New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-08-14

20 OTHER balcony in New York has
~ looked down upon SO much of the
city's history in the making. 1t
clinea Drecarlously to the last of the
o;ohr..nth century mansions on Battery Place
.,b;ch are about to be overwhelmed by a
modern skyscraper.
Mora than century ago this balcony, or
20 PREDECESSOR, looked down upon the fash
;onahle promenade along the sea WALL where
81, New York passed in review 1t watched
the growing commerce Of the harbor as it
changed from sailing to steam craft. In time
The fashionable world and business as we'll
moved northward, and from Castle Garden
MILLIONS Of prospective Americans passed be-
reath the balcony, transforming the once
fashionable neighborhood. In another gen
Grafton this historic neghborhood has become
contested business section.
In Battery Park, more than any other Sec
+;on of the city, the old New York of the
eighteenth century still lives. The name itself
i successive of its early days. When the
old fort was demolished in 1880 the surround
;ne streets had already taken form. The
northwest baston of the old fort is marked
nv stone beneath the elevated railroad at
the entrance to the Bowling Green subway
station. The line of Battery Place, as we
know it to-day, had been determined much
earlier, when the beginning of Broadway was
definitely fixed Originally the North River
extended as far as Greenwich Street. The old
mansion of the balcony stands upon ground
which was filled in at an early period.
The first plan for increasing the area OF the
citv in this section was announced in an ordi~
nance of 1929, which explained that, for the
better utility of trade and commerce and IN
creasng the buildings within the city and I'M
nroving the revenues of the corporation two
streets should be surveyed and laid out along
the Hudson River, one street forty feet VIDE
at high water, the other thirty feet wide at
low water, the high water mark to be the CEN
ter of one street and the low water mark the
other" The two new streets thus planned
eventually became Greenwich and Washington
streets.
The original line of Battery Place was indi-
Gated in early maps as early as 1895. Its
iuncture with Broadway was from the first
highly desirable site for buildings. Several
occupied this site, until in 1760 pretentious
mansion was erected here, which to house
many illustrious men of its day, and to stand
for more than century. The historic mansion
at l Broadway was built by Captain John
Kennedy, of the British Army, who later be-
came Earl Cassilis After the revolution the
house was occupied by Generals Washington,
Putnam and others.
The garden at the of this mansion
reached the Hudson River, which originally
extended to the present line of Greenwich
Street. When the river was filled in the land
along the present line of Battery Place was
acquired by Robert and John Kennedy In a
map dated 1907 the entire block running from
Greenwich to Washington Street is indicated
to have been owned by them. The new lanc
was not then built upon, and city directory
Of 1912 shows that but two houses then stooc
on Battery Place. One of these was owned by
Joseph Blackwell, and the other by Robert
Fulton The Fulton house built on the
site Of the garden of the Kennedy mansion
Here Fulton lived, from about 1907 until his
death, in 1915.
One may search in vain in the old maps
and directories of New York for Battery
Place. The street was originally known a