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Dear Alan, Charles Buck only took photo’s of prominent buildings and mansions. I am sure the 1909 image on the postcard is it. The wedding was in 1914 and there was not that many houses with that footprint. McKelvey died in 1947 and I am sure his estate sold the last house “Bonnie Brae” before that. The other projects, Rosa Bonheur, 1924,Villa Brontë, 1926, Villa Victoria in 1926 In 1933, Mr. McKelvey lost Villa Victoria in foreclosure, and the Rosa Bonheur co-op failed in 1941. John McKelvey said that his father “made a lot of money, and he lost a lot of money — almost everything in the building of the Villa Victoria — but he was able to regroup, and he always took it day by day.” From 1933-1941 it was probably developed. The Houses that are near “Bonnie Brae” are substantial but built in the 1940 – 1970’s
John Jay (J.J.) McKelvey was born Sunday, 24 May 1863, in Sandusky, Ohio, to the parents of John McKelvey and Jane Rowland Huntington McKelvey. J.J.’s paternal grandparents were Matthew McKelvey and Nancy Adams McKelvey, and his paternal great-grandparents were William McKelvey and Mary Toppings McKelvey along with Bildad Adams and Mary Hines Adams. William McKelvey of Scotch-Irish American, Revolutionary War regality removed with an assembly after the war to the Western Reserve; where John McKelvey fashioned and financed Sandusky and a section of its first short line railroad, which eventually enveloped by the Pennsylvania Railroad. Whereas, J.J.’s maternal grandparents were Apollos Huntington and Deborah Rowland Huntington with his maternal great-grandparents being American Revolutionary War soldier Elisha Huntington and Esther Ladd Huntington and great-grandparents of the William Rowland lineage. J.J.’s five siblings included: Janet Huntington McKelvey Swift, Alice Rowland McKelvey Milne, Jennie Adams McKelvey, Charles Sumner McKelvey, and Ralph Huntington McKelvey. J.J.’s sister Alice and father John helped document their family’s English and Welsh pedigree, colonial ancestors, war-time service, and Fire Lands migration.[7]
After successfully completing his college course, J.J. initially married Mary Clark Mattocks on 12 July 1887 in Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, at the bride’s childhood home.[8] Before settling into their described “Bonnie Brae” on the Hudson River at Spuyten Duyvil, J.J. and Mary visited her mother in Los Angeles, California to consolidate contiguous land for the completion of their estate on Palisade Avenue, New York City.[9]
A cherished piece of Spuyten Duyvil’s past could be in jeopardy. And while the Villa Rosa Bonheur might not be completely obliterated, it could be fundamentally changed.
Kevin McDermott, who’s lived in the neighborhood for more than a decade, wanted to know what was happening to the Villa Rosa Bonheur on Palisade Avenue near the Spuyten Duyvil train station, a charming, stony structure clinging to the cliff side under the Henry Hudson Bridge.
Built in 1924 as a co-operative by John J. McKelvey — a lawyer, writer and developer, who also was the first editor-in-chief of the Harvard Law Review — the seven-unit apartment building hit the market last year, according to published reports.
McKelvey — who also built the Villa Rosa Bonheur’s sisters, the Villa Charlotte Brontë and Villa Victoria around the same time — had more than money on his mind when he created what would be Riverdale’s first apartment houses. Alarmed by what he called the encroaching “city ugly” — the wave of high-rise development spreading through northern Manhattan and other parts of the Bronx at the time — McKelvey’s answer, according to the Lehman College Art Gallery, was to construct cooperative apartments resembling villas made up of individually owned duplex and triplex studio homes.
The marriage of Lowell H. Brown, a son of Mr. and Mrs. Archer Brown of East Orange, N.J., and Miss Constance McKelvey, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Jay McKelvey, took place yesterday in Edgehill Church, Spuyten Duyvil, and was followed by a reception at Bonnie Brae, the McKelvey country home. October 11, 1914, Page 11
Since the Buck postcard is from cir 1910, I also looked at the 1888 – 1914 map.
I do like that image and the way the lower house is in the appx angle from the main house. Take a look. Thank you, Tom
Yes, the small yellow house below Highpoint does look like a match.
