The Tolerance Project Archive

Richmond Hill corner Varisk and Charlton Streets 1760-1849. At the Southeast corner of Charlton and Varick Streets stood a splended residence built by Abraham Martier in 1760. Lord Amherst occupied it after defeating the French in Canada. 1776 George Washington planned his Long Island campaign while staying there. Next came Howe and Cornwallis.

Afterwards John and Abigail Adams lived there while he was serving as Vice President. From 1797 to 1804 the state was the home of Aaron Burr. His visitors included Talleyrand, Louis Philippe, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton.

After Burr killed Hamilton in the duel in 1804 he fled the country. The mansion became a tavern and later a theater before its demolition in 1849.

This is on a small stand in the Leroy Street Branch of the New York Public Library next to a four-cased display on Edna St. Vincent Millay that does not fit in the niche behind it and is instead awkward away from walls and leaving a space behind it in which I can see cardboard boxes with paintings, apparently by children, on them and maybe an upside down chair. An old man perhaps homeless stands in front of the cases and opens and closes coffee takeout cups and containers from two big bags, then studies blank pieces of paper on a clipboard. There's no information on what replaced the mansion or why something about the corner of Varick and Charlton Streets is posted in a library that's between Hudson and Varick on Leroy. The library building seems pretty old, maybe dating before 1849. Millay was concerned over the ethnic prejudice of the Sacco-Vanzetti trial, early recognized the threat to liberty from Nazi Germany, had the direction of her life changed by a hotel fire and an automobile accident, and throughout her last decade struggled with depression, alcoholism, drug addiction and a variety of physical ailments. She is very frowny in the photo. In the first case next to the window, a red-haired doll sits with its back to me. Some guy keeps coming in and out and slamming newspapers down on "my" table, then picking up a flyer and fingering it and folding it, and then slamming it down again. The flyer is for Best Buy, which I thought went out of business. Just finished Rachel's Neighbor and am jotting down notes for a review: 44--window washer. "disdain @ their dumb/stony cover" sort of explanation @ end, pg. 72, "defining" is different struggle. W/ I. I? 76. List poems.

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