by Fran Leadon
336 “all in ruins”: John Bachman to Maria Martin, May 11, 1848. Quoted in Rhodes, John James Audubon, 433.
337 To make ends meet: George Bird Grinnell, “Recollections of Audubon Park,” The Auk, 37 (July 1920), 372–373.
337 Audubon Park grew into a small community: Grinnell, “Recollections of Audubon Park,” 372; Grinnell, Audubon Park, 17.
337 “If you have nothing to do”: Grinnell, “Recollections of Audubon Park,” 379.
337 Grinnell remembered sylvan days of fishing: Ibid., 376.
337 “worn and shabby”: Ibid., 374.
337 Eventually fences went up: Grinnell, Audubon Park, 18.
338 Their father’s house was offered for rent: Advertisement, New York Herald, May 2, 1861, 11.
338 Lucy, always in financial straits: Rhodes, John James Audubon, 436–438.
338 By 1909, Grinnell’s father: Grinnell, Audubon Park, 21.
338 Audubon’s house survived: It was roughly at the position of present-day 765 Riverside Drive.
338 “If there is such a thing as communication”: “More Buried Treasure in a Noted Basement,” New York Tribune, March 11, 1917, 5.
CHAPTER 39. THE HEIGHTS
344 “All the redoubts and forts”: John Randel Jr., “City of New York, North of Canal Street, in 1808 to 1821,” in D. T. Valentine, Manual of the Corporation of the City of New-York. New York: Edmund Jones & Co., 1864, 855.
344 though “hardly visible”: Wilson Cary Smith, “The Roger Morris House,” Magazine of American History VI (1881), 103.
344 They thought it “improbable”: Gouverneur Morris, Simeon DeWitt, and John Rutherfurd, “Remarks of the Commissioners for Laying Out Streets and Roads in the City of New York, Under the Act of April 3, 1807.” Quoted in I. N. Phelps Stokes, The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498 to 1909. Six volumes. New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915–1928. Reprinted, New York: Arno Press, 1967, I, 472–473.
344 “impracticable . . . ruinous to land owners”: Statute 1860, Ch. 201, Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York IX, 148, 994.
345 They envisioned “Fort Washington Park”: “The Commissioners of Washington Heights,” New York Herald, July 26, 1860, 5.
345 “We trust that the Commissioners”: “Grand Suburban Park at Washington Heights,” New York Herald, August 27, 1860, 4.
345 “[Some] two thousand blocks were provided”: Frederick Law Olmsted and J. James Croes, “Preliminary Report of the Landscape Architect and the Civil and Topographical Engineer, upon the Laying Out of the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Wards,” 1876. Quoted in Albert Fein, editor, Landscape into Cityscape: Frederick Law Olmsted’s Plans for a Greater New York City. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1967, 352.
345 “rich and cultivated”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Henry H. Elliott, August 27, 1860, in Frederick Law Olmsted: Writings on Landscape, Culture, and Society, Charles E. Beveridge, editor. New York: Library of America, 2015, 141, 144.
346 Washington Heights would be overrun: Ibid., 137, 139.
346 “Our right unquestionably is to control matters”: Calvert Vaux to Frederick Law Olmsted, May 12, 1865, Frederick Law Olmsted Papers, Library of Congress, Reel 32. Quoted in Melvin Kalfus, Frederick Law Olmsted: The Passion of a Public Artist. New York: New York University Press, 1990, n391.
346 In 1866 they proposed a new boulevard: Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted, “Preliminary Report to the Commissioners for Laying Out a Park in Brooklyn, New York: Being a Consideration of Circumstances of Site and Other Conditions Affecting the Design of Public Pleasure Grounds,” 1866. Quoted in Albert Fein, editor, Landscape into Cityscape: Frederick Law Olmsted’s Plans for a Greater New York City, 126–127.
347 “This is the most picturesque route”: Charles Dawson Shanly, “Along the Hudson River at New York,” Atlantic Monthly XXII (July 1868) 129, 1.
CHAPTER 40. HILLTOPPERS
351 “enough diamonds in the shirt fronts”: “New Team Wins First Game—Beat Washington 6 to 2,” New York Tribune, May 1, 1903, 5.
351 The Americans went on to win 6 to 2: Ibid.
351 It was the golden era of great baseball nicknames: www.baseball-reference.com. Accessed July 26, 2016.
352 “If the new baseball team is to have a name”: “Name for the American New Yorks,” New York Sun, May 7, 1903, 8.
352 attendance was well over 20,000: “Yankees Start Well; Beat Boston in Twelfth,” New York Tribune, April 15, 1906, 8.
CHAPTER 41. THE FOURTH REICH
354 Malcolm X was assassinated: In the early 1990s, half of the Audubon was demolished and the surviving half repurposed as a biomedical research facility. The front façade is intact.
