Jones's Wood
Encyclopedia
Jones's Wood was a block of farmland on the island of Manhattan
overlooking the East River
that has left some vestigial mark on the present-day Upper East Side
of New York City
. The farm of 132 acres (53.4 ha), known by its 19th-century owners as the "Louvre Farm", extended from the Old Boston Post Road (approximating the course of Third Avenue) to the river and from present-day 66th Street to 75th Street. It was purchased from the heirs of David Provoost (died 1781) by the successful innkeeper and merchant John Jones, to provide himself a country seat near New York. The Provoost house, which Jones made his seat, stood near the foot of today's 67th Street. After his death the "Farm" was divided into lots among his children. His son James retained the house and its lot. His daughter Sarah, who had married the shipowner and merchant Peter Schermerhorn, 5 April 1804, received Division 1, nearest to the city. On that southeast portion of his father-in-law's property, Peter Schermerhorn, soon after his marriage, had first inhabited the modest "villa" overlooking the river at the foot of today's 67th Street.
In 1818 Peter Schermerhorn purchased the adjoining property to the south from the heirs of John Hardenbrook's widow Ann, and adding it to his wife's share of the Jones property— from which it was separated by "Schermerhorn Lane" leading to the Hardenbrook burial vault overlooking the river at 66th Street— named his place "Belmont Farm". They at once moved into the handsomer Hardenbrook house looking onto the river at the foot of East 64th Street; there he remained, his wife having died 28 April 1845. The frame house survived into the age of photography, as late as 1911. It survived an 1894 fire that swept Jones's Wood almost clear and remained while the first building of The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, now Rockefeller University
, was erected to its south. The block of riverfront property now occupied by Rockefeller University is the largest remaining piece of Jones's Wood. The house was razed after 1903.
From 1850 "Jones's Wood" entered the broader history of New York
, when suggestions for setting aside a large public park, which was eventually to result in the creation of Central Park
, lit first on the wooded Jones/Schermerhorn estate on the East River. Intermittent editorials in Horace Greeley
's New York Tribune and William Cullen Bryant
's Post
had offered rosy images of rural Jones's Wood. State senator James Beekman, who had a share in the grand Federal Beekman house between today's 63rd and 64th Streets that abutted the modest Hardenbrook-Schermerhorn villa, lobbied the city aldermen in 1850, and a resolution was duly passed in 1851 to acquire the Jones's Wood property, which, the New York Herald
said, "would form a kind of Hyde Park
for New York".
When the Joneses and Schermerhorns proved reluctant to part with the property, Beekman introduced a bill into the State Senate to authorize the city to appropriate the land by eminent domain
; Beekman's bill passed unanimously, 18 June 1851; it passed the assembly as well, and the governor signed it into law, 11 July. The proposal for paying for the improvements through a general assessment met stiff opposition, however, and the Jones and Schemerhorn heirs, who had thwarted the project to open Second Avenue through their estate, successfuly brought suit, and the application of eminent domain was declared unconstitutional. The clamorous arguments fought in the newspapers over a city park then shifted to proposals for a "Central Park" and the expansion of the Battery's grounds
.
Peter Schermerhorn died on 23 June 1852, and during the next decade the Jones and Schermerhorn cousins soon discovered that though they had retained possession of their landscaped estate, the pressures of the city's inexorable northward growth soon hemmed them on two sides. Casual pilferage of fruit from their orchards and the presence of German beer garden
s along the Post Road at the gates of their shaded country lane, encouraged them to lease a portion of the land for a commercial picnic ground and popular resort hotel, the Jones's Wood Hotel; the hotel extended the old Provoost house, adding a dance pavilion, shooting range and facilities for other sports. Jones's Wood became the resort of working-class New Yorkers in the 1860s and 70s, who disembarked from excursion steamers and arrived by the horsecar
s and then by the Second Avenue Railroad
, to enjoy beer, athletics, patriotic orations and rowdy entertainments that were banned by the prim regulations of the city's new Central Park: Valentine Mager, the proprietor pointedly advertised in the New York Times 25 April 1858, that his grounds (enlarged by additional leases from Joneses and Schermerhorns), were "on the whole, the only place on the Island where a person can enjoy or make himself comfortable." Here the Caledonian Society repaired for Highland games and the daredevil Charles Blondin
performed, who "sought out perilous localities, eligible for his performance, in various parts of the Republic ; and, among other famous spots, Jones's Wood — a sort of wild and romantic Vauxhall
or Cremorne
, on the banks of the Hudson," George Linnaeus Banks (Blondin: his life and performances, 1862:42) had it, slightly misplacing the riverside site. Thomas Francis Meagher
's address to the "Monster Irish Festival" at Jones's Wood, 29 August 1861, was memorable enough for excerpts to be printed among inspiring exemplars of oratory in Beadle's Dime Patriotic Speaker (1863:55).
