Price, jj Cents.

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Brooklyn's Neglected
Battle Ground

FIRST BATTLE AFTER THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE — FIRST
AS A NATION — NOW ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT HISTORIC SCENES
OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. LORD STIRLING IN FOREGROUND

By CHARLES M . HIGGINS

lEx ICibrtH

SEYMOUR DURST

When you leave, please leave this book

Because it has been said
"Ever thing comes t' him who waits

Except a loaned book."

Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library
Gift of Seymour B. Durst Old York Library

Digitized by

the Internet Archive

in 2014

http://archive.org/details/brooklynsneglectOOhigg

BROOKLYN'S NEGLECTED
BATTLE GROUND

BY

CHARLES M. HIGGINS

W I T T E R A x p KIN T N E R
NEW YORK 503 FIFTH AVENTJE

COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY
WITTER & KINTNER.

FOREWORD.

OCAL history, as an investment, is not held in high

favor by publishers. Therefore, it was with consider-
able trepidation that we undertook the production of what
some may regard as "Brooklyn history, but which is, really,
national in significance and importance.

It was not until the publishers became, after investiga-
tion, imbued with some of the enthusiasm of the author
— who was inspired first by the Grube painting, and then
by the present pathetic condition of the scene depicted —
that we concluded to share with her the large task of pre-
senting the matter to the world, and this in a form which,
as to literary worth and outward attractiveness, would be
so strong that the subject could no longer be ignored.

Such being our attitude before the publication of The
Stone House at Gowanus, we were agreeably surprised
at the reception accorded the book ; and even more so by
the prompt recognition of Brooklyn's duty in the matter of
restoration — and this by some of those most able to arouse
and to lead slumbering public sentiment in the great "City
of Churches," if not of monuments.

It so happened, because of previous acquaintance, and
his connection with one of Brooklyn's proudest institutions,
as well as his editorship of its one magazine — The Insti-
tute BULLETIN — that an advance copy was sent to Pro-
fessor Franklin YY. Hooper. His far-sighted interest in
the welfare of Brooklyn was demonstrated anew by his in-
stantaneous recognition of the situation, and by his equally
prompt determination to do his share toward redeeming
her reputation. Consequently, the first account of the book
appeared, on January first, in the IU'Leetix ok the Brook-
lyn Institute oe Arts and Sciences; and the second,
in the BROOKLYN DAILY EAGLE of the following day — a
striking news article.

?

In these two publications such space was given to text
and illustrations that immediately there arose wide-spread
interest, not only in Brooklyn, but throughout the country.
The quotations from the Boston Transcript, the Phila-
delphia North American, and The Literary Digest,
elsewhere given, are among those which indicate the na-
tional importance of preserving and memorializing this bat-
tle site.

Two or three days after the announcement of the book,
we were surprised by the receipt of an order for twenty-
five copies from Air. Charles M. Higgins. one of Brooklyn's
most public-spirited citizens, whose strong and unselfish
work in the receivership and reopening of the Brooklyn
Bank, after the recent panic (1907), added to his high
standing in public regard. The book, therefore, had found
the "right man,'' as we hoped it might, though expecting
that it would, perhaps, require as many years as it had days.

Shortly after this, the city was electrified by Air. Hig-
gins' powerful appeal at the Montauk Club dinner — the
permanent preservation and wider circulation of which ad-
dress is the main purpose of this pamphlet.

Following this speech. Air. Higgins sent copies of The
Stone House at Gowanus to many of the leading men,
public officials, and to various clubs and civic organizations
of which he is a member ; among them the Montauk Club ;
the Prospect Heights Citizens' Association ; South Brooklyn
Board of Trade ; Brooklyn League ; Manufacturers' Asso-
ciation of Xew York ; Merchants' Association of Xew York ;
New York Board of Trade and Transportation.

As a result of his enterprising enthusiasm, Mr. Higgins
soon had the aid of the most progressive men and organi-
zations in Brooklyn, notably the Prospect Heights Citizens'
Association, in whose former president. Air. Judson G.
"Wall, and its present president. Air. William D. Niper, he
found especially able and enthusiastic supporters.

Altogether, the outlook has become most promising for
the accomplishment of a public work worthy of the event,
the place, the City of Brooklyn, and the nation at large.

After all. this is not solely Brooklyn's affair. It is the
affair of everv man and even* woman in the L t nited States

8

of America — those who are to-day enjoying the blessings
no men did more to secure than did those who fought and
those who died around the Stone House on the Battlefield
of Long Island. Therefore, the entire burden, neither of
blame for neglect nor expense for restoration, should rest
upon Brooklyn. Indeed, the fact that she has shown a
prompt readiness to shoulder the full responsibility indi-
cates that there is still much of the old-time spirit of hero-
ism resident around the historic Valley of Gowanus.

