The Story of Rosamond

by

Jon Presco

Copyright 2017

“Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above them.” — Washington Irving

“Henry Brevoort was a patron of literature and arts and became close friends with Washington Irving and Sir Walter Scott. The World said “Himself a writer of no mean skill, Brevoort stood always ready to aid those who found writing, in a day when writing won little material reward, a gateway to financial embarrassment. To him Irving owed much of his fame and happiness.”

Woodstock, by Sir Walter Scott (1826). ‘Woodstock’ is an English historical novel of the time of Cromwell; the events occurring in the year 1652, immediately after the battle of Worcester. The scene is laid chiefly in the Royal Park and Manor of Woodstock,—“Fair Rosamond’s bower.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Renwick_Brevoort

Here is the descendant of Henry, Robert Brevoort Buck, who owned the law firm that mishandled the Rosamond family legacy. Where are his Family Values, if not behind writers and artists? Pierrot was no ‘Caretaker’. She read that manuscript. Robert owns Million Air in Monterey. Here is the Buck Family label. If John Steinbeck were alive, he would back my literary efforts. I do not own a little mind.

http://www.onlinebiographies.info/ca/sf/buck-fh.ht

Christian Brevoort Zabriskie (October 16, 1864 – February 8, 1936) was an American businessman and former vice president of Pacific Coast Borax Company. Zabriskie Point on the northeasternmost flank of the Black Mountains east of Death Valley, located in Death Valley National Park is named after him.

https://rosamondpress.com/2015/02/18/del-monte-aviation-buck-inst/

The Buck family lived near us.

Weeks after the death of our sister, Christine Rosamond Benton, Vicki Presco showed me a rough draft manuscript of a world famous artist’s autobiography that she took from her home in Pebble Beach when she was executor, and, before the probate got under way. It began with a denigration of me, Rosamond’s mentor. Turning to a marked page, I am reading about a fight Christine and I had over the last of the milk. We were eleven and twelve.

I understood Vicki was doing this in order to decrease the remaining good feelings and memories I still owned towards The Deceased, a person that suffered from the disease of alcoholism, and was not on her best behavior for many years. But, she died sober! When I asked Mark Presco why he did not contribute to Tom Snyder’s biography – that he read the rough draft of – he said, nastily;

“I couldn’t think of anything nice to say about her.”

Well – neither could Tom Snyder! Here is a wondrous beginning to authoring a book that will increase the sales of beautiful Rosamond women – for the sake of our nieces! Keep coming back – it works! Mark and Vicki rejected AA. Rosamond’s fans could care less. The story of Snow White and the Seven Gallery Dwarfs, would have been a beautiful tale that would have moved the merchandize out the door. Come on Mr. Grumbly-puss! Reach deep down in that bag of dirt you got, and do it for Shannon and Drew!

I wondered if our surviving sister had shown our brother Bad Passages, in order to get him to turn against Dead Christine, in favour of Jacci Belford and her High School chum, Stacey Pierrot. How about Garth Benton? Did Vicki show our ex-brother-in-law all the nasty things Christine said about him? How about Drew Benton – and Shannon Rosamond – the two Heirs? When did they stop loving their mother? After twenty-tree years, not a peep! Has anybody tried bribing them?

That manuscript belongs to our nieces! I am preparing to go to Monterey to look in Rosamond’s probate to see if executor, Vicki Presco, included the last words of a world famous artist in the inventory of the estate. If not, I am going to be file an affidavit stating that I saw this manuscript, and read exerts from it.

Mark is a right-wing racist and misogynist who rebelled against paying his taxes. Our mother told me he was encouraging Christine to do the same. Christine’s brother would not want to see anyone write a chapter on tax evasion. Tom Snyder did not touch upon this hot topic, that would make all the business people Rosamond employed, look bad, or, did he. ‘When You Close Your Eyes’ could be seen as a Clean Bill of Tax Obedience, where suspects can sign in and give a public report on how hard they tried to get my sister to conduct simple business, but, she was out of her mind, deranged, drunk, and irresponsible! She even got violent when some business was discussed! Proof that you were going to Turnover – could get you killed!

