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(rshsdepot) Fort Washington (WaHi), Rockville Centre, the Little Red Lighthouse, Audubon and other July 4th related history items

picture links at end of history

Highest points in New York City:
Manhattan - Bennett Park - 265 Feet 
Bronx - Fieldston Hill - 285 Feet 
Queens - North Shore Towers Hill - 258 Feet 
Brooklyn - Battle Hill - 220 Feet 
Staten Island - Todt Hill - 420 Feet Fresh Kills Landfill is 450 feet 

"Washington Heights is filled with revolutionary memories. Upon its crown, then called Mount Washington, stood old Fort Washington, which extended its earthworks to the river. The only remains of these are at Jeffrey's Hook. The Bloomingdale Road, a continuation of Broadway, is macadamized for twenty miles, and makes a splendid drive."...New York Times Jul. 6, 1868 on Summer Resorts such as the old Huguenot town of New Rochelle, 

Also in this article which uses the rail lines to explain the site is this about Rockville Centre: "Of these various stations, the first which approximates the sea is Rockville Centre, nineteen miles from New-York, and which is but a short walk from the Bay. It has, running through it from Hempstead, a limpid fresh water stream, which is dammed along its distance into a series of beautiful lakelets, affording both boating and fishing. One of these is converted into a reservoir for supplying Brooklyn with water."

In May 1900 there was an historical tour of Fort Washington area, the Hamilton Grange, the mansion of Alexander Hamilton, the stumps of the 13 trees that Hamilton planted in honor of the original states..."'Hamilton wanted to abolish State lines and bring the States together,' said Dr. Kelley. 'If he had succeeded, he would probably have choked the Union as he choked the trees.'" (by planting them too close to each other.)

The first tree that died was dedicated to South Carolina, killed by lightening....this was where the Civil War began, in South Carolina. The only tree that was still flourishing in 1900 was the one that had been dedicated to New York. "From these trees was fashioned the handle for the spade with which Mayor Van Wyck began the work on the rapid transit tunnel a few weeks ago."
  Further north he pointed out a Benjamin Franklin milestone "now" against a wall  of the West One Hundred and Fifty-second Street police Station." (9 miles to Wall St., probably in New-York Historical Society museum now)

  The Battle of Harlem was fought in 1776 at Trinity Church up in these parts....Audubon's house is up there (at least in 1900). Dr. Kelley tells about Au\dubon working for 10 years compiling his material and then his dog destroyed his work up here  Supposedly at One-Hundred and Fifty-Seventh Street in a cliff above over "the Speedway" is an entrance to an Indian cave (is this still here> This area was once Fort George...

  General Jumel settled in the old Morris mansion at 158th Street after Napoleon was sent to St. Helena. He had been one of Napoleon Bonaparte's officers. Jumel planted a circle of Egyptian cypress trees around a fish pond at the mansion...At the time of this 1900 tour a semi-circle of these trees that Napolean had brought back from Egypt to Paris, were still there minus the fish pond.
  Aaron Burr courted the Jumel widow when he was 78 years old, and she eventually accepted but they separated after a month. John Jacob Astor then bought the mansion.
   In Fort Washington Park was a preserved earthwork from the old fort. "The Westchester County men used to hide here with their turkey rifles resting on the breastwork and kill off the officers on the British men-of-war passing up and down the river."
  There was an Indian pot hole....30 inches in diameter..I think this might be the park with the lighthouse in it now, I think this is all asphalt now, but maybe I am confused...

  There was a point, Jeffrey's Hook where Washington took the boat to Fort Lee as the Hessians captured Fort Washington along with 3,000 prisoners..as he crossed the river he saw many of his men bayoneted after they had held up the white flag bringing him to tears...
   The fort was on the hill above,  Washington had wanted to evacuate, it was Congress which insisted on protecting the fort...I wonder if any irregular mounds are still there..
 At the nearby Ryer farm they were always unearthing shattered skulls and war stuff when they plowed...Ryer's farm in 1900 in Washington Heights, maybe where the Washington Bridge approach is now with the tall buildings above...
     Along King's Bridge Road was Fort Tryon, Fort George was up there someplace as well, as well as Fort Wendel. It was late he had to end the tour

  Trinity Church Cemetery is at 155th, Fort Washington Park is at 168th, This is where they say Jeffrie's Hook was  then, implying that this name was used elsewhere as I have read north near where the bridge is now at 178th. The little lighthouse is south of bridge now, about 174th...
   