In plain words, the entire nation should aid in this move-
ment for a suitable memorial to the past, that it may the
better serve as an inspiration for the future. This memo-
rial will not alone stand for the present and future citizens
of Brooklyn, nor even for the millions yet to occupy the
broad acres of Long Island ; but for other millions through-
out the land.

No one thinks of Bunker Mill as belonging exclusively
to Boston ; and so, in time, every citizen from here to the
Golden Gate will feel a greater personal pride and glory
in his country because there stands on Brooklyn's Park
Slope^.a fitting symbol of America's gratitude to Lord Stirl-
ing and his brave band, fired to almost superhuman exer-
tion by the zeal for liberty which has ever distinguished
those whose innate strength of character prompted them
to seek residence on America's shores.

James Caldwell Witter.
New York, May i8, 19 10.

9

COPYRIGHT 1909) BY WITTER & KINTNER.

THE OLD WILLOW TREE.— 1909.

From " THE STONE HOUSE AT GOWANUS."

Brooklyn's Patriotic Sacrilege
and Historic Shame.

AN ADDRESS BY CHAS. M. HIGGINS, AT THE DINNER OF THE
PROSPECT HEIGHTS CITIZENS* ASSOCIATION, AT THE
MONTAUK CLUB, FER. 8, I9IO.

71 /T R- Chairman, Mr. Mayor, Guests and Fellow Members:

I ask your close attention now to a matter which it
seems to me should deeply concern all Brooklyn. And while
some may say that my subject is a matter of mere senti-
ment, yet I think we must agree that, nevertheless, mere senti-
ment sometimes involves the deepest obligations and duties of
human life. Surely the obligations of business and utility are not
the only ones that bind us as civilized men. and surely, if there is
any obligation in the line of sentiment which should be binding
on us. it would be to fittingly honor the memory of the patriots
and martyrs, who on the battlegrounds of our very neighborhood
have won for us the privileges which we now enjoy here as free
American citizens and the blessings of our present life of leisure
and of peace.

How many of us ever stop to think or realize, however, that
the ground about our very feet here is made most sacred and
historic by one of the greatest or most critical battles of the
Revolution? It has been called the Battle of Long Island, but
the Battle of Bunker Hill might just as well be called the Battle
of Massachusetts, for no part of the large military movements
and the severe engagements which took place here on the mem-
orable battle day of August 27. 177^. happened outside of the
little towns which now constitute the Borough of Brooklyn, while
the chief engagement, or the real battle itself, took place in the
very heart of old Brooklyn at the foot of our own Prospect
Heights just about a stone's throw from where we now stand,
at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Third Street, so that from
this hill at the Park we could have overlooked the whole conflict
as we now look over into trie backyards of our neighbors. This
fact should. T think, bring the memory of this great historic

11

BROOKLYN'S PATRIOTIC SACRILEGE AND HISTORIC SHAME

event very close to our hearts to-night, and make very significant
what I am going to say to you.

The title of my talk to you places practically an indictment
upon Brooklyn, and I think when you consider the extraor
dinary neglect, indifference or oversight to perform a duty to
the memory of our patriot martyrs who shed their blood on the
very grounds about our feet here, in what John Fiske says was
the first real battle of the War of the Revolution, you must
agree with me that the indictment is merited and the charge is
none too strong, as I will soon show you.

A few of us took this matter up in this Association and in
other local associations about six years ago, but we were not then
able to make much impression on the indifferent ear of Brooklyn.
But we now hope for better success, for this matter has been
most opportunely revived by the publication of a book which
I have here with me, fresh from the printer, written by a
patriotic woman, whose name may be spoken with honor
— Miss Georgia Fraser. And may the gods of Love and War
bless her and hasten the day when she and others like her can
have a bigger voice and vote in our affairs to stir up us indiffer-
ent men to a fuller realization of our duties.

The title of this book is, "The Stone House at Gowanus,
Scene of the Battle of Long Island, etc." I have presented
this copy of the book to the Montauk Club here, so that you
can look at it after the Dinner and see what it tells us about our
gross neglect to the historic and sacred places under our very
feet, and the sacrilege to the desecrated and unmonumented
graves of our heroes buried there.

On the Menu you will find a copy of the frontispiece from
this book giving a view of the Old Stone House in the fore-
ground, and the old city of Brooklyn in the background — almost
the entire scene of the chief engagement of the Battle of Long
Island, or more properly the Battle of Brooklyn, being thus
shown within the limits of this picture.

It is not necessary that I go into the full history or details
of the Battle of Brooklyn, as to all the military movements and
engagements on that day, but it is necessary, I think, to give
you a general outline of the scene and its actions, so that you
can have the main features clearly in your mind's eye.

n

BROOKLYN'S PATRIOTIC SACRILEGE AND HISTORIC SIIAMK

Now through the center of the old Brooklyn there runs a
valley which might be called the Valley of Gowanus, shown
clearly in the middleground of the picture, and which runs
nearly north and south, from Gowanus Bay at the south to Wall-
about Bay at the north. Through the middle of this valley ran
the Gowanus Creek, emptying into Gowanus Bay and now rep-
resented by the Gowanus Canal. On either side of this Gowanus
Valley arose hills or high grounds, the hills known as Brooklyn
Heights being to the west of the Valley, and the hills known as
Prospect Heights being to the east of the Valley.

