"
Eleventh Street was never cut through because old Burgher Brevoort did
not want his trees cut down and argued conclusively with a blunderbuss
to that effect--a final effect. It never has been cut through, as a
matter of fact, to this day. And by way of evening things up, Grace
Church, which stands almost on the disputed site, had for architect
one James Renwick, who married the only daughter of Henry Brevoort
himself. So by a queer twisted sort of law of compensation, the city
gained rather than lost by what a certain disgruntled historian calls
the "obstinacy of one Dutch householder."
[Illustration: THE BREVOORT HOUSE. "... The atmosphere of chivalry to
women, friendliness to men, and courtesy to everyone, which is, after
all, just the air of France."]
These things are all true; the most amazing thing about Greenwich
Village is that the most unlikely things that you can find out about
it are true. The obvious, every-day things that are easily believed
are much the most likely to be untenable reports or the day dreams of
imaginative chroniclers.
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