The Wheaton Family relations in front of Gracie Mansion in early spring ca. 1890
About The Yorkville Nutcracker
The Yorkville Nutcracker is set in 1895. William L. Strong has been elected mayor of Olde New York. He is a fusion candidate who pledges to reform the corruption that permeates Tammany Hall. He appoints as part of his reform minded administration Theodore Roosevelt, as President of the Board of Police Commissioners. Roosevelt had already served in the New York State Assembly, had previously run for mayor of New York, and had a stellar national reputation as a reformer, writer, and man of principals (including a famous incident where he did not shoot a young bear; whereby the term "Teddy" Bear was created). William Strong will be the last mayor before the enactment of the Charter of Greater New York. The charter consolidated the outlining counties that surround New York harbor. These include the independent counties of Queens, Kings, Richmond, and the Bronx. The charter is ratified in 1898, and Mayor Van Wyck becomes the first mayor, and perhaps the most corrupt, of a consolidated New York City.1895 is a time of growth for New York. The population soared past 3 million people, and Olde New York is pushing further uptown. The farms and country estates of what is now the Upper East Side and Harlem, were being developed and subdivided by "Lots". These included estates of families like Astor, Rhinelander and Schermerhorn. The most famous estate in this area is Gracie Mansion.
Gracie Mansion was built on top of the remnants of an old Revolutionary War fort on Horn's Hook, The property was strategically located at the confluence of the Harlem River, Long Island Sound, and the East River overlooking Hell Gate. In 1798 the property was purchased for $5,625, and the mansion built as the country estate of the shipping merchant and director of The Bank of New York, Archibald Gracie (Gracie's residence was on Pearl Street). It was built in the Federal Style about 1799. It was a two story double chimney structure. On the main floor was a central hall with two rooms on either side. The second floor had three bedrooms, a storeroom, and a closet. The main entrance faced east towards Hell Gate. Some additions were made between 1802-1804, to bring the mansion to almost its present appearance. Noah Wheaton was born in 1808 in North Branford, CT., along the Connecticut River. He arrived in New York in 1854 from Hartford, where he had been a house builder and opened a business selling window blinds. Noah Wheaton's business fortunes changed many times over the next 40 years. These included several years of insolvency and default. In 1857 Wheaton's business success enabled him to buy Gracie Mansion along with 12 lots, running from 88th to 89th Street for $25,000. His entire family including his daughters moved into the house. In 1884 Wheaton's oldest daughter Jane Wheaton, married the real estate broker and New York Councilman Hamlin Babcock. In 1888 Babcock set in motion a series of lawsuits, because of Wheaton's defaults, that gave him title to the mansion in 1892. Babcock made many improvements to the interior of the mansion that reflected his wealth and stature. Noah Wheaton resided in the mansion with the Babcocks until 1896. In 1896 the mansion was sold to the city for over one million dollars. The sale occurred so that the city could expand a park and walkway along the river. The undeveloped areas that surrounded the mansion along what was known as Avenue B, now East End Avenue were quickly becoming developed, and leisure space was needed for an expanding population. The mansion would eventually become the official residence of the mayor in 1942, during Fiorello La Guardia's third term.
The Dakota was completed in 1884. So named and ridiculed because it was so far uptown and remote, that it might as well have been in the Dakota Territories. In 1884 Dakota was still an Indian Territory. The Dakota was New York's first luxury apartment building, designed like a chateau in a German Renaissance Style. The Dakota overlooks Central Park. Notable is the view of the Dakota from the lake in Central Park. Between 76th and 77th Streets along West Side Drive, Balcony Bridge spans the part of the lake that was known as "Ladies Pond". Balcony Bridge was so named because its small balconies and stone benches were thought to make an ideal resting spot to pause and look at the surrounding landscape. Filled in the 1930's, "Ladies Pond" was reserved in the 1870's for female skaters and their guests. Even in the 1890's women skaters were relegated to limited hours of leisure activity on the main part of the lake.
If development was a theme of a growing and aspiring New York, The New York Botanical Gardens was founded in 1888 as a respite to urbanization. Its magical landscape of waterfalls, old mill, and The Bronx River were meant to create a diversion from the rigors of a changing metropolis. The New York Botanical Garden's great Victorian glasshouse, designed by Lord & Burnham and constructed beginning in 1899, is acknowledged to be the preeminent Victorian-era glass structure in North America. It was designated a New York City landmark in 1973. And yet, although the Conservatory is loved and respected, it has required constant repair since it opened to the public in 1902. The levels of heat and moisture required by the plants, combined with the effects of New York City's constantly changing weather, have eaten away at the structure. With the Beyer Blinder Belle restoration, The New York Botanical Garden believes it has finally solved each of the Conservatory's structural, environmental, and maintenance issues and has assured the building's long-term stability. Today its "Glass House" and its landscape truly are a "Kingdom of the Sweets"!
