A  HISTORICAL  TOUR OF  THE  GREATEST  STREET IN THE WORLD.......BROADWAY






<PRE>
FROM NINETY-SIXTH STREET TO ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-EIGHTH STREET
                           Pre  1911

      At eighty-fifth Street, the old Bloomingdale Road wound to the
eastward, returning to the line of the Boulevard at about Ninety-seventh
Street. At One Hundred and Eleventh Street, it curved to the westward
becoming in later days Riverside Avenue abreast of the park of that name,
and did not return to the Boulevard again until One Hundred and Twenty-sixth
Street was reached. Here it curved up the hill, finally turning to the
northward and eastward and joining itself with the Kingsbridge Road from
Harlem (the Boston Post-road, Harlem Lane, or St. Nicholas Avenue) near One
Hundred and Forty-seventh Street. At One Hundred and Eleventh Street,
Broadway changes from its diagonal course and continues straight up Eleventh
Avenue to One Hundred and Sixty-eighth Street, where it merges itself in the
Kingsbridge Road, which assumes the name of Broadway to the end of the
Island.

1.   AN ACT FOR MENDING AND KEEPING IN REPAIR THE POST-ROAD FROM NEW YORK TO
KINGS-BRIDGE.

      As early as October 23, 1713, there was passed: "An Act for Mending
and keeping in Repair the Post-Road from New York to Kings-Bridge," by which
act, on account of the bad condition of the road, it was divided into
sections to be kept in order by the different city wards through which it
passed. This act also said that the roads were to be cleaned up and
maintained by the "Inhabitants of All Towns, Mannors and Precincts by and
through whose lands any Common Publick Roads or highways have or shall run."
There were supplemental acts in 1721, 1723, 1728, 1736, and every few years
later. By an act of September 30, 1874, the Kingsbridge Road was to be
opened, widened, and straightened from One Hundred and Fifty-fifth Street to
the Harlem River; but it remained unpaved and badly lighted for many years
afterward. From One Hundred and Eleventh Street northward we have,
therefore, two roads to consider, the old Bloomingdale Road and the modern
Broadway.

2.   PROPERTY OWNERS ABOVE NINETY-SIXTH STREET.
      We have already carried the property owners as far north as
Ninety-sixth Street. Above that point to Manhattan Street the principal
owners were David M. Clarkson, James Stryker (Stryker Bay farm), Ann Rogers,
John Jacob Astor, William Hayward, Gordon S. Mumford, James De Peyster,
Nicholas De Peyster, New York Hospital (Bloomingdale Asylum), Henriques,
Marx, Courtenay, and Thomas Buckley. In the old Dutch days, the land between
Ninetieth and One Hundred and Seventh Streets, Eighth Avenue, and the
Hudson. was granted by Stuyvesant to Teunis Ide; so that the property
belonging to owners on the above list as far down as William Hayward was
originally on the Ide tract.

3.   THE  CLAREMONT  RESTAURANT
      Following the old road toward the river, we find that it is the
eastern boundary of Riverside Park for some distance. Abreast of One Hundred
and Twenty-third Street is the restaurant called Claremont, which commands a
superb view of the river. It was erected a little over a century ago by Dr.
Post and long remained in his family. Previous to 1812, it was occupied by
Lord Courtenay, whose name appears in the list of owners above as having
property below and contiguous to One Hundred and Twenty-sixth Street.
Courtenay, who afterwards became Earl of Devon, came to this country, so it
was supposed, on account of political or  social troubles in England. One
writer describes him as living as a recluse with one man servant; another,
as being of a handsome and winning personality and dispensing a charming
hospitality. However that may be, when the second war with England occurred,
he went back to England and did not return to this country, his plate and
furniture being sold at public auction. Another tenant of the mansion for
some time was Joseph Bonaparte, ex-king of Spain, who resided here after the
downfall of his famous brother. For over fifty years the mansion has been a
favorite road-house and restaurant.

