"
The historian, Mary L. Booth, commenting on the above, says:
"This rural picture of a point near where Charlton now
crosses Varick Street naturally strikes the prosaic mind
familiar with the locality at the present day as a trick of
the imagination. But truth is stranger, and not infrequently
more interesting, than fiction."
And now go back to the beginning.
A very large section of this part of the island was held under the
grant of the Colonial Government, by the Episcopal Church of the city
of New York--later to be known more succinctly as Trinity Church
Parish. St. John's,--not built at that time, of course--is part of the
same property. This particular portion (Richmond Hill), as we may
gather from the enthusiastic accounts of those who had seen it, must
have been peculiarly desirable. At any rate, it appealed most strongly
to one Major Abraham Mortier, at one time commissary of the English
army, and a man of a good deal of personal wealth and position.
In 1760, Major Mortier acquired from the Church Corporation a big
tract including the especial hill of his desires and, upon it, high
above the green valleys and the silver pond, he proceeded to put a
good part of his considerable fortune into building a house and laying
out grounds which should be a triumph among country estates.
Pages:
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119