Seventeenth Century Houses 
FI at bush THE GARRETSON HOUSE From the Road 
thousand young cherry-trees 
for hoop-poles—there being 
little buying of cherries in 
that troublous year. Then 
came the redcoats, each of 
their improvised barracks be¬ 
coming the center of petty 
depredations upon the neigh¬ 
bors round about. But the 
beauty and completeness of 
the Linnaean Botanic Garden 
touched the esthetic appreci¬ 
ation of their commander, 
and he stationed a guard 
about the property to secure 
it from molestation. A few 
years later and the victorious 
General Washington, leader 
in peace as in war, was the 
guest of its owner. A big booth of ever¬ 
greens was put up outside, tables were set, 
and a great dinner was served in honor of the 
occasion. At sight of the hero the people 
shouted and swung their hats, while the 
General, “who wore a three-cornered hat, 
raised his and bowed in recognition of their 
approbation.” 
The piping times of peace restored the 
commerce in trees, and we find our nursery¬ 
man advertising for sale “ 10,000 Lombardy 
poplars from 10 to 17 feet high.” His sons 
succeeded to his property and his avocation. 
He conducted an experimental vineyard 
where, besides native varieties from every 
part of the country, he collected four hun¬ 
dred kinds of foreign grapes, all of which he 
grew and tested with painstaking detail. He 
also carried on the cocoonery that had sup¬ 
plied his father with home-made silk which 
it was his pride to have woven into gloves 
and stockings for himself at Philadelphia. 
At the beginning of the last wonderful 
century the road to the great city, which was 
so near yet so far from the grapes and Lom¬ 
bardy poplars and silk worms, ran far off to the 
east, by way of Jamaica and Bedford, round¬ 
ing the head of the Vleigh , as the original 
Dutch settlers called the marshy meadow. 
To travel twenty miles to a market only a 
third of that distance away 
was too leisurely for any busi¬ 
ness, be it even so little stren¬ 
uous as the Botanic Garden ; 
and the second owner headed 
a committee of townsmen to 
bridge the creek and build a 
causeway over the flat meadow. 
This first direct link with the 
city was the making of the 
town, but it was the first step 
toward the downfall of the 
Botanic Garden, for, starting 
close by the owner’s house, it 
proved all too easy an avenue 
for the “improvements” 
which have encircled the 
Old House with electric 
abominations. 
FI at bush THE GARRETSON HOUSE From the Garden 
28 