Great detective work, now to find out who was the owner and if a photo can be found. Many Thanks
This is one of my Charles H. Buck titled “Private Residence, Spuyten Duyvil on the Hudson NYC”. I have scanned the area using google views and I do not believe the house is still standing. I have not found any image to identify it either. I am posting the image in hopes that one of our members may have a good lead and or know the address or former owner. Thank you
The writing on the postcard indicates it was either sent by Mrs Ervin of Kingsbridge or that the road in front of the gate leads to Mrs. Ervin’s house.
After searching where I put the Dash’s Lane postcard, I thought it was time to reorganize the Buck section of my 6,736 postcards. There are 37 Buck postcards that have a Bronx connection and an additional 7 that are strictly in Manhattan. The 4 that I am missing are
Spuyten Duyvil swing Bridge (need)
Fordham Club House, Morris Ave and High Bridge Road (need)
Views of Dyckman Homestead on Harlem Ship Canal. Built 1810 (need)
Floating Old Ship Canal Draw Bridge from 221st Street and Broadway to 207th Street ( need)
I added a mystery postcard of a scene in Spuyten Duyvil that I do not know the specific mansion owners name or
specific address.
Posted below is “Scene in Dashe’s Lane, Van Cortlandt, NYC”
I have attached below, a listing of postcards published by Charles H. Buck of Kingsbidge, in the Bronx, with my earliest postmarked 1906:
1 Bailey Avenue, Looking South from West 230 St
2 Broadway and 230th Street as it looked in 1890
3 Bronx Catholic Orphan Asylum (for Girls), Sedwick Avenue & Kingsbridge Road
4 Church of the Mediator, Kings Bridge Ave, Kings Bridge, NY
5 Convent of Jesus Mary, Church St, Kings Bridge, NY
6 Dutch Garden at Van Cortlandt Park
7 Elmhurst Residence of Mr. G.P. Morosini, Riverdale-on-Hudson, NY
8 Engine Co. 52, N.Y. Fire Department, Kings Bridge
9 Engine Company, 81, N.Y.F.D., Kings Bridger, NY
10 Hadley’s or Farmers’ Bridge, Harlem River & Kings Bridge Road
11 Hagman’s Tree, Spuyten Duyvil on the Hudson, New York City
12 Historic Kings Bridge of Revolutionary Days
13 Kings Bridge Police Station, 40 Precinct, Boston Avenue
14 Lake & Boat House, Van Cortlandt Park
15 Looking West from Webb Academy, towards the Palisades, Kings Bridge, NY
16 New York Public Library, Kings Bridge Branch
17 Old Godwin Mansion, 228 St Broadway
18 Old Kings Bridge Hotel. A Popular Road House of Former Days
19 Old Station of the NY Central RR at KingsBridge
20 Old Van Cortlandt Mansion, Van Cortlandt Park
21 Power House, Looking South from 225 St & Broadway
22 Presbyterian Chapel at Spuyten Duyvil, NY
23 Prison Window from the Old Sugar House, in Van Cortlandt Park
24 Private Residence, Spuyten Duyvil on Hudson
25 PS No. 7 – Kings Bridge, N.Y.
26 Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum. ( for Girls) Sedwick Ave and Kingsbridge Road NYC
27 Scene at Van Cortlandt Park – The Old Mill Waterway
28 Scene in Dashe’s Lane, Van Cortlandt, NYC
29 Seton Hospital, Riverdale Ave, Spuyten Duyvil, NY
30 St Stephen’s ME Church, Marble Hill, Kings Bridge
31 Spuyten Duyvil Swing Bridge
32 Temporary Terminus of Subway at 230 St, Kingsbridge, NYC
John Zuricher was a gravestone carver of the mid-to-late eighteenth century. He lived with his wife, Elizabeth Ensler, and their ten children in New York City, but produced gravestones that can be found across the Hudson Valley, Long Island, and New Jersey, and even in Pennsylvania and South Carolina. As a stone mason, he worked on New York City Hall and made milestones for the Albany Post Road.
The stone in the photos above and below was created by Zuricher out of red sandstone for James Wright, who died in 1776. The decoration at the top is a round-faced cherub head with a crown of spiraling curls and quite distinctive wings, in which the feathers are laid out in a grid. There is also some sort of decorative flourish at the very top.
Anyone who has read James Deetz’s masterpiece In Small Things Forgotten can tell you that there are three major phases of gravestone iconography in early New England and New York: death’s head, cherub, and urn and willow. The cherub was a direct descendant of the death’s head, and retained some of its features in a vestigial or reinterpreted state. For instance, that little nub of a chin at the bottom of the cherub’s face evolved out of the jaw of the death’s head – shown in this example. Furthermore, this stone represents the “missing link” between the death’s head and the cherub.
