THE OLD FORT UPON THE HEIGHTS AND LOVE LANE


	Upon the Heights, where traffic and residences have 
long been, once stood the "most thoroughly constructed and 
complete fortifications" erected by the British on Long Island. 
According to Stiles, the old Fort occupied what is now the 
junction of Pierrepont and Henry Streets. The position was very 
commanding, and much time and labor were spent in completing the 
works. It was begun in May, 1780, and was not fully finished in 
July, 1781, when but eighteen cannons had been put in place. The 
site of the fort at the time of its erection was occupied by 
fine orchards. which spread over the level top of eminence, and 
these orchards were cut down by the two or three thousand soldiers, 
and the additional farmers, laborers, and mechanics who were 
impressed to dig the trenches and form the bastions of the fort.

	The fortifications were 450 feet square, and were surrounded by a
ditch twenty feet deep, while the ramparts rose fifty feet above 
the level of the surface. On the bastions at each angle were afterward
planted buttonwood trees, which grew to large size. Along the line of 
what is now Fulton Street between Pierrepont and Clark Streets 
were erected by the British army sutlers a row of small mud huts.

	Time has now effaced every vestige of this strong old redoubt, and 
apartments and residences, for which the Heights have long been famous, 
now cover the site of the fort and its vicinity. 

	Another interesting feature of which time has only a remnant, 
though romance long lingered about it, was that short, private little 
lane which led between the DeBEVOISE and Pierrepont estates on the Heights 
in the vicinity of Columbia Heights and Pierrepont Street. 
The fourteen acres from the East River to Fulton Street and from .
north of the present Pierrepont Street to Love Lane were owned by 
two bachelors, Robert and John DeBEVOISE, whose grandfather had bought 
them in 1734 from Joris Remsen. Robert was stout, strong, and broad-faced, 
and having through disease lost his nose was greatly feared by the village 
urchins, although his disposition was kind. Perhaps the twenty or 
thirty savage dogs that the brothers kept about their home gave Robert 
a bad name. John was quite a contrast to his brother, being thin and 
consumptive. They occupied a small, rather old and battered looking 
home of Dutch architecture, and as house-keeper had a very beautiful girl, 
who bore their name and was treated as a daughter. This adopted child, 
Sarah DeBEVOISE, used the little lane between the DeBEVOISE and PIERREPONT 
estates when promenading with her many admirers, and the numerous love 
lines with Miss DeBEVOISE's initials, which her admirers cut or scribbled 
upon the fence, gave the lane the name by which it was long known to 
residents of the Heights. Her first husband was a Samuel VAN BUREN and her
second Edward McCOMBER.



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