4.  GRANT'S  TOMB
       A few rods south of Claremont is the mausoleum erected by the people
of the nation to contain the remains of the great commander of the Civil
War, Ulysses S. Grant. His wife lies beside him. His funeral occurred August
8, 1885, and was the most imposing one ever seen in this city. The body was
placed temporarily in a small, brick vault adjacent to the tomb, work upon
which was begun upon his birthday, April 27, 1891. It was dedicated April
27, 1897, upon which occasion there was an imposing military and civic
parade which attracted to the city hundreds of thousands of strangers. The
day was one of great discomfort and suffering to the spectators along
Riverside Drive, as it was cold, and a strong gale prevailed which swept up
the river without hindrance. During the celebration of the three hundredth
anniversary of the discovery of the Hudson and of the one hundreth of
steamboat navigation under Fulton, in the fall of 1909, the ships of the
different navies that participated were strung along the river for miles.
The naval parade and illumination were witnessed by half a million people,
who blackened the slopes of the park in the vicinity of the tomb so that the
lawns were obscured.

5.  OTHER  POINTS  OF  INTEREST
          1)  Returning to the present Broadway, we find to the east of the
thoroughfare at One Hundred and Tenth Street, also called Cathedral Parkway,
the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine, which has been in
course of construction for over a quarter of century upon the site of the
Leake and Watts Orphan Asylum, which was established in 1831. The
corner-stone of the cathedral was laid September  27, 1892. On the blocks
north of it are St. Luke's Hospital and Home for the Aged.

        2)  The blocks above One Hundred and Sixteenth Street on the east
side were occupied from 1821 to 1894 by the Bloomingdale Insane Asylum,
which had moved in the former year from the grounds of the New York Hospital
at Thomas Street, and which moved in the latter year to White Plains in
Westchester County.

        3)   Abreast of the university buildings, the underground railway
emerges from the subway and is carried across the valley of Manhattan Street
by means of a viaduct, entering the subway again upon the north side at One
Hundred and Thirty-fifth Street. The village of Manhattanville formerly
occupied this section through the valley as far east as Seventh Avenue. The
author  states " I remember when the Eighth Avenue horse-car route was
extended as far  as One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Street, and we considered
we were securing wonderful transportation. At One Hundred and Twenty-fifth
Street, we cross into the ancient town of New Harlem, whose southern, or
western, boundary line extended from the Hudson, just south of the Fort Lee
Ferry at Manhattan Street, in a straight line diagonally across the island
to Seventy-fourth Street and the East River; the other boundaries were the
East, Harlem, and Hudson Rivers."

6.   COLLEGES  OF THE  AREA
      In 1892, the asylum property was secured by Columbia College, which
moved to this site upon the vaction of the property by the asylum. In 1896
the college, the ancient "King's", became a university. Adjoining Columbia
on the west side of Broadway is Barnard College for the education of women;
and on the north is Teachers College, the professional branch of the
university for the training of teachers. Though both are separate
corporations, they are closely affiliated with Columbia. Teachers College
located here in the fall of 1894, and Barnard in the fall of 1897. In One
Hundred and Twentieth Street, adjoining Teachers College is the famous
Horace Mann School, a private institution.
      The university and college buildings, constructed in the best styles
of modern architecture, constitute an imposing group upon the plateau of
Morningside Heights. The library building, containing in the neighborhood of
450,000 volumes, is probably the most notable. It is a gift to the
university from its former president, the Hon. Seth Low, as a memorial to
his father, an old New York merchant. One of its striking features is its
great dome, which has been copied in a smaller degree in the construction of
Earl Hall on the west of the library building. One of the professors who was
abroad during the construction of the Hall, was asked on his return how he
liked it. He scrutinized the new building and then let his gaze wander over
the dome of the library. "It looks to me," he said dryly, "as if the library
had laid an egg." Upon the Broadway side of the west hall, is a bronze
tablet commemorative of the Battle of Harlem Heights and the death of
Lieutenant-Colonel Knowlton.