Christine formed seven partnership. There was a tax audit Sydney Morris had to deal with. What if Christine’s disappeared manuscript has a whole chapter on why she in not guilty of tax evasion, and, she names those who are? What if the Guilty Business Ones got wind of this chapter, or, were shown it just before Rosamond was “killed” by a rogue wave?

https://www.blogger.com/profile/03261202790462777158

I made a huge mistake not reading Tom Snyder’s Book of Business Lies – years ago! This piece of denigrating filth is not an Artist’s biography. It is a Bad Business Excuse, wherein all the business people who were involved in Rosamond’s amazing commercial success, are excused of any wrong doing or failure. They were always well-behaved. This leads me to suspect they were shown the missing manuscript, wherein the famous artist in bankruptcy – blames her business people for the decline of her fame – and sales of her work!

The Rosamond autobiography would be an attempt by my sister to save her creative legacy, and pay back her creditors from the sales of her book – and the movie that would be made from this book! Rosemary told me her daughter was going for a movie – before she died!

Christine was going to close the Rosamond Gallery in Carmel and move to New York to work with Circle Galleries again. She was letting everyone go, including Stacey Pierrot, who I suspect leant Rosamond a fair sum of money. Did Stacey fear she was going to be stiffed? Did Rosamond write bad things about her best friend, Jacci Belford.

For the reason I suspect Vicki Presco used our sister’s autobiography as an evil weapon to leverage her position in the scheme of things, and in the chaos she created, I am going to dedicate a chapter to EXPOSING this diabolical person, who destroyed my life and my relationship with my daughter. I should have done this years ago, but, she took my minor child hostage, and used her as a leveraging tool. Now that there is no hope of me seeing my daughter and grandson again, the world will see what this sinister being did to her creative sibling with the help of her father, Victor Presco, who used his mother’s inheritance to form a family business partnership.

Rosamond Publications produced four images, that did not sell. Christine and Garth did not give Vic and Vicki an accounting, or, any proceeds. Vicki was furious! She wanted her $60,000 dollar investment back! Ghost writer, Tom Snyder does not mention this Bad Business Adventure – that Pierrot took part in as the probate began, thus, here is PROOF of more bad business people destroying Rosamond’s creative legacy – after she is DEAD!

Below is photographic evidence of Art Fraud, in regards to the image of a frog, and proof Pierrot went against the efforts of Rosamond to be less commercial. We read how Dan claims he was not able to HELP  because she was angry, mentally ill, and drunk. We hear this from other business people. Their testimony starts out in a pleasant manner, but, this world famous artist, is demonized, her reputation besmirched.

https://rosamondpress.com/2017/07/01/buy-bill-a-bar/

Her loyal fans are shown a Demon that is kept in a feces-covered cage down in the basement of the gallery on Delores Street. One good man after another takes up the whip and chair, and bravely go down in said basement to extract another beautiful Rosamond image.  How in the fucking world is this Business Strategy going to sell Rosamond’s? Surely this is not the one Christine wanted – in her Will – or in her book! Executors have an obligation to consider the Last Wishes of the Decadent. In this regards, Special Executor, Sydney Morris – more than dropped the ball. He destroyed the Rosamond Literary and Artistic legacy, and the reputation of his law firm.

