The Washington times., 1919-04-29
CENTURY-OLDHOUSE
AN OFFICE BUILDING

| NE" YORK, April 29.-When the
new brokers branch OF the National
Surety Company, at the corner OF
Maiden lane and Gold street. is
/ opened up for business on May I, II
/ will require an elastic agination to
| detect in the rart looking business
structure any resemblance 10 the
| fashionable old dwelling that once
| occupied a choice site In the heart Of
New York's exclusive residential dis
| trict. 1t will be equally, difficult to
picture the old structure As il must
| have looked when one OF New YOrks
| carly mRyors-Ambrose G. KinEslaud
made it his home and the scene Of
| much social activity. And yet the ar
| chiteCt who is responsible for the re-
modelling work has taken few liber-
| ties with the original lines Of the
| century-old landmark.
| To make the early nincteenth-cen-
| tury building conform to twentieth
| century business purposes, however,
| the brick walls are being replaced
with plate glass up TO the second
| story. and other up-to-date touches
are being added.
In modeInizing the premises. how
ever. the National Surety Company
has not lost Sight of the historic
! Gently acquired on a ten-year lease.
1t has gathered an Interesting collec-
tion of facsimiles and photographs OF
Did deeds and maps which tell their
own story OF the building and the
ground on which IL stands. These
| will be framed and hung on the walls
in the various offices.
According to hand-written parch-
mcnt indentures. yellowed by more
than two centuries Of time and now
in the vaults Of the New York Life
Insurance and Trust Company, the
site on which the Temodeled building
stands was once part OF the farm OF
Cornelius Jansen Chopper. the first
blacksmith to set up forge on Man
haitian Island.
Chopper was one Of the 22f enrolled
citizens OF the original Dutch colony
which the West India Company es-
tablished here in 1928. His house
and forge. which were located at
what Is now Maiden lane and Pearl
street. were in the early days reach
ed only by a COW path extending
north from the palisaded settle nent
below Wall street. They faced Smit's
valley, q swamp. covering what is
now Fulton Market.
When the cOlony's well-tO-do
blacksmith died he left his farm TO
his widow. Heilkea Chopper, and she
finding herself unable to manage all
OF IL in her later years. decided the
particular lot on which the National
Surety COmpanys new branch office
is to stand to a son by another mar
riage, Albertus Vandewater, after
whose family the small street a few
hundred yards north. under IN,
prn al 1~~U, Did
named.
A hand written parchment indenturo
which the Widow Chopper signed or
April II. 1897. describes the lot a.
bounded on the south by Maiden's
lane, on the north by the land Of
George Ellsworth. on the west by tn,
land Of Carste Bccse. and on the cast
by the land of the Widow Chopper.
The widow seems to have hesitatc6
about the gift. for she postponed Of
IicialiZinS the transfer before Mayo
John De Peyster until February 5
1898.
Near Scene Of BIoOdshed in 1870.
Vandewater subsequently, left tn,
plot to his son. Hendrich, who prob
ably watched from the windows of
his home the Dissertation Of the Lib
erty pole by British soldiers in 1910
which caused the first bluOdshed or
the Revolution. and which occuTreI
less than a hundred yards away
John and William streets.
When Hendrich died in 1TS6. his OK
e|utOr-anOthCr AIbertuS Vandcwater
whom a second yellow parchment de
scribes as a physician OF Queens"
sold il 10 Daniel Bloom Coen, a silver
smith. for fourteen hundred pounds"
Coen kept II until 1908. when the OK
ccutors OF James Cooper. merchant
who wished his estate to bc invested
in realty, bought il for $S.TT5.
Tho increase in land values in the
growing town Is shown by the Sl.TT5
advance in price in only seventeen
years. The development Of the towns
rOlitical machinery Is also suggested
by the fact that instead Of being made
before the mayor the transfer was
made before a master in Chanrcry.
Thomas Cooper. This third deed To-
oates the plot as east Of tho house
owned BY John Roosevelt"
Value Increased Ten Times.
In the early nineteenth century
Gold street and Maiden lane was the
center Of tho towns WcaIthiost dis
t'ict. The elaborate L"rillard mansior
y as only block distant. Tho plain
QUaker-liI,c red brick EahIcd dwell
ing. which tho National Surety Conn
pany has altered for business pur-
roses. was built in those days
Ambrose -. EinEsland. mayor of
New York from 1851 to 1853. bought
il, and in spite OF its single fireplace
Is said to have lived in II. He left
4 to daughter, who married Charles
n. Reynolds, a paint manufacturer
who in turn left it TO a daughter. IA,
wife Of Richard Smith Clark, a drur
merchant.
In recent court proceedings expert.
valued the site at $4,000. showing
that the value of land in that sector
has increased about ten times in I25
years.