7.  THE  BATTLE  OF  HARLEM  HEIGHTS
     As the tablet indicates, we are upon historic ground. From One Hundred
and Tenth Street north to Manhattan Street, the ground is quite elevated and
was called, from early days, Harlem Heights, though now known, from the
public park contiguous to the plateau, as Morningside Heights. In the days
of Stuyvesant, the property from One Hundred and Seventh Street to one
Hundred and Twenty-fifth Street had been granted to Jacob De Kay, though by
the time of the Revolution several farms occupied the original tract.
Manhattan Street, called in olden times the "Hollow Way," is a natural
valley leading down to the river between the high lands lying north and
south of it, and was from the earliest times of the Dutch a road leading
down to the ferry to New Jersey.
      On the morning of September sixteenth, 1776, the American army was
encamped north of the valley, and the British to the south of it, Howe's
headquarters being in the Apthorpe House, and Washington's in the Morris
House. The Chief was anxious to know the disposition of Howe's troops, and
it is probable that it was about this date that Hale had volunteered to find
out and had started on his fatal journey. At daybreak on the morning of the
sixteenth, two detachments of the Rangers under Lieutenant-Colonel Knowlton
and Major Leitch, a young Virginia, were started from the Point of Rocks on
the north side of the Hollow Way for the purpose of getting in the rear of
the British on Vanderwater's Heights (Columbia University grounds). A body
of Americans was also advanced in a frontal attack; but through some error,
firing began too soon and the flanking bodies were exposed to danger, but
managed to return safely to the main body.
      One of the buglers with the British troops at "Claremont" sounded the
fox chase, and the Americans took up the contemptuous challenge. A body of
volunteers was sent into the Hollow Way to draw the enemy, while Knowlton
and Leitch were sent again to fall upon their rear. The ruse was successful,
and the British rushed down the bank to the attack, but were driven back.
The Rangers instead of falling upon the rear of the enemy thus fell upon
their flank. In the hot fighting that ensued Knowlton was mortally wounded,
dying an hour later. He fell, crying: "I do not value my life, if we but get
the day." Leitch was also badly wounded and died from his wounds two weeks
later. Both officers were buried in what later became Trinity Cemetery.
Notwithstanding the fall of their leaders, the patriots fought with spirit,
forcing the British back as far as a buckwheat field at about One Hundred
and Twentieth Street, and from this position back to the one near One
Hundred and Sixteenth Street, where Knowlton had first attacked them early
in the morning. Things are going hard with the British, and Howe ordered up
reinforcements from McGowan's Pass; but Washington did not wish to bring on
a general engagement, and having shown the British his mettle, withdrew his
victorious troops.
      The battle lasted about two hours and resulted in the death of sixteen
Americans, the attacking party; while the enemy reported fourteen killed and
seventy-eight wounded. While the so-called battle was little more than a
large skirmish, it put new heart into the Americans. They were unprovided
with shoes, clothing, blankets, guns and ammunition, they were disheartened
by the defeat at Long Island and the loss of New York, they had been on the
run for days, yet here they had taken the offensive against several of the
crack regiments of the British army and had routed them; the British regular
was no longer invincible.


8.   REMAINS  OF  FORTIFICATIONS ERECTED DURING THE  WAR  OF 1812.
      At the northern end of the park on the Heights are remains of
fortifications which were erected during the War of 1812. These were quite
extensive in this region and had been constructed to command the westernmost
entrance to New York from the north: other forts and block-houses being
erected in the present Central Park to command  McGowan's pass through which
the eastern post-road passed. While many of our historic sites and buildings
have disappeared during the development of the city (and most of them from
necessity) it is pleasant to know that the few that remain are being so
carefully guarded and marked by the various associations  which have grown
up within the past twenty years. May the good work go on!

9.   OLD  BROADWAY
      Midway between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue, and extending from
Lawrence Street to One Hundred and Thirty-third is a section three blocks
long, called "Old Broadway." It is a relic of past times and marks the
ancient bed of the Bloomingdale Road, several fine trees still lining its
course. Hamilton Place above gives an approximate idea of the continuation
of the old road  to its junction with the Kingsbridge Road near One Hundred
and Forty-eighth Street. Upon "Old Broadway" at One Hundred and Thirty-first
Street is the R.C. Church of the Annunciation, organized in 1840. At the
same location is Manhattan College, founded by the Christian Brothers in
1853, and constituting one of the leading  secular educational institutions
of the Catholic Church in the city. Of all the old country places only one
remained, that at the northwest corner of One Hundred and Fifth Street; and
it was crowded up against the side of a great apartment house with a small
plot in front of it, still green with grass and shrubbery. It looked  lost
amid such surroundings, but still retained its look of quiet dignity among
the bricks and mortar that had usurped its former extensive grounds.  From
Manhattan Street north to One Hundred and Sixty-eighth, there was an almost
unbroken line of "flats" on both sides of the thoroughfare; and the side
streets, with their heavy pitch to the Hudson, were almost equally built up.

