Valentine's manual of old New York

(New York. :  Valentine's Manual, inc.,  1923.)

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VALENTINE'S MANUAL
UNION SQUARE

By George De Forest Barton

A recent letter to one of the papers about Union Square
brought to my mind many remembrances of that locality.

The houses, and the names of all the famihes men¬
tioned, most of whom were friends of my father, were
familiar to me in my younger days.

The Park, itself, was pretty, as it contained a number
of fine trees and much shrubbery, but it was gloomy on
account of the heavy and hideously ugly iron fence, more
suited for a cemetery than for a pleasure park. A high
hedge grew just inside the railing completely hiding the
view from outside, rendering the Park undesirable and it
was not much frequented by the ladies of the neighbor¬
hood.

At sundown the gates were closed and locked.

The fence was set in great blocks of stone brought
from somewhere up the Harlem Railroad and they were
unloaded in the avenue alongside the tracks and there
they lay for months until wanted by the masons. Playing
among these huge stones was great sport for the boys
from far and near.

Four sombre and mournful entrances gave access to
the Park. At the southerly entrance, facing Broadway,
on top of the tall pillars of the gateway were two large
stone cannon balls brought from Constantinople by Com¬
modore Porter of the U. S. Navy.

It was not until the Tweed days—about 1870—that
the fence and inside hedge were removed, new paths laid

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