Prospect Heights was, of course, much the higher and over-
looked both the Valley and Brooklyn Heights. In the Valley
on either side of the Creek were salt marshes with upland and
cultivated fields gradually sloping up to the hills on either side.
On the slopes of the Valley were several springs and little
brooks running into the Creek, and the marshes and Creek were
dammed across at several points, forming large tidal mill-ponds
which supplied power to two or more tide-mills located some-
where between what is now Third and Union Streets, and Third
and Fourth Avenues. The Creek and the ponds thus divided
the lands on both sides of the Valley and access was had from
Brooklyn Heights to Prospect Heights by bridges over or along
the mill-dams. Such was the situation and surroundings when
the Battle of Brooklyn was fought on August 27, 1776.

On the higher slopes of the Gowanus Valley, just alongside
the hills of our own Prospect Heights, among cultivated fields
and fine trees, there arose the old Stone House shown in the
picture, which was erected in 1699 by a good old Dutch archi-
tect, neat as wax, simple as a child, and strong as a fortress.
This was occupied and used as a headquarters and fort by
American soldiers, and was in particular charge on the day of
the battle, of Lord or General Stirling, with the Maryland and
other troops under him. The rest of the American Army was
disposed as follows : Part on Governor's Island and the lower
end of Manhattan, and part on Brooklyn Heights; Washington
on August 27, 1776, was stationed at the west of the Valley about
where Carroll Park is now, from which he had a clear view of the
Stone House and the whole battleground of the last conflict of
the day. General Putnam witli a good force was stationed on

13

BROOKLYN'S PATRIOTIC SACRILEGE AND HISTORIC SHAME

Fart Greene, but took no action in the battle, and General
Sullivan had a detachment on the rim of Prospect Park, or on the
edge of Flatbush, prepared to meet the advance of the enemy at
the center. Lord Stirling, early on the morning of August 27,
left a good garrison at the old Stone House and w ith the Mary-
land and other troops advanced along Fifth Avenue beyond
Greenwood or Lookout Hill to meet the English at the nearest
point at which they could strike our lines.

The English landed in great force from several ships be-
low Fort Hamilton and Gravesend and took several days to
prepare and arrange themselves on land, and then advanced
in three main lines all converging to the old Stone House. The
English General Grant advanced along Fifth Avenue and met
General Stirling early in the morning of August 27, 1776, on the
edge of the woods in Greenwood or thereabouts, and a strong
tight was soon brought on there, with Stirling holding his own.

General De Heister with the Hessian troops met General
Sullivan with the American soldiers on the edge of Prospect
Park, somewhere near Battle Pass, and soon defeated the Ameri-
cans, and took Sullivan prisoner. Cornwallis then advanced 011
the old Stone House and defeated the garrison and took pos-
session there and turned its guns on the Americans. Stirling
learning of this, left a portion of his troops to fight it out with
General Grant, and with the bulk of his brave soldiers returned
to the old Stone House, only to find it already captured by Corn-
wallis, its garrison defeated and its guns turned on himself. Stirl-
ing and his intrepid Maryland boys now charged the English
again and again, and assisted by reinforcements sent over the
mill-dam bridges from General Washington's Camp, and they
with infinite labor dragged over the marshes a heavy twelve-
pounder cannon and soon had the satisfaction of winning the
only victory of the day, drove out the English, and again captured
and used the old Stone House !

But this victory was shortlived, for the brave Americans
were soon overwhelmed by the fourth and still greater division of
the English under Generals Howe, Percy and Clinton, who had
made a w ide detour to the north, and then descended Straight into
Brooklyn, unopposed, from the Howard House at Hast Xew York
by way of the old I- niton Street or Atlantic Avenue roads. To

15

BROOKLYN'S PATRIOTIC SACRILEGE AND HISTORIC SHAME

prevent further reinforcements from Washington's Camp, the
English now set fire to and destroyed the mills and bridges over
the creeks and ponds, preventing further passage either way,
and this caused the drowning of many men who tried to retreat
or escape from the now overwhelming odds. Stirling and his
Marylanders then made their last stand around the old house, and
from 250 to 400 of them fell around this now sacred spot on that
day, to say nothing of the troops lost previously. Lord Stirling,
however, would not surrender to an Englishman, but sought out
the Hessian General, de Heister, in Prospect Woods, and there
surrendered. Both Sullivan and Stirling were now prisoners,
and were soon put aboard the Prison Ship, but were afterwards
exchanged, and released.

