Old Buildings of New York, With Some Notes Regarding Their Origin and OccupantsAnonymous
History
Old Buildings of New York, With Some Notes Regarding Their Origin and Occupants
Anonymous
Historic buildings -- New York (State) -- New York
Notwithstanding, the firm became wealthy through ventures not relating
to the iron business and also through investments connected with it.
As an example it may be mentioned that a large purchase of iron in
1879–80 resulted in a profit of a million dollars. In 1874 Mr. Hewitt
was elected a representative to Congress and served with the exception
of one term until 1886. In that year he was chosen mayor of New York.
Mr. Hewitt was extremely honest and independent. He was neither a free
trader nor a protectionist. He was a reformer but not a radical one,
and at his death the nation, and especially the Democratic Party, lost
a wise statesman and counselor.[28]
[Illustration]
The General Theological Seminary
_Chelsea_
Some time about the year 1750 Captain Clarke, a veteran of the
provincial army, who had seen considerable service in the French war,
built a country house, two or three miles north of the city, to which
he gave the name of Chelsea. He gave it this name because he said it
was to be the retreat of an old soldier in the evening of his days.
It has been thought that the name of Greenwich was given to the
neighboring estate by Admiral Warren for a corresponding sentimental
reason, but Mr. Janvier, in that very entertaining book, “In Old New
York,” shows that the name of Greenwich was in use long before the
admiral’s advent. Captain Clarke, unfortunately, was not destined long
to enjoy the house he had built. During his last illness, the house
caught fire and the captain came very near being burned with it, but
he was carried out by neighbors and shortly after died in an adjacent
farmhouse. Mrs. Clarke rebuilt the house on the crest of a hill that
sloped down to the river about three hundred feet distant.[29] The
estate descended to her daughter, the wife of Bishop Moore, and in
1813 it was conveyed to their son, Clement C. Moore,[30] by whom the
old house was considerably enlarged. The house was taken down when the
bulkhead along the river front was constructed by the city. Mr. 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.
[Illustration: Former Residence of the Late William C. Schermerhorn]
[Illustration]
Church of the Transfiguration
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