And this is very bad for Carmel and America, because it appears Robert Brevoort Buck, is kin to Henry Brevoort, who was a very good friend of Washington Irving, America’s first Man of Letters, and author of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle. You better believe I am going to employ this incredible history in my book, that gets better and better! The Brevoort Hotel in Greenwich Village, was a International Bohemian Hot Spot because Henry and Washington wrote letters to one another.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Renwick_Brevoort

https://archive.org/details/lettersofhenrybr00bre

These letters compose the early history of New York City, of which Henry owned a great part of. Washington wrote the first history of New Amsterdam, and borrowed from Dutch fables. This dovetails nicely with the history of Gotschalk Rosemondts, the Master of the Falcon Art College, and member of the Swan Brethren of Holland. Then there is the artist James Renwick Brevoort – and his creative siblings!

https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth:6h444w10h

Enough of looking at what went terribly wrong. Let us look at what went incredibly right!

Two siblings from a very abusive home somehow create an Artistic and Literary Legacy. Rosamond Publishing and Royal Rosamond Press has furthered the arts, and art history – as well as Positive Sober History, which is key in my support of Alcohol Justice. Christine and I did much with very little money. We both were living below the poverty level. OUR STORY is a miracle!

Early on, Christine asked me to help her deal with the commercialism of her art, that left her feeling like she was not an artist. She was very aware of the integral conversations Bill Arnold and I had about Art. We swore we would never cop-out, or betray the integrity we founded in a friendship that began when we were twelve. It was these conversations that haunted Rosamond’s overnight success. WHAT TO DO – is the question of the ages, for this commercial business approach has plagued creative people for thousands of years!

Washington Irving dealt with it in a very integral way, he founding the Copyright system in America. Irving is the Touchstone for American Integrity, that made us a great people!

So, behind the bad business, behind the chair&whip, behind the bi-polar excuse, and the bottle of booze, is an American Woman captured down in the Rose of the World Gallery, chained to the Rosamond Money Printing Machine, that was made by the owners of Ira Roberts Gallery, and was serviced by every business person – that come along! Only I suggested to my sister she fashion a key and unlock the ball and chain, and – just walk away from it!

Now, let us look at Creative Life After Death. Vicki Presco pretended I would be used to deal with out sister’s art, but, she made covert plans with the New Age Business People, that were the Old Age Business People – who wanted a second chance! Now the Destructive Drunk was out of the way – it will be a cake walk! This is a very bad business deduction!

If my surviving sister had remained Rosamond’s executor, then, TOGETHER we could have handled THE CREATIVE FAMILY LEGACY. I could have done much of the work, ran the gallery, and revised Christine’s biography. Therefor, when my daughter came into my life, she would find FAMILY UNITY, and not the business chaos that Pierrot and Snyder produced – MORE OF! That Vicki was in a hurry to abandon her sacred duty, made me wonder why? The death scene – was fishy!

Above are images of the literature Stacey Pierrot sent my friend, Mark Gall. Here is his vita.  http://pages.uoregon.edu/mgall/vita.htm

Tom Snyder paints a bright future for Caretaker Stacey Pierrot, now that Christine, the adult heir, and her uncle are disposed of. Snyder blames everything on Christine. Stacey will prove to the world what a bad business person Rosamond was.  Take note of the discounted works of art – that Pierrot can’t sell. Snyder’s biography – is a bust! It proved to be a lead life-preserver! Mark Gall was put on The Rosamond Sucker List after he purchased Snyder’s book. Royal Sugar is being blown up his ass. It’s a Tragic Fire Sale – again! Emergency! Emergency! Help me!

This is a classic take-over of a family legacy! Pierrot pretends over and over it is – OVER! What a pitiful picture she makes, of her taking the last piece of coal down in the basement of the Rosamond Gallery, and throwing it in the Steam-powered Rosamond Money Making Machine that will not move  The Good Ship Lolly-pop another yard! It is………………DEAD IN THE WATER!

What  a damn pity! She is forced to move on and make a movie, which my nieces will see not profit from. Is Stacey paying her taxes? Or, is she using Rosamond as a tax write-off for her friends? Jacci Belford owes back taxes. She owned and ran the Lighthouse Inn.

