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The Elgin Botanical Garden, its Later History, and Relation to 
Columbia College and the Vermont Land Controversy. 
By ADDISON Brown. 
A century ago, the Elgin Botanical Garden, opposite the 
present Cathedral at Fifth Avenue and Fiftieth Street, was 
the pride of the New Yorkers of that day. It was the first 
establishment of the kind in this State, and was regarded 
as a marvel of the skill, zeal and munificence of Dr. David 
Hosack, who had created it. Something of the romantic in- 
terest that originally attached to it has descended to our own 
times, though as a botanical garden it has long since disap- 
peared. Its history up to January, 1811, when Dr. Hosack 
conveyed it to the State, is pretty fully told by him in his 
‘Statement of Facts,” etc., concerning it, published in March, 
1811,* from which most of the subsequent notices of it are 
drawn, and there end. Nor have I been able to find any 
consecutive account of the use and management of the gar- 
den after that date, or of its decline and extinction. Such 
facts as have been learned will supplement, in some measure, 
the early narratives. 
Latterly also some errors have crept into current accounts. 
In a recent address, the site of the garden is incorrectly given.f 
A common impression also has been that Columbia College 
received the property from the State in 1814 under an obliga- 
tion to maintain it as a botanical garden; though released 
from that duty by Ch. 19 of the Laws of 1819. Lossing states 
this explicitly.t The same idea is expressed in the Columbia 
University Quarterly.§ In Torreya (oc. czt.) it is said that in 
Columbia’s hands the use of the grounds ‘*‘ was dverted from 
that of a botanical garden to highly profitable rentals.” 
+ 
* Published apparently t rorsand misrepresentations about 
its sale to the State. An earlier and much briefer Descriptive Tract, with- 
out date, containing some additional particulars, may be found in the N. V 
Historical Society, and in Med. Repository, 13: 292. 1 
+ Torreya, 6: 104, 105. 1906. 
t Hist. of N. Y. City, 146. 1884. 
@5: 279. 1903. 