Such, in brief, was the so-called Battle of Long Island, which
would be much more properly called the Battle of Brooklyn,
because it happened, as we might say, here in our very midst, at
our feet, our very doors. That it was a very serious and critical
battle is obvious, and it was equally evident that the English
well knew that they had been in a fight that day and had been
given a bitter taste of true American mettle, and knew what they
would have to expect through the rest of the campaign for Lib-
erty and Independence. And they seem to have promptly de-
cided, after the fierce and splendid sacrifice of the Maryland boys,
that they had enough of fighting for that day and some time
after. And although the English were in overwhelming numbers
and force, and probably could easily have trapped and defeated
our whole army under Washington had they followed up the
great advantage already gained, yet they seem to have been so
worn out by their forced marches and the terrific combat that
the handful of Americans gave them on this first day of fighting,
that they concluded to take a good rest and refresh and fit them-
selves for the next conflict. Washington held a council of war
in a mansion on Brooklyn Heights that night, and decided to
make a full retreat in good order at once, and a heavy fog com-
ing up and continuing the next day greatly assisted his design,
which was completed by the 29th of August, so that when the
fog lifted and the English felt that they might safely risk another
fight with us — they found no enemy to meet them. He had
departed to a safe distance on the mainland, and thus by the

15

BROOKLYN'S PATRIOTIC SACRILEGE ANT) HISTORIC SHAME

splendid resistance made on the battlefield of Brooklyn the
English power was checked at its first great assertion here, and
our patriot army under Washington was saved to continue the
fight to give ns our liberty and independence as free American
citizens, which we enjoy here to-night. And the proud Corn-
wallis who won his desperately fought victory over us at the
Battle of Brooklyn, lived to suffer his crushing defeat and sur-
render to Washington five years after at Yorktown, Virginia.

Now we hear a great deal in song and story about other bat-
tles of our Revolution and other wars, and we see many great
monuments and mementos rising in and around our cities to
fittingly honor the heroes who fell in these great battles and to
keep fresh in our minds the memory of these brave men and these
great events. But who has ever heard any song or battle hymn
to celebrate our famous Battle of Brooklyn, right at our doors,
one of the most important or critical in the War of the Revolu-
tion? We have all heard the famous song, "The Stcord of
Bunker Hill,'' but who has ever heard in song "The Szi'ord of
Brooklyn Heights" ? Who has ever heard a hymn on "The Battle
of Brooklyn"? It is not yet written. Here, you poets at the
MontattK Club, you Algernon and you Mirabeau, here is a sub-
ject worthy of your pens!

Many patriotic pilgrims go from all over the country to the
distant Boston to look at its celebrated battlefield of Bunker
Mill and its famous and towering monument rising above the
city's roofs. But we have a greater shrine than Bunker Hill
here at our feet, but as yet no marker and no monument what-
ever of this, our sacred and historic shrine. Here, Mr. Chair-
man and gentlemen, comes in my indictment of Brooklyn.
Here comes in the sacrilege and historic shame of which we
are guilty. And before I go further on this charge, let us com-
pare for a moment the figures in the Battle of Bunker Hill with
our Battle of Brooklyn, according to the Encyclopedias. The
Battle of Bunker Hill was fought June 17. 1775. with 3000 Eng-
lish against 1500 Americans. The result was a defeat for the
Americans with a loss of 1054 English and 450 Americans. The
Battle of Brooklyn was fought August 27. 1776, with 15.000
English troops and 8000 American soldiers actually on the
grounds. The result was also a defeat for the Americans but

I?

BROOKLYN'S PATRIOTIC SACRILEGE AND HISTORIC SHAME

with a loss of only about 400 to the English and about 1000
to the Americans. It is therefore easy to see from the data here
given and other facts before stated that the Battle of Brooklyn
was much the more important engagement in every military
and historic sense. Surely the measure of patriot blood shed on
a battlefield is a true measure of its importance in a patriotic
sense, and we can see that measured by this test the Battle of
Brooklyn outranks Bunker Hill as two to one. We have seen how
the patriotic Bostonians have celebrated their great event in song
and story and with glorious monument. But what has Brooklyn
done to celebrate its greater battle and consecrate and monument
its greater shrine? Do we ever see or hear of any patriotic pil
grims going to the shrine of our great battlefield and monument?
Do we ever see anyone on Memorial Day bringing wreaths and
flowers to deck the sacred spot in the very midst of our old Brook-
lyn which is or should be one of the greatest shrines in the patri-
otic history of our city and our nation? Oh, the historic and the
patriotic shame of Brooklyn ! Come with me for a few minutes
to the double block a few steps from here, bounded by Third and
Fifth Streets and Fifth and Fourth Avenues, and I will show you
how we Brooklynites and Xew Yorkers treat our great historic
and patriotic shrines.

Look at that old weeping willow tree rising out of heaps
of ashes behind those cheap tenement houses at the corner of
Third Street and Fifth Avenue, with pulley-lines reaching out to
this our sacred tree. That tree marks the site of the Old Stone
House where our heroes fell in the great historic battle of
Brooklyn.

