house and the Astor Library, once the favorite Riding Academy. The Library still (1906) stands, as does a part of the old Colonnade, but an earthquake could hardly have wrought greater changes than has the march of trade. ”

“ The Sub-Treasury is built on the site of the original City Hall. In 1789 this was altered and repaired for the use of the first Congress and named the Federal Hall. The balcony of the Hall was the scene of Washington’s inauguration as President, in commemoration of which the statue was erected.
In 1834 the building was demolished and the present structure erected for the Custom House and was used as such until 1862.
The Assay Office is the oldest building in Wall Street, having been built in 1823, for the New York branch of the Bank of the United States. It became the Assay Office in 1853. ”

“ Perhaps of all the landmarks taken down during the time of the present generation, none was so well known as the Goelet house at Broadway and Nineteenth Street, with the grounds extending eastward toward Fourth Avenue. Thousands of people passed every day in the short stretch between the two squares. ”

“ Lamb’s “History of the City of New York,” vol. II, p. 129) the westerly line of Harlem excluded all Morningside Heights except a few feet at the base of the high ground at Manhattanville. The high ground was known as Vandewater Heights, and if the battle had taken place there it would have been known by that name. It is more probable that most of the fighting (which was widespread) took place at the base of the Point of Rocks, south of the Convent of the Sacred Heart, and also along the high ground to the west and north. ”

“ It was one of the best, if not the best house in town. The gardens extended to the river. This house was mentioned in the debates in Parliament to indicate the ability of the colonists to pay more taxes. What might in some respects be called the mate to this house, the Walter Franklin house, occupied by Washington during his Presidency, stood at the north end of the square. It was taken down in 1856, “and the only bit of it known to exist is the President’s chair of the N. Y. Historical Society, which is made of wood taken from the old house” (“Historic New York,” p. 298) . ”

“ Born in 1814, he graduated at Harvard and at the Cambridge Divinity School, and in 1838 became the pastor of the First Unitarian Church, New York, and so continued for forty-four years. Dr. Bellows was an accomplished orator, his extemporaneous speeches being remarkable for their lucidity and style. He published numerous lectures and pamphlets, but is best known throughout the country for his work as president of the United States Sanitary Commission during the Civil War. Under him the commission distributed supplies amounting to fifteen millions of dollars in value and five millions of money. ”

“ Thus arose the necessity of a bank that should both assist the Government and benefit the people at large.
On February 26, 1784, a meeting of the principal merchants and citizens was held at the Merchants’ Coffee House. General Alexander McDougal was chosen chairman, and it was unanimously decided to establish a bank. Subscription books were opened at the offices of John Alsop, Broadway, Robert Bowne, Queen Street, and Nicholas Low, Water Street, and the shares were rapidly taken. ”

“ The streets are lined with well-kept, comfortable brick houses, dating back sixty years or more, many of them with the elaborately ornamental iron railings and newel posts that are disappearing so rapidly. ”

“ Courtenay was a great lion in New York, for he was a handsome bachelor, with title, fortune, and reputation—a combination of excellencies calculated to134 captivate the heart desires of the opposite sex. Claremont was the residence for a while of Joseph Bonaparte, ex-King of Spain, when he first took refuge in the United States, after the battle of Waterloo and the downfall of the Napoleon dynasty. Here too Francis James Jackson, the successor of Mr. Erskine, the British Minister at Washington, at the opening of the War of 1812, resided a short time.... ”

“ Down to the time of the Revolution, the collection was constantly increased by the purchase of books, but during the Revolution, with a large part of the city destroyed by fire and what remained being under the control of a hostile army, the library suffered greatly. ”

“ The house overlooked the waters of the river and bay. In the year 1700 he deeded this property to his son-in-law, Etienne de Lancey, probably wishing to retire to his manor on the Hudson. De Lancey was a French Huguenot of rank who had left his native country on the revocation of the edict of Nantes. He came to New York where he established himself as a merchant. ”

“ Moore gave the whole of the block bounded by Twentieth and Twenty-first streets and Ninth and Tenth avenues to the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church, and it became known as Chelsea Square. The building here shown was built about 1835 and is constructed of a gray stone. The modern buildings, however, are of brick and stone, of a Gothic style and, with the old trees remaining and the stretches of green lawn, produce, especially in summer time, a suggestion of English seclusion and repose quite at variance with the bustle and the crudeness of that part of the city. ”

“ Perhaps it was this feature of quiet repose which suggested the suitability of establishing there the Library, the churches, the Columbia College Law School, and the Church House.
The writer might go on and refer extensively to other ancient streets and the changed aspect of other places throughout the city, but that is not his present purpose.
There are a few old landmarks that are likely to stand, for example the City Hall, in the opinion of some the most successful building, as to architectural design, in the country. ”

“ When war broke out, Congress appointed him a brigadier general, and such was the confidence in him that he was given carte blanche as to all the officers under him. He fell at the head of his troops in the assault on Quebec, December 31, 1775, at the age of thirty-seven. The estimation in which he was held by his wife’s family continued to the time of his death. In July, 1818, when the State of New York had his remains brought from Quebec, they were interred under the monument now seen at the east end of St. ”

“ Street. In 1793 the firm name was Rogers & Woolsey, his partner being William Walter Woolsey, his brother-in-law, Mr. Rogers having married Sarah Woolsey, a sister of the wife of President Dwight of Yale College. In that year he was living at 272 Pearl Street, near Beekman, “in a large house with hanging garden extending over the yard and stable.”6
Mr. Rogers was a merchant of high character and public spirit. In 1793 he was an active member of the Society for the Manumission of Slaves. He was a governor of the New York Hospital from 1792 to 1799, and in 1797 treasurer of the City Dispensary. ”