The northern section of the "Louvre Farm" as the families still termed it, from 69th to 75th Streets, was divided into lots in 1855, advertised to the public as part of the "beautiful property so well known as Jones's Wood" and sold for residential development.
The year 1873 marked the last of the old Wood, as trees were being felled to allow for construction. Several proprietors succeeded to the leases of the amusement park
, and John F. Schultheis, who had purchased some Schermerhorn lots outright, erected his "Colisseum" about 1874. It occupied the full frontage on Avenue A (now York Avenue) between 68th and 69th Streets, providing an entrance to Jones's Wood, and extended over most of the ground towards the river. It had seating for 14,000 spectators. To the north Schultheis established a second picnic ground, which he called "Washington Park." Below the bluff, right on the river's edge, a single-storey Greek Revival structure behind a colonnade, alleged by a New York Times journalist to have been a riverfront chapel erected by the Schermerhorns for Sunday services for their neighbors along the river, was rented as a bathing house by the Pastime Athletic Club in 1877; they remained there for twenty years, while Schultheis gradually raised their annual rent from $180 to $1250, then decamped for 90th Street and the East River.
"Jones's Wood, the general and inclusive term for the neighborhood, was razed by fire in 1894", Hopper Striker Mott recorded in 1917. "At break of day on May 16th the East River bluffs from 67th to 71st Street were practically swept of buildings". The fire covered 11 acres (4.5 ha). Fifty horses perished in the stables, and the "Silver King" fire engine was overtaken by flames and incinerated. The Jones house, occupied by John F. Schultheis, Jr, was burnt, but the Schemerhorn house, standing in the path of 67th Street, was spared. On the site now stand several institutions: Weill Cornell Medical Center and the Hospital for Special Surgery
.
In 1903 John D. Rockefeller
purchased the remaining block of the Schermerhorn farm, which had already been subdivided into about 110 lots, preparatory to sale, and extended from 64th Street to 67th Street, and from Avenue A to the newly plotted "Exterior Street", for $700,000. 65th Street and 66th Street had never been cut through the property and were de-mapped. The projected "Exterior Street" along the river was subsumed into the Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive
. This is the site today of Rockefeller University
.
By 1911 "The Schermerhorn country place at Jones Wood, where until recently also there was a Schermerhorn residence, is now the site of model tenements. The real estate holdings of the family rank about third in the scale of those having ownership for two centuries," exclaimed Town & Country, 26 May 1911, exaggerating by about a century.
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
overlooking the East River
East River
The East River is a tidal strait in New York City. It connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates Long Island from the island of Manhattan and the Bronx on the North American mainland...
that has left some vestigial mark on the present-day Upper East Side
Upper East Side
The Upper East Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, between Central Park and the East River. The Upper East Side lies within an area bounded by 59th Street to 96th Street, and the East River to Fifth Avenue-Central Park...
of New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. The farm of 132 acres (53.4 ha), known by its 19th-century owners as the "Louvre Farm", extended from the Old Boston Post Road (approximating the course of Third Avenue) to the river and from present-day 66th Street to 75th Street. It was purchased from the heirs of David Provoost (died 1781) by the successful innkeeper and merchant John Jones, to provide himself a country seat near New York. The Provoost house, which Jones made his seat, stood near the foot of today's 67th Street. After his death the "Farm" was divided into lots among his children. His son James retained the house and its lot. His daughter Sarah, who had married the shipowner and merchant Peter Schermerhorn, 5 April 1804, received Division 1, nearest to the city. On that southeast portion of his father-in-law's property, Peter Schermerhorn, soon after his marriage, had first inhabited the modest "villa" overlooking the river at the foot of today's 67th Street.
In 1818 Peter Schermerhorn purchased the adjoining property to the south from the heirs of John Hardenbrook's widow Ann, and adding it to his wife's share of the Jones property— from which it was separated by "Schermerhorn Lane" leading to the Hardenbrook burial vault overlooking the river at 66th Street— named his place "Belmont Farm". They at once moved into the handsomer Hardenbrook house looking onto the river at the foot of East 64th Street; there he remained, his wife having died 28 April 1845. The frame house survived into the age of photography, as late as 1911. It survived an 1894 fire that swept Jones's Wood almost clear and remained while the first building of The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, now Rockefeller University
Rockefeller University
The Rockefeller University is a private university offering postgraduate and postdoctoral education. It has a strong concentration in the biological sciences. It is also known for producing numerous Nobel laureates...
, was erected to its south. The block of riverfront property now occupied by Rockefeller University is the largest remaining piece of Jones's Wood. The house was razed after 1903.