Pierrot did not own THE ANSWER to the conundrum that baffled Christine Rosamond Benton, and, even drove her mad. The law firm of Heisinger, Morris, and Buck, were also baffled  by Rosamond’s Money Making Machine. The Heisingers are a creative family.

In this light, let us work together in establishing a Creative Report of the over-commercialization of Artists, Writers, Performers, and other interested parties, that will be a Creative Guide to many, for generations to come. These legacies are extremely important – and very valuable!  Young people need to take courses in this history. Yes there is a devastating history of alcoholism in our family. How long must we be punished by outsiders pretending they care for us. In 1997 I sent Gavin Newsom and Pelosi an e-mail begging for their help!

“The Charge for Harm campaign supported various bills in Sacramento and the San Francisco “Alcohol Cost Recovery Fee” ultimately vetoed by PlumpJack wine-distributorship owning Mayor Gavin Newsom in September 2010″

https://rosamondpress.com/2017/06/26/the-true-buck-justice/

Also, I would like Robert Brevoort Buck, to help me establish a better understanding of alcoholism in regards to The Buck Trust. Many artists and writers suffer from the disease of alcoholism, and creative writers in recovery can be employed in saving the lives of many. Alcoholism creates dysfunctional families. Here is an opportunity to study such a family due to Rosamond’s success, and this blog. We have generated much information, and, legal documents. There’s a good chance Robert Buck was not aware of his ancestors.

For sure the Artists of Carmel got wind of this major Tax Audit of their most commercially successful business person, who made millions! How many were/are guilty of creative cheating? I bet they kept their distance, even made her walk the gangplank all by her lonesome. They did not know Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor, and Carrie Fisher was her kin. Liz was an art collector, as was her uncle. She encouraged Michael Jackson to take up art. Carrie wrote famous recovery biographies. Both women were highly commercialized. Liz’s son married a Getty.

Garth sued Gordon Getty for painting over his mural – and won! Garth is kin to the artist Thomas Hart Benton, and his grandfather, who was John Astor’s attorney. Henry Brevoort went on fur expeditions with Astor and went West with Lewis and Clark. From here, American History – explodes! Washington Irving was getting first hand reports from Henry. The Rosemond family owned the Van Wolfeswinkle house in Holland.

http://www.genealogyeemaker.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/rosamond/10/

Carmel is the most commercialised city in the world – after Venice! Larry Chazen was Christine’s partner in the first Rosamond Gallery. Larry is a partner of the Getty’s, the Newsom’s, and the Pelosi  family in PlumpJack that operates Bohemian retreats in Carmel.

I founded Royal Rosamond Press ‘A Newspaper For The Arts’ in 1997. I have run my registered newspaper and blog on a monthly salary of $720 dollars, yet, all these rich lovers of art can not stand my existence, can not stand one naysayer their midst.  The Buck Foundation that funds alcohol Justice would do the Art World Justice by funding me, for, I am a thorn in their side. I am a voice crying in the cultural wilderness!

The Buck Foundation has $720 million dollars to spend. A true poor and struggling artist, is worth his weight in gold. This has always proven to be the case. Because, as we stand before our empty canvases, in squalor and chaos, Mr, Irving’s real words, never forsake us.

“Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above them.” — Washington Irving

On this day, July 3, 2017, Rosamond and Jon rise like Phoenix Birds from the ashes of chaos and despair. We didn’t give up – fighting for our creative family! We are done with these whiney rich men and women, these crybabies who claim it all because she rained so much abuse down upon their heads. But, none more, upon me, did the wrath of the bitter roses, fall. For I was her teacher who loved her most of all, even when she promised;

“You will never see a dime from my art!”

And, she spoke the truth! For I already had my reward, down deep in the rosy gallery, beneath the money making machine, and all that clap-trap. I always knew, how this play, this opera would end. For I am its author. Like I told you, I am the Phantom of the Opera that ran on Broadway, forever!

Art is its own reward! I would not take one dime from a vulnerable human being – especially if she is my protégé! There are rules! I have given so much away – for free! There are five books in this blog!

