The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-11-21
FIFTH AVENUES PASSING WILLOW.
Last Landmark OF the Old Days or sleigh
Rides ON n Country Road.

RIdes ON n Country Road.
With the opening of the newly completed
Delmonico establishment at Forty-fourth street
and Fifth avenue fashion has wheeled in and
captured the neighborhood, skipping over the
plain little group of dingy houses opposite, and
setting so many lights ablaze that the old will.
low tree out in front of them is merged in
shadow. Taken separately from their sur
roundings. this group of fat-topped buildings
and the willow tree that shades them are a sur
vival Of a former generation, a hint Of days
when Fifth avenue was not an avenue at all,
but merely an innocent country road running
out among the hills, and the city-the city that
has since taught it such secrets~ sober-going
Dutch settlement on the neck of land below.
Tho lot was then all in one. broad and ample.
A low-framed house stood square across 1t,
facing the road; a house with rooms in 1t largo
enough for dancing, as dancing was done In
those days, and with a reputation for providing
acceptable refreshment. The old willow, then Q
vigorous young tree, marked the garden gate az
Q stopping place for parties driving out of town.
up by the reservoir" was considered way out
In the country, years and years after that time.
6leighing parties used to stop at the willow
tree road house to sup and enjoy themselves on
their way to and from town, and danes and
maids in skinny, short-waisted frocks and
demure poke b%onnets, attended by cavaliers
with a penchant for snuff and an appreciation
for beauty, would DO handed out from among
the robes and up the prim little garden path,
with the rays of q single lantern to guide them.
From the back window OF the little candy
shop that squats down In front of the most
notwithstanding house Of the lot the old dance
house is still visible. turned around edgewise
now and patched and clutterod over with odds
and ends of the carpenters work that has
served to keep it in preservation.
my husband uses it for q workshop" ex-
plains the proprietress of the candy store. but
he has to keep tinkering at 1t all the time to
keep it from leaking and falling to pieces. I
say it looks like ~Joseph's coat. so many old
pieces OF painted board have been nailed onto 1t.
There's a green piece and a blue piece and q
brown piece. Those new, Imprinted boards we
next door, with Willow Tree Tavern painted
up over the door 7" she is asked.
"Ohi this house is much the Oldest" she an
swers; but tho dance house stood on this lot.
Of course, long before either of the others was
to me about the place and asked me to let her
tell her motrer she had seen 1t; that her grand
mother used to talk about stopping here to eat
f eiSdii1sEs when Shes sh sh %s ar yoSn Sas sh asG sa,d fG Rsr t sis,f5
way. that they had had It for over a hun.
any more because they didn't live in tho city
now. The dance house used to stand square
there was a garden and greenhouse in front.
When the stable people next door. on the syna-
turned round endways and tackled on to the
The panels In Inc fence that separate the back
premises of the narrow little house from Its
neighbors speak of moro prosperous days, and
there are a few slim-boled young trees Out in the
from the venerable willow that guards the front.
.Taere was q man In here one day talking a
tree, the shopwomen says. "He said he was
SSh Im fn ~, to 81, e1 ths a S ZIP ,S 81 IT. b to fske home nome %lta
house. the one that is now the tavern; that no
lived there n long time, and that he never failed
to to came anne here r. S N.m lo9 1op At the 10 old si Place tb whs e. \ ifInsr
looked Just as it did when he was a boy"
How old n man was he T.
nearly, seventeen years since he was here. ]
think he must be dead; he never comes back"
and annals OF New York history record would
be found Of the old road house, of who owned
whether il was a success, stSmped With the ap'
proyal of fashion. or merely catered to the needs
q the trsEsliihg public, those o, who had to 20 By
enjoy themselves by the way. A story handed
down from grand to granddaughter 10 IA
ever, and even II that we're non.come,at.abie
the old, willow, the sole solitary tree for many
occult enough to be boarding all sorts OF secrets
In Its scraggy breast. II IL tells them at all. II
VIII nave 10 DC quick ABOUT IL, because IL hal
been reported to the Bureau OF Street Incum,
brances AS AN cyesore, and they say IL must
measure its length and be cut up and carted of
for frewood.
Its the ladies-the society that sees TO the
streets-who came round and condemned it,
made an untidy litter with Its falling leaves and
Was too old and crooked to stand any longer
They complained about this shop, too, said tina
1t took up too much room, jutted out too far or
the pavement, but l can prove that 1t 10 jusl
inside the line. i think some folks are TOO quicl
10 NEEDLE. Why not leave the old tree alon,
the few years it's got TO live T.
An old cRbman, who used to drive q stage OF
the line that led down from Forty-second stree
to the then New Bowery,, remembers the old will
liable ward When his stage Wheeled out aver,
morning. winter and summer. on Its daily trii
NE orphan asylum used 70 be oppOslt
thsas The asylum that was burned down In RIO