And what have we done with the sacred shrine itself — the
Old Stone House? We have torn down its upper stories,
thrown the stones into the interior, every stone sacral and
consecrated by the blood of a patriot, .sad we have covered
the whole glorious and sacred shrine with dirt ! With dirt
until every vestige of the original scene of the battlefield
is obliterated. Yes. of the whole field itself we have made
a dumping ground for years for the filth of our streets and
we also use it now and then for a circus camp where
clowns and monkeys prance over the graves of our heroes on
what is perhaps the most sacred shrine of patriotism in our

19

BROOKLYN'S PATRIOTIC SACRILEGE AND HISTORIC SHAME

whole city. This is a specimen of Brooklyn's patriotic sense,
of its historic sense, and its patriotic gratitude. Have I not,
therefore, gentlemen of this Court and Jury, now carried my
indictment home to Brooklyn, and must not your verdict be
Guilty, without leaving your seats?

If our enemies and haters had deliberately designed to dese-
crate our sacred and holy places, to execrate the glorious deeds
of our heroes, to obliterate all location and memory of them,
they could not have done worse than we ourselves have actually
done on this, our famous battleground of Brooklyn.

Mr. Mayor of our greatest city, are you going to stand for
any further continuation of this shame? Mr. President of our
greatest Borough, are you going to stand any longer for this
condition of affairs ? Mr. Kennedy, our best Park Commissioner,
can you stand for this shameful dumping ground where we should
have a sacred Park?* Men of Brooklyn, can you any longer
stand for this local disgrace?

And now, Mr. Public Service Commissioner, let me say this
to you : In a few days your Fourth Avenue Subway diggers
will be digging through and across our sacred battlefield. Let
us now ask you to instruct them to look wistfully for the relics
of our buried heroes, to handle them tenderly and preserve them
carefully till we can give them fitting honor.

I have said, I think, that we had no memorial or marker
whatever except the old willow tree on the site of the battle-
field. There is one slight exception to this, however, which in
itself is even discreditable to Brooklyn. On the wall of the tene-
ment house, corner of Third Street and Fifth Avenue, will be
found a bronze tablet giving a record of the gallant fight by
the Maryland soldiers around the old Stone House on the
battle day of August 27, 1776. But this marker would hardly
be noticed by the average passerby along the sidewalk unless his
attention was called to it, and what makes it actually disgraceful
to us is that this meager marker was not put there by the people
of Brooklyn but by the people of Maryland or by the national
society known as the Sons of the Revolution.

*It should be called "Battle Park" and include a splendid monument
with the "OLD STONE HOUSE" resurrected from beneath the sod and
restored as a Museum of Colonial and Revolutionary Relics, with a Children's
Playground at a suitable distance. — C. M. H.

20

BROOKLYN'S PATRIOTIC SACRILEGE ANT) HISTORIC SHAME

The only real marker or monument on the field is, therefore,
after all, the old weeping willow tree ; fitting indeed that it
should be a zeeeping willow, for it seems to be the only thing
that has wept over the graves of our heroes for all these years
and wept also for our neglect and disgrace in this matter. Here
surely is Brooklyn's Tree of Liberty, greater to us than tin-
Charter Oak of Hartford. Oh, Mr. Park Commissioner, won't
you tenderly take some shoots or slips from this sacred tree to
your propagating houses and raise from them hundreds of scions
which can be planted as little trees of liberty in every park and
public square of our city and which can be given to our school
children on Arbor Days to plant as a memorial of the heroes
who fought for our liberty at our own doorsteps and as a better
lesson in patriotism and devotion for our rising generation to
follow than our fathers seem to have given to us?

Mr. Chairman, my Druid ancestors have, I think, made me a
zeorsliipper of trees: Trees have souls and they ever speak to
us out of the dead past into the living present. I have visited
this old willow tree and have listened to its complaint. I have
taken down what it has said to me, and now give you this message
from it. Listen to what it says to you : "My roots grow out of
the bosoms of buried patriots. My growth has been fertilized by
the blood of your departed heroes who fell beneath my shade to
give you Liberty and Independence. Year after year I have
raised my now tcttering trunk above the graves of these buried
heroes, the only monument to their memories. Every year for
more than a century I have moaned and groaned, unheeded by
you, with every sighing wind that has blown over this battlefield,
at the indignities that your neglect has placed upon this sacred
spot and upon these glorious men buried here. T have wept, as
only I can weep, for more than a century of years, have wept
over the desecrated graves of these forgotten heroes at the
damnable sin of neglect of you and your fathers and your grand-
fathers to provide a fitting memorial of the sacrifice which these
heroes made here to give you Liberty and Independence. And
I shall continue to weep and groan until your duty is fulfilled to
them. I shall continue to be their memorial and monument until
you erect a better one. and then, and only then, shall I be con-
tent to molder and mingle with their sacred dust."