Thank you Christine for removing the temptation that made you suffer so much. I am your brother in so many integral ways, the true lighthouse on a cliff, the lone man, with a vision.

Now, that I have cleared the stage of the pretenders and pretentious, let our story begin!

“The sophisticated Brevoorts stepped out of the box, once again, in 1840 when they planned the first grand entertainment New York society had seen. Until now, entertaining was relatively understated. Yet in Europe extravagant fetes were not only commonplace, they were expected. Invitations went out in February 1840 for a bal costume, so popular in European society. It would set the pace for social events of high society for the rest of the century.”

The beginning of Rosamond’s stolen auto-biography, began, thus;

“Everyone thought my brother would be a famous artist one day. But, it was not meant to be.”

Jon Presco

President: Royal Rosamond Press

“It aint over till the fat lady sings!”

Between five and six hundred of New York’s wealthiest citizens filed into the Brevoort house for the ball. Socialites and moguls appeared as historic and literary characters such as Joan of Arc, Queen Esther and Diana. Mrs. Jonathan Ogden dressed as Queen Catharine of Arragon; author Charles A. Davis was a Quaker; Mrs. Robert Gracie came as Portia; Delancy Kane as a goldfinch and her sister Lydia was a sorceress; Bache McEvers dressed as William Penn; Mrs. Rufus Prime was Esmeralda; close family friend Henry C. De Rham, Jr. was “a Greek;” and Nicholas Schermerhorn most assuredly raised eyebrows when he arrived as “a Dutch girl.”

“As a result masked balls were made taboo, and a fine of $1,000 was imposed on any one who should give one—unless the giver told on himself, in which event the fine was reduced one-half.”

“At this time Rosamond the mother, who had done all in her power by gentle means to preserve peace, when she saw how bad it was, made short work of it. Immediately she sent messengers throughout all the districts to call a general levy, which brought together all the defenders of the country. The landsmen who were fighting were all caught, but Jon with his seamen took refuge on board his fleet, taking with him the two lamps, as well as Minerva and the maidens of both the citadels.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oera_Linda_Book

 

The Lost Brevoort Mansion — 5th Ave. and 9th Street

Shortly after this photograph was taken in 1925 the Brevoort mansion would be demolished — NYPL Collection

In 1828 George Rogers began construction of his country home on the northern edge of what would soon become Washington Square. An unpaved road named Fifth Avenue stretched north of the square through the farmland of Henry Brevoort—a wealthy landowner so influential that when the City Fathers planned the extension of Broadway they were forced to swerve it to the west at East 10^th Street rather than demolish his orchard.

Brevoort’s son, also named Henry, was born in September 1782. In 1817 he married Laura Carson of South Carolina.   Brevoort was what The Evening World would later call a “gentleman of great wealth and unlimited leisure.”

He was a patron of literature and arts and became close friends with Washington Irving and Sir Walter Scott. The World said “Himself a writer of no mean skill, Brevoort stood always ready to aid those who found writing, in a day when writing won little material reward, a gateway to financial embarrassment. To him Irving owed much of his fame and happiness.”

In the first years of the 1830s the younger Henry began plans for a new mansion and looked towards the Bond Street neighborhood, then among the most exclusive residential areas in New York. But his feisty father had other ideas. Almost a century later a relative would recall, “I remember hearing the family tell how great-grandfather wanted to build his home on Second Avenue, which was then the fashionable section, but his father, who owned all of the Brevoort farm, running back to where Grace Church now stands and taking up considerable space along Fifth Avenue, greatly objected to giving him land on Second Avenue. ‘No, sir, go further back on the farm; go back to Fifth Avenue, for things are going to move that way,’” he reportedly directed.

Henry, “feeling very much in the woods and quite out of it,” therefore constructed the first house on Fifth Avenue. His mansion would set the tone of the street for a more than a century to come.

