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The National Guard of the city of New York, a corps of citizen soldiers, have the honor to present for your acceptance the accompanying token of the sentiments entertained by the sons of liberty in America for the dauntless champion of that sacred cause, whose distinguished service in three revolutions, and whose untiring exertions in behalf of the oppressed and enslaved of every nation, have raised for the hero, monumentum are perennius.' With a fervent prayer for your health and happiness, we are, General, your obedient servants, L. W. STEVENS, Colonel. U. L. SMITH, Lt.-Colonel. J. M. CATLIN, Major.

To General Lafayette.

Vauxhall Garden, which was shorn of much of its ancient splendor

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when Lafayette Place was opened through its heart, was for more than a quarter of a century a popular summer resort. It first appears in the city directory of 1799. An energetic Frenchman by the name of Delacroix, formerly a distiller and then a confectioner, founded it, and made it the source of a considerable income. It is described in Mitchell's city guide of 1807 as a "garden laid out with taste; walks agreeably disposed and strewed with gravel, their sides adorned with shrubs, trees, busts, and statues. In the middle is a large equestrian figure of Washington. The orchestra built among the trees gives to the band of music and singing voices a charming effect on summer evenings. Within this enclosure the large apparatus for fire-works, the artificial mound of earth to view them from, the numerous booths and boxes for the accommodation of the company,

refreshments of every kind, and above all the buildings and scenery for dramatic entertainments during the summer season, are all proofs of Mr. Delacroix's zeal and efforts to gratify the public." Balloon ascensions from this garden were quite frequent; and its visitors regaled themselves at small

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Prior to the birth of Vauxhall Garden this site was the property for

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Joos Sperry

John Jacob Aster

April 30t 1800f

Broadway

several decades of Jacob Sperry, a Swiss gentleman, born in Zurich in 1728. He came to New York at the age of twenty, and although educated a physician, decided, after receiving his diploma, to become a florist. He had means at his command, with which he purchased this then uncultivated tract of pasture land, and established himself as a horticulturist. He built a house near by, where he resided, and reared a family of four sons and five daughters. His grandson, Henry C. Sperry, was born on the estate in 1800. In 1804, Jacob Sperry sold the much improved property to John Jacob Astor for $45,000, who gave a twenty-one years' lease to Delacroix. Thus it will be seen that the garden itself had been flowering and flourishing long before it was converted into a place of entertainment for the public.

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Bowery

DIAGRAM OF THE ASTOR PURCHASE IN 1804.

Back of all this is a choice bit of history concerning the land, that will interest the curious. It was a plot granted to Anthony Portuges, a free negro, by Governor Peter Stuyvesant before the English conquest of New York. Governor Nicolls, in 1667, prefaced a series of confirmations of ground briefs in the following language: “Whereas, there was heretofore, that is to say, in the years 1659 and 1660, several grants made by the Dutch Governor, Petrus Stuyvesant, unto certain free negroes, for several small parcels of land lying upon the Island Manhattas, along the highway, near unto the said Governor's bowery," etc.-Lib. 2, pp. 119-132. These confirmations were then entered with minute descriptions, boundaries, etc. There were nine of the plots, and they extended from Art street—now Astor Place to Prince street. It seems that the ground briefs of the Dutch governors were conveyed in the name both of the States General and the West India Company, and, in view of the phraseology of the third article of the surrender of 1664, were indisputable sources of title either with or without a confirmation.

Before and during the Revolution the nearest neighbor of Jacob Sperry on the north was Andrew Elliot, Collector of the Port of New York under

the crown, from 1764 to 1783, who held furthermore the office of superintendent general during the war, and with the mayor and a magistrate of police administered the civil government of the city; he was lieutenantgovernor of New York appointed by the king from 1780 to 1783; and the governor from April 17 to November 25, 1783, succeeding Robertson. He was the third son of Sir Gilbert Elliot, Baronet, Lord Justice Clerk of Scotland. His famous country estate embraced many acres, the land extending from Art Street to the edge of the Brevoort farm, about Tenth Street, and east and west from the Bowery road to Fifth Avenue. He also had a city home of no little elegance in Pearl Street.

The mansion he built near Ninth Street, on the site of what was afterward Stewart's dry goods store, fronted the Bowery road, although it was so far back from that dusty thoroughfare that Broadway, when cut through, clipped its rear porch. It was fashioned after an old French château, its geography most bewildering, and was notable for its spacious as well as numerous apartments, its odd-looking turrets and picturesque gables. It was painted in æsthetic yellow. Its grounds were elaborately cultivated and very attractive. It was approached from the Bowery road; but Sandy Lane hovered along its southern boundary, leading from the Stuyvesant homestead through what was soon to be called Art Street, and in a winding route across the island to the little village of Greenwich, on the Hudson. While the Revolutionary war was in progress this beautiful home was the resort of all that was distinguished in civil and military New York. Lord Cathcart, afterward earl, was in 1779 here married to Collector Elliot's daughter Elizabeth. The wife of Lord Stirling, who was the sister of Governor William Livingston, of New Jersey, with her daughter Kitty, were in New York by special permission of the British authorities, and the guests of Mrs. Robert Watts during the month of August, 1778. They were entertained, despite the fact that Lord Stirling was an officer in the Continental army, on more than one occasion by the Elliots at this country seat, the young ladies of the two families being intimate social friends. It so happened that Lady Kitty was married to Colonel William Duer, at Baskinridge, New Jersey, in 1779, about the same time that Miss Elliot became Lady Cathcart. Another daughter of Andrew Elliot married James Jauncey, one of the founders of the New York Chamber of Commerce. This splendid Elliot property was owned and occupied by Baron Poelnitz at the time of the adoption of the Constitution of the United States, who sold it in 1790 to Robert Richard Randall, the founder subsequently of the "Sailors' Snug Harbor" charity. It was his dwelling-place until his death in 1801, when it was given by his will for

the support of aged, infirm, and worn-out seamen. He directed the building of an edifice within the grounds, but his executors found the land increasing rapidly in value, promising an immense revenue, and decided that the legacy would better serve the poor sailors if the Home itself was located elsewhere rather than in the centre of a great city. Thus, after much con

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ASTOR PLACE.

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A portion of Vauxhall Garden was appropriated for amusement purposes for some years after Lafayette Place was improved. Manypersons now living remember its antique entrance from Broadway, and, later still, its leafy attractions at the corner of Fourth Avenue and Eighth Street. Much is forgotten in a half-century. One eminent gentleman tells us of the pretty country places along the Bowery road below Fourteenth Street, with their hedges and flower-gardens, as they appeared to his boyish eyes before Fourth Avenue was cut through from the Bowery to Union Square. He describes the sand hill that Broadway encountered near Ninth Street, and demolished in its northerly course-it was lowered some ten feet-and tells how the corporation left the work for a long time in a rough and unfinished condition, and that on one occasion he was overturned in a carriage while passing that way in returning from the opera.

GREAT JONES

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MAP SHOWING LOCATION OF LAFAYETTE PLACE.

While Broadway and Fourth Avenue in their progress, with the cross-streets between, were holding a jubilee of destruction-pretty farmhouses, stables, fruit orchards, flower-gardens, rear porches and lover's

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