10.   GRANTS  MADE
      On the west side of the island, and north of the Harlem boundary line
just mentioned, the lands belonged in common to the settlers of New Harlem
as secured to them by the grond brief of Governor Stuyvesant under date of
March 4, 1658, afterwards confirmed to them by English grants of Nicolls and
other proprietary and royal governors. The first grants below One Hundred
and Seventy-fifth Street were made during Kieft's time to Jochim Pieters and
were known as Jochim Pieters's Hills. These are the present Washington
Heights, also called in former days Carmansville, after David Carman, one of
the large property owners upon the Heights. During the time of  Governor
Andros, he granted to some of his favorites lands claimed by New Harlem; and
the Harlem settlers, fearing that other common lands would be taken from
them, petitioned the governor and obtained his consent in 1676 to a division
of the common lands among themselves in severalty. They began with the Kieft
grants and in 1691 and 1712, made further divisions under fear that Dongan
and Hunter would follow the example of Andros and give their lands to
outsiders. A considerable farm just north of the boundary and taking in the
ferry site came into possession of Pieter Van Oblinus; but just how he
secured possession is not clear, as the tract had been common land of the
settlers. Perhaps, as he was one of the leading magistrates and officers of
Harlem, he may have managed to secure it by means which we moderns call
"graft." There were twenty-six lots in this first division of the Harlem
common lands; and among those who drew these we find such names as Tourneur,
Vermilye, Brevoort, Bussing, Delamater, Waldron, Dyckman, Low, Delavall, and
Van Oblinus (Pieter and Joost). In the agreement concerning the division, we
find there was a clause securing the maintenance of the Kingsbridge Road,
the old Indian trail leading to the north end of the island.
      Coming down to the early part of the nineteenth century, we find the
owners of these lands to be James Byrd, John Barrow, John Lawrence, Nicholas
Delongue-mare, Elizabeth Hamilton (the widow of Alexander), Samuel
Broadhurst, Beekman, Trinity Cemetery, Audubon Park, Samuel Watkins,
Ebenezer Burnall, Robert Dickey, Hannah Murray, Stephen Jumel, Arden
Rosannah Bowers, Abraham K. Smedes, and Moore.

11.   CHARITABLE  SOCIETIES  LOCATED  IN  THE  AREA  OF BROADWAY.
      Attracted by the salubrity and healthfulness of Washington Heights,
several charitable societies located among the country estates, on or near
the old road or upon Broadway.

          A)  THE  SHELTERING  ARMS
It was organized in 1864 for homeless children between five and twelve years
of age for whom no other institution provides, is at Amsterdam Avenue and
One Hundred and Twenty-ninth Street.

         B)   THE  HEBREW  ORPHAN  SOCIETY
It was founded in 1822, is on the same avenue at One Hundred and
Thirty-sixth Street.

        C)  THE  MONTEFIORE  HOME
At Broadway and One Hundred and Thirty-eighth Street is one of the grandest
charities in the city, the Hospital and Home for Chronic Invalids, commonly
called the "Montefiore Home."  It was founded in 1884 and is supported
almost entirely by the voluntary subscriptions from people of the Jewish
faith, as a memorial to the famous philanthropist, Sir Moses Montefiore; it
is open to both sexes without distinction of race or creed. The present
quarters have been found to be too cramped to carry out fully the desires of
the trustees, and arrangements are already completed to transfer the Home to
the Borough of The Bronx on the Gunhill Road near Jerome Avenue.  The new
buildings are to cost $1,500,000, and will be designed to accommodate six
hundred invalids, with all modern improvements for their comfort and health.

        D)   THE  COLORED  ORPHAN  ASYLUM
It was organized in 1837, was for many years at Amsterdam Avenue and One
Hundred and Forty-third Street until its removal to Mount St. Vincent. At
the time of the draft riots of July, 1863, the asylum was located at Fifth
Avenue between Forty-third and Forty-fourth streets. The malice of the
rioting crowds was directed against every one who showed  color, whether
man, woman, or child, and many negroes were hanged from near-by lamp-posts.
Inspired by this hatred, the mob made an attack upon the asylum and fired
the buildings, which were consumed; but fortunately, the children were
withdrawn safely through a rear entrance. With the money obtained as damages
from the city, that secured from the sale of the Fifth Avenue plot, and that
subscribed by citizens, many of whom had never heard of the institution
until the burning of the asylum, the new buildings were started on
Washington Heights.

