USA > New York > Historic buildings now standing in New York, which were erected prior to eighteen hundred > Part 1
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-c 74.702 422 cha 032965
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REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02233 6934
Gen
HISTORIC BUILDINGS NOW STANDING IN NEW YORK WHICH WERE ERECTED PRIOR TO EIGHTEEN HUNDRED 1800
PRINTED FOR BANK OF THE MANHATTAN COMPANY NEW YORK CITY
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JPG 914.7 BAN
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COPYRIGHTED 1914 BY BANK OF THE MANHATTAN COMPANY
The vignette on the preceding title-page is the seal of the Manhattan Company. On May 8, 1799, the Committee on By-Laws reported " that they had devised a common seal for the Corporation, the description of which is as follows: Oceanus, one of the sea gods, sitting in a reclining posture on a rising ground pouring water from an urn which forms a river and terminates in a lake. On the exergue will be in- scribed 'Seal of the Manhattan Com- pany.'"
2032965
COMPILED, DESIGNED, AND PRINTED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE WALTON ADVERTISING AND PRINTING COMPANY BOSTON, MASS.
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/historicbuilding00bank_0
FOREWORD
T is apparent to the New Yorker as well as to the stranger that the city is changing rapidly. Time lays as de- structive a hand upon that which is historic as upon that which is uninteresting; and the buildings of yesterday give place to those of to-day.
It has seemed appropriate to the Bank of the Manhattan Company that it should assemble views of substantially all the buildings of historic interest now standing within the city limits which were in existence in 1799, when it was founded. Many of these buildings have undergone but little change since then; others, though their original walls are standing, have been altered to meet more modern requirements. While the city possesses many interesting buildings erected in the first half of the nineteenth century, the small number of in- teresting buildings of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries which still remain shows how little is left of the New York of Colonial times and even of the early days of the Republic.
The compiler has made every effort to render both the views and the historic notes reliable and interesting. His indebted- ness is acknowledged to Frank Cousins, Esq., Salem, Mass., who furnished a majority of the photographs; to Dr. George W. Nash, Randall Comfort, Esq., John Ward Dunsmore, Esq., John Moore Perry, Esq., and A. A. Russell, Esq., for other photographs; to Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes, Esq., for his valuable advice and suggestions; and to the New York Historical Society for permission to reproduce old prints.
In the belief that it will be of interest to the busy man of affairs as well as to the antiquarian, the bank presents this brochure to you with its compliments, and hopes that it may find a permanent place in your library.
BANK OF THE MANHATTAN COMPANY
40 WALL STREET, NEW YORK
72-21209
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NEW
Drawn by John Wood
NEW YORK FROM LONG ISLAND 1801 Published by J. Wood and W'. Rollinson, New York, Feb. 14, 1801
Engraving by W'. Rollinson
NEW YORK 1626-1800
T HE Island of Manhattan, which for years marked the bounds of the city of New York until the outlying districts were taken in, presented in 1626, when Peter Minuit, the Dutch governor-general, bought it from the In- dians for $24 in trinkets, a far different aspect from that of to-day, when the value of the land upon the island is $3,155,389,410.
Where massive sky-scrapers now tower, primeval forests, un- touched by the hand of man, fretted the sky line. At the lower end of the island there were wooded hills and grassy valleys where the wild strawberry, apple, cherry, and grape fruited in their season, and wild flowers of every hardy kind bloomed in profusion. Brooks, ponds, swamps, and marshes covered the middle part of the island, and not far from the shore at the lower end on the east side was a pond with a little island in the middle to which the Dutch later gave the name Kolloch. To the north were high rocky hills, covered with dense forests, in which the wolf, the bear, the deer, and the wild turkey had their haunts, and between the hills trickled, tumbled, and foamed scores of limpid brooks, full of trout.
New Amsterdam lived on traffic, and was a lively place from the beginning, for it was on the highway between the northern and southern colonies. Life was remarkably cos- mopolitan from the earliest days. Official edicts were issued in French, Dutch, and English, and in 1643 eighteen languages were spoken on Manhattan Island. The town, settled for purposes of trade by a seafaring people, naturally long clung close to the water's edge. And here centred the social life of the old Dutch town.
