tower will be fourteen feet, with the windows about twelve feet in height and wider than the former ones. There will be no flagpole on the new tower, but the City Hall will have four without this one. The same statue that was on the old cupola will be used and maybe the same clockworks, both of which survived the flames.

It is proposed to place in the cupola the town bell that once hung in the village of Tremont in the Borough of the Bronx. The bell was cast about 40 years ago and weighs 1500 pounds. It is 37 inches high and 42 inches in diameter at the rim. The bell has been owned by the city for 25 years but has not been used for many years. It reverted to the city when the Bronx was added to Greater New York and before that it hung in the belfry of the meeting house in the village of Tremont. It was the village alarm for fires, town meetings, and, in fact, all public gatherings of the citizens of Tremont.*

NEW YORK COUNTY COURT-HOUSE

Project for New Edifice at a Stand-still

On January 23, 1918, the Hon. Bernard Downing of New York City introduced in the State Senate a bill (introductory No. 184) "to abolish the Court House Board of the City of New York, to transfer its powers to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment of such city, and to provide for the disposition of the property heretofore controlled by such Court IIouse Board." The bill provided that the Board of Estimate could cause the land acquired for the new court house to be abandoned for that purpose and sell it or apply it to other public uses.†

This movement to abandon the new court house project was foreshadowed at the time of the municipal election in November, 1917, when the administration of Mayor Mitchel was attacked by his rival candidate for alleged extravagance in connection with the court house plans. (The history of the development of these plans

* The bell was hung in the steel frame skeleton of the new cupola on Saturday, April 13, 1918. It struck the hours and was tolled for the first time in its new position on the day of the funeral of ex-Mayor Mitchel, Thursday, July 11.

†The bill failed to pass.

has been given very fully from year to year in the Annual Reports of this Society.) On November 4, 1917, a statement signed by Mayor J. P. Mitchel, Comptroller William A. Prendergast, and Ex-President of the Board of Aldermen George McAneny, was made public in justification of the course pursued. The statement will be found in full in the New York Times of November 5, 1917. The essential parts of it, containing an excellent summary of events and an explanation of the delay in building, are as follows:

"The agitation for a new Court House to replace the dilapidated Tweed structure was commenced fifteen years ago. The legislative act providing for the appointment of a Court House Commission, and requiring the city to provide funds for a site and building, was Chapter 336 of the Laws of 1903. Amendments to this act, making its provisions more mandatory and setting a time. limit of six months for the selection of a site, were passed in October, 1911, when Judge Gaynor was Mayor, and whatever has been done since was done in pursuance of legislative direction.

"The Corporate Stock Committee of the Board of Estimate, then composed of Mr. Prendergast, Mr. Mitchel, and Mr. MeAneny, was opposed to the plan, and favored the reconstruction of the present building.* The Judges, various citizen bodies, and a large portion of the press held the other view, and the Legislature, at their instance, ordered the work ahead.

"The site takent was the cheapest and the most convenient that could be found. It was selected under the advice of a committee consisting of some of the best architects and engineers in the city, and approved by everybody else officially concerned. Later engineering investigations showed that the Collect Pond as an element in the foundation work was a myth. After several hundred borings had been made, the Chief Consulting Engineer, Daniel E. Moran, reported:

"I have no hesitation in saying that natural conditions at the site are favorable for a cheap and entirely safe foundation, and that the plans provide adequately for the support of the building. Compared with conditions elsewhere on Manhattan Island south of Fourteenth Street, I have no hesitation in saying that for economical and satisfactory foundations no more advantageous site of equal extent could be found.'

The Tweed Court House on the north side of the City Hall in City Hall Park.

Bounded by Leonard, Lafayette, Baxter and Park Streets.

"In order to avail itself of the new principle of excess condemnation, that had just been incorporated by the vote of the people in the Constitution of the State, the city deliberately took more land than it needed for the building itself, proposing to sell the excess' sections at the higher figures the improvement would create. It was to enable the city to save money in this businesslike way that the constitutional amendment had been passed, although the Court House act expressly permitted it. Nothing, however, is to be held for civic center' purposes and, so far as the Board of Estimate is concerned, nothing of the sort was intended to be held. The net cost of the site, after the sale of the remainders, has been figured by real estate experts at from $7,000,000 to $8,000,000. The sites under consideration of the Court House Board before this selection was made were figured at from $12,000,000 to $18,000.000.