Brevoort commissioned Ithiel Town and Alexander Jackson Davis to design his new townhouse. The pair was among the most highly respected architects in the country and they produced an imposing Greek Revival home surrounded by gardens. Completed in 1834, it broke ground with several architectural innovations—a sectioned Greek key pediment and a “paneled” front façade accomplished by slightly recessing the two outer bays, for instance.

The house in 1900 — from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

The house was designed as much for entertaining as for living. There was a billiard room, a library and two large parlors separated by the entrance hall. William Cullen Bryant would call it “a kind of palace in a Garden.” Upstairs were seven large bedrooms on the second floor and nine servants’ rooms on the third..

The sophisticated Brevoorts stepped out of the box, once again, in 1840 when they planned the first grand entertainment New York society had seen. Until now, entertaining was relatively understated. Yet in Europe extravagant fetes were not only commonplace, they were expected. Invitations went out in February 1840 for a bal costume, so popular in European society. It would set the pace for social events of high society for the rest of the century.

Anticipation among wealthy New Yorkers was fevered. Philip Hone, former mayor and family friend, wrote a few days before the event, “Nothing else is talked about; the ladies’ heads are turned nearly off their shoulders, the whiskers of the dandies assume a more ferocious curl in anticipation of the effect they are to produce, and even my peaceable domicile is turned topsy turvy by the note of preparation which is heard.”

The Herald noted that people were “moving heaven and earth to get an introduction to this highly respectable Dutch family, and hence an invitation.” The final guest list included old New York names, foreigners including the Swiss and Neapolitan consuls, literary figures, and relatively new names in society like John Jacob Astor and August Belmont.

On the evening of the ball, Philip Hone threw a “preparatory gathering” of friends so they could see his family’s impressive costumes. Philip dressed as Cardinal Woolsey in a scarlet merino robe and ermine cape. His three daughters came as Day and Night and as a character from “The Legend of Montrose.”

Between five and six hundred of New York’s wealthiest citizens filed into the Brevoort house for the ball. Socialites and moguls appeared as historic and literary characters such as Joan of Arc, Queen Esther and Diana. Mrs. Jonathan Ogden dressed as Queen Catharine of Arragon; author Charles A. Davis was a Quaker; Mrs. Robert Gracie came as Portia; Delancy Kane as a goldfinch and her sister Lydia was a sorceress; Bache McEvers dressed as William Penn; Mrs. Rufus Prime was Esmeralda; close family friend Henry C. De Rham, Jr. was “a Greek;” and Nicholas Schermerhorn most assuredly raised eyebrows when he arrived as “a Dutch girl.”

Philip Hone was rightfully impressed. He wrote in his diary “The mansion of our entertainers, Mr. and Mrs. Brevoort, is better calculated for such display than any other in the city. Mrs. Brevoort, in particular, by her kind and courteous deportment, threw a charm over the splendid pageant, which would have been incomplete without it. Never before has New York witnessed a fancy ball so splendidly gotten up, in better taste, or more successfully carried through.”

The glamorous party, however, resulted in scandal and public outrage.

The scandal involved Matilda Barclay, the daughter of British Consul George Barclay.   Mr. and Mrs. Barclay came to the party dressed as a fox hunter and a peasant woman. Matilda came as Lalla-Rookh in a costume made by Madame Harche that reportedly cost $300—about $8,000 today. The Herald snidely reported it was “a thin slice from the fortune of $150,000 which, with her excellent heart and beautiful self, she intends to bestow on one of the gallant young gentlemen whom she meets at the ball.”

Matilda had no intentions of bestowing her fortune or heart on any gallant young gentleman, however. Also attending was the dashing T. Pollock Burgwyne of South Carolina, dressed as Feramors, a character in the same poem as Lalla Rookh.   When the evening was over and the Barclays prepared to leave, their daughter was nowhere to be found. She had slipped out with the Southerner and married him.

