James Nevius > Quotes

“Removed from the hubbub of Broadway and the Bowery, La Grange Terrace appealed to the city’s wealthiest citizens. The houses were gigantic by any standard—most had twenty-six rooms. Even though New York would not get running water until 1842, La Grange Terrace somehow had indoor plumbing, as well as central heat. John Jacob Astor purchased No. 37; Warren Delano, grandfather”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“The Poes lived nine places in the city, seven of them in just a two-year period, a striking contrast to Gertrude Tredwell, who lived all of her ninety-three years in the same spot. The Poes moved as their finances and Virginia’s health required. She had contracted tuberculosis in 1842 in Philadelphia, coughing up blood one day as she played the piano. Poe spent much of the rest of her short life tending to her.”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“In the film and the novel, both set in the 1840s, the Slopers’ house is located at 16 Washington Square;”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“At one point, after daughters Mary Adelaide and Elizabeth had married—but had not moved out—eighteen people lived in the house, including four servants and three small children.”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“Once down, the statue was dispatched by boat to Connecticut. The symbolic act of tearing down the statue had turned practical—underneath all that gilding, the statue was made of lead; the statue was melted down and molded into 42,088 bullets “to assimilate with the brains of our infatuated adversaries.”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“On taking office, Mayor Hone faced the first major challenge to the 1811 Commissioners’ Plan: a proposal to do away with the military parade ground at Madison Square that”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“The crowd lurched down Broadway with a single mind. In just minutes, they reached Bowling Green and its gilded statue of George III. It only took a few strong men with stout ropes to topple the king. As British citizens, that would have been treason. But they were British no more.”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“In a stroke of genius, the mayor found a solution. He asked the Common Council to annex the Greenwich Village potter’s field as a new military parade ground, which he would also use as the site for his party. The graveyard, which had closed the year before, had outlived its usefulness. And this wasn’t just a short-term fix. Hone was playing a long game, and this new “Washington Parade-Ground” was just the opening gambit.”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“Two years earlier, as director of the Dutch holdings in the Caribbean, Stuyvesant had been ordered to capture the island of St. Maarten from the Spanish. On the first day of fighting, a Spanish cannonball crushed Stuyvesant’s right leg. He returned to the island of Curacao, had the lower extremity removed, and sailed back to the Netherlands to be fitted for a proper wooden leg. Having survived the injury, the amputation, and the long voyage to Europe, Stuyvesant had proved his mettle; the Dutch West India Company rewarded him with the post in New Amsterdam”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“Even if, as many historians agree, the natives weren’t selling the land outright to the Dutch, they were clearly ceding the use of Manhattan to outsiders. They would have wanted significant payment for this.”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“late 1857, Frederick Law Olmsted, short on cash and desperate for a job, had campaigned to be appointed park superintendent, a position that reported to Viele. Calvert Vaux, remembering Olmsted’s Walks and Talks of an American Farmer and his keen interest in the principles of park design, approached him to form a partnership. Vaux, the trained architect, brought to the table his drafting skills, his knowledge of construction, and a sense of how to sell a project.”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“Bryant died in 1878, ironically because he’d become the park’s go-to guy for dedications and ribbon cuttings. Bryant always showed up, speech in hand. At the unveiling of a bust of Italian patriot Giuseppe Mazzini on the park’s west side near the sheepfold, the sun was blazing hot; as Bryant sat on the dais, he began to feel weak. He gave his prepared remarks, then walked across the park to rest at his friend James Grant Wilson’s house. As he mounted the front stoop of Wilson’s home, he collapsed, fell backward, and struck his head. Bryant lingered a few days before dying from his injuries.”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“The commissioners received thirty-three proposals; Vaux and Olmsted’s—entry no. 33—arrived on March 31, 1858, one day before the deadline. That deadline had already been pushed back a month, ostensibly to accommodate new specifications that had been added to the contest, but perhaps because Vaux and Olmsted weren’t ready. There’s no evidence the contest was rigged, but the second-, third-, and fourth-place winners also already”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“Instead, civic groups raised money to honor their heroes. The German-Americans placed Beethoven and Schiller on the Mall; the Italian-”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“Hutchinson’s chief antagonist, John Winthrop, called her an “American Jezebel”—a false prophet. When Winthrop replaced Henry Vane as governor in 1637, Hutchinson was put on trial for her heretical beliefs, convicted, and banished from the colony. The Hutchinson family and about sixty followers trooped down to Rhode Island—really, where else could they go?