Instead, Grace Church, its garden and rectory cover the site of the old
homestead. Later the vestry of Grace Church was to play old Brevoort's
game. "Boss" Tweed determined to cut through or make the church pay
handsomely for immunity. The vestry defied him. Tweed never acted.

There was another Henry Brevoort in the family. He it was who built the
house that now stands at the northwest corner of the Avenue and Ninth
Street. That Henry was the grandfather of James Renwick, Jr., the
architect who built Grace Church and St. Patrick's Cathedral. His house
was one of the great houses of the early days. Now known as the De Rham
house--Brevoort sold it in 1857 to Henry De Rham for fifty-seven
thousand dollars,--it still strikes the passer-by on account of its
individuality of appearance. But long before the De Rhams entered in
possession it had its romance. There, the evening of February 24, 1840,
was held the first masked ball ever given in New York. It was, to quote
Mr. George S. Hellman, "the most splendid social affair of the first
half of the nineteenth century." But it was also the last masked ball
held in the town for many years.

The name of the British Consul to New York at the time was Anthony
Barclay, and he had a daughter. Her name was Matilda; she is described
as having been a belle of great charm and beauty, and as having had a
number of suitors. Of course, after the fashion of all love stories, the
suitor favoured by her was the one of whom her parents most disapproved.
He was a young South Carolinian named Burgwyne. Opposition served only
to fan the flame, and the lovers met by stealth, and the gay Southerner
wooed the fair Briton in the good old school poetical manner. In soft
communion of fancy they wandered together to far lands; to:

"that delightful Province of the Sun,