The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-10-23
New YOrk'S
Old Houses
Tell History
Mansions Are Guide-Posts
to Early Landmarks
of the City.
BY HELEN WORDEN
Times Special Writer

NEW YORK, Oct, 23.-The path
that leads to old New York has
many side-trails They wind back
and forth in the cross streets Of
Lower Manhattan Island Around
Gramercy Park, across st. Marks
in-the- Bouerie, through Washing
ton Square, along the curving streets
Of Greenwich Village, zig-zagging
down to Stuyvesant Square, turning
East on the street where the white
peacocks walked, dropping off at
Tompkins Square and picking up
the trail again at Pearl-st, we trace
the early landmarks Of the city.
The guidezposts are old houses
along the way.
Gramercy Park is rich in Victor
ian mansions with an historical
twist to their past The National
Arts Club at IS Gramercy Park IS
the former home Of Samuel j. Til
den, the great statesman, Number
Creamery Park West is the orig
inal home Of Mayor James Harper,
one of the three brothers who
founded the firm Of Harper Broth
ers. Publishers, in 1914. The fine,
ornate old wrought iron lamps on
the broWn-stone steps show that
a Mayor of New York City has lived
in this house.
Mansion Sheltered Hewitts
One block north of Gramercy
PARK at No. LeXington-aye on
the southeast corner of 22nd-st and
the avenue stands the sober brown
stone mansion which has sheltered
three generations of the Peter
Cooper Hewitt family. Its famous
blue ballroom was the scene of
many a social function in the days
when 10 hoop skirts filled a room.
The early American homes that
fringed St. Marks-in -the-Bouerie
rapidly are disappearing. "Stuyves-
ant Row a black iron-balcony
trimmed section of quaint red brick
houses was torn down this summer.
A tall apartment building has re-
placed the picturesque homes of old
New York families
But Peter StuyVesant's Church
fingers on The green, tree-shaded
triangle and the tall steeplc of the
old Dutch Governors Church bring
beauty to a section of town now
known as the Melting Pot Of All
Nations"
Some Homes Untouched
Still untouched is the delightful
row of Colonial brick homes on the
north side of Washington Square.
The ground they stand on belongs
to Sailors Snug Harbor. Several
old ladies who were born on Wash
ington Square still are living in
their first homes. Mrs. Robert Gle
Forest who was Miss Emily John
ston, has spent her entire life at
No. 7 Washington Square North.
She remembers the time when a
pump in the southeast corner of the
square furnished the entire water
supply for the neighborhOod
StuyveSant Square has one or two
original families left. They live in
ManSard- roofed mansions on the
south side The two landmarks of
Stuyvesant Square, however, are
the Friends Seminary, built in 1860,
and st. Georges Church, the fash
ionable Episcopal place of worship
in the days of the elder j. P. Nor
gan.
Tompkins Square Now Ghost
Tompkins Sqpare is a ghost of its
former self. Jews. Italians, Spanl-
ards and Chinese swarm in the old
Victorian homes that have remained
standing.
Pearl-st, fragrant with the aroma
of spices and coffee eXuding from
importing and exporting ware
houses, is rich in memories of Co
lonial New York.
George Washington. Alexander
Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin and
other great Americans have crossed
the thresholds of the few old houses
left intact For Pearl-st was the
Fifth-av of Revolutionary days.
The tiny red brick houses with their
white marble steps and black iron
grillingS. were the homes of our