Jersey City History
Lafayette: A Guide to its Legends and Landmarks
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The history of Lafayette is an untold history. While Washington Irving's legendary visit to the Van Horne's "House of the Four Chimneys" is immortalized in such classics as "A History of New York" and "Wolfert's Roost," Lafayette remains largely forgotten in the annals of history. How can a nearly 400-year-old neighborhood remain so overlooked by scholars? Somehow, as we walk through the streets of Lafayette under the shadows of landmarks past and present, its escaped origins emerge, revealing themselves in bricks and cornerstones, steeples and smokestacks. The voices of centuries-old generations ring true, reminding us about transatlantic voyages, Indian villages, ancient trails, Dutch settlements, African-American burial grounds, railroads, ferries, industries, local legends. Continuing onward, observing more, it is as if we ourselves become the historian, capturing what had come before, writing what had never been written.