The Herald gleefully reported that the newlyweds were seen at the Astor House the following day where Matilda was “playing the fancy dress character of a married lady.” The elopement caused a righteous backlash and, as The Evening World later reported “As a result masked balls were made taboo, and a fine of $1,000 was imposed on any one who should give one—unless the giver told on himself, in which event the fine was reduced one-half.”

A tintype captured the Brevoort doorway which would have been described when the house was built as “pure Greek.”  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

James Gordon Bennett took advantage of the affair to sell papers. His Herald fueled an uproar among the working class when, on March 2, he devoted his entire front page to the Brevoort ball. He countered his description of the extravagant ball and over-the-top expenditures with the suffering of the laborers. The article added the floor plans of the house for good measure.

Philip Hone was outraged at Bennett’s meddling. “This kind of surveillance is getting to be intolerable and nothing but the force of public opinion will correct the insolence.” He gathered support from wealthy merchants, financiers and politicians in an effort to urge “respectable people [to] withdraw their support from the vile sheet.”

For a while The Herald lost advertisers and it was boycotted by clubs, fashionable hotels and homes.

Henry Brevoort died in 1848 and two years later Laura sold the house to Henry De Rham for $57,000 (over $1 million today). Henry was a dry goods merchant and banker and the De Rhams were not only close friends of the Brevoorts, they were distant relatives.

The De Rham family remained in the house through the First World War as the lower Fifth Avenue neighborhood changed from one of mansions and carriages to businesses. Little changed to the great house, including the name—New Yorkers continued to refer to it as the Brevoort Mansion, despite the De Rhams living here four times as long as the original owners. The New York Times later suggested that “The house, however, has always retained the name of its original owners, partly, perhaps, in view of the prominence of the family and partly because of the unusual magnificence of the house in its early days.”

In the summer of 1903 the De Rhams had the shutters tightly closed against the heat.  The Brevoort carriage house can be seen behind on 9th Street — from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

In July 1919 the house was finally sold, and again it went to a distant relative. The New York Times reported that “it was bought by George F. Baker, Jr., whose wife is the great-granddaughter of the builder of the house.” The fabulously wealthy Bakers lived on Madison Avenue and toyed with the idea of restoring the old mansion for their personal use.

“The return of the venerable house to a twentieth century descendant of the original Brevoort farm owners is an interesting incident in the vagaries of real estate changes on Manhattan Island,” said The Times. “It is now assessed at $205,000.”

The first members of the Brevoort family in America came from Holland prior to 1655 and soon thereafter settled in Bushwick, then a separate village that would eventually be annexed by the City of Brooklyn in 1855. After 20 years in Bushwick, the family purchased land in New York City (present-day Manhattan) where the family prospered. It wasn’t until 1845 that members of the Brevoort family moved back to Brooklyn.

Henry Brevoort (1747-1841) was a successful farmer whose lands lay just outside of the early city limits of New York. His estate consisted of 86 acres between 9th Street and 18th Street, bounded by Fifth Avenue on the west and the Bowery on the east, thus part of today’s West Village. The opening of Broadway up to 23rd Street forced New York City street commissioners to create a dog-leg bend at 10th Street, as Brevoort was determined to prevent the disruption of his estate. Brevoort and son Henry, Jr. prevented the opening of 11th Street between Broadway and the Bowery in the 1830s and 1840s to prevent the destruction of the old family farm house.

Henry Brevoort, Jr. (1782-1848) was widely respected for his adventurous travels and artistic interests. He accompanied Lewis and Clark on their expedition to the Pacific Northwest from 1803 to 1806 and spent a great deal of time in the North American wilderness working for John Jacob Astor’s American Fur Company. He was equally at home and well received in salons throughout Europe during his travels abroad. Henry Brevoort, Jr. was a close friend of Washington Irving and was primarily responsible (along with Irving’s brother Ebenezer) for the publication of the American edition of Irving’s The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent..