21

BROOKLYN'S PATRIOTIC SACRILEGE AND HISTORIC SHAME

Oh woodman! Spare THAT tree,

Touch not a single bough ;
For in youth it sheltered thee — you heroes,

And we'll protect it now.

And now, having' said my say, I ask you this: Men of the
old city of Brooklyn, men of the great City of New York, in
the presence of our beloved Mayor, I ask you : What arc you
going to do about this? What arc you going to do to atone
for our patriotic sacrilege and to wipe out our historic shame?

In conclusion I shall ask the Toastmaster to propose this
toast to our heroes of the Battle of Brooklyn : —

"To the memories of our heroes zvho fell in the famous Battle
of Brooklyn, and to the hope that ice soon may atone for our long
neglect by erecting a fitting memorial to them on the sacred field
of their saerifiec."

'Its fate is like that of the Hancock House in Boston, and
within a few years it will be too late to restore this monument
of Colonial and Revolutionary times."

BOSTON EVENING TRANSCRIPT.

" 'The Stone House at Gowanus' bears the same relation
to that bitter struggle that the Chew Mansion did to the Battle
of Germantown. It is even more important as a national relic."

PHILADELPHIA NORTH AMERICAN.

"The author of this excellent account of the Stone House
declares that it would be possible to uncover the spring and
the brook, and to unearth and set up the Old House practically
in its integrity.

"That something of the kind should be done is strongly
urged — this restoration becoming part of a scheme to create,
in that neighborhood, a small park as a memorial of the battle.

"It is much to be regretted that the house was demolished.
Had the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society
been then in existence, it seems unlikely that its destruction
would have been permitted."

THE LITERARY DIGEST

Site of the Battle of Long Island — History and
Present Status of the Efforts to have it
Acquired by the City of New York.

^PHE site of the chief engagement of the Battle of Long Island,

really the Battle of Brooklyn, fought August 27, 1776,
consists of two city blocks, bounded on the north by Third Street,
on the south by Fifth Street, on the east by Fifth Avenue, and
on the west by Fourth Avenue. It is almost all vacant lots ex-
cept along the Fifth Avenue front, where there are a number of
small and inexpensive buildings. The assessed valuation of the
land alone is about $260,000 and of the land and buildings about
$300,000. The Litchfield estate owns about nine-tenths of the
property and the rest of the property is owned by about five or
six owners holding small parcels all along the Fifth Avenue front.
It is believed that the property can be purchased by the City for
a fair present valuation of about $500,000 to $550,000.

One of the first efforts in recent times to bring about the
purchase of these historic grounds for patriotic and historic rea-
sons as a monumental reservation to commemorate the great
Battle of Long Island and to also serve the purpose of a Public
Park and Playground, was inaugurated in October, 1904, by
the South Brooklyn Board of Trade and the Prospect Heights
Citizens' Association. These two bodies are local civic associa-
tions of Brooklyn nearest to the site of this historic battleground,
and have a large membership and considerable influence and
activity in local civic affairs. Judge Gaynor has been Vice-
President of the latter Association since its organization and
until his inauguration as Mayor.

Following the agitation started by the two civic associations
named for the purchase of these historic grounds, the Local
Aldermanic Board of the Prospect Heights District on Novem-
ber 30, 1904, adopted resolutions in formal legal manner, as
required by the City Charter, recommending the purchase of
these grounds by the City for park purposes. This recommenda-

24

BROOKLYN'S PATRIOTIC SACRILEGE AND HISTORIC SHAM!

tion of the Local Board of the Aldermatiic District, however,
was later on rejected by the Special Committee of the Board of
Estimate, as shown by the following official record and report
which herewith follows :

Meeting of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment,

June 14. 1907.
Laying Ont Park Bounded by Fourth and Fifth Avenues,
Third and Fifth Streets, Brooklyn.

The Comptroller asked unanimous consent for the present
consideration of a report from the committee to which this matter
was referred on April 19, 1907.

No objection being made, the following report was presented :

June 3, 1907.
To the Board of Estimate and Apportionment:

Gentlemen — At a meeting of the Board held on the 19th day
of April, 1907, there was referred to a committee consisting of
the Comptroller, the President of the Board of Aldermen and
the President of the Borough of Brooklyn, the matter of laying
out of a public park bounded by Fourth and Fifth Avenues,
Third and Fifth Streets, in the Borough of Brooklyn. Attached
to the papers was a copy of a report of the Chief Engineer of
the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, Air. Nelson P. Lewi-,
in which it was shown that the assessed valuation of the property
is $233,500.

The City already has under condemnation proceedings a large
tract of land on Fourth Avenue, between First and Second
Streets, upon which there are taxes due the City amounting to
almost as much as the property is worth, and also across the
street on the north side of First Street, there is an additional
tract of land under similar conditions in regard to the amount
due the City for taxes, which is being acquired for playground
purposes.

The proposed park is within four blocks of Prospect Park,
which is located at Ninth Avenue and which has an entrance on
Third Street.