From 1850 "Jones's Wood" entered the broader history of New York
History of New York City
The history of New York, New York begins with the first European documentation of the area by Giovanni da Verrazzano, in command of the French ship, La Dauphine, when he visited the region in 1524. It is believed he sailed in Upper New York Bay where he encountered native Lenape, returned through...
, when suggestions for setting aside a large public park, which was eventually to result in the creation of Central Park
Central Park
Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...
, lit first on the wooded Jones/Schermerhorn estate on the East River. Intermittent editorials in Horace Greeley
Horace Greeley
Horace Greeley was an American newspaper editor, a founder of the Liberal Republican Party, a reformer, a politician, and an outspoken opponent of slavery...
's New York Tribune and William Cullen Bryant
William Cullen Bryant
William Cullen Bryant was an American romantic poet, journalist, and long-time editor of the New York Evening Post.-Youth and education:...
's Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
had offered rosy images of rural Jones's Wood. State senator James Beekman, who had a share in the grand Federal Beekman house between today's 63rd and 64th Streets that abutted the modest Hardenbrook-Schermerhorn villa, lobbied the city aldermen in 1850, and a resolution was duly passed in 1851 to acquire the Jones's Wood property, which, the New York Herald
New York Herald
The New York Herald was a large distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between May 6, 1835, and 1924.-History:The first issue of the paper was published by James Gordon Bennett, Sr., on May 6, 1835. By 1845 it was the most popular and profitable daily newspaper in the UnitedStates...
said, "would form a kind of Hyde Park
Hyde Park, London
Hyde Park is one of the largest parks in central London, United Kingdom, and one of the Royal Parks of London, famous for its Speakers' Corner.The park is divided in two by the Serpentine...
for New York".
When the Joneses and Schermerhorns proved reluctant to part with the property, Beekman introduced a bill into the State Senate to authorize the city to appropriate the land by eminent domain
Eminent domain
Eminent domain , compulsory purchase , resumption/compulsory acquisition , or expropriation is an action of the state to seize a citizen's private property, expropriate property, or seize a citizen's rights in property with due monetary compensation, but without the owner's consent...
; Beekman's bill passed unanimously, 18 June 1851; it passed the assembly as well, and the governor signed it into law, 11 July. The proposal for paying for the improvements through a general assessment met stiff opposition, however, and the Jones and Schemerhorn heirs, who had thwarted the project to open Second Avenue through their estate, successfuly brought suit, and the application of eminent domain was declared unconstitutional. The clamorous arguments fought in the newspapers over a city park then shifted to proposals for a "Central Park" and the expansion of the Battery's grounds
Battery Park
Battery Park is a 25-acre public park located at the Battery, the southern tip of Manhattan Island in New York City, facing New York Harbor. The Battery is named for artillery batteries that were positioned there in the city's early years in order to protect the settlement behind them...
.
Peter Schermerhorn died on 23 June 1852, and during the next decade the Jones and Schermerhorn cousins soon discovered that though they had retained possession of their landscaped estate, the pressures of the city's inexorable northward growth soon hemmed them on two sides. Casual pilferage of fruit from their orchards and the presence of German beer garden
Beer garden
Beer garden is an open-air area where beer, other drinks and local food are served. The concept originates from and is most common in Southern Germany...
s along the Post Road at the gates of their shaded country lane, encouraged them to lease a portion of the land for a commercial picnic ground and popular resort hotel, the Jones's Wood Hotel; the hotel extended the old Provoost house, adding a dance pavilion, shooting range and facilities for other sports. Jones's Wood became the resort of working-class New Yorkers in the 1860s and 70s, who disembarked from excursion steamers and arrived by the horsecar
Horsecar
A horsecar or horse-drawn tram is an animal-powered streetcar or tram.These early forms of public transport developed out of industrial haulage routes that had long been in existence, and from the omnibus routes that first ran on public streets in the 1820s, using the newly improved iron or steel...
s and then by the Second Avenue Railroad
Second Avenue Railroad
The Second Avenue Railroad was a street railway company in Manhattan, New York City, United States. Its lines included the Second Avenue Line....
, to enjoy beer, athletics, patriotic orations and rowdy entertainments that were banned by the prim regulations of the city's new Central Park: Valentine Mager, the proprietor pointedly advertised in the New York Times 25 April 1858, that his grounds (enlarged by additional leases from Joneses and Schermerhorns), were "on the whole, the only place on the Island where a person can enjoy or make himself comfortable." Here the Caledonian Society repaired for Highland games and the daredevil Charles Blondin
Charles Blondin
Jean François Gravelet-Blondin was a French tightrope walker and acrobat.-Life:Blondin was born on 24 February 1824 at St Omer, Pas-de-Calais, France. His real name was Jean-François Gravelet, and he was known also by the names Charles Blondin or Jean-François Blondin, or more simply "The Great...