      E)   THE  INSTITUTION  FOR  THE  DEAF  AND  DUMB
      It was incorporated in 1817 with De Witt Clinton as first president of
the society; it is located at One Hundred and Sixty-third Street and Fort
Washington Avenue.

      F)   THE  NEW  YORK  JUVENILE  ASYLUM
It was founded in 1817 at what is now Madison Square, long occupied a
portion of the Smedes property below One Hundred and Sixty-eighth Street
until its removal to Dobbs Ferry.

12.   TRINITY  CEMETERY
      Trinity Church secured the plot of ground between Amsterdam Avenue and
the river and between One Hundred and Fifty-third and One Hundred and
Fifty-fifth streets, and opened it as Trinity Cemetery in 1843. To it were
transferred at that time, and later, the bodies from the graveyards attached
to St George's in Beekman Street, St. Stephen's in Broome Street, and St.
Thomas's in Broadway, as those edifices gave way to the advance of business
and were sold by their congregations. Upon the stone fence at the corner of
One hundred and Fifty-third Street and Broadway is a bronze tablet erected
by the Sons of the Revolution, stating that upon this height and through the
cemetery grounds was constructed one of the southern  outworks of Fort
Washington. It was the first portion of the works to fall in the assault of
November 16, 1776. When the Boulevard was constructed about 1870, the
cemetery was cut into two parts connected by a suspension bridge. The
grounds are laid out in terraces, and from the top of the hill the view
looking down throught the trees to the river is a beautiful one. General
John A. Dix is buried here. A monument in the form of an Irish cross at the
northern entrance bears the name of the great American naturalist and
ornithologist Audubon.

13.   WASHINGTON  HEIGHTS
      Washington Heights have only become accessible since the building of
the subway. The author shares his experience: " In my younger days it was a
favorite walk for myself and a few companions. We took the Eighth Avenue
cars as far as their terminus at Manhattanville, and then struck down to the
Hudson through the Hollow Way, turning north on the railway tracks to
Jeffrey's Point upon which Fort Washington was in part located; then we
climbed to the top of the hill, ending our walk at Kingsbridge and returning
by the railroad. The roadway over which we tramped led through one private
estate after another, giving us fine views of comfortable mansions and
well-kept grounds, with glimpses through the trees of the noble river below
and of the Palisades opposite. Most of these mansions have disappeared,
though there are several that deserve mention."

14.   SOME  NOTABLE  MANSIONS

         A)   THE  JAMES  GORDON  BENNETT  PLACE
It occupied a part of the land upon which Fort Washington is situated.

        B)   JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON
He lived in Audubon Park above One Hundred and Fifty-fifth Street. Here he
was far removed from the noise
and turmoil of the city___the "crazy" city, as he called it____which he
loathed with all the feeling of a man whose life had been spent principally
in the open air in communion with Nature. Here he died in 1851 and was
buried in Trinity Cemetery.

      C)   THE GRANGE  COUNTRY-HOUSE
Alexander Hamilton owned an estate in this neighborhood on the
Bloomingdale Road near One Hundred and Fortieth Street, and here he erected
a handsome country-house which he named the "Grange" after the home of his
grandfather in Ayrshire, Scotland. The house has been removed a short
distance away to the east side of Convent Avenue, where it serves as the
parish house of St. Luke's P.E. Church; so that it is assured of
preservation for some time, at least. From the Grange, Hamilton used to
drive to and from his office in the city; after putting his affairs quietly
in order, he took his last drive for his fatal meeting with Burr, without
letting his "dear Betsy" have an inkling of the prospective encounter. Of
the thirteen trees planted by Hamilton in commemoration of the thirteen
original States, nothing now remains but the stumps and a few fallen logs;
these could a year or two back be easily procured by the relic hunter in the
playground adjoining the R.C. Church of our Lady of Lourdes in One Hundred
and Forty-third Street.

15.   THE  ROGER  MORRIS, or JUMEL  MANSION
Mention of Burr brings to mind a still older and finer house than the
Grange, and filled with associations even more historic. This is the Roger
Morris, or Jumel, mansion, which stands near the Kingsbridge Road at One
Hundred and Sixty-first Street. The property which it occupies was
originally conveyed by the town of New Harlem to one of the settlers named
Hendrick Kiersen, in March, 1696. The grant lay between the present One
Hundred and Fifty-ninth and One Hundred and Sixty-third streets, from the
Kingsbridge Road to the edge of the cliff overlooking the Harlem River. The
present edifice was built in 1758 by Colonel Roger Morris as a home for his
bride, Mary Philipse of the Yonkers. Morris and Washington were aides on the
staff of General Braddock in that ill-starred officer's unfortunate campaign
in the old French war. Military business brought the young Virginian to
Boston in 1756, and on his return he stopped at the house in New York of his
friend, Colonel Beverley Robinson, where he met his host's sister-in-law,
Mary Philipse. Tradition says that he fell in love with her, but there are
no facts in the case. However, if he had proposed to her, it is not likely
that she would have accepted an impecunious land-surveyor, as Washington was
at that time. So he passed on, and his former companion-in-arms, Roger
Morris, won the brilliant and witty Mary. During the War for Independence,
Colonel Morris, though at first inclined to take up the colonial cause, was
persuaded by his wife, so it is said, to remain loyal to the king. In
consequence, he lost all his property in America by confiscation.
      During the operations in this vicinity, Washington occupied the house
as his headquarters from September 16th, to October 21, 1776, when he
retreated to White Plains. During the British occupation of the island, it
was the headquarters, off and on for over six years, of Lieutenant-General
Knyphausen, the senior officer of the German mercenaries. After the war it
passed into the possession of a farmer; and while Washington was President,
he and his Cabinet visited the house in July, 1790. It was in this house in
the fearsome days of 1776 that Washington first met Alexander Hamilton,
later offering the young captain of artillery a position on his staff, which
Hamilton accepted. Thus began that close intimacy which was to be of such
incalculable benefit to the country, the calm steadfastness of the older man
supplementing and holding in check the brilliant genius of the younger.
      The property passed into the possession of John Jacob Astor, who sold
it, about 1810, to Stephen Jumel.

       A)     STEPHEN  JUMEL
      He was a wealthy French merchant of New York. His wife was a beautiful
New England girl of whom conflicting accounts are given.* (Read The
Conqueror by Gertrude Atherton.) Jumel and his wife visited France, where
they moved in the best society of the First Empire, returning with many
beautiful articles of furniture, the loot of French palaces and Chateaux.
With these they decked their rooms, extending a generous hospitality, and
entertaining such distinguished visitors as Talley-rand and Jerome
Bonaparte. Jumel died in 1832.

      B)   MADAM  JUMEL  AND  AARON  BURR
      Aaron Burr, then almost an octogenarian, but still possessing those
wonderful powers of fascination for women of whatever age for which he had
been notorious, came a-courting the widow. She withstood his importunities;
but Burr said finally that he would appear on a certain day with a clergyman
and the wedding should take place. He kept his word, and Madam Jumel, to
avoid a scandal, consented.  Under date of Wednesday, July 3, 1833, Philip
Hone says in his diary: "The celebrated Col. Burr was married on Monday
evening to the equally celebrated Mrs. Jumel, widow of Stephen Jumel.
      Madam Jumel was rich and Aaron Burr was poor; but old as he was, his
brilliant, but misguided, genius impelled him to attempt once more to
recover the ground he had lost since the duel with Hamilton and his trial
for treason. His wife's wealth was to furnish the means, and this he
squandered so lavishly that she asked for an accounting. He refused. Then
followed scenes between the ill-matched couple, and, after one year of
marriage, a separation. Burr died in poverty and obscurity on Staten Island
in September, 1836, and his widow survived him until 1865. Her last days
were spent in a different fashion from those of her youth and middle age.
She became a greedy and avaricious recluse, seeing few visitors, and
hoarding her income, which grew to be large from the increment in value of
her real estate. The final sale of her property was in 1882, or 1883.