The present financial condition of the City is such that your
Committee cannot recommend the laying out on the map of this
public park bounded by Fourth and Fifth Avenue-. Third and

25

BROOKLYN'S PATRIOTIC SACRILEGE AND HISTORIC SHAME

Fifth Streets. We, therefore, recommend that the resolution
adopted by the Local Board of the Prospect Heights District,
Borough of Brooklyn, on November 30, 1904, recommending to
the Board of Estimate and Apportionment a change in the map
of the City by laying out as a public park the two blocks bounded
by Fourth and Fifth Avenues, Third and Fifth Streets, be
rejected.

Respectfully submitted.

H. A. Metz, Comptroller.

P. F. McGowax, Pres. B. of A.

Bird S. Coler, Pres. B. of B.

The following resolution was then adopted :

Resolved, That the Board of Estimate and Apportionment of
the City of Xew York hereby rejects the resolution adopted by
the Local Board of the Prospect Heights District, Borough of
Brooklyn, on November 30, 1904, recommending the laying out
of a public park, bounded by Fourth and Fifth Avenues, Third
and Fifth Streets, Brooklyn.

Affirmative : The Mayor, the Comptroller, the President of
the Board of Aldermen and the Presidents of the Boroughs of
Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens and Richmond. — 16.

In these former official proceedings little or no stress, how-
ever, seems to have been laid on the fact of the great historic
and patriotic reasons for acquiring these grounds as being the
site of one of the most important or critical battles of the War
of the Revolution, which feature appears to have been largely-
lost sight of in the proceedings before the City officials and
stress laid chiefly on the desirability of acquiring these grounds
for mere park purposes only.

When we consider, however, that we have here a most sacred
piece of ground right in the heart of the present Borough of
Brooklyn, soon to be the greatest borough in our whole city,
on which the first battle of the American people as a Nation
was fought — the first battle after the Declaration of Indepen-
dence, we have a much greater reason for acquiring this site
than for any mere park purpose alone. That this Battle of

26

BROOKLYN'S PATRIOTIC SACRILEGE AND HISTORIC SHAME

Brooklyn was a far more important and portentous event than
either Concord, Lexington or Bunker Hill — great and significant
and sacred to all Americans as they were — will be obvious on a
little consideration, for here the entire Army of Washington was
saved from capture by an English force three times its number,
and here the life of our young nation was saved literally at its
very cradling! Surely this is distinction enough to confer on any
spot the greatest historic and patriotic importance: And if this
distinction does not make this spot to the people of Brooklyn and
Xew York a shrine most valuable and sacred in every historic
and patriotic sense, we would like someone to point out any
other spot in the whole city or State, or even in the nation
itself, of greater distinction or importance as a patriotic or his-
toric shrine : And it of course follows that the greatest historic
and patriotic duty rests on the city to acquire this site as a
monumental reservation to fittingly honor the memory of the
heroes and patriots who fell there to save this nation at its very
birth and give us the blessings of liberty and independence which
we would certainly have lost if these heroes had not made their
great and almost forgotten sacrifice for us on that never-to-be-
forgotten battle day of August 27, 1776. right in the heart of
our old Brooklyn. Brooklyn and Xew York can therefore no
longer neglect the duty which we owe to the memory of these
heroes, and to the great patriotic and historic event here enacted,
and to do so would surely make us out as being barbarians to
every instinct of patriotic gratitude and historic appreciation and
fittingly disgrace us in the eyes of every city, state and nation
or the face of the earth.

It is time, therefore, that the citizens of Brooklyn and Xew
York make amends for their extrordinary oversight and neglect
of a binding historic and patriotic duty by now taking step- [< >r
the immediate purchase of these historic grounds as a monu-
mental reservation and public park, and in due time fittingly
restoring old landmarks thereon and erecting a grand and suit-
able battle monument by City, State and National action.

W hile this site has, of course, the greatest local historic and
patriotic significance, yet its significance is far. too great to be
merely local, as it has in fact National significance and interest in
the fullest sense, for, as we have already said, here the first battle

27

BROOKLYN'S PATRIOTIC SACRILEGE AND HISTORIC SHAME

of the American Nation was fought, and here the Nation itself
was saved at its birth.

The Brooklyn League, South Brooklyn Board of Trade, and
Prospect Heights Citizens' Association have passed resolutions
for the purchase of these historic grounds.

The following are the resolutions passed by the

PROSPECT HEIGHTS CITIZENS' ASSOCIATION.

Resolutions for acquiring the ground site of the Battle of
Long Island by the City of New York for a Monumental Reser-
vation and Public Park.

Passed unanimously by the Board of Trustees of the Prospect
Heights Citizens' Association, at a regular meeting of the Board,
April 6, 191 o.

