Petition to the Mayor and Corporation of the City of New York, [26 August 1800]
Petition to the Mayor and Corporation of the
City of New York1
[New York, August 26, 1800]
To the Honble. Mayor & Corporation of the City of New York
Humbly sheweth
That we the Subscribers, your Petitioners & the Public in general, suffer great Inconvenience, and Danger, from the public Road as it now runs between the nine and ten Mile Stones, through the Land of Doct. Samuel Bradhurst, ascending that very difficult & dangerous Hill, being the only direct Way of Communication for the State at large to the City; are of Opinion that if there can be a more easy & safe Road made for public Convenience, it ought to be done, being of the greatest Importance.
Having viewed the Ground, near the same we are convinced that the Road may be alter’d greatly for the better by passing up on the west Side of the Valley, where a Sufficiency of Land can be purchased for a Road, & may be made, & kept in Repair at less Expence, than the present one.
We pray that if the Alteration should appear necessary, a Committee of your respectable Body may meet with some of your Petitioners to point out, & explain their Views.
And we as in Duty bound will ever pray &c
DS, signed by thirty-one individuals including H, Municipal Archives and Records Center, New York City.
1. This petition, which was presented to Mayor Richard Varick and the Common Council of the City of New York on September 10, 1800, refers to Bloomingdale Road, which was the main thoroughfare between New York City and upper Manhattan and which was extended to Harlem Heights in 1795. The portion of Bloomingdale Road mentioned in the petition ran through the land of Samuel Bradhurst, which stretched from the Hudson River east to Kingsbridge Road and from present-day 144th Street to 150th Street. Bradhurst’s land lay adjacent to the northern boundary of H’s first purchase of land for his country home, the Grange. See the introductory note to Philip Schuyler to H, July 17, 1800.
On September 10, 1800, the Common Council referred the petition to Richard Furman and John Bogert, who were commissioners for streets and roads. On September 28, 1801, the Council ordered that further consideration of the petition be postponed. On January 30, 1804, Joseph Browne, the street commissioner, recommeded that a new section of Bloomingdale Road be laid out in Harlem Heights to the west of the existing Bloomingdale Road, and the Council approved this recommendation ( II, 653; III, 30, 455).