COLONIAL HOUSE OF 1750 TO BE RAZED FOR NEW PARKWAY; LEGEND SAYS THAT
GENERAL HOVE CAMPED THERE IN 1776.
One of the last of the old houses of Forest Hills will pass with the construction
of Queens County's new park system when the Colonial homestead on Union
turnpike about a half a mile from Queens Boulevard, built 181 years ago,
is torn down. it stands in the path of the parkway which will link Interboro
and Grand Central.
The house, originally owned by William Furman, was later better known as
the Timothy Jackson place. It was built in 1750 in that section of Whitepot
which has now become Forest Hills.
General Howe in command of the British forces, is said to have encamped
at the farm in September, 1776. Because squads of soldiers plundered the
farmhouses of the section, a number of the colonial homeowners buried their
money to save it. A few coins of Colonial times have been found in the grounds
around the old Furman house by its present occupants, Mr. and Mrs. Jacob
Lang.
The farm was best known after it was purchased by Timothy Jackson in 1820,
and was named Willow Glen Farm, so-called because of the beautiful old weeping
Willow trees that surrounded it. It became noted as a fashionable resort
for lovers of fine horses and was run as a stock farm for raising of carriage
and race horses. A halfmile track, known as the Whitepot Rac& Track,
was laid out, and the farm became the meeting place, where the elite of
the city met and watched their favorites work out.
Among the patrons of Willow Glen Farm were Robert Bonner, editor of the
New York Ledger, and A. T. Stewart. Bonner was owner of Maud S., one of
the fastest horses in the country.
This is an excerpt of a typewritten manuscript, one of two pages. The approximate
date of document is 1933. No known provenance.