I am in a history book club called “History is the New Fiction” and we have been reading Gotham, the history of New York City. It’s a great book but it’s just so very long. And all that means is that it’s taking a long time to read.
Some of the folks in the book club got together a couple of weeks ago to take out the Iron Cupcake (a car) and go on a (magical) History Tour. Our plan was to visit the Claesson-Wyckoff House in Flatbush, Brooklyn. The oldest structure in New York, then see an old church nearby. After that we were going to go to Lower Manhattan to see the Customs House, which houses the Museum of the American Indian, and Trinity Church. From there, we wanted to drive uptown to Grant’s Tomb and then over to Highbridge park.
The first parts worked out pretty well. In fact, the Wyckoff House was fascinating–more than I thought it would be. It turns out that anyone (on earth!) named Wyckoff (or one of about 60 variations) is descended from this very house. Yes, that’s true. Pieter Claessen had to change his Dutch Surname under English law and chose “Wyckoff.” Supposedly, nobody else had that name. Pretty cool.
That tour took a while longer than expected so we got to the Church as the people there were leaving. We persuaded them to let us take a look around. It was a nice looking old church with a more new badass pipe organ.
To Manhattan through the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel.
Customs House: closed
Trinity Church: closed
Uptown to Grant’s Tomb. By this time I was calling ahead but got the same answer: closed. We went there anyway to take a look though. It was a good view in the late evening snow.
Highbridge Park will have to wait till a sunnier day. But I look forward to seeing the Highbridge (built as an aqueduct to bring Croton water to Manhattan).