FIFTH    AVENUE
 

15
 

From a photograph.                                                                                 Collection of Frank Cousins.

RESIDENCE OF CHARLES de RHAM, 24 FIFTH AVENUE.

Formerly the home of Henry Brevoort, Jr.    One of the most typical early Fifth Avenue homes.

John Bigelow taught botany and charmed the young ladies of Washing¬
ton Square because he was "so handsome."

On the northeast corner of 8th Street, where it has stood for many Brevoort
years, is the Brevoort House.    The family from which the hotel takes Family
its name is descended from Hendrick Van Brevoort, who had served /^o^ whom
Haarlem as constable and overseer, and later "emigrated" to  New \J,_.f
York,  where  he was  an  alderman from  1702  to  1713.    His  farm
adjoined the Randall farm and ran northeasterly to about 14th Street
and Fourth Avenue.    Later, one of his descendants, Henry Brevoort,
whose farmhouse was on the west side of Fourth Avenue, stood in
his doorway with a blunderbuss,  so tradition says, and defied the
Commissioners to lay  11th Street through his homestead.    It is a
fact that, although in maps of 1807 11th Street runs through Bre¬
voort's homestead, and in 1836 and 1849 the city aldermen passed
ordinances cutting the street through, such respect was paid to the
 

takes its
Name