Kingsbridge Heights and its connection to Christmas

Kingsbridge Heights and its connection to Christmas.

Everyone knows the Christmas song, “SILENT NIGHT”.

“Silent Night” (German: “Stille Nacht”) is a worldwide popular Christmas carol, composed in 1818 by a young Catholic priest Franz Xaver Gruber to lyrics by Joseph Mohr in Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria. It was declared an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO in 2011.

But what is it’s the connection with Kingsbridge?

In 1859 an Episcopal minister, John Freeman Young (1820-1885) a minister at Trinity church and later second Bishop of Florida translated “Silent Night” into English. The “SILENT NIGHT” song we are all familiar.

Rev. John Freeman Young

Rev. Young bought a summer mansion in Kingsbridge Heights about 1860 then known as Fordham village as it was then part of Westchester County. So how did a minster afford such a mansion? Perhaps collections were very good but it’s more likely it was his salary.  The Reverend Young was assigned to Trinity Church on lower Broadway near Wall Street.  His Salary was $1,500 a year the equivalent in present day dollars of $57,000.  Quite a salary for that time.  The Reverend Young lived in downtown Brooklyn a short ferry ride to Wall Street and Trinity Church.  Architect Joseph Collins Wells, employed in the firm of Richard Upjohn, built Rev. Young’s shingle style Fordham mansion on the site of the revolutionary war Fort No.4 outer works.  By 1867 the Reverend John Freeman Young was elected the Bishop of Jacksonville Florida where he lived from that time and is buried.

Beers Atlas 1867 showing Rev. J.F. Young mansion

His summer home overlooked the then new Jerome Park Race Track site today’s Jerome Park Reservoir. His mansion today is referred to as the Claflin Mansion and is the rectory of Our Lady of Angels church on Webb Avenue and Reservoir Ave .

One of Rev. Young’s many accomplishments was music. He wrote many songs but he is best known for his translation of a German song, “Silent Night” into English in 1859.

Claflin Mansion in 1971  its copper beach tree to the left and

Jerome Reservoir is at upper left as is De Witt Clinton H.S.

Rev. John Freeman Young’s mansion at Fordham village 1860 with floor plan

The OLA rectory and its copper beach tree

But why is it known today as the Claflin Mansion?  Horace B. Claflin was founder of H.B. Claflin Dry Goods Company.  Claflin was at a time the richest person in the United States. He too lived in Brooklyn and his flagship Dry Goods store was in lower Manhattan.  He built his own summer mansion just south of the present day OLA Rectory (aka Claflin Mansion). His summer home burned down some time around 1865-66. At this time Reverend Young was transferred to Jacksonville Fla., and H.B. Claflin bought Rev. Youngs’ summer home.  Both mansions were distinguished by their similar design and floor plan but also by a copper beech tree on its west side for the summer shade. The present day Claflin Mansion (formerly Rev. Young’s) lost its copper beach tree about a decade ago due to disease.  But the original Claflin mansion’s copper beach is still surviving. It is located today between Webb Ave and Claflin Ave at 197th Street and can be viewed from the alley behind 2804 Claflin Ave apartment house.

1868 Beers Atlas showing H.B. Claflin as owner of Rev. Young’s mansion

So, with the Christmas season upon us, all of us are sure to hear the song “Silent Night”, many, many times.

Hopefully now you know the connection between the song, our neighborhood, and the old mansion originally built and owned by Bishop John Freeman Young who is little remembered for translating “SILENT NIGHT” into the English version that we all know today.