performed, who "sought out perilous localities, eligible for his performance, in various parts of the Republic ; and, among other famous spots, Jones's Wood — a sort of wild and romantic Vauxhall
Vauxhall Gardens
Vauxhall Gardens was a pleasure garden, one of the leading venues for public entertainment in London, England from the mid 17th century to the mid 19th century. Originally known as New Spring Gardens, the site was believed to have opened before the Restoration of 1660 with the first mention being...
or Cremorne
Cremorne Gardens, London
Cremorne Gardens were popular pleasure gardens by the side of the River Thames in Chelsea, London. They lay between Chelsea Harbour and the end of the King's Road and flourished between 1845 to 1877; today only a vestige survives, on the river at the southern end of Cheyne Walk.-History:Originally...
, on the banks of the Hudson," George Linnaeus Banks (Blondin: his life and performances, 1862:42) had it, slightly misplacing the riverside site. Thomas Francis Meagher
Thomas Francis Meagher
-Young Ireland:Meagher returned to Ireland in 1843, with undecided plans for a career in the Austrian army, a tradition among a number of Irish families. In 1844 he traveled to Dublin with the intention of studying for the bar. He became involved in the Repeal Association, which worked for repeal...
's address to the "Monster Irish Festival" at Jones's Wood, 29 August 1861, was memorable enough for excerpts to be printed among inspiring exemplars of oratory in Beadle's Dime Patriotic Speaker (1863:55).
The northern section of the "Louvre Farm" as the families still termed it, from 69th to 75th Streets, was divided into lots in 1855, advertised to the public as part of the "beautiful property so well known as Jones's Wood" and sold for residential development.
The year 1873 marked the last of the old Wood, as trees were being felled to allow for construction. Several proprietors succeeded to the leases of the amusement park
Amusement park
thumb|Cinderella Castle in [[Magic Kingdom]], [[Disney World]]Amusement and theme parks are terms for a group of entertainment attractions and rides and other events in a location for the enjoyment of large numbers of people...
, and John F. Schultheis, who had purchased some Schermerhorn lots outright, erected his "Colisseum" about 1874. It occupied the full frontage on Avenue A (now York Avenue) between 68th and 69th Streets, providing an entrance to Jones's Wood, and extended over most of the ground towards the river. It had seating for 14,000 spectators. To the north Schultheis established a second picnic ground, which he called "Washington Park." Below the bluff, right on the river's edge, a single-storey Greek Revival structure behind a colonnade, alleged by a New York Times journalist to have been a riverfront chapel erected by the Schermerhorns for Sunday services for their neighbors along the river, was rented as a bathing house by the Pastime Athletic Club in 1877; they remained there for twenty years, while Schultheis gradually raised their annual rent from $180 to $1250, then decamped for 90th Street and the East River.
"Jones's Wood, the general and inclusive term for the neighborhood, was razed by fire in 1894", Hopper Striker Mott recorded in 1917. "At break of day on May 16th the East River bluffs from 67th to 71st Street were practically swept of buildings". The fire covered 11 acres (4.5 ha). Fifty horses perished in the stables, and the "Silver King" fire engine was overtaken by flames and incinerated. The Jones house, occupied by John F. Schultheis, Jr, was burnt, but the Schemerhorn house, standing in the path of 67th Street, was spared. On the site now stand several institutions: Weill Cornell Medical Center and the Hospital for Special Surgery
Hospital for Special Surgery
Hospital for Special Surgery is a hospital in New York City that specializes in orthopedic surgery and the treatment of rheumatologic conditions....
.
In 1903 John D. Rockefeller
John D. Rockefeller
John Davison Rockefeller was an American oil industrialist, investor, and philanthropist. He was the founder of the Standard Oil Company, which dominated the oil industry and was the first great U.S. business trust. Rockefeller revolutionized the petroleum industry and defined the structure of...
purchased the remaining block of the Schermerhorn farm, which had already been subdivided into about 110 lots, preparatory to sale, and extended from 64th Street to 67th Street, and from Avenue A to the newly plotted "Exterior Street", for $700,000. 65th Street and 66th Street had never been cut through the property and were de-mapped. The projected "Exterior Street" along the river was subsumed into the Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive
Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive
The Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive is a freeway-standard parkway on the east side of the New York City borough of Manhattan...
. This is the site today of Rockefeller University
Rockefeller University
The Rockefeller University is a private university offering postgraduate and postdoctoral education. It has a strong concentration in the biological sciences. It is also known for producing numerous Nobel laureates...
.
By 1911 "The Schermerhorn country place at Jones Wood, where until recently also there was a Schermerhorn residence, is now the site of model tenements. The real estate holdings of the family rank about third in the scale of those having ownership for two centuries," exclaimed Town & Country, 26 May 1911, exaggerating by about a century.