It seems that Zuricher dealt exclusively in cherubs, which would make sense for the time period in which he worked (about 1749 to 1778).
Otto and Dieter –Kingsbridge Yard was commonly known as FH Yard, for FH Tower that controlled the yard lead at the east end of Spuyten Duyvil Rock Cut. I believe that FH came from a name for Fox Hollow, but I can’t document that. The freight station was known officially in tariffs as Kingsbridge, but it was in the time-table as FH freight station.
FH yard was actually on the original alignment of the NYC main tracks from when they passed north of Kingsbridge. After the Harlem River Ship Canal was cut through, the RR was realigned along the canal to avoid some perilous curves. That also accounts for the little piece of New York County and the Borough of Manhattan on the mainland adjacent to The Bronx. The river was moved south, but the borough boundary remained where it was.
I don’t know when FH Yard closed down, but it was running full blast when I worked there in 1960-61. There were several traveling switchers based there, which later moved to Yonkers. The primary business was an automobile warehouse run by Kenosha Auto Transport for distribution of American Motors Ramblers, etc.; a freight house, and a team track. There are some others around who were there when FH shut down, and they probably have a better handle on the date. I think it happened in the middle of the 1960’s, just before Penn Central. There was a new yard office at Yonkers in 1963 or 1965, and I think that was on account of moving the crew headquarters up there.
In 1960, the Ramblers were moving from Kenosha, WI to FH in double-door box cars known as “auto racks” from the internal arrangement of hoists and ramps in the cars. In 1961, they were moving in bi-level cars, also called “auto racks.” The Hudson Division didn’t have sufficient clearances to run tri-levels.
Bronx Terminal Market was served by the NYC up to Penn Central days, when most of the perishable traffic went to Hunt’s Point (after PC got the New Haven) or just to trucks. BTM was owned by the City of New York, and everyone there rented their space from the City, even the NYC for the yard office. It was right next to another space leased by Hans Holterbusch, the Lowenbrau distributer for the area. I always avoided the opportunity to violate Rule G when I worked at BTM, even though I was 18 years old, and that was drinking age in New York State. I enjoyed my RR job too much, and in that part of the world I really needed to keep my wits about me all the time. I had an excellent relationship with the NYPD from the 44th Precinct, on the hill near High Bridge. They often stopped by for a cup of coffee around quitting time, and they were usually good for a ride over to catch a train at High Bridge.
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Place where Captain Rowe Died in his bride to be arms. ( Elizabeth Fowler )[/caption]I was asked by students of PS 81, Robert J Christen School in Woodlawn about ghosts at the Van Cortlandt Mansion. The students recently visited the Morris-Jumel Mansion in Manhattan and wanted information before they visited the Van Cortlandt Mansion. Except for the strange and scary gargoyles that adorned the VC Mansion, I had never heard of a VC Ghost story. Until I went home that night and started my research. Sure enough….I found out that the ghost of Captain Rowe, of the British Pruicsbank Jaegers roams the house during the night of his death. He was shot while on his last patrol by men of Captain Pray’s company. He resigned his commission, in order to get married to Elizabeth Fowler of Harlem. His wounded body was laid to care in the Washington Bedroom at VC. When his bride arrived with her mother, Captain Rowe died in her arms. Part of the story can be found at https://books.google.com/books?id=E1A2AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA214&lpg=PA214&dq=Pruicsbank+Jaegers&source=bl&ots=ZYRHrsVMSx&sig=eAWV05VXhfl9Y2vqyIsM_ClL8AM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjMhPKMrsXcAhVLVd8KHXJzAxEQ6AEwAXoECAMQAQ#v=onepage&q=Pruicsbank%20Jaegers&f=false
Every time I see a photo or drawing of a Bronx scene, I try to confirm with maps or other sources. For the parade grounds and Burial grounds I am now searching for maps and photos. Hope I get lucky.
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1873 Topo map Van cortlandt mansion to the south[/caption]Tom Casey
DAN,
At the White Plains County Clerk, Real Estate Office, you can search on computers, based on names
You will quickly find deeds or mortages, I am sure for Van Tassel etc The deed may say what and when the house was built….. Not sure if they have records from the building dept available ? Do you live close bu in Yonkers ?
Then you can move on to family members
Van Cortlandt mansion and out buildings