Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-05-12
ANDRE'E PRISON,

Whenever the hand of or the
spirit of Improvement lays hold of a spot
which has become widely known because
of it's historical associations, the people
who live in it's vicinity naturally oppose
the movement, and efforts are usually
made to preserve the historical places.
This sentiment has been the means of
preventing the restitution of many inter-
esting architectural features in the vi
oinity of New York, and caused comment
last week when the report was circulated
that the old "'76 Stone House" at Tap
pan, where Major Andre vas confined
after his capture by John Paulding, Da-
vdd Williams and Isaac Van Wart, was
to be converted into a prosaic soap boil
ing establishment.
place of the little village for many years,
and hundreds of patriotic people have
made the trip to Happen to see it. 1t
was built in 1855 in what is now the main
street of the village, about W and one
half miles from the river. by a man nam
ed Mabie, as a public house.
From Mabie,' said Henry Ryerson,
one of the patriarchs of the place, the
house went to a younger Mabie. who SOLD
it to a Mr.. Du Bay, who ran a pubic
it became the property of Mr.. Snedeker,
who owned it only a short time. The
next owner was Mrs. Stevens, and then
Tom Wendell bought it. l became the
next owner n kept the house for 25
years. People drove here from all
around, and many a Sunday I victuallad
as many as IS people, who We're all in
terested in the house n wanted to see
where Andre was kept locked up before
he was hanged"
A sheriff's sale brought the house into
the possession of DIR. Stevens, and while
he owned it it was kept closed many
, years, and the visitors to the old land
mark could see only the exterior. The
! house went to ruin, and when the present
owner, Charles Pike. bought it in 1897,
heap of stone. The house was rebuilt,
and, while it may now contain much OF
the building material of the original
structure, it is practically a new house,
and is in that respect much like tie
'Washington's Headquarters" of which
there is also a specimen in another part
of the village. The present owners L.
cense to sell liquor on the premises has
been revoked, hence the talk of convert
ing the new old house into a soap fac
tory.
James Barlow, a we'll preserved man of
SO, another of the old citizens of the
place, in speaking of the incidents which
made the old stone house famous, said:
my people owned the place on the
other side Of the village when Andre
was hanged" and he led the way past
the old church which stands on the site
of the Reformed Protestant Dutch
church, where the Andre trial took place,
to the spot where the last scene in the
Andre tragedy was enacted. What was
a narrow trail at that time is a well
made road which leads across the West
Shore railroad tracks and up a hill,
Handsome houses look down upon 1t, and
a new street to the left from this road
brings the visitor to a circular plot in
closed by a handsome iron railing.
This is the spot to which Andre was
brought for execution after all efforts on
the part of Sir Henry Clinton to save
him had failed. 1t is on high ground
and overlooks a beautiful valley, and
although the plot is only a short distance
from two railroad stations, the place
like the houses in the little village, looks
/ like a picture from an old book, n is