354 “Ruination,” he cried: Charles Darnton, “Popular Priced Theatres Unite Families by Keeping Men Out of Saloons, Says Fox,” New York Evening World, November 12, 1912, 5.
355 a “long, unending monotone”: Rian James, All About New York: An Intimate Guide, 1931. Quoted in David W. Dunlap, On Broadway: A Journey Uptown over Time. New York: Rizzoli, 1990, 293–296.
355 locals were calling the neighborhood das vierte Reich: “School Plan Used to Decrease Bias,” New York Times, September 16, 1945, 42.
355 “ Byzantine - Romanesque - Indo - Hindu ”: Dunlap, On Broadway, 306.
355 “ Negro - white antagonism [is] sharp”: “School Plan Used to Decrease Bias,” 42.
355 took fifth - graders and members of the PTA: Ibid.
356 “I was walking along Dyckman [Street]”: Jeff Kisseloff, You Must Remember This: An Oral History of Manhattan from the 1890s to World War II. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999, 243–244.
356 “[The automat] was really a blessing”: Jeff Kisseloff oral history interviews. Manuscripts and Archives Division, New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations.
356 “We had a marvelous view”: Ibid.
356 By 1940 . . . his income had risen: 1940 United States Federal Census, National Archives and Records Administration. New York, New York: Enumeration District 31-2030, p. 63A, www.1940census.archives.gov.
357 “This is the way people used to do it”: Jeff Kisseloff oral history interviews.
CHAPTER 42. THE BRIDGE
360 “The scheme of building on the North [Hudson] River”: American Citizen, January 27, 1808. Quoted in I. N. Phelps Stokes, The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498 to 1909. Six volumes. New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915–1928. Reprinted, New York: Arno Press, 1967, V, 1485–1486.
360 Lindenthal and Rea continued to advocate: “Samuel Rea, Retiring at Age 70, Foresees a New Rail Era,” New York Times, September 20, 1925, Section 9, 1, 14.
360 Real - estate agents accosted passersby: Advertisement, New York Tribune, March 19, 1910, 10.
361 “the dream of every New York motorist”: “The Dream of Every New York Motorist,” New York Tribune, August 14, 1921, Section 7, 1.
362 Secretary of War James William Good: “Bars Hudson Span as Planned Too Low,” New York Times, May 30, 1929, 1, 12.
362 four immense cables, each 36 inches: Frank W. Skinner, “George Washington Bridge a Feat of Man’s Ingenuity,” New York Times, October 18, 1931, Section 20, 6. John A. Roebling & Sons, the world’s oldest manufacturer of steel wire, fabricated the cables; the company’s founder, John A. Roebling, had, of course, designed the Brooklyn Bridge.
363 Letters flooded into the Authority’s offices: “Washington Leads as Name for Bridge,” New York Times, February 12, 1931, 14; “Would Name New Span Verrazano Bridge,” New York Times, February 9, 1931, 39.
364 The bridge was dedicated: “Two Governors Open Great Hudson Bridge as Throngs Look On,” New York Times, October 25, 1931, 1, 30.
364 two Bronx kids: “Two Schoolboys on Skates First to Cross the New Bridge,” New York Times, October 25, 1931, 30.
364 the George Washington was always his favorite: Michael Aaron Rockland, The George Washington Bridge: Poetry in Steel. New Brunswick, N.J., and London: Rivergate Book
s, 2008, 52.
364 “It is blessed”: Le Corbusier, When the Cathedrals Were White. New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1947, 75.
CHAPTER 43. THE CUT
365 In 1925, Port Authority chairman Julian A. Gregory: “Take Fight to Estimate Board: Washington Heights Taxpayers Prepare a Petition Against the Fort Lee Span,” New York Times, March 30, 1925, 3.
365 Two churches with large: Chelsea Methodist, led by the celebrity pastor Christian F. Reisner, moved south to the still-incomplete Broadway Temple on Broadway between 173rd and 174th streets.
365 The work displaced 3,000 people: “Apartment Houses Must Go for Hudson Bridge Approach,” New York Times, October 27, 1929, Real Estate Section, 1.
366 “the free flow of traffic”: Robert Moses, “Highways for a Better New York,” New York Times Magazine, November 11, 1945, 10.
366 the project involved demolition: Joseph C. Ingraham, “New Bridge Links Planned Uptown,” New York Times, February 18, 1957, 1.
366 tenants from Washington Heights: Paul Crowell, “Engineers Favor Bridge-Link Plan,” New York Times, May 16, 1957, 33.
367 “The rest is battling obstructionists”: Robert Moses, “Highways for a Better New York,” 10.