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ХЛОП ЧИКИ
The irregularity of the streets below Bowling Green,-the open space set apart in 1626 for common use,-is evidence of the haphazard way in which the first settlers placed their houses. At first there were only two recognized roads. One of them led from the fort to Brooklyn Ferry at about the present Peck Slip, along the line of the present Stone and Pearl Streets (the latter then the water front). The other, on the line of the present Broadway, went north from the fort, out of the town through Peter Stuyvesant's "Bowerie," or country place, from which this part of the road took its name "the Bowery," and on into the wilderness. For more than a century this was the only highway traversing the island from end to end, and was famous as the Boston Post Road.
In these early days the favorite dwelling-place of the quality of the town was along the canal that ran the length of the present Broad Street, then called Heere Gracht. The pali- sade, built in 1653 along the line of the present Wall Street for protection against a threatened attack by New Eng- landers, marked the northern limit of the town, and for many years served to retard the natural growth of the town in that direction.
In 1664 there were only twelve buildings outside the wall, and only one-third of the area within was built upon. The western side of the town, from Bowling Green northwards, was entirely given over to gardens, orchards, and green fields. On the east the farthest outlying dwelling was Wolfert Web- ber's tavern on the northern highway, near the present Chatham Square, where travellers rested on their perilous journey to Harlem. Except for the settlement at Sappo- kanican, afterwards Greenwich Village, and the few farms along the highway, this region was empty. Annual round-ups were held of the herds which ran wild in the brush country, beginning where City Hall now stands. Soon after the settle- ment on Manhattan the Dutch and English turned covetous eyes on Long Island, particularly the neighborhood of Flat- lands, Flushing, Jamaica, and Brooklyn, and here they early built their homes. The English also settled upon Staten Island.
With the passage of the Bolting Act in 1678, giving the city
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a monopoly of the bolting and packing of flour, New York boomed. By 1695 the city inside the wall was densely popu- lated, and new streets north of the wall doubled the area of the city. Under English rule New York became very pros- perous. One source of its wealth was the plunder of the privateersmen, pirates, and slavers, who made New York their headquarters. Red Seamen, as they were called, not only had little difficulty in disposing of their booty in New York, but were welcomed as guests by the gentry and merchants, who made fortunes out of their dealings with them. One of the lots on the north side of Wall Street, 25 feet by 112 feet, was sold on March 13, 1689, to William Cox, a merchant, for £60, and by him bequeathed to his wife Sarah, who later married Captain Kidd. When the Kidds resold it on January 27, 1694, to John Warren, a butcher, they received £130. In 1712 the population was 5,840; in 1731, 8,622; and lots sold for from £30 to £roo, according to their nearness to Bowling Green.
Many New Yorkers had country places outside the city, where they lived in considerable state. The Bowery was lined with the farms of the Bayards, the DeLanceys, and other well-known families, and was the fashionable drive of the period. Scattered here and there were inns which at- tracted the gay world, and in some cases formed the nucleus of a village ultimately absorbed by the growing city. Busi- ness was still concentrated in the streets leading to Brooklyn Ferry, and no one expected that it would ever encroach upon the west side of the island. At the beginning of the English period social life centred at Fort George at the Battery, where the governor lived in state in his mansion and where the King's Chapel stood. Lower Broadway and the streets west, Greenwich Street from the Battery to Cortlandt Street, and, in time, the region further north, were occupied by people of fashion.
At the opening of the Revolution the Bowery was largely built upon as far as Grand Street, and from there to the junc- tion with the Middle Road (Broadway) it was lined with the country houses of well-to-do citizens. The epidemics of small-pox and yellow fever, which visited the city regularly
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during the last part of the eighteenth century and the first quarter of the nineteenth, greatly accelerated the northern development of New York. Many families, who took refuge in their out-of-town houses, remained there as permanent residents. But, long after the up-town movement had begun, people who already lived near the Battery, or who could afford to get houses there, lingered in the neighborhood. State Street, the eastern boundary of Bowling Green, was a de- lightful site for a town residence, and many other old streets resisted the encroachments of business until after 1800.
At the beginning of 1800, the population was 50,000, and a flourishing town had sprung up about New Harlem and in Greenwich, that section of New York around Gansevoort Market, Christopher and West roth Streets, the original estate of Sir Peter Warren, the English admiral. Another settlement known as Chelsea had also begun in the section now roughly bounded by Eighth Avenue, 20th and 23d Streets, where, in 1750, Captain Thomas Clarke, the veteran of the French and Indian War, had his country home. But most of New York, however, above City Hall Park was open country; and above 14th Street it was heavily wooded. Such was the condition of New York in 1800. To some of the old houses then standing, which still remain, your attention is now invited.
