420 The Story of The Bronx 



The ancient road to Boston passed about two hundred feet 

 in front of the house, and the author has seen a solid shot dug 

 up from the old road, upon which are plainly to be seen the 

 marks of the hammer with which it was beaten into a spherical 

 form. The house may have been used as an inn in the olden 

 times, and there is a tradition that Washington stopped here. 

 Perhaps he did while inspecting his outposts in the fall of 1776, 

 perhaps in going to or returning from Pell's Point, where he 

 directed the establishment of the outpost, which, on the 

 eighteenth of October, when in command of Colonel Glover, 

 was to prevent his left flank from being turned, and which 

 gave him the chance to safely withdraw his army to White 

 Plains. The old house encroaches on the road, and the Bureau 

 of Highways directed its removal several years ago; but the 

 street is not yet needed for building purposes, and so the 

 house has been allowed to stand. 