"The selection of plans for the building was left by the law entirely to the Court House Board appointed by Mayor Gaynor and to the Judges of the Supreme Court. In the manner the law provided they selected the round type of building, and appointed Mr. Guy Lowell as architect. The Board of Estimate retained, however, the veto power on costs. When the estimates on Mr. Lowell's plans were reported to be around $15,000,000 the Board of Estimate served notice on the Court House Board that they must be cut to $10,000,000, the figure fixed at the time the act of 1911 was passed. This was done, the plans being entirely remodeled to permit it. Later the Board of Estimate insisted on a further cut to $7,500,000. At the time Mr. McAneny left the board this was the situation.

“When in March, 1916, the Court House Board pressed for an appropriation in this amount, conditions had changed. The mounting costs of steel and other construction, due to the war, threatened to drive the total cost of the building to prohibitive figures. Coincidently, the city's borrowing margin became greatly reduced through demands of the Public Service Commission for further appropriations for subways, in excess of their original estimates. The Board of Estimate concluded that it would be good business to wait until these conditions had passed; and that the loss in carrying the idle land for a year or two would not be comparable to the loss that immediate construction would entail.

"These are the facts. No values in the property will be lost. The Board of Estimate was, however, required by law to buy a site, and it has been in no way responsible for the delays that have occurred in putting that site to use. As soon as it is possible, the work of building will, no doubt, proceed, unless the Legislature undoes what it has heretofore done. The site has not been abandoned, and could not be."

During the past year the vacant lots and cellar excavations left after the removal of the buildings from the Court House site have been largely filled up and the surface is being graded at the time of this Report.

THE OLD COLONNADE OF LAFAYETTE PLACE

Correction of Date of Erection

In our last Annual Report (1917), at pages 140-142, we gave a sketch of the block of columned houses standing at Nos. 428, 430, 432 and 434 Lafayette street, New York City (formerly Lafayette place), formerly called Colonnade Row, or La Grange Terrace. Having stated that it was built in 1838, we are favored with a note from Mr. Hopper Striker Mott, who calls attention to an article by him in the New York Sun of January 13, 1918, in which, he says, he proves that the block was erected in 1831.

MACOMB LANDMARKS

The Macomb Family

Two events in 1917 combined to direct attention to landmarks of the Macomb family who took conspicuous parts in the history of the United States, the State of New York and the City of New York. One was the celebration of the completion of the Catskill Aqueduct, and the other was the threatened destruction of the Macomb mansion on the northwest corner of Broadway and 230th street, New York City. In Appendix E of this Report we give, by courtesy of Mr. Macomb G. Foster of New York, a copy of Robert Macomb's proposal to the Common Council in 1819 to bring a water supply into the city from Rye pond and Bronx river, and in the following pages we give some other data, partly furnished by Mr. Foster, concerning other landmarks of the Macomb family and particularly of Alexander and Robert Macomb.*

* The name was also spelled McComb. For the sake of uniformity we have adopted the spelling Macomb except in direct quotations in which it was written otherwise.

Ancestral Family

Alexander and Robert Macomb's forefathers lived at the family seat at Dunturkey, parish of Ballynewn, county of Antrim, Ireland.

First Generation in America

John Macomb, the immigrant ancestor, came to America in 1755 and settled at Albany, N. Y. He brought with him two sons and one daughter, namely:

Second Generation in America

Alexander Macomb, who married first Catherine de Navarre, and second Christina Livingston, daughter of Philip Livingston of New York:

William Macomb, who married and had a daughter Catherine Macomb mentioned below; and

Anne Macomb, who married first Col. Francis von Pfister of the British army and second Capt. Thomas Bennett of the same service.

Catherine de Navarre, Alexander Macomb's first wife, was descended from distinguished French ancestors who settled at Quebec, Canada, in 1682. Her father, Robert de Navarre, was of noble family, and a man of great learning. IIe was sub-delegue and notaire royale under the French government at Detroit. He married Madam Bourrois, mother of Catherine de Navarre, abovenamed.

Alexander Macomb of the second generation, above-named, bought from the State of New York, in 1792-1798, at eight pence per acre, 3,934,899 acres of land in the Adirondack region known as Macomb's Purchase. This enormous tract of land is one of the great real estate landmarks of northern New York. It is indicated on the State map of the Adirondack Forest Preserve and is referred to innumerable times in the State Land List. The name of Macomb, or Macomb's Purchase, is perpetuated to this day in almost every real estate transaction connected with this great area. (See facsimile maps and field notes of original survey in the Annual Report of the State Engineer and Surveyor for the fiscal year ended September 30, 1903; also page 198, Book 18 of Land Patents, in the Secretary of State's office at Albany; also