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SCHENCK-CROOKE HOUSE
On Mill Island, near Bergen Beach, Brooklyn, N.Y. Built 1656
The oldest house standing as originally erected in New York, and probably the oldest house in New York State, was built in 1656 by Jan Martinse Schenck Van Nydeck, who came of a noble Dutch family, long distinguished in the Low Countries. He was grandson of General Peter Schenck Van Nydeck, whose father was the Lord of Afferden and Blynbeek, Netherlands. Martin came to this country in 1650, and settled on Mill Island, where the Schenck estate was situated. This property was inherited by Captain John Schenck, who, like his ancestors, was interested in ships that plied between New Netherlands and Old Netherlands, and docked at the Schenck Wharf on Mill Island centuries before Jamaica Bay was considered as a ter -. minal for ocean liners.
Captain John Schenck's heirs sold the property, containing about seventy-five acres of woodland, upland, and salt marsh, to Joris Martense, of Flatbush, for £2,300. Martense, while ostensibly favoring the British cause during the Revolution, actu- ally advanced $5,500 to the American cause. In his house Major Moncrief, of the British army, was captured by Captain William Marriner, who made a midnight dash against Flatbush, and who had previously been captured and paroled by Moncrief.
The property came into the hands of General Philip S. Crooke, as trustee for the children of his wife, who had inherited the property, and is now owned by the Atlantic, Gulf & Pacific Company, a contracting firm which took over the house and estate in payment of their bill for improving the property. It is substantially in the shape it was originally built, and illustrates the quaint type of Dutch house that the early settlers of New Amsterdam and the surrounding territory erected about the middle of the seventeenth century.
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BERGEN HOMESTEAD
On East 72d Street, Bergen Beach. Built 1656
The Bergen house stands on what was Bergen Island, which was granted in 1646 by Governor Kieft to Captain John Underhill, the famous New Englander who was employed by Governor Kieft to fight the Pequot Indians. The island was then called by the Dutch "Meller's Island," and by the Indians "Wimbaccoe," and was sold by Underhill to Thomas Spicer, who bought from the Indians what rights they then held. Spicer is said to have built the old house in 1656, soon after the erec- tion of the Schenck-Crooke house. The house was bought of Spicer's heirs in 1605 for 1,25 guilders in wampum by Elbert Elbertse, who came from North Brabant, and owned six hundred acres in Flatlands. And later, through inheritance and pur- chase, the house came into the hands of John Bergen, whose heirs finally sold it to the speculators who laid out Bergen Beach.
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BOWNE HOUSE
Bowne Avenue and Washington Street, Flushing. Built 1661
This was one of the first asylums of the Quakers in America, and here lived John Bowne, the brave Englishman, who defied Governor Peter Stuyvesant by allowing Quakers to meet at his house, and whose conduct was sustained by the officials of the West India Company. He was the son of Thomas Bowne, of Derbyshire, Eng- land, and settled in Flushing, Long Island, about 1649. He built the Bowne house in 1661, and for over forty years it was used as a meeting-place for Friends. Bowne's wife, Hannah Field, was a sister of the wife of Captain John Underhill, who subdued the Pequot Indians. Soon after her marriage she became acquainted with some Friends at Flushing, who for want of a place to worship were meeting in the woods, and joined their society. Her husband, attracted by the solemnity and simplicity of their worship, invited them to meet at his house, and later joined the sect him- self. The English settlers complained in 1662 to Governor Peter Stuyvesant that the new sect was violating an ordinance of the West India Company that provided "beside the reformed religion no conventicles should be holden in the houses, barns, shops, woods, or fields, under the penalty of fifty gilders for the first offence, double for the second, and arbitrary correction for every other." Bowne was accordingly arrested, and charged with harboring Quakers and permitting them to hold meetings at his house. He was thrown into prison at Fort Amsterdam by Governor Stuy- vesant upon his refusal to cease harboring Quakers, and was held to await trial. Upon being fined and refusing to pay, he was confined in a dungeon, restricted to bread and water, and finally sent a prisoner to Amsterdam. The West India Company, after considering his case, released him, and wrote to Governor Stuyvesant to let John Bowne alone as long as he did not disturb others or oppose the gov- ernment. This document, in which the principle of religious toleration was laid down, was the first official declaration in favor of religious freedom in any part of America save Maryland.