   The next Times article is in 1915...this one a Sunday feature.....it also puts a lie to what I said just now; in 1915 Fort Washington was at 181st. where Riverside Drive was once Lafayette Boulevard and now Plaza Lafayette is up there...today this Fort Washington Park is in a different place...so Jeffrie's Hook was where the bridge is..  The British renamed Fort Washington Fort Knyphausen, actually the Hessians probably named it this...
    A redoubt was in the park with a boulder monument inscribed "American Redoubt, 1776."
   The promontory once called Jeffrey's Hook was in 1915 called Fort Washington Point.
   In 1915 there was a ferry to Fort Lee from 130th Street....Washington and other generals used Burdett's Ferry...There was a moon-shaped battery at t Jeffrey's Hook, a one-gun "lunette", a "chevaux de frise.  There were beaches here in 1915 where the West Side Highway is now...
  The west side of Fort Washington Avenue at 183rd was where the fort was, the central cathedral above, this is the highest point in Manhattan...

   Colonel Rufus Putnam ("Old Put") commanded Fort Washington. The British under General Howe were stationing themselves on Fordham Heights as far as King;s Bridge.
  Fort Lee and Fort Washington were supposed to protect the river but British ships passed through unharmed...
  The situation for Fort Washington was hopeless but Congress insisted it be defended
  Upon meeting his generals mid-river and hearing that reinforcements were sent to defend a hopeless cause...E.M. Bacon writes: "Less discrete historians than Irving have not hesitated to say that the Father of His Country on that occasion expressed his excitement in language of much greater vigor than is countenanced by polite custom. In other words, this is believed to have been one of the rare occasions upon which Washington swore."

Fighting against 5 to 1 in man power, the Americans killed 500 Hessians who were so mad on capturing the fort they proceeded to start killing the captured men until Howe stopped them..for a long time  a deep ravine there was known as "Death Gap". The Hessians had tried to come up this way and huge boulders were thrown down on them...
  In 1915 therew as still the Hessian Spring, east of Ft. Wash. Ave, a small brook trickled in a gully down the slope, coming from rocks in a tiny stream. The revolutionary soldiers drank here and in 1915 neighborhood people brought bottles and pails to get the "clear, cool water."
  Higher up the slope, a bit south was cisternlike circular covering of laid brick that once concealed ammunition...
  I am sure this is all gone.
  The Child Welfare League had a community garden across the street in 1915...
  Libby Castle on the Hudson must be gone now too...This was (is?) a house that looks like a castle built by a William Alexander Richards in 1864. Later occupied by William "Boss" Tweed.
   Fort Tryon was the northern outwork of Fort Washington. Margaret Corbin, a local woman, became the first woman to fight in the war for liberty at Fort Tryon along with Maryland and Virginia regiments. This battle took place 11/16/1776.
  Molly Pitcher would do the same later at the Battle of Monmouth.   Her husband was killed in front of her and she took his place. 
  In 1915 artifacts from the fort were at Roger Morris mansion at 160th, maybe still are.
   I like the end of this 1915 piece: "If you have still some hours of playtime ahead of you, why not continue from Fort Tryon, northward down the hill, passing the yellow inn at the curve of the avenue, following the picturesque windings down to Broadway, and so on to Dyckman Street, and west to the new ferry? Have you tried it yet? From a modern electric-lighted pier the boats sail across the Hudson to the point where Englewood Pier of old days used to welcome travelers. Here you are delivered at the foot of the new road of the Palisades, and there's a sturdy climb ahead of you if you follow it to the top. Picnic grounds are everywhere, on the shore near the ferry landing, or above on the cliffs overlooking the river."   this 9/5/1915 article was by Sarah Comstock

  In 1925 when the bridge was first planned the news was the connecting of the two historic Revolutionary War forts. "Old Fort Washington stood on Mount Washington at 181st Street, just west of the present Fort Washington Avenue."...At this time one could still find artifacts on the remaining shore here. Gnawed bones, teeth of deer, bears and muskrat, oyster shells. Jeffrie's Point went a third of the way into the estuary....(they mean the Hudson)...They call the first battery here a "demi-lune"...Fort Washington was on the summit extending from 181st St. to 184th, west of Fort Washington Avenue on the highest point in Manhattan, 270 feet above tide water....earthworks 350 feet in length with five bastions....the barracks were on what is now Bennett Avenue (in 1925)..there was a glacis to the south..

