New York Tribune

THE APTHORPE MANSION.

A NOBLE ESTATE OF REVOLUTIONARY TIMES BECOME A PICNIC GROUND.

One of the most interesting relics of the Revolutionary War is the Apthorpe Mansion, now part of the hotel buildings of Wandel's Elm Park, a picnic ground in high favor with German private schools, comprising two entire blocks running from Ninetieth to Ninety-second-st. and from Ninth to Tenth-ave. This park is all that remains of the great Apthorpe demesne which in 1776, when it was occupied by General Howe, the British Commander-in-Chief, was fully 210 acres, and stretched on its west side as far as the Hudson River. Apthorpe was one of the merchant princes of the day, probably not wealthier than Mr. Walton, of Franklin-square, whose famous residence still faces the great Harper establishment, but of more political importance and of higher standing with the British officials who had come to beat the American rebels into submission. He was an Englishman who came to New-York with considerable capital and engaged in commerce very successfully. Finding his means increasing rapidly, he determined to create a landed estate which should be handed down to his posterity and keep the name of Apthorpe green in the minds of men to the remotest generations. With these views he purchased various parcels of land in 1762 and 1763 from different persons. From Dennis Hicks he bought for seventeen hundred pounds of colonial money the estate at "Bloomingdale," which the former had purchased in 1746 from Anna Van Huysen, widow of Eyde Van Huysen, who had received it partly as a gift, partly in purchase from his father, Jeunis Eydesa Van Huysen in 1720. Further back than the Hollander with these extraordinary names the record does not go. Jeunis Eydesa it is believed may have been Hollandish in the beginning of the eighteenth century for Junius Odysseus. J. D. held his land apparently by allodial title, the true meaning of which is "than which the memory of man goeth no further," from the Gaelic word allod, which signifies "olden time." This estate was only 115 acres in extent, and Mr. Apthorpe purchased the other parcels from Oliver De Lancey, part of an inheritance from Stephen De Lancey the elder, and from Sara Van Evera, widow of Myndert Van Evera, and various sons and daughters, cartmen and wives of cartmen, of the city of New-York aforesaid. It is painful to be compelled to record that not one of the husbands of the Van Evera daughters could write, all the signatures being qualified as his or her mark. Apthorpe's land reached from Hudson's River to the Post Road, or Fifth-ave., and from Humphrey Jones's on the north to the common land belonging to the Corporation of the City of New-York on the south. Here he built himself a big house which faced the much longer avenue of trees reaching to the Post Road or Fifth-ave. or from the much shorter avenue reaching to the Bloomingdale Road or Harlem Lane. He planted horse chestnuts and acacias for the most part, with some maples and elms, and the trees on the shorter avenue are still standing and with some exceptions have done well and are in fine condition.

His house was built upon a rising knoll, and was for the time a very pretentious and costly country house. It is in the rococo style of the Renaissance, classic to the last degree, but with the pediment caps of the doorcases and windows often broken the centre admits decorative object. It is three stories in height at the north and south ends and two stories with dormers on the east and west. The pediments of the former are grandiose and are supported by composite pilasters. On the eastern and western facades the centre is recessed some eight feet, which admits a small central pediment between the two dormer attics. The house is built of wood, of thick planking cut to imitate stone work, and all the more important parts of the structure came from England. Inside the arrangement shows that Mr. Apthorpe was guided greatly by English country houses. The doors are on the east and west, and admit the visitor to a large square hall brilliantly lighted by the doors, which have windows on each side and at the top, and are themselves fitted with window panes in their upper half. The floor planks were painted to imitate squares of black and white marble. There are four doors, each of them highly rococo, three of which admit to rooms, and the fourth opens upon the staircase leading to the upper rooms. The rooms are large and handsome, fitted with handsomely carved wooden cornices and mantelpieces, and with low wainscoting. One of them, the dining-room, is panelled with mahogany and has a mantelpiece of the same material of an ornate and striking character. Much has been done by repeated varnishing to conceal the nature of the wood, but it is clearly mahogany. This room is now used as a hat and coat room for picnickers.

A special interest attaches to the Apthorpe House because General Sir William Howe made it his headquarters after eating the memorable lunch in the Murray mansion at Thirty-ninth-st. and Fifth-ave. While he was thus engaged Putnam just contrived to make his escape by marching at speed up the Bloomingdale Road. It was Howe's headquarters during the battle of Harlem Heights, which was gained by the patriots, and so remained until Fort Washington had been taken, and Washington with his army had abandoned the island of Manhattan. Charles Ward Apthorpe was a bitter Tory, and no doubt invited Sir William to his mansion and demesne, as he termed it. Walton was a trimmer who wished well to both parties, and did not really care which was victorious. But Apthorpe was a strong British partisan and his property would have been confiscated but that one of his daughters was married to Hugh Williamson, who subsequently bought out the interest of the other heirs at a forced sale by Sheriff Morris in the year 1799, made at the instance of the Marine Society to obtain payment of a mortgage loan of $1,500. Mr. Williamson paid for the property $52,500. At present the house and the hotel buildings and the lots on which they stand are the property of Adolf Bernheimer, a leading wholesale merchant in cotton stuffs. The property was divided into lots and sold at auction in 1853, and the brothers of Adolf Bernheimer, Isaac, Samuel and Herman, purchased the greater part of them. The remaining purchasers were satisfied that the property should be utilized as a picnic ground, so that the once famous mansion still stands in its own demesne surrounded by the trees that Apthorpe planted. The horse chestnuts have grown well though somewhat straggling, and still wave their blossom-laden branches.