John Bowne returned to Flushing, where the Quakers were no longer persecuted and in 1672 entertained George Fox, the founder of the Quaker sect. The minutes of the Quakers' monthly meeting at Flushing certify to the esteem in which John Bowne was held by the Quakers of his town. The house stands on the principal street in Flushing, and is to-day, inside and outside, much as it was when John Bowne and his wife moved into it.
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MOORE HOUSE
Broadway and Shell Road, Elmhurst (Newtown). Built 1661
In 1652 a company of Englishmen, one of whom was the Rev. John Moore, arrived on Long Island from New England, and secured from Governor Peter Stuyvesant permission to start a town. Accordingly, the town of Newtown was laid out. In consequence of the Rev. John Moore's activity in the purchase of Newtown from the Indians, the town awarded to his children eighty acres of land. In 1661 his son Captain Samuel Moore built the Moore house, which has remained in the family ever since, the present occupant being Mr. John Moore Perry, whose grand- father on his mother's side was a Moore. Although additions have been made to the house, much of the old part is still standing. Lord Howe made his headquarters here for a while during the Revolution, and here, too, the Duke of Clarence, afterward William IV. of England, was a guest. The "Newtown pippin," a famous apple, was first grown here.
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WYCKOFF HOUSE
On Remsen Place, near Canarsie Lane, Brooklyn. Built 1664
Here first settled the Wyckoff family, which has identified itself with church and secular history in many parts of the country. The land was bought from the Canarsie Indians in 1630, and the house was built in 1664 of material brought from Holland. The original owner was Pieter Claeson, who came from Holland in 1636, and for a time, in 1655, was superintendent of Peter Stuyvesant's farm. He later rose to be a man of wealth as well as a magistrate in Flatlands, and was one of the representa- tives at the convention held at Flatbush to send delegates to Holland to lay before the States-General and the West India Company the distressed condition of New Amsterdam. He was also one of the patentees in the town charters of Flatbush in 1667 and 1686. After the cession of New York to the English he took the name Wyckoff. His ancestors have lived here for generations, and, although slightly remod- elled, the farm-house is substantially as it was when originally built.
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MACOMB MANSION
2 30th Street, West of Broadway. Built 1693
This is one of the oldest and best-preserved landmarks in the Bronx. The car- liest references, 1693, mention it as a tavern, and it was kept about the time of the Revolution by John Cock. It was long one of the famous taverns on the old Albany post road, which was built in 1669 between New York and Albany, and crossed Spuyten Duyvil Creek at the old "Wading Place," almost in front of the Macomb Mansion door. At the time of the Revolution the statue of George III. at Bowl- ing Green in New York City was overthrown, and the head was carried to Fort Washington to be attached to the flagstaff. A message was passed through the Rebel camp to Cock to steal and bury the head. This he did, hiding it in his tavern. As early as 1693 this territory was included in the Manor of Philipsburg, and was a part of the domain of Colonel Philipse until forfeited by his attainder. Six years later it was sold by the Commissioners of Forfeiture.
The Macomb Mansion derives its name from General Alexander Macomb, who bought it in 1797, and in 1810 it came into the hands of the general's son, Robert, who erected about 1813 the well-known Macomb's dam across the Harlem River, some miles below the Macomb Mansion, in order to secure water power for his mill. In 1838 several residents, becoming enraged that the dam was an obstruction to navigation, demolished it, and their stand was sustained by the Court of Chancery. In 1830, during the occupancy of Mrs. Robert Macomb, it was the scene of lavish hospitality, many of the celebrities of the day being entertained there. Edgar Allan Poc, whose cottage was on the crest of Fordham Hill, not far away, was a frequent vis- itor. At various times in history it has been known as the "Watch Tower," and at one time or another during the Revolutionary War it was occupied by the cowboys and skinners, as the fighting Tories were called, by patriots and by well-known smugglers.