367 people he called “eagle[s] with vision”: Robert Moses, “It’s Going to Be Quite a Town,” New York Times Magazine, February 16, 1947, 7.
367 Ammann, eighty - three: Joseph C. Ingraham, “Lower Deck of George Washington Bridge Is Opened,” New York Times, August 30, 1962, 1, 59.
CHAPTER 44. MR. BILLINGS
374 “Mr. Billings’s connection with the turf”: “Chatter of the Clubs,” New York Times Magazine, September 27, 1903, 7.
375 He and wife Blanche: “Natives of New York Still Own Upper Fifth Avenue,” New York Times Magazine, May 26, 1907, 5.
375 Billings hired Boston architect Guy Lowell: “Real Estate,” New York Tribune, December 19, 1901, 6.
375 Billings moved in his prized trotters: “Gossip of the Trotters,” New York Tribune, August 21, 1901, 8.
375 In the spring of 1903: “Lowell Mills Closed; 17,000 Persons Idle,” New York Times, March 29, 1903, 1; “Strikers Close Restaurants,” “Eighteen Arrested for Strike Violence,” “J. P. Morgan Is Bullish,” New York Times, March 31, 1903, 1; “Six Killed in a Furnace,” New York Times, April 1, 1903, 1; “Minimum Wage Law Void,” New York Times, April 2, 1903, 1.
376 But when details of the festivities: “Guests to Ride Wooden Horses,” New York Evening World, March 28, 1903, 3; “Abandons Hobby Horse Dinner,” New York Tribune, March 29, 1903, 5.
376 Billings substituted real horses: “Luncheon in a Stable,” New York Times, March 30, 1903, 14.
376 The horses ate too: Ibid.
376 Peoples Gas was trading at over $100 a share: Stock tables, New York Times, April 4, 1903, 13.
377 destroyed a well - preserved section of the fort: “Want Customs Records Kept,” New York Tribune, October 29, 1902, 5. In 1909, Billings paid to have a bronze plaque honoring Margaret Corbin installed at the site of the fort. It is still there in what is today Fort Tryon Park.
377 Built of brick : Barr Ferree, Fort Tryon Hall. New York: C. K. G. Billings, 1911.
378 Lou Dillon, the first horse: “Lou Dillon Sold for $12,500,” New York Tribune, May 13, 1903, 5.
378 the servants (generally English, Scottish): 1910 United States Federal Census; New York, New York; Ward 12, Enumeration District 0675, pp. 4A and 4B, www.ancestry.com.
CHAPTER 45. MR. MOLENAOR
380 between $300 million and $500 million: “ ‘Squatter’ Claims $300,000,000 Realty,” New York Times, May 13, 1913, 1.
380 The shack had low ceilings: Eleanor Booth Simmons, “The Last Days of Squatter Sovereignty,” New York Herald, Section 8 (Books and Magazine), December 3, 1922, 16–17, 37.
380 “I expect to stay here quite some time”: “ ‘Squatter’ Claims $300,000,000 Realty,” 1.
380 “You are hereby notified”: “A Claim for Millions,” New York Sun, February 1, 1878, 3.
381 A Catholic priest: Ibid.
381 “I was not long in getting that notice off my building”: “Lively Times at Kingsbridge,” New York Sun, February 6, 1878, 1.
381 “The Molenaors are poor”: “A Claim for Millions,” 3.
381 “an army of lawyers”: “ ‘Squatter’ Claims $300,000,000 Realty,” 1.
381 then went to Flagstaff, Arizona: 1900 United States Federal Census; Flagstaff, Coconino, Arizona Territory; Enumeration District 0014, p. 5B, www.ancestry.com.
382 he had lived in Manhattan, on Bleecker: “Wants $300,000,000 Worth of Harlem,” New York Sun, March 16, 1913, Section 7, 7.
382 During the Civil War: 1900 United States Federal Census; Flagstaff, Coconino, Arizona Territory; Enumeration District 0014, p. 5B, www.ancestry.com.
382 In 1872, Molenaor’s brother Andrew visited him: “Wants $300,000,000 Worth of Harlem,” 7.
382 opened a jewelry business on Fulton Street: “Martin M. Molenaor” was listed in an 1882 directory as a jeweler at 1053 Fulton Street in Brooklyn. George T. Lain, The Brooklyn Directory for the Year Ending May, 1882. New York: George T. Lain, 1882, 772.
382 “good horse and chaise”: “Wants $300,000,000 Worth of Harlem,” 7.
382 invested heavily in the Harlem Canal Company: Ibid.
382 His land had been put up as security: Henry Edward Smith, “Story of a Forty-Year Fight for $300,000,000,” Pittsburg Press, Sunday Press Illustrated Magazine, August 19, 1917, 1.
382 listed as “None”: 1850 United States Federal Census; New York, New York; Ward 17, p. 115A, www.ancestry.com.
382 He died in 1858: “Died,” New York Times, February 3, 1858, 5.
382 “To my eldest son”: “Wants $300,000,000 Worth of Harlem,” 7.
383 “[The defendants], as I understand it, do not contest”: William V. R. Erving, reporter, The Miscellaneous Reports: Cases Decided in the Courts of Record of the State of New York. Albany: J. B. Lyons Co., XCVIII (1917), 697.
384 “To this extraordinary construction”: Ibid.
384 “He sits at evening in the door of his cabin”: Smith, “Story of a Forty-Year Fight for $300,000,000,” 1.
384 Norton began excavating anyway: “Heir to Millions Soon to Lose Hut,” New York Herald, April 25, 1921, 20; “Waiting in Shack for Tunnel to Evict Them,” New York Herald, April 26, 1921, 4.
385 “Undermine our home, will you?”: Simmons, “The Last Days of Squatter Sovereignty,” 37.
385 But the stress of being threatened: Ibid.
385 “All that . . . is mine”: Ibid.
CHAPTER 46. MR. BARNARD
386 In 1926 the château burned down: “Billings Mansion Destroyed by Fire; Loss Near $1,000,000,” New York Times, March 7, 1926, 1, 20.
386 Landscape painter Eric Sloane: Eric Sloane and Edward Anthony, Mr. Daniels and the Grange. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1968, 6–7.
387 “human dynamo”: “George Grey Barnard,” New York Times, April 26, 1938, 20.
387 compared him favorably to Michelangelo: “Barnard, Sculptor, Is Dead Here at 74,” New York Times, April 25, 1938, 1, 3.
387 “I was getting $2,000 a week”: “What Is Happening in the World of Art,” New York Sun, December 6, 1914, 4.
387 cabled Barnard to “come home”: Ibid.
387 Joseph Miller Huston, and four others: “Huston Goes to Prison,” New York Times, May 24, 1911, 1.
388 He began by bicycling around the French countryside: “What Is Happening in the World of Art,” 4.
388 “I went into every cellar”: Ibid.
388 “stealing the soul of France”: “Barnard, Sculptor, Is Dead Here at 74,” 3.
388 But others praised Barnard: J. L. Schrader, “George Grey Barnard: The Cloisters and the Abbaye,” Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin XXXVII, 1 (Summer 1979), 43.
388 He called the museum the Cloisters: Advertisement, New York Sun, December 14, 1914, 16.
388 an “intellectu
al Coney Island”: Schrader, “George Grey Barnard: The Cloisters and the Abbaye,” 45.
389 Barnard put the Cloisters up for sale: Ibid., 36.
389 greeted guests in a velvet jacket and bow tie: Ibid., 42.
390 closed on February 9, 1936: Ibid., 47.
390 Among those paying tribute was Mathilda Burling: “Artists Present at Barnard Rites,” New York Times, April 28, 1938, 23.
390 well over 4,000 had filed through: “4,473 Visit the Cloisters,” New York Times, May 15, 1938, 4.
CHAPTER 47. LIFE AND DEATH IN INWOOD
395 One tenant’s rent consisted only of one hen: “Old Dyckman Farm Becomes City’s Newest Recreation Ground,” New York Sun, October 10, 1915, Section 7, 5.
396 wait for his regular “Tubby Hookers”: Eleanor Booth Simmons, “Where Cobwebs Thrive on Manhattan Isle,” New York Tribune, November 6, 1921, Magazine Section, 5, 7.
396 McCreery didn’t take the train to work: Ibid.
396 “Among the rocks and forest trees”: T. Addison Richards, “New York Circumnavigated,” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine XXIII, 134 (July 1861), 178.
397 “utterly without salt and savor”: “What’s in a Name?” New York Tribune, August 22, 1867, 4.
397 continued to announce “Tubby Hook!”: Ibid.
397 By 1867 the Hudson River Railroad: “Local Intelligence. Suburban Homes: How to Reach them by Rail and Steamboat—Number of Trains and Commutation Rates of Fare—The Pleasant Villages of Manhattan, Long Island and New-Jersey—A Helping Word to Home Seekers,” New York Times, March 11, 1867, 2.
397 “Inwood seems, by its beautiful situation”: “The West Side,” New York Tribune, May 22, 1868, 2.
397 there were still virtually no buildings of any kind: Robinson’s Atlas of the City of New York. New York: E. Robinson, 1885, sheet 32, Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, New York Public Library, New York Public Library Digital Collections.
397 “unchanged by the march of improvement”: Wilson Cary Smith, “The Roger Morris House,” Magazine of American History VI (1881), 102.
398 “The teachers had no business”: “Put in the Marsh to Die,” New York Sun, June 15, 1887, 1.