No. 50, extending back about 140 feet. The mission house and hospital have been torn down since October 1, 1914. The Chapel itself, with the adjoining school at the rear, stands in the midst of the plot with open ground on the north and south sides.

The total assessed valuation of the lands and buildings, as given to us by the Department of Taxes and Assessments March 5, 1915, is as follows:

The $260,000 part is exempt from taxation, and the $70,000 part is taxed.

The Chapel, as we have stated in former Reports, is threatened with demolition by the widening of Varick Street. The City has acquired a strip of land 40 feet wide on the east side of the street to be added to the thoroughfare, and the demolition of buildings on that strip is now complete with the exception of old Saint John's.

On May 28, 1914, Hon. George McAneny, President of the Board of Aldermen and Chairman of the Board of Estimate's Committee on City Plan, announced that the City would let the Chapel remain projecting into the widened street, provided the City received definite assurance within twenty days that the building would be maintained for some public or semi-public use and that the reconstruction necessary to lower the platform of the portico to the sidewalk level would be undertaken. On June 5, Col. William Jay,* representing the Trinity Corporation which has manifested no desire to preserve the landmark, told the Board of Estimate that he could give no assurance that the chapel would * Colonel Jay died March 28, 1915.

be maintained by the Trinity corporation. He is quoted in one of the leading papers of June 6, as follows:

"I may say once for all that there is no possible hope or expectation in my mind that the chapel will be preserved by Trinity Church for religious uses. We do not feel that we are bound to do this. We think we have done all we should in the way of preserving historical monuments. It now devolves upon somebody else to preserve St. John's. The vestry voted with very great reluctance to discontinue services at St. John's because that seemed to look toward the ultimate destruction of the chapel, and they are as much interested now in this movement for its preservation as anybody. We would like to see it preserved and will do what we can to meet the views of any gentleman, or body of gentlemen, or any society that wants to come forward and take the property upon such terms as may be agreed upon with the City or ourselves, and I may say that I believe Trinity will deal with them liberally. They are not in the business to make money out of it, but they cannot see their way to carry on services and keep the church open because it is considered by some people to be ornamental and by some to be historical".

As the result of further conferences, however, it was announced on July 28, 1914, that the Trinity corporation had agreed to maintain the chapel for two years more in order that the historical and art societies which have been eager that this example of early American architecture should not be destroyed may perfect some plan for preserving the property either as a church or a

museum.

In the work of demolition already accomplished, two houses on the church plot and belonging to Trinity Parish have been torn down, namely, the Mission House, designated as No. 34 Varick Street, and the Hospital, designated as No. 50 Varick Street. Both of the buildings in their day were handsome houses. The one at 50 Varick Street was the rectory of Trinity parish for many years. The Rev. Dr. William Berrian lived there more than seventy years ago while he was rector of Trinity, and the late Dr. Morgan Dix lived there for awhile. Several years ago it was remodeled and used as Trinity Hospital. The old house at 34 Varick Street was used originally as the Sunday School rooms for St. John's Chapel.

PERINE HOUSE, STATEN ISLAND, SAVED

In the summer of 1914, this Society was consulted by the Staten Island Garden Club in regard to the preservation of the old Perine House at Dongan Hills and gave some helpful advice. The movement for the saving of the building, which has many interesting associations, was started by Mrs. Henry F. Taylor, and carried on at first by the Garden Club, which secured an option on the property and raised a portion of the funds for its purchase. In December, 1914, the Staten Island Antiquarian Society, of which Mr. Charles Gilbert Hine is President, was incorporated, and on February 15, 1915, took title to the property, the consderation being $7,500. (See plate 7.)

The house stands on the southeastern side of the old Richmond Road or King's Highway, at the village formerly called Garretsons, but more recently called Dongan Hills, about four miles southwest of St. George ferry. The date of the erection of this interesting Colonial landmark is uncertain. It is a rambling structure of stone and wood with evident accretions of different periods. The rear part is older than the front part, but the latter part antedates the Revolution.

