This is the Smuggler's Tomb which lay on the rocky East River shoreline between East 71st and East 72th Street, at the end of the 18th century. The Tomb was located on the Louvre Farm which was between 64th and 74th Streets and the East River, according to the notes on the original illustration.David Provoost, the Smuggler, was the cousin of Samuel Provoost (1742-1815), the first Bishop of New York and president of King's College (later Columbia University). David, a Revolutionary War soldier, was outraged by the duties he was having to pay after the war. He thus turned to smuggling and was known thereafter as "Ready Money" Provoost. David hid his spoils in this outbuilding and also in a cave at Hallett's Point in Astoria, Queens. David made "a fortune" from smuggling. His widow married Scottish-born lawyer James Alexander, and their son William** claimed to be the sixth Earl of Stirling.
Jones' Wood, owned by the Prevoost family, ran from 66th to 74th Streets and was comprised of 90 acres of land.It was sold to John Jones in 1805, and Jones' Wood became a popular picnicking area later in the 19th century. It was the original location proposed for Central Park. The Bowery Boys have an excellent post about Jones' Wood which I highly recommend. It was said that David's ghost haunted the woods, and people liked to gather and tell ghost stories about him (though no one wanted to camp out all night, ever).
The site of the Tomb is where the Hospital for Special Surgery now stands, at 71st Street and East End Avenue.
Picture from NYPL Digital Gallery.
The Life of Bishop Provoost of New York (1855) by John Nicholas Norton is here at Google Books (it does not mention David the family smuggler, though).
*Excursion Planned for the City History Club of New York by Frank Bergen Kelley (1905, p. lxi) - link here.
**See here for Dictionary of National Biography article on William Alexander. It says that he was born in 1726, which does not make sense if his father David was a Revolutionary War soldier born about, say 1750 (see above that David's cousin Samuel was born 1742).
Also see A Loiterer in New York by Helen W. Henderson (1917, p. 337) for more on David Provoost.
5 comments:
Oooh, what a cool bit of history. I enjoyed reading that! More! :)
Fantastic post, Lidian, love the nitty gritty bits like this :)
Richard - Thank you! There will certainly be more, too :)
Jayne - Thanks, it was fun to write. It was only when I learned that the area was called Jones' Wood that a bell rang in my head and I recalled the Bowery Boys post, which was so great, was about the very same place.
How interesting! Amazing how small events from the past can "shape" a cities future. I did not know Central Park was considered in a different location.
SOMEDAY .... I need to visit. Rarely do I get outside the states surrounding Minnesota.
Hello from SpeedyCat !!
Speedycat - My mom and aunts all went to college in Minnesota and remember it very fondly. My mom told me once that it was so cold in the winter that her shampoo bottle froze overnight on the dresser in her dorm room.
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