Finally in 1926 more on the little red lighthouse..William Knapp was the keeper of the lighthouses at the foot of 180th Street, the only such one on Manhattan Island..It was the only lighthouse on the Hudson River between Governors Island and Tarrytown. "It is the most conspicuous object in that neighborhood, yet a tugboat managed to pile herself up on the rocks near it a few days ago, in daylight." At night flashed a red signal every three seconds..warning bell every 15 seconds...
"Jeffrey's Hook, or Fort Washington Point, marks the northern end of the Hudson River indentation that used to be known as Stryker's Bay. This is a wide sweep of the river extending from about Ninety-sixth Street to 180th Street. It was famous for many years for fishing and bathing. Waters off the point now are a canoists' rendezvous and are still used for swimming."
  There was the lighthouse on north end of Blackwell's (Welfare, Roosevelt) Island but although part of County of NY, it is not on Manhattan...That lighthouse built 1875...
  There was talk of improving the site, adding parking, no mention of the bridge coming...
   
  It was moved to foot of 168th when bridge was built, closed in 1947, in 1951 Coast Guard wanted it sold and removed...In 1951 the Times was comparing the plight of the little red lighthouse under the big gray bridge with people in the world who felt dwarfed and futile between the USSR and America....I found it: <The Jeffrey's Hook lighthouse, which formerly had stood as the North Hook Beacon at Sandy Hook, New Jersey, from 1880-1917, was reconstructed in 1921 by the United States Bureau of Lighthouses as part of a project to improve the navigational aids on the Hudson River. >
   
  Now here are some pictures:
Fort Washington plaque: http://www.brorson.com/M4Bus/BusAndFortWashingtonPlaque.jpg
George Washington was at highest point in Manhattan here, highest point in Brooklyn (Green-Wood Cemetery) in Battle of Long Island, and highest point in Bronx (Fieldston in Van Cortlandt Park) before entering Manhattan in triumph.
James Gordon Bennett, publisher of New York Herald owned the Fort Washington site from 1871. He is considered the pioneer of American popular (penny press) journalism. Bennett's son was going to preserve the land but died in 1918. The land was subdivided, the city buying the land they considered Washington as standing on. Bennett Park opened 1929, in 1930 an American Elm was planted there in honor of Washington...
Fort Washington had been considered the "American Gibraltar", a rock commanding a narrow waterway...:
http://www.nyfreedom.com/fortwashingtonrock.jpg
Highest point: http://americasroof.com/image/nyc-manhattan-sign.jpg 265.5 feet  also called Long Hill.  The person is sitting on the summit of Manhattan. 
Bennett Park, Fort Washington, was called Penadnik by the Delaware Munsee Indians, the Dutch called it Long Hill and used it for lumbering. 
Washington Heights is now WaHi

Morris-Jumel mansion Built 1765:
http://www.ghostclub.org.uk/spspring01pix/morris-jumel.jpg
http://www.riverheritage.org/Riverguide/Stories/assets/images/richardson-morris_mansion.jpg
Built by British colonel Roger Morris. ..Washington used house as headquarters for 2 months...after Revolutionary war house was taken back by Americans, the mansion became Calumet Hall, a tavern..., the first stop on the Post Road to Albany....Presidential commemorative dinner took place there in 1790. ...Jumel bought it 1810.....historical landmark and museum since 1907..
The mansion is haunted, female voices come out of the grandfather clock...
http://www.smithsonianmag.si.edu/smithsonian/issues02/nov02/images/harlem_morris_jumel_mansion.jpg
http://www.harlemlive.org/community/orgs/MJmansion/images/frontenterance.JPEG
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/pwwmh/jumel1.jpg
one of the most important examples of Georgian architecture in the country. A two story colonnaded portico and an octagonal wing. The wood made to look like stone...built as a summer retreat...
http://www.jhpokorny.com/webimages/morris_j/moju1.jpg
http://www.jhpokorny.com/webimages/morris_j/moju3.jpg
http://www.jhpokorny.com/webimages/morris_j/moju2.jpg
http://members.home.nl/a.ploum/images/nyc/harlem/harlemgr01.jpg
http://www.magazinusa.com/images_st2/nyc/m_jummel_mansion.jpg
http://www.angot.org/frefra/1999-NY/j07/tn/TN_11-05.JPG