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Captain Thomas Stillwell acquired the property by a grant from Governor Andros in 1677 and built a house upon it some time thereafter. In his will, dated 1704, he bequeathed to his "dear and loving wife Martha " the "lott of land I now live. upon" and one Negro woman called Jeno to her sole and proper use forever". A daughter of Capt. Stillwell, who married a Van Pelt, in a deed dated November 4, 1709, referred to the house as the old dwelling house belonging to said farm" still standing. Whether the original Stillwell house forms a part of the present structure is uncertain. Mr. Edward C. Delavan, a careful authority on titles and landmark history of Staten Island, thinks that the older portion of the present structure was built about 1713 by Nicholas Britton who married another daughter of Capt. Stillwell and that the original Stillwell house burned between 1709 and 1713. After passing through various intermediate ownerships, the property came into the possession of Joseph Holmes, innkeeper. His daughter Ann married Edward Perine and she

inherited it on her father's death September 22, 1759. The property passed undivided to Edward Perine's sons Joseph and Henry. Joseph's half was inherited by Simon Swaime Perine and Henry's half by Elizabeth Winant Perine who married Richard Tysen. Simon Swaime Perine's interest was inherited by his sons Cornelius L. and Joseph E. respectively. In 1870 Elizabeth Winant Perine Tysen sold her interest to an outside party.

During the Revolution British soldiers were quartered in this house, as in others about the island, and at one time the house was so crowded with them that the widow Ann Perine and her six children were allowed only one of the rooms for living purposes. One of the occupants of the house during that period was Capt. Coghlan of the British Army.

The house is a picturesque structure containing fifteen rooms, and surrounded by trees and clumps of box. The latter are estimated to be not less than 100 years old. The interior of the house is well preserved and contains several mementoes of olden times. The paneling at the south end of the parlor is a fine example of Colonial work, being Jacobean in style. A closet at the side has shelves whose edges have been cut in a decorative fashion which is quite unknown in these days and is regarded by experts as a sure sign of antiquity.

CAMP LIFE IN NEW YORK IN THE REVOLUTION

In Appendix A of this Report we give an important contribution to the archæological history of the Revolution within the limits of the present City of New York in the monograph entitled "Military Camp Life on Upper Manhattan Island and Adjacent Mainland during the American Revolution" by Mr. Reginald Pelham Bolton. (See also plates 29-34.)

Mr. Bolton, who is a member of our Board of Trustees and Chairman of our Committee on Sites and Inscriptions, has been our zealous representative in prosecuting the archæological researches whose results are now made public for the first time. Many of the facts disclosed by the relics dug up on old military camp-sites are not recorded in printed books, and the excavations by Mr. Bolton, Mr. W. L. Calver, and their associates, covering a

period of twenty years, have rescued from oblivion many details of the local history of that period which otherwise would have been entirely lost.

NOTABLE TREES IN NEW YORK

The Flushing Cedars of Lebanon

In our Report for 1913 at pages 191-199 we made mention of some notable trees in New York City, including the Livingston or Huntington Cedar of Lebanon near Throgg's Neck which we were partly instrumental in having saved from threatened destruction. During the past year efforts have been made for the preservation of another of these rare and historic trees in the village of Flushing, in the Borough of Queens. Flushing has three Cedars of Lebanon (Cedrus lebani) and fourteen Cedars of Mount Atlas (Cedrus atlantica,) both green and blue. Two of the former are known as the Old Cedar and the Prince Cedar.

The Old Cedar stands in a field about half way between Chestnut Street and Bayside Avenue, about 400 feet west of the Whitestone trolley-line. It is owned by Mrs. F. H. Hinman of No. 111 Sanford Street. It is unprotected at present and has been shamefully abused. Nails have been driven into it and boys have climbed it so much that the bark on the limbs is smooth from their shoes. It is a vigorous tree, however, and gives promise of many years of life. On January 29, 1915, Mrs. Hinman announced that she would make a small park surrounding the tree and fence it in for its preservation, and Park Commissioner John E. Weier of Queens has promised to have experts look after its welfare. During the coming season it will be pruned, fenced and marked. It is 62 feet 8 inches high, spreads 75 feet and is 13 feet in circumference 7 feet above the ground. There are always cones on it but none of the seeds has been known to germinate. Mr. Everett P. Martin, third Vice President of the Flushing Association, who has been particularly active in urging the conservation of the old tree, has been unable to learn its history. Men past seventy years of age say that it seemed as large when they were boys as it appears now. The Murray family think that their uncle, Joseph King, who in the early part of the 19th cen