        C)   DAUGHTERS  OF  THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION.---WASHINGTON  HEIGHTS CHAPTER
      General Ferdinand P. Earle was the last owner of the property in 1900,
and he called the place "Earlcliff." In 1901, the mansion and what was left
of the once large estate passed into the ownership of the city of New York
for $235,000 for use as a public park and museum of colonial and
Revolutionary relics. Two patriotic organizations, the Colonial Dames and
the Daughters of the American Revolution, sought the honor of being its
custodians; but the legislature was not to be overcome by the blandishments
of either party, and left the decision to the commissioner of parks, fairly
shirking the responsibility and putting it upon his shoulders. The various
chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution located within the city
formed a general committee to take charge of the historic mansion, later
forming themselves into the Washington Headquarters Association and
incorporating March 17, 1904; whereupon the custody of the house was awarded
to them by the park commissioner.
      The house is in an excellent state of preservation and remains almost
as it was originally built. It stands on a bluff; and from its cupola a
magnificent view can be obtained of the Harlem Valley and its bridges; and,
so it is stated, seven counties in three different States may be seen from
the same vantage point. There is a commemorative tablet on the building,
placed there by the Washington Heights Chapter, D.A. R., and another which
bears this inscription: " This property was acquired by the city of New York
under the administration of Seth Low, Mayor, and was formally opened as a
public  park December 28, 1903." There is also a bronze medallion of
Washington at the side of the doorway. The house was opened as a public
museum, May 28, 1907, and is free to the public.

16.   SOME  NOTABLE  BUILDINGS
      Audubon Park has disappeared, and in its place are a number of city
blocks already filling up with great apartment houses. A few of the old
mansions are to be found below the public driveway the city is constructing
(Twelfth Avenue) above the tracks of the New York Central railroad. Some of
those in the upper part of the old park have been converted into road-houses
along the line of Fort Washington Avenue, which begins at One Hundred and
Fifty-ninth Street. The block bounded by Broadway, Twelfth Avenue, and One
Hundred and Fifty-fifth and One Hundred and Fifty-sixth streets is a notable
one; for it contains a group of beautiful buildings, due principally to the
generosity of Archer M. Huntington. These already completed are the American
Numismatic Society's building, organized in 1858, and the building of the
Hispanic Society of America, which was opened in 1908. Two other buildings
are in course of construction at this writing (May, 1910), that of the
American Geographical Society of New York, organized in 1852, and a small
Roman Catholic Church for services in Spanish. The buildings already
occupied contain: the one, a collection of coins, medals, etc.; the other,
paintings, illuminated and printed  books, pottery, and archaeological
specimens and relics  from Spain, showing the progress of civilization in
that country since the days of the Phoenicians.
      South of Hamilton Grange are the extensive buildings of the College of
the City of New York, situated on the summit of what used to be called
Breakneck Hill, up which wound in olden times the steepest and most
dangerous road in the city, a portion of the old post-road. The site is a
commanding one; and its selection shows good judgment upon the part of those
who are responsible for this group of fine buildings containing the highest
of the city's free, educational institutions.

17.   AT 168TH  STREET  BROADWAY MERGES ITSELF IN THE KINGSBRIDGE  ROAD.
      At One Hundred and Sixty-eighth Street Broadway merges itself in the
Kingsbridge Road which, during the rest of its course to the bridge over
Spuyten Duyvel Creek, assumes the name of Broadway. At the junction of the
two roads, on the west side from One Hundred and Sixty-fifth to One Hundred
and Sixty-eighth streets is the new resort of the baseball enthusiasts, the
American League Park.

18.   THE  CROSSED  KEYS  TAVERN
      In colonial days a stone house and tavern, called the Crossed Keys
from its sign, stood on the Kingsbridge Road at about One Hundred and
Sixty-fifth Street. A notice of it appeared in the Historical Magazine for
October, 1881, which describes it as still in use.


Source:  The Greatest Street in the World (The story of Broadway, old and
New, from the Bowling Green to Albany)
Author:  Stephen Jenkins
Publisher:  G.P. Putnam's Sons-New York and London
The Knickerbocker Press
Copyright: 1911
________________________________________________

                Researched and Transcribed by Miriam Medina
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