Greenwich Village

d History of

e. It has a kind of established repose which is not of frequent occurrence in other quarters of the long, shrill city; it has a riper, richer, mor

(in "Washin

and beloved presiding shade. Where could he fall a-nodding, to dream himself back into the quaint and gallant days of the past? Where would he smoke his ancient Dutch pipe in peace? One has a mental picture of Father Knickerbocker shaking his queued head over so much noise and haste, so many new-fangled, cluttering things and ways, such a confusion of aims and pursuits on his fine old island! And he would b

ny of memories and spectres both good and bad, its imperishably adventurous savour of the past, imprisoned in the dry prose of registries and records. Let us just ta

on,-a modern New York's shadow, the ghostly skeleton of our city as it appears today. For instance, when you have thought of old Washington Square, you have probably thought of it pr

d sprung up almost with the speed of a modern mushroom town. First, in Peter Minuit's day, its centre was the old block house below Bowling Green; then it spread out a bit until it became a real, thriving city,-with its utmost limits at Canal Street! Greenwich and the Bowery Lane were isolated little country ha

l Road,-an old Indian trail,-running along the edge of it, and Minetta Creek taking its sparkling course throu

ugh the grounds of the Stuyvesant homestead. A branch road from the Bouwerie Lane led across the stretch of alternate marsh and sand to the tiny settlement of Greenw

Comsto

an often followed the trail of the beast. Such beginnings are indiscernible for the most part, in th

map of New York and its suburbs, made in the Eighteenth Ce

e map for a

aloof from even that primitive civilisation. The brook flowed from the upper part of the Zantberg Hills to the Hudson River, and emptied itself into that great channel at a point somewhere near Charlton Street. The name Minetta came from the Dutch root,-min,-minute, diminutive. With the popular suffix

as a game preserve such as sportsmen love. It seems that the old Dutch settlers were fond of hunting and fish

and Green streets," says Mary L. Booth, in her history. "To the north of these lay a valley thr

ound of those "springy marshe

nding downward from the higher ground in the north, and now and then, in the spring of the year, overflowing its bed in a wilderness of bra

he Warren place, the Herrin (Haring or Harring) farm, the Eliot estate, etc. The site of the Square, in fact, was originally composed of two separate tracts and had two sources of title, divided by Minetta Broo

ly descended from that intrepid Hollander, Jan Hareng of the city of Hoorn, who is said to have held the narrow point of a dike against a thousand Spaniards, and performed other prodigious feats of valour. In the genealogical book I

, Elbert Haring received a grant of land which was undoubtedly the farm shown in the Ratzer map. A tract of it was sold by the Harring (Herring) family to Cornelius Roosevelt;

istance from town and excellently adapted to the purposes of a burying ground. The ground, popular historians to the contrary, was by no means uniformly swampy. When filled in, it would, indeed, be dry and sandy,-the sandy soil of Greenwich extends, in some places, to a depth of fifty feet. Accordingly, the city bought the land from the Herrings and made a

near. Several rich people of the countryside even offered to present the city corporation with a much larger and more valuable plot of ground somewhere else; but the offi

, the tired horses drinking from the fountain the S.P.C.A. has placed there for their service and comfort, the old dreaming of the past, and the young dreaming of the future,-see,

ant literally "the field of sleep." It is true that when they made use of Judas Iscariot's pieces of silver, they twisted the syllables to mean the

That was a disgraceful business if you like! But public feeling was so bitter and retributive that the practice was speedily discontinued. So, again, there is nothing to make us recoil, here among the green shadows of the squar

of huge crowds of people. Twenty highwaymen were despatched there, and at least one historian insists that they were all executed at once, and that Lafayette watched the performance. Certa

om other burying grounds, and when the scourge of small-pox killed off two thousand persons in one short space, six hundred and sixty-seven of them were laid in this parti

abit of mind which we find everywhere in the early annals of America. Mr. E.N. Tailer, among others, can recall, many years later, seeing the crumbling yellow

yield but cheerless reading. That the sleepers in the Potter's Field very often had not even that shelter of tombstones makes their stories the more elusive and the more melancholy. One or two slight records stand out among the rest, notably the cur

n they know them to be preposterous. Perkins made a specialty of yellow fever, and insisted that he could cure it by hypnotism. That he had a following is in no way strange, considering his day and generation,

and restrictions of that day were applied especially rigidly to the slaves. A slave was accounted guilty of heavy crimes on the very lightest sort of evidence, and the penalties imposed seem to us out of all proportion to the acts. Arson, for instance, was a particularly heinous offence-when committed by a negro. The negro riots, which form such an exceedingly black chapter in New York's history

are before an immense crowd, including many women and young children. Kindl

use, and who was respited for a few days, in the hope that she would disclose some acco

iniscences," there is one passage which has

of five lines, without noticing any of the unnecessary and absurd details that are

e staircase of her master's house, with, or so it was asserted, "a malicious intent." One sees that it was quite easy to get hanged in those days,-especially

d the penalty for infringement was usually a sharp one. In the unpublished record of the city clerk we find, next to the item that records Elbert

ons. We read that "Tapsters are forbid to sell to the Indians," and that "unseasonable night tippling" is also tabooed; likewis