—and established the town of Portsmouth.”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“whiskey, apples, sugar, spices, and bitters. In Stuyvesant’s time, the sugar would have come from Dutch possessions in the Caribbean; the nutmeg and other spices from the Dutch East India Company’s vast holdings in Indonesia. The apples might have come from Stuyvesant’s own farm up the Bowery road. It is the entire Dutch trading empire in one cup.”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“Hamilton’s influence was incalculable. He established the foundations of the federal banking system, which in turn gave rise to the New York Stock Exchange. He founded New York’s only bank, the Bank of New York, and laid the groundwork for the United States Mint and the customs department.”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“That brewery, owned by Oloff Stevenson van Cortlandt, stood near the spot Murphy’s Tavern occupies today. Beer was central to life in New Amsterdam; when Peter Stuyvesant arrived in 1647 to take over the colony, he found “one full fourth of the City of New Amsterdam has been turned into taverns.” Men, women, and children drank beer every day, often at every meal. Even today, in places of poor sanitation, beer can be healthier than water.”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“Once the statue of George III was down, the patriots chopped off the king’s gilded head. Then, for good measure, they chopped off his nose to spite his face. It wasn’t until I started thinking about poor King George that the gravity of this insult hit home.”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“On July 2, 1776, while Washington and his troops waited, the Continental Congress met in Philadelphia to vote on the Declaration of Independence. Twelve colonies voted in favor; New York’s delegation—uncertain of just how much responsibility they’d been given—abstained.”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“that Central Park is the greatest piece of landscape design in America—perhaps in the world.”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“After the retreat, Washington took up headquarters at the Morris-Jumel Mansion in Harlem. This 1765 mansion, built by Roger Morris, is Manhattan’s oldest house. Did Burr visit Washington here? It would be interesting to”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“The British landed troops in Brooklyn on August 22, and the subsequent Battle of Brooklyn was a major defeat for the Americans. Washington pulled off a daring escape across the East River to Manhattan on the night of August 29, but only managed to hold New York for another two weeks before retreating up to Harlem. Hamilton’s company at Bayard’s Mount barely made it out. It was only because Aaron Burr knew a way through enemy lines did they make it to safety.”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“Poe’s literary importance is so vast that it’s hard to believe that he accomplished so much in such an abbreviated lifetime. With “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” he invented detective fiction and became master of the form. He remains the undisputed king of gothic horror. His poetry appealed to the masses and critics alike. His own criticism, while often stinging, peeled back the veneer on the old boy’s club that was American letters.”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“The New York copy showed up sometime on the day of July 9, giving the New York delegation the opportunity to read it before becoming the thirteenth and final colony to ratify it. That evening, members of the Continental Army and Sons of Liberty gathered at the Commons to hear the Declaration read aloud.”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“Not a single architectural artifact remains in Manhattan from the Dutch period. What”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“At Grove and Hudson, Clement Clarke Moore erected the area’s first Episcopal Church, St. Luke in the Fields in 1821. It still stands, a rare example of a plain, Federal-style brick country”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“The Antinomians (literally “against the law”) believed that salvation came through grace alone, not through good works.”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“In the late eighteenth century, most of the land north of what would become Washington Square was owned by Stephen DeLancey’s son-in-law, Peter Warren (who, though later an admiral, was a pirate), and Captain Thomas Randall (also a pirate).”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“Few traces of New York as America’s capital remain. If Hamilton were roaming the streets of Lower Manhattan today, he’d find just three buildings he recognized: St. Paul’s Chapel, and two homes—the Edward Mooney house (ca. 1785) on the Bowery, and the James Watson house (ca. 1792) on State Street.”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers