My Rye

Ben Franklin's Milestone 25

(PHOTO: Ben Franklin's Milestone 25) A big MyRye.com thanks to reader and Rye Newcomers and Neighbors’ Club co-president Lora Katsikas who read our article on Ben Franklin's Milestone 24 and pointed out in a comment where to find milestone 25.

The words on this milestone are clear: "25 Miles from N". The remaining letters have chipped off. It also looks as if a plaque on the bottom of the milestone has been removed.

To find the marker look along the rock wall across and just south from Parkway Drive along the Boston Post Road.

Ben Franklin's Milestone 24; American History in Rye

If that history class or history book is getting a little dull, just take a walk.

We have spoken about our friend Benjamin Franklin and his travels thru Rye setting up mile markers along The Boston Post Road for the 254 miles between New York City and Boston. We found Franklin's milestone number 24 along the Post Road by the Jay House.

According to this Associated Press article:

"Franklin was put in charge of the colonial postal system by the British government in the mid-18th century. His first challenge: overcoming the suspicions of his Yankee customers, who were sure they were being cheated on postage that was assessed by the mile.

So in the summer of 1753 Franklin set out on the Boston Post Road in a carriage with a homemade odometer attached to the wheel. Every mile a stake was driven into the ground. A crew followed behind, setting stone markers."

To find the mile marker, park at the Jay House or just inside the driveway of the Marshlands Conservancy. Walk along The Boston Post Road so, when facing the Jay House, you are just to the right of the front door. You will see the red-ish mile marker embedded on the stone wall.

If you look very closely, one can actually see the number "24" still barely visible on the mile marker. A small plaque is also affixed which says:

"This is one of some 230 markers erected on the Boston Post Road in 1763.

Their locations were fixed by Benjamin Franklin, then Deputy Postmaster General, who for that purpose drove a chaise with a distance recorder over the route.

Restored to this its original position June 1st, 1927, by the Village of Rye.

"Remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set." (Proverbs XXII, Verse 28.)"

Bambi Visits the Jay House

Nine deer were getting their fill of American history in front of the Jay House. Maybe they heard about the new door. If we were back in the 1700s, you'd be looking at dinner.

Photo taken Sunday, March 9, 2008 at 5pm.

A Door into History Back on Its Hinges

Rye has a "new" door into history. Sunday's New York Times recounted the terrific story of Suzanne Clary, president of the Jay Heritage Center, hunting for the missing original front door of the Peter Augustus Jay House. The house sits on the site of the boyhood farm of founding father John Jay.

The Jay house was in a shambles after a long battle in the 1980s with developer Diane Millstein who finally lost her battle to pave over a piece of American history with private homes. One of the pieces missing from the home was the front door. From the Times:

"So just before Christmas, Ms. Clary, a tall, blue-eyed whirlwind who strides through the Jay house in a powder blue Burberry winter coat (the house is not yet well heated), put out an all-points bulletin, sending letters to Jay neighbors wondering if any had ended up with missing architectural elements. At the top of a hit parade that included fireplace caryatids and a mahogany staircase newel was the almost 10-foot-tall, hand-carved front door.

As Ms. Clary tells it, she was recovering from Christmas dinner when the phone rang and a middle-aged man’s voice said, “I’ve got your door.”

Ms. Clary barely waited for details. She raced by car to the home of Andrew Delli Paoli, who lives less than a quarter-mile from the Jay house along Boston Post Road in a mid-19th-century house. She knew the instant she saw the white door propped outside his house that it was the one. The curls in the honeysuckle design, known as an anthemion, echoed the carving in the pilasters straddling the makeshift Jay front door.

Mr. Delli Paoli, who owns an asphalt business, told her that the door was in the basement when he bought the house 20 years before and that he never used it.

“I told him it was the best Christmas present I ever got,” Ms. Clary recalled. “He said, ‘Don’t tell your husband that.’”

John Jay: Rye Farm Boy, Nation Builder

Continuing our week of American History, John Jay, also a founding father of our nation, is a Rye notable. With numerous roles in American history, Jay is best know for serving as the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (appointed by George Washington) and as one of the three authors of the Federalist Papers, along with Alexander Hamilton and James Madison.

(PHOTO: John Jay's Nomination to the 1st Continental Congress, courtesy JohnJay.net) Jay lived in Manhattan and his family maintained a farm in Rye. The site is now a National Historic Landmark and is open to the public. The Jay property sits adjacent to the Marshlands Conservancy and won its preservation in the 1990s after a bitter battle with local developer Diane Millstein who wanted to knock down the Jay home and develop homes on the surrounding 23 acres.

The Jay Center describes some of John Jay's accomplishments:

"Few men had more influence on establishing the United States than John Jay. He served in an array of high offices including President of the Continental Congress and Secretary for Foreign Affairs. As a negotiator of the Treaty of Paris, which ended the American Revolution, Jay insisted that the British negotiate with the United States of America, rather than with thirteen colonies.

Jay is best known as the first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and as one of the three authors of The Federalist papers, along with Hamilton and Madison. Jay’s persuasiveness was a significant factor in securing ratification of the Constitution.

John Jay grew up on the Jay Heritage Center property. Although it was inherited by his older brother, the Rye farm remained a place of refuge for Jay throughout his public career. Jay’s son replaced his father’s boyhood home with the 1838 mansion, which is considered a masterpiece of the Greek Revival style."

Benjamin Franklin and the Boston Post Road

Originally called Pequot Path by the Indians, the the Boston Post Road was re-named by the Colonists. It was given the name Boston Post Road since it was a series of post roads designed to deliver mail and serve as the primary road from Lower Manhattan to Boston.

Benjamin Franklin, a founding father of the United States, who served many roles in American history, had mile stone markers fixed along the road in 1763 while he was Postmaster General. Many of the original milestones are still in place. One milestone is viewable along the Post Road in front of the Jay House.

Why did Franklin have mile markers installed? Did he have to go before Brian Dempsey's Traffic and Transit Committee or the Rye City Council with a petition signed by neighbors? According to the Associated Press:

"Franklin was put in charge of the colonial postal system by the British government in the mid-18th century. His first challenge: overcoming the suspicions of his Yankee customers, who were sure they were being cheated on postage that was assessed by the mile.

So in the summer of 1753 Franklin set out on the Boston Post Road in a carriage with a homemade odometer attached to the wheel. Every mile a stake was driven into the ground. A crew followed behind, setting stone markers."

President John Adams: See You at the Bar

Yesterday we wrote about George Washington and the 1700s bar scene in Rye. In 1774, another man destined to be an American President, John Adams, visited Rye and stayed at the Square House on his way to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia.

Adams lived outside Boston in Quincy, Massachussets and the Boston Post Road was the main road between Boston and New York City.

(PHOTO: Painting is John Trumbull's Declaration of Independence. Adams is on the left in the group of five in front of the desk) Adams mentioned his visit to the Square House in handwritten notes. A reproduction of those notes was included at a 2006 exhibit at the Square House called "Danger and Division: Rye During the Revolution".

Adams served as our second President.

Rye and the American Presidency: It's Miller Time in 1775

Rye is teaming with American history, and it is fitting to take today, President's Day, to point out the role our fine city has played in the history of the United States.

The first American President, George Washington, stayed at Rye's Square House at least twice, "remarking favorably on his stay in his diaries" according to Wikipedia. One of Washington's stays was in 1775 on his way to take command of the Continental Army. One diary entry, according to this New York Times article from 1913, went as follows:

"Washington, on his journey through New England after his inauguration as President, was entertained there [Square House] and mentions the incident in his diary under the date of Oct. 15, 1789: "After dinner, we proceeded to a tavern kept by Mrs. Haviland at Rye, who keeps a very neat and decent inn. The distance of this day's travel was 31 miles, in which we passed through East Chester, New Rochelle, and Mamaroneck, but as these places, though they have houses of worship in the, are not regularly laid out, they are scarcely to be distinguished from the intermediate farms, which are very close together.""

The Square House, located on Purchase street in downtown Rye and maintained as a museum by the Rye Historical Society, was built in 1730 and operated for many years as a tavern and inn.

The tavern/inn combo may have been a way to keep patrons from drinking and horseback riding back home. No word if George met Martha at the bar (Martha's friends: you're right, that guy is kind of cute. I hear he is planning the start a country, so make your move...).

Rye Friends Meeting House

On Milton Road, close to the Rye City marina and at the mouth of Milton Harbor and Blind Brook, is the Rye Friends Meeting House. The wooden chapel and bell tower has been in continuously used for worship for over 100 years.

According the the sign at the site, the Meeting House has Quaker beginnings and was built in 1835. The founder of Quakerism, George Fox, landed in Rye in 1678.

The Meeting House and 1.12 acre was purchased by the City in 2002 with $150,000 provided through the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) and the state Clean Water, Clean Air Bond Act (sounds like a bargain). From the 2002 announcement:

"the new Sound access project will provide a direct connection to the coast and will preserve land within the coastal floodplain, coastal wetlands and riparian habitat. 

The property will be dedicated as parkland. Following the acquisition, the City plans to design and construct a pedestrian trailway along the waterfront connecting the purchased parcel to the existing marina park. Additional improvements will include signage and landscaping to increase views of the sound."

We could use some more of that "land preservation within the coastal floodplain" right about now. Nice move in 2002.

Someone does need to get this Meeting House a nice new coat of Benjamin Moore.

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(Above) The Rye Friends Meeting House property extends down to the mouth of Blind Brook as it empties into Milton Harbor and the Long Island Sound. It is the Blind Brook that severely flooded on March 2nd and again on April 15th causing over $80 million in damage across the City of Rye.