e for travellers (its punch was famous!) and the stagecoaches stopped there to change horses. At this moment of writing it is still standing, on the south of Washington Square,-I think number 58,-with other shabby structures of wood, which, for

lived and where he stored the tools of his rather grim trade. For three years he dwelt there, smoothing the resting places in the Field of Sleep; then, in 1823, a new Potter's Field was opened at the point now known as Bryant Park, and the bodies from the lower cemetery we

ter does not vouch for the fact. The Governor certainly lived somewhere in the vicinity, and his favourit

h Washington Square, and, at one point, formed part of the "Inland Road to Greenwich" which was the scene of Revolutionary manoeuvres. Monument Lane was so called because at the end of it (about Fifteenth Street and Eighth Avenue) stood a statue of the much-adored

evelled, drained and added three and a half acres to the field. In short, it became a valuable tract of ground. Society, driven steadily upward from Bo

town" house at, approximately, Eighth and Macdougal streets,-a charming cottage, with twenty acres of garden land which today are worth mill

r out of town

ed the Colonel. "You can drive in

great, however, and M

and more carriages to be seen with each succeeding month. All at once, high iron railings were built about th

'Washington Military Parade Ground.' For the purpose of honouring its first occupation as a military parade, Colonel Arcularis will order a detachment from his regiment with field pieces

icials present, and a monumental feast to wind up with. The menu included, among other dainties, two oxen roasted whole, two hundred hams

ed "three-story dwellings in Fourth Street, between Thompson and Macdougal streets, for sale. The front and rear of the whole range

inducement, but it must have been effective, for many ex

erican airs, sent off fireworks, fired salutes and had a wildly enthusiastic time. Incidentally, there were speeches by ex-President Monroe and the Hon. Samuel Gouveneur. Enoch Crosby, who

with blood, for it was the occasion of the well-known,-shall we say the notorious?-"Stonecutters' Riots." The builders contracted for work to be done by the convicts of Sing Sing Prison, and the city workmen, or Stonecutters' Guild,-already

es," eight thousand workmen assembled there with drums and trumpets, and made speeches in the most ap

cial and architectural centres of New York, Washington Square North has changed least. Progress may come or go, social streams may flow upward with as much speed, energy and ambition as they will; t

ore, Howland, Suffern, Vanderbilt, Phelps, Winthrop,-the list is too long to permit citing in full. Three mayors have lived there, and in the immediate vicinity dwelt such distinguished literary persons as Bayard Taylor, Henry James, George William Curtis, N.P. Willis (Nym Crynkle), our immortal Poe himself, Anne Lynch,-poetess and hostess of one of

s moment of writing it is still stand

very uncomfortably, too. The name of his boarding-house keeper is lost to posterity,

for a fellow lodger; it was on Sixth Avenue and Waverly Place that he created "Ligeia" and "The Fall of the House of Usher." After Virginia's death, he took a room just off the Square, and wrote the "Imp of the Perverse," with her picture (it is said)

ry glorious one. The town buzzed for days with talk of the sensational interview between Nym Crinkle and Edwin Forrest, the actor. Mr. Willis made some comments on Forrest's divorce, in an editorial

son, Collector of the Port, fought a duel to the death. It was indeed to the death, for Thompson was wounded fatally. But duels

ucation-was never a financial success. For a time they tried to make it pay by taking tenants-young students, and bachelors who wished seclusion for writing or research. Then, in the course of time, it was moved away to the banks of the Hudson. On the site now stands a modern structure, where,

n all New York: De Forest, Rhinelander, Delano, Stewart, De Rham, Gould, Wynkoop, Tailer, Guinness, Claflin, Booth, Darlington, Gregory, Hoyt, Schell, Shattuck, Weekes,-th

d itself. In one man's lifetime, New York has grown from a small town just out of its Colonial swaddling clothes to the greatest city in the world. These reminiscences, then, are but memories of

avements were very dirty. Places like St. John's Park and Abingdon Square were quiet and sweet and secluded. Where West Fourth Street and West Eleventh Street met it was so still you co

abouts and adored Sir. Walter Scott. It speaks well for the good taste of the aristocratic quar

he world and his wife, its ways were enchantingly simple, if we may trust the tales we hear. In the Square stood the "Pump With The Long Handle," and thence was every bucketful of washing wat

ehicles that conveyed travellers along the Post Road. These new Fifth Avenue stages were brightly painted: the body of the coach was navy blue, the running gear white, striped with red, and the lettering and decorations of gold. A strap which enabled the driver to open and close the door wit

sleighs were run in midwinter, but only in the city proper. Their farthest upto

e Indians, the Dutch, the English, the Colonials, the Revolutionists, the New Americans, the shining lights of art, science, fashion and the state, have all passed through it, confidently and at home. The dead have slept there; wicked men have died there and great ones been honoured. Belles and beaux have minced on their way beneath the thick green branches,-branches that have also

April 30, 1889, was in honour of the centennial anniversary of Washington's inauguration; it was so beautiful that, happ

rcialised Paris might become, you could not cheapen the environs of Notre Dame! Whatever happens to us, let us hope that we will always ke

rbocker, may