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BILLOPP HOUSE Tottenville, Staten Island. Built about 1695
This house, built by Captain Christopher Billopp, is said to be a monument "to the acquisition of Staten Island by New York." The boundary between New York and New Jersey was carly disputed, the controversy being whether Staten Island was included in the grant of New Jersey by the Duke of York to Carteret and Berkeley. As the duke, afterwards James II., decided that all islands which could be circumnavigated in a day should belong to New York, Captain Billopp sailed around the island in less than twenty-four hours, and the island was ceded to New York. The duke presented (March 25, 1676) to Captain Billopp a tract of 1, 163 acres on the southern shore of the island, and here Billopp in 1689 established the "Manor of Bentley," as Tottenville was then known, and built his manor-house. A grandson and namesake of the original owner was a colonel in the British Army during the Revolutionary War, and entertained many British officers here before he was captured and jailed at Burlington, N.J., among them being Generals Howe, Clinton, Cornwallis, Burgoyne, and others. In 1776, it was a barracks for General Howe's troops.
Here, on September 11, 1776, he received Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, John Adams of Massachusetts, and Edward Rutledge of South Carolina, whom he had asked the Continental Congress to send to him to see if peace could not be arranged. Lord Howe stated that he could extend full pardon to rebels who would lay down their arms and return to their allegiance, but could not consider inde- pendence of the colonies. The committee replied that it could not entertain any proposition that did not recognize political independence. Howe said that was be- yond his authority, and the committee, after some further discussion, returned, down lines of grenadiers, to the barge which Lord Howe had sent to the Jersey shore for them. On the way to the boat Lord Howe said that the stand of the committee was painful to him and painful to themselves. To which Dr. Franklin replied that "the people would endeavor to take good care of themselves, and thus alleviate as much as possible the pain his Lordship might feel in consequence of any severity his Lordship might deem it his duty to adopt." Lord Howe, turning to Adams, expressed his regret that he could not recognize the committee in a public character, to which the redoubtable Adams said he "was willing for a few moments to be re- garded in any light or any character except that of a British subject." Lord Howe replied, "Mr. Adams appears to have decided character." And later, when a list of important rebels was published to whom amnesty would be given, John Adams's name was left off.
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FRIENDS' MEETING-HOUSE Flushing. Built 1695
This quaint building, which is a monument to the courage of a religious sect as well as evidence of the generosity of an early settler in the town, was erected in 1695, and ever since has been a meeting-place for religious worship. In the State Archives at Albany is a petition of Samuel Haight, dated June 17, 1697, which states that a Mr. Noble, the step-father-in-law of the petitioner, "is lately deceased and having made easy for his own body leaves his estate to his widow during her life and at her death to the people called Quakers, land then being in the possession of the widow and petitioner." In consideration of the request of the deceased the petitioner had erected a meeting-house for the Quakers in the town, at his own charge and expense, on the ground that certain tracts of land may be given to him at the death of the widow. On the same day a patent was issued in accordance with the petition. During the Revolutionary War the meeting-house was used as a small-pox hospital, and against its wooden timbers British soldiers played quoits.
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JAN DITMARS HOUSE
Kouwenhoven Place, Flatlands, Brooklyn, Long Island. Built before 1700
The land on which the Ditmars house is was bought of the Indians in 1635 and 1636, and later came into the possession of Jan Ditmars, who was born in 1718. His son Johannes Ditmars at the outbreak of the Revolution was one of the wealthiest residents of Kings County, and had, as guardian after his father's death, a neighbor and friend who was a strong British sympathizer, though Ditmars was a patriot and advanced large sums to the American cause. When the British were preparing to land on Long Island, Washington commanded the farmers of Kings and Queens Counties to stack their grain in the field, so that, if the British approached, it could be burned without endangering the barns. Ditmars' guardian refused to comply, and, when the British advanced, American soldiers were ordered to set fire to the hay in the barn. Ditmars, whose stacks were burning in the field, rushed to the barn and put out the fire, then, springing to the top of a pile of hay, said, "If you burn this barn, you burn me." The Americans, who knew him and his aid to their cause, went away without firing the barn.
On another occasion during the Revolution the house at night was attacked by some British soldiers, who had learned that Ditmars had several bags of gold locked in a cupboard. They seized Ditmars and his mother, while asleep, and placed them under a feather bed to hush them, and afterwards tried to force Ditmars to unlock the cupboard. When he refused, they began to hack it to pieces with their swords. Slaves who slept over the kitchen heard the noise, and, arming themselves with old blunder- busses and other weapons, attacked the soldiers, capturing three, all of whom later escaped. When the slaves rescued their master and his mother, the two had been almost smothered by the feather bed. Some of the descendants of the Ditmars are said still to have coins which were in the boxes the robbers sought.
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