ARISTOCRATIC DAYS ALONG THE EAST RIVER
 

A   FASHIOKABI.E   REGION    WHERE   OLD   NEW   YORK   MERCHANTS    HAD

THEIR    COUNTRY     HOMES----GRACIE     MANSION,     JONEs's     WOODS,

SCHERMERHORN,  RIKER,  RIIIXEI.ANDER  AND  ASTOR   HOMES
 

By Joseph 0. Curtis

In 1854 my grandfather purchased for $20,000 from
William Niblo, of Garden fame, his house and grounds that
stood on the north side of Eighty-sixth Street just west
of Hell Gate ferry, and from this date until 1866 my
boyhood days were mostly ]3assed there.

This house, a large square one painted white and three
stories in height, with a cupola, stood in the middle of
the block bounded by Eighty-third and Eight)?-fourth
Streets and Avenues A and B, although at the time I
write of Avenue B was not opened except from Eighty-
fourth to Eighty-sixth Street, and Eighty-third Street ran
only to Avenue A. The grounds embraced all of this
block except the Avenue A front, which was owned by
a Mr. Dowling, who had a house on the northeast corner
of Eighty-third Street. In 1867 this property passed into
the hands of Thomas Rutter, who lived in a brick house
that then stood on the northwest corner of I'>ight}--third
Street and Avenue A. His mother lived in a similar
house on the upper corner and these were the only houses
on the block front. His brother, ^^'illiam Rutter, lived
in a low, rambling frame house on the north side of
Eighty-fourth Street, about middle of the block between
Avenues A and B. On the northeast corner of Eighty-
fourth Street and .\\'cnue .A stood a white two story frame
[ 13.3 ]