St. Mark’s in the Bowery
When Stuyvesant retired from office, after the British occupation, he withdrew to his “Bowerie” or farm near the site of the present church, then two miles out of town. In 1660 he built a small chapel near his house for the people of the little village that sprang up about the farm, as well as for his own family and the slaves, of whom there were about forty in the vicinity. This chapel was torn down in 1793, and the Petrus Stuyvesant of that day offered to present the ground and eight hundred pounds in money to Trinity parish if it would build a church there. This offer was accepted. In May, 1799, the church was finished and the body of it has remained intact to the present time, but there was no steeple before 1828. One pew was reserved for the governor of the State, and the corresponding pew on the other side for “Mr. Stuyvesant and family forever,”[14] each pew being surmounted by a canopy.[15] The negro servants (slaves) sat in the rear of the congregation.
In a vault under the chapel the governor’s body had been placed after his death, in 1672, and in 1691 the body of the English governor (Sloughter) was also placed there.
In building the church Stuyvesant’s remains were removed and placed in a vault beneath the walls of the new edifice. The stone which may be seen fastened to the outer wall bears the following inscription: “In this vault lies buried Petrus Stuyvesant, late Captain General and Governor in Chief of Amsterdam in New Netherlands, now called New York, and the Dutch West India Islands, died A.D. 1671–2, aged 80 years.”
In July, 1804, the church was draped in mourning for the death of Hamilton, and was so kept for six weeks.
Second Avenue
Former Residence of the Late Lewis M. Rutherfurd
Lewis M. Rutherfurd was one of the most noted astronomers that this country has produced. As a young man, he began the study of the law with William H. Seward, and was admitted to the bar in 1837 and became associated with John Jay and afterwards with Hamilton Fish. But his tastes were entirely in the direction of science, and he decided to abandon the law and apply his attention to scientific research. With ample means, he had full opportunity to devote his life to the pursuit of his favorite study, astronomical photography. He spent several years of study in Europe and, on his return, he built an observatory in New York, the best equipped private astronomical observatory in the country. He made with his own hands an equatorial telescope and devised a means of adapting it for photographic use by means of a third lens placed outside of the ordinary object glass. He was the first to devise and construct micrometer apparatus for measuring impressions on the plate. It is said that he took such pains in the construction of the threads of the screws of his micrometer that he was engaged three years upon a single screw. He worked for many years at the photographic method of observation before the value and importance of his labors were recognized, but in 1865 these were fully acknowledged by the National Academy of Sciences. The remarkable results that he obtained were all secured before the discovery of the dry-plate process. His photographs of the moon surpassed all others that had been made. When overtaken by ill health he presented his instrument and photographs to Columbia College, and his telescope is now mounted in the observatory of that university.
He was an associate of the Royal Astronomical Society, president of the American Photographical Society, and was the American delegate to the International Meridian Conference at Washington in 1885, preparing the resolutions embodying the results of the labors of the conference. He received many decorations and honors from the learned societies of the world, but his dislike of ostentation was such that he was never known to wear one of the decorations, emblems, etc., that were conferred upon him.[16]
The Mansard roof has been added to the house since its occupation by the Rutherfurd family and the entrance removed from the avenue to the side street.
When the house and grounds of the late Hon. Hamilton Fish, on Stuyvesant Square, were sold a few years ago, it was said that there had been no transfer of the site except by devise or descent since the time of the old Governor. The same might be said of this property. Stuyvesant’s house, in which, it is said, the papers were signed transferring the province to the British Crown, stood close to this spot. The house is the property of Rutherfurd Stuyvesant, a son of Lewis M. Rutherfurd.