Hamilton Grange National Monument:
John McComb designed this Federal style country home on a sprawling 32 acre estate. Completed 1802, named The Grange after Hamilton's ancestral home in Scotland. He lived here two years before Aaron Burr killed him (yes, the acquitted Burr married Mrs. Jumel for a short time; this is why she haunts that mansion)
http://photo.itc.nps.gov/storage/images/hagr/hagr-ImageF.00002.jpeg
http://data2.itc.nps.gov/parkphotos/hagr%2Dwide%2Ejpg
http://www.nyctourism.com/merchant/images/locations/location696.jpg 
http://www.jazztet.com/paulblair/hamilton.jpg
http://photo.itc.nps.gov/storage/images/hagr/hagr-ImageF.00001.jpeg


EXHIBITIONS

Harlem Lost and Found
May 3, 2003 - January 4, 2004


141st Street, east from Amsterdam Avenue, New York, c. 1909
Thaddeus Wilkerson
Postcard
MCNY Print Archives

“There is so much to see,” said the writer Langston Hughes, referring to the Harlem he
found in 1921. More than eighty years later, there is still so much to see and enjoy in Harlem, where a walk down any street brings an encounter with the past in dialogue with the present. Harlem’s broad boulevards and residential side streets boast some of the most extraordinary architecture in the city, a physical record of Harlem’s multi-layered history and of the generations of New Yorkers who have called it home.

Harlem Lost and Found traces the architectural history of a vibrant neighborhood as it evolved from farmland and suburb into thriving metropolis on the eve of its explosion into world consciousness as the cultural capital of black America. By looking at the structures where the people of Harlem have resided, worked, and worshipped, it opens a window into their lives. The exhibition also celebrates contemporary New Yorkers who are working hard to preserve an irreplaceable built environment.

Inspired by the book of the same title by historian and Harlem resident Michael Henry Adams, who serves as the exhibition’s guest curator, Harlem Lost and Found features many period images and objects that have never before been exhibited. Material chosen from the Museum’s rich collections, selected loans, and arresting contemporary color photographs by Paul Rocheleau evoke the extraordinary texture of everyday life in Harlem.

“A Most Charming Landscape”


– New York Times, April 3, 1869

The Early History of Harlem

For two centuries after the arrival of European settlers, Upper Manhattan was a district of
farms and country estates populated by descendants of Dutch, French, and English settlers as well as by African Americans, most of whom were slaves (New York State did not entirely abolish slavery until 1841). Named for the City of Haarlem, which was some ten miles north of the capital of the Netherlands, Nieuw Haarlem similarly was some ten miles north of New Amsterdam, the Dutch settlement located at the southern tip of Manhattan island.

The rapid growth of the distant downtown city, fueled by prosperity and immigration, soon
caused a general northward expansion of the population. Most of the farms and great estates fell prey to the building booms of the post-Civil War period and later. Many of those estates left only their names—Bradhurst, Jumel, Audubon—as tantalizing reminders of what once was.


Watt-Pinkney Mansion (Edwin Levick, arch.) 1796
Built in 1796, this house was acquired around 1826 by Archibald Watt and was later occupied by his stepdaughter, Mary G. Pinkney. It stood originally on a low rise of land between present-day West 139th and West 140th Streets. In the 1860s, when Seventh Avenue was extended northward from Central Park, the mansion was moved to 139th Street. After Mary G. Pinkney died in 1908, the house was unoccupied until about 1915, when the Libya nightclub opened there. The club catered to Harlem’s most influential politicians, professional people, and theatrical personalities until it closed around 1921. The mansion, a remarkable example of Federal architecture, was demolished in 1925. 1908 photo:
http://www.mcny.org/Exhibitions/Harlem%20L&F/pinkney-mansion.jpg

Audubon Terrace is where Audubon's estate was...
The Audubon Estate was on the Banks of the Hudson. Foot of 156th Street at Carmansville. Trinity Cemetery and Audubon Terrace here now. The estate had a name- Minnie's Land or Minniesland:
http://minniesland.com/images/minnieslandphotos/minnieslandcolorscan.jpg
This wood engraving by Richardson and Cox after W.R. Miller first appeared in Homes of American Authors, G. P. Putnam, 1853. The original was painted by Miller on July 4, 1852, about 18 months after Audubon's death. The engraving appeared in the many editions of Audubon, the Naturalist in the New World - His Adventures and Discoveries by Mrs. Horace St. John, first published in 1856. (This scan is from the 1861 edition).:
http://minniesland.com/images/minnieslandphotos/jjahome1853.JPG
Another 19th Century image of Audubon's home, this picture appeared in Harper's Monthly Magazine in October of 1880:
http://minniesland.com/images/minnieslandphotos/jjahomeharpers-OCT-1880.jpg
From Herrick, Audubon the Naturalist, 1917.
 Herrick, among others, championed the cause of the house, believing it deserved preservation. The buildings visible behind the house are still standing today.:
http://minniesland.com/images/minnieslandphotos/jjahome1917.jpg
House in March 1925.
 From The Mentor, June 1925. 
From "Audubon, Author and Artist" by Richard  Dean.  The article said the house would be demolished to allow a change in the direction of Riverside Drive. The house was to remain in this location, however, for six more years. (Thanks to Bill Steiner for the magazine.):
http://minniesland.com/images/minnieslandphotos/jjahome1925.JPG
The Audubon family lived here 1842-1863 (he died 1852) ..
Victor Gifford Audubon's home at Minnie's Land.
 From Herrick, Audubon the Naturalist, 1917.:
http://minniesland.com/images/minnieslandphotos/victorshome1917.JPG
John Woodhouse Audubon's home at Minnie's Land.
From Herrick, Audubon the Naturalist, 1917. :
http://minniesland.com/images/minnieslandphotos/johnshome1917.JPG
an illustrated article in the February 1932 Bird-Lore that includes one of the last photos of the John James Audubon home before it was moved from its original site. Below are scans of the three pages of the article, written by Harold E. Decker, who stepped in to save the house just as demolition had begun. According to the Bird-Lore article, the house was moved to New York City property at 161st Street, west of Riverside Drive, and work on the foundation was "already well advanced."...CAPTION: AUDUBON HOUSE ON RIVERSIDE DRIVE, NEW YORK CITY, AS IT APPEARED NOVEMBER, 1931 JUST PRIOR TO BEING TORN DOWN AND REMOVED IN SECTIONS TO NEAR-BY CITY PROPERTY. *:
http://minniesland.com/images/minnieslandphotos/birdlorearticle1932_1.jpg
The bare outlines of the see-saw fight to preserve the house can be found in the New York Times Index covering the period of October 1931 to January 1932. On December 2, 1931, the Times reported the beginning of wrecking, but just four days later, the Times reported that the house had been saved and moved to a nearby park. Subsequent mentions in the Index are too sketchy to draw conclusions about what happened to the house;
Before and after shot (Then and Now):
Then: http://minniesland.com/images/minnieslandphotos/jjahome1917.jpg
Now: http://minniesland.com/images/minnieslandphotos/LouC09.jpg
Much of this came from: http://minniesland.com/about_our_name.html





A few of the Jeffrey's Hook Lighthouse (a "spark plug" lighthouse type, one of 35 surviving ones) under the GW Bridge I used to go inside this lighthouse in the early 70s, though they may have moved it, it used to be in the playground area I remember):
http://www.birdsandbeacons.com/Lighthouses/JeffreysHookLight-474.jpg
http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-cp/history/WEBLIGHTHOUSES/Image103.gif
http://www.ngbb.org/images/Hudson_Long_Island/Jeffreys_Hook_2.jpg
http://www.ngbb.org/images/Hudson_Long_Island/Jeffreys_Hook_1.jpg
http://www.birdsandbeacons.com/Lighthouses/JeffreysHookLight.jpg
http://www.lighthousemuseum.org/nylights/lred1.jpg
http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/lighthouse/types/hhlittlered.jpg
http://www.historichousetrust.org/msmphotos/lightgwb.jpg
http://www.creative-visions.com/newyork/JefferiesB.jpg

Many of these 36 remaining sparkplug lighthouses are in New York Harbor:
Great Beds lighthouse off Staten Island (1880):
http://www.lighthousemuseum.org/nylights/gtbeds.htm
Robbin's Reef (Kate's Light) (1883)- this is the one off St. George, Staten Island:
http://www.lighthousemuseum.org/nylights/robrf1.jpg
http://www.homestead.com/nylighthousephotos/files/Robbins_reef_-_vignette.jpg
http://www.uscgaux.org/~0141401/robinsreef.jpg
Old Orchard (1893), also off Staten is.: http://www.lighthousemuseum.org/nylights/oldor.htm
Romer Shoal (1898), also off S.I.: http://www.lighthousemuseum.org/nylights/romer.htm
West Bank (1901) off S.I., can be seen from South Beach and Coney Is.: http://www.lighthousemuseum.org/nylights/westb.htm
Five are in Long Island Sound:
Stamford Harbor (Chatham Rocks) 1882): http://www.lighthouse.cc/stamford/index.html
Latimer Reef Light, Fisher Island Sound (1884): http://www.lighthouse.cc/latimer/index.html (closer to Conn.)
Saybrook Breakwater lighthouse (1886): http://www.lighthouse.cc/saybrookbreakwater/index.html at the mouth of the Connecticut River
Orient Point (1899) guarding the North Fork and the entrance to LI Sound (known as the "Coffee Pot" lighthouse): http://www.longislandlighthouses.com/orientpt.htm
Greens Ledge (S. Norwalk, Conn.) 1902: http://www.lighthouse.cc/greensledge/GRNPC1.JPG
http://www.lighthouse.cc/greensledge/GRNLPC2.JPG
http://www.lighthouse.cc/greensledge/GRNLPC3.JPG
http://www.lighthouse.cc/greensledge/photos/2-000809B-GREENSLEDGE.jpg
http://www.lighthouse.cc/greensledge/photos/4-002540A-GREENSLEDGE.jpg
Peck Ledge (1906) (Norwalk, Conn.) : http://www.lighthouse.cc/pecksledge/index.html

And the Tarrytown lighthouse on the Hudson (Kingsland Point) (1883-1961) (Sleepy Hollow) The Tappan Zee Bridge made it obsolete. Cast Iron Caisson:
http://www.hudsonlights.com/images/0072-008.jpg
http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-cp/history/WEBLIGHTHOUSES/sunkenrock.JPG
http://www.hudsonlights.com/Images/tarrytown-sailor.jpg
http://www.hudsonlights.com/Images/uscg-tarrytown.jpg

Gone in Long Island Sound:
New Haven Outer Breakwall (1899-1933): http://www.lighthouse.cc/sperry/

Gone in the Hudson:
Rockland Lake light (1894-1923): http://hometown.aol.com/thelightkeeper/rocklandlakelight.jpg
In mid-1890s it began to lean and was known after as the "Leaning Tower" of Rockland. Nice picture.

Sharps Island, Maryland (you'll see why): http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/lighthouse/types/sharps.jpg

I will show one non-fire plug lighthouse here, the castle like twin lighthouse at Navesink, N.J.:
http://home.neo.rr.com/rodsphotogallery/Lighthouses/NewJersey/HTML/Navesink.html
Sandy Hook:
http://home.neo.rr.com/rodsphotogallery/Lighthouses/NewJersey/HTML/SandyHook.html




=================================
The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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End of RSHSDepot Digest V1 #937
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=================================
The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org