GEORGE WASHINGTON SLEPT HERE… (1776)
******************************************************************************************************************************** Brownstone Detectives investigates the history of our clients’ homes. The story you are about to read was composed from research conducted in the course of one of those investigations. Do you know the history of YOUR house? ******************************************************************************************************************************** In today’s great efforts to preserve our historical heritage, particularly as regards the ancient homesteads of our forebears, it gives great sadness to learn of the loss of old structures which once graced our city. One such house not only stood at one time as the last of its type, but it also had borne witness to historical events which contributed to the foundation of our country. Inside of the old Boughton House, which at one time existed close to the Wallabout Bay on Cumberland Street at about No. 33, George Washington had sat often in conference with his military leadership on the point of repelling the British occupational force during the Battle of Brooklyn. The “mansion,” which stood directly in line of the fortifications and redoubts thrown up by the Continental troops, found itself “smack in the middle” of these military improvements. It was an old-style dwelling of Dutch Colonial Architecture, with eaves and garrets, and was a true relic of Revolutionary times. There is no official record of when the house was erected, but around 1915 when workmen were repairing the roof, they found a shingle bearing the inscription “Erected 1727.” Later during the war, when Mr. Boughton’s house was used to quarter British soldiers,, the prison ship Jersey […]
OCEAN HILL VS. OCEAN HILL
******************************************************************************************************************************** Brownstone Detectives investigates the history of our clients’ homes. The story you are about to read was composed from research conducted in the course of one of those investigations. Do you know the history of YOUR house? ******************************************************************************************************************************** Before there was Ocean Hill, there was…Ocean Hill…. Researching the history of this Brooklyn moniker, though, points you in the direction of two very different places with two very different histories. There is the original Ocean Hill in Green-Wood Cemetery, a geographic location used famously by George Washington during the American Revolution. And then, there is the Ocean Hill in the eastern section of Bedford-Stuyvesant, created by developers in 1860s Bushwick. The only characteristic the two places have had in common – other than the name – was a view of the ocean from their perches. But, now, even that is gone for one of them. OCEAN HILL – GREEN-WOOD CEMETERY Ocean Hill in Brooklyn’s City of the Dead, Green-Wood Cemetery, is likely as old as the cemetery itself, which dates from 1838. While it was not likely known as such during the American Revolution, the high vantage point was used by George Washington before the Battle of Brooklyn to observe the British forces, which were gathering to the south (and which would subsequently drive him out of New York). Ocean Hill according to Green-Wood Illustrated (issue 1), “is one of the most elevated spots in the Cemetery,” and “it occupies the north-eastern corner of the grounds.” “The sea itself,” the […]
IS THIS THE SITE OF A MASS GRAVE? (1905)
This year will mark the 241st anniversary of the day that, in 1776, our gallant soldiers of the 1st Maryland Regiment “fell in combat” in Gowanus, Brooklyn. Gen. George Washington was being routed by the British in the battle that might very well have ended our colonial bid for independence, were it not for these brave men, who held the British off while the rest of the American army could escape to fight another day. While Washington’s troops were spiriting away towards the East River, soon to escape in a fog so dense that the British did not know it was happening, the Maryland soldiers were dying and being captured at the hands of the representatives of our former enemy, the British Army. In the words of Walt Whitman, describing Washington as he watched the discomfiting scene through his telescope: Now of the old war-days . . the defeat at Brooklyn; Washington stands inside the lines . . he stands on the entrenched hills amid a crowd of officers, His face is cold and damp . . . . he cannot repress the weeping drops . . . . He lifts the glass perpetually to his eyes . . . . the color is blanched from his cheeks, He sees the slaughter of the southern braves confided to him by their parents. Ultimately,” according to the New York Times, “of the the original Maryland 400 muster, 96 returned, with only 35 fit for duty.” The mass grave, consisting of six […]
