Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/46

 26 Sloan's Architectural Review and Builders' Journal. [July, Mr. John Eggleton,* father of Jona- than, f tells the latter, that the great elm was about four to four and a half feet through the butt. There is, however, nothing more deceptive, than remem- bered eye-measurement, especially of globular or cylindrical bodies. If any credible witness produces the memoran- dum of an actual measurement, of course we must believe him; but amongst recollections we may be allowed to choose ; and recollections in opposition to a recorded measurement stand no chance whatever. J Mr. Washington Vandusen, who is erect and very hale and vigorous, and on the 31st of July, 1868, will be ex- actly sixty-three and a half (63i) years old, was born in the Fairman Mansion, the property and home of his father, Matthew Vandusen, Sr., and lived in it until early manhood. It was destroyed by the condemnation of the district, in order to open Beach street, while he was away, in Georgia, in 1824-5, as one of a party cutting live-oak for the De la Plata, the frigate whose name Mr. Tees at first could not recollect. His family, besides the materials it com- prised, received twenty-seven hundred dollars ($2,700) for it; and he thinks would have received considerably more but for the haste of his friend Mr. Tees and partners, who greatby hurried the negotiation, wanting the house Out of the way and Beach street cut through. Although, at the same time, he believes, they were under the conviction, that they were doing the very best thing for the interests of his family. He said his father used to tell the citizens, when they talked of condemning the home- stead, that they could not purchase it, with his will, unless in exchange for another near at hand equally good. This would have been difficult, for it was a large, well-planned and exceedingly well- •f 57 years old in November, 186S. J Mr. Tees' statement was revised in the presence of his son, Mr. Lewis Tees. built mansion. It stood immediate^ facing the Delaware, its lower or western front parlor window looking almost in a straight line, at right-ano-le to the river road, towards the Treaty Tree. The house was about fifty feet in depth, there being only a foot or two between its rear and the present building line of Beach street. Its length, with the river and along the road, was about one hundred feet, made up thus, 18 to 20 feet in a division on the extreme east, (wherein dwelt, in Mr. Yandusen's time, Michael Lynn§ and fainity, and where were born Lynn's sons, Robert and John, and where afterwards Griffie Vaughn dwelt), about 30 feet in the front parlor, about 18 feet in the great hall through from front to rear, about 15 feet in the piazza, partly open and partly closed, and about 18 to 20 feet in the kitchen, at the extreme western side of the house. The front parlor occupied half the depth of the mansion from Lynn's portion to the hall, going from the east- ward ; the back parlor and the stairway took up the remainder. This stairwa} 7 was large enough for four persons to ascend it abreast. The second story was arranged in a similarly commodious style. There was a vaulted and paved cellar under the entire body of the house, except beneath the part allotted to Michael Lynn, which was all taken up with four large and fine ovens com- municating with the cellar ; he thinks no cellar under the kitchen. The lower story of the porch at the western end was open, front and sides ; the projection at the eastern end, corresponding archi- tecturally with the porch, was on the ground floor, a pantry communicating with the front parlor. The house was well situated on gently rising ground, and took an}- light breeze in such a manner as to be splendidly ventilated in summer, being, Mr. Vandusen thinks, the most pleasant dwelling he ever was in. It was two stories and a half high. § The shipsmith.
 * Now 7S years old.