Whereas, Brooklyn has within our own immediate neighbor-
hood of the Prospect Heights District one of the greatest patriotic
and historic sites in the whole City of New York. This locality
is the site of what is known as "The Old Stone House at
Gowanus" at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Third Street.
Brooklyn, and including the double block bounded by Third
and Fifth Streets and Fourth and Fifth Avenues, now chiefly
vacant lots. On this ground and surrounding the old Stone-
House, which is now buried about sixteen feet below the grade
of the present streets, was fought the Battle of Long Island on
August 27, 1776, which was one of the most critical in the War
of the Revolution, more important in a military, historic and
patriotic sense than the Battle of Bunker Hill, because it held in
check the great army of the British, outnumbering ours three
to one, and enabled Washington to make a full and orderly
retreat, and thus saved not only the American Army but we
might say our nation itself at its very birth, as this battle was
the first conflict after the Declaration of Independence; and,

Whereas, The Prospect Heights Citizens' Association notes
and regrets the extraordinary oversight and neglect of the people
of Brooklyn in particular, and of New York in general, both in
the present and past generations, to reserve or monument in
any proper way the site of this great Battle of Brooklyn, which
was of such great local interest and of such real national im-

28

BROOKLYN'S PATRIOTIC SACRILECiK AND HISTORIC SHAME

portance in both a historic and patriotic sense; and it i> therefore
now

Resolved, That as an urgent patriotic and historic duty incum-
bent on the entire city, we recommend the purchase by the City
of the site of what is known as the Old Stone House of Gowanus,
including the two city blocks before described, which was the
site of the chief engagement of the historic Battle of Brooklyn
and the point towards which all the English lines converged on
that day of battle, and which is now located within the heart of
our Borough of Brooklyn. And it is further

Resolved, That the ground referred to be used in part for a
monumental reservation and in part as a public park or play-
ground and that it be called "Battlefield Park." That the Old
Stone House be restored and that steps be taken, in due time,
for the erection on this ground of a grand Battle Monument by
combined City, State and National action. And be it further

Resolved, That we suggest to each of the owners of these
lands that they owe a patriotic and historic duty to themselves
and every other citizen to arrive at a fair, just and true valuation
of these grounds, which will be mutually satisfactory to the city
and to themselves and lead to the early purchase by the city,
without unnecessary cost, expense or delay ; and that such agree-
ment, free from any merely sordid considerations, on the part
of these owners, with the city, would be a most honorable and
public-spirited act, worthy of the great historic and patriotic duty
which all citizens of this great city owe to the memory of the
thousand or more heroes of the Revolution who fell on these
sacred battlegrounds to give us the blessings which we now
enjoy of Liberty and Independence as free American citizens.

Resolved, That copies of these resolutions be sent to each
of the owners of these historic grounds, to the Mayor of the City,
to the Borough President, to each member of the Board of
Estimate, to the Board of Aldermen, and to the public press.

The above Resolutions have been referred to the Board of
Trustees, with full power, and they will co-operate with the
Committee of The South Brooklyn Board of Trade to bring
about the purchase by the City of these historic grounds at an
early day if possible.

20

BROOKLYN'S PATRIOTIC SACRILEGE AND HISTORIC SHAME

THE SOUTH BROOKLYN BOARD OF TRADE.

The South Brooklyn Board of Trade passed similar resolutions
and placed the matter in the hands of the following Committee :

Charles M. Higgins, Chairman;

Hon. William M. Calder, Member of Congress ;

Charles H. Ebbetts, President Brooklyn Baseball Club ;

John E. Gavin, Ex-President South Brooklyn Board of Trade ;

F. C. Sauter, Real Estate ;

Hon. Michael Furst;

Hon. Michael E. Butler.

F. W. H. Nelson, President, ex-officio.

T5he STONE
HOUSE AT
GOWANUS

GEORGIA
FRAS E R

A NEW LIGHT upon the Battle of Long Island
— a brilliant account of the first real battle of the
Revolutionary War ; describing, as never before, the
scene of one of the most heroic actions in the history
of America's struggle for freedom, & ^ js>

"The Author has gathered all of the accessible data, including several rare
pictures and manuscripts not heretofore presented to public view.''—

The North American, Philadelphia.

"It must be of special appeal to young and old Brooklynites.
The chapters on the Battle of Long Island and the Stone House as a fort
are among the most interesting in the book." — Brooklyn Daily Ragle.

THE STONE HOUSE AT GOWANUS, by Georgia
Fraser. Gold Stamp and Top. Richly illustrated;

14 full-page sepia tint half-tones on India-tint paper. Text on
fine antique, deckle edge paper. Price, S2.50 Postpaid.

HOTOGRAPHS of the Grube Painting of the Stone House — the
picture which inspired the author to write the above-described book.

A LIMITED number of the first reproductions ever made
of the most famous painting in America of an actual
historic scene, will be furnished on special order.

Sepia Carbons in Three Sizes
$5.00; .$10.00; $25.00. j*
Write for Full Description.

WITTER AND KINTNER

503 FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK CITY

^ERf
clevis