James Carson Brevoort (1818-1887), Henry Jr.’s son, was educated in Europe during his parents’ travels. He graduated from Baron Fellenberg’s school in Hofwyl, Switzerland and then earned a degree in civil engineering from the Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures in Paris. He served as Washington Irving’s private secretary following Irving’s appointment as United States Minister to Spain in 1842. Brevoort married Elizabeth Dorothea Lefferts in 1845 and moved to Brooklyn. There he managed the large land holdings of his father-in-law, Judge Leffert Lefferts. In Brooklyn, Brevoort gained renown for his scholarly interest and public service. He studied history, entomology, and ichthyology and also served for many years as a member of the Brooklyn Board of Education and the Board of Water Commissioners. Brevoort also helped to found the Long Island Historical Society (now the Brooklyn Historical Society) in 1863, served as its President for 10 years, and was a Director of the Society until his death.

James Carson Brevoort’s only child, Henry L. Brevoort (1849-1895), followed his father’s interest in engineering and became one of the country’s foremost patent and invention lawyers, with a client list that included Westinghouse, Western Union, and the New York and Brooklyn Bridge Company. He was also a founder in 1890 of the Brevoort Savings Bank in Brooklyn.

“Rip Van Winkle” is set in the years before and after the American Revolutionary War. In a pleasant village, at the foot of New York’s Catskill Mountains, lives kindly Rip Van Winkle, a Dutch villager. Van Winkle enjoys solitary activities in the wilderness or hanging out at the inn with his friends. He is loved by all in town—especially the children to whom he tells stories or for whom he repairs toys. However, he tends to shirk hard work, to his nagging wife’s dismay, which has caused his home and farm to fall into disarray.

One autumn day, to escape his wife’s nagging, Van Winkle wanders into the mountains with his dog, Wolf. Hearing his name called out, Van Winkle sees a man wearing antiquated Dutch clothing; he is carrying a keg up the mountain and requires help. Together, the men and Wolf proceed to a hollow in which Rip discovers the source of thunderous noises: a group of ornately dressed, silent, bearded men who are playing nine-pins.

By 1834 Henry Brevoort, Jr., planted a Georgian mansion at 24 Fifth Ave., which, until it was demolished in 1924, anchored the northwest corner of Ninth St. Scandal was the uninvited guest on Feb. 24, 1840, at Manhattan’s first masked ball when the Brevoorts entertained 500 costumed socialites. Matilda Barclay, daughter of the British consul, slipped out to elope and The New York Herald blabbed it on Page 1. The New York Times noted that the City Council banned future masquerade balls, imposing a $1,000 fine — New York City’s first party police.

By 1835, when a Greek-revival style trio (Nos. 60-62-64) were erected for politician William Beach Lawrence, each one constructed on a 25-ft.-by-94-ft. lot, a trend began. With few exceptions, the block’s southern side tended towards roomier plots than the northern side, thereby attracting wealthier residents

Civil Lawsuit and Contempt

The interested parties harmed by the executor’s theft, typically the heirs, can sue the executor in the local civil court for the money back and associated damages, such as court expenses. An executor is who is stealing might also be found in contempt of the probate court. Contempt of court carries both fines and a possible jail sentence, but fine amounts and sentence length depend on the area and severity of the case.

What’s now 2 Fifth Avenue was built in 1956 on the site of the Brevoort Hotel, constructed over a century earlier. An early Dutch settler in Manhattan, Henrick Van Brevoort, bought much of what would become the lower Fifth Avenue area in 1714; over time, the family sold off pieces of its farm and invested the proceeds in the stock market. Things went well, and his descendants built a huge mansion in 1834 and, eleven years later, the hotel.

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Estate beneficiaries must move quickly if the estate executor is stealing. State laws set a window during which heirs can take action against an estate executor. A will executor is responsible for managing a deceased’s person’s estate, and she is named in the will itself by the deceased person.