Lydia Lindsley's House Stuyvesant Avenue Photos Do you have a photo of Vailsburg? If so please email me.

From Charles McGrath:

When it was torn down 37 years ago I tried to salvage portions of it. I retrieved two large beams and a portion of the brick oven. I have portions of the pegged beams (tendon and mortise ) with roman numerals carved on them. The roman numerals were evidently used to identify each beam .I never seen this done before because the beams were made on site. The roman numerals were corrupt. For the number 4 they used IIII instead of IV. For the number 8 they used IIIV instead of VIII. (See the attached photo).

This is somewhat academic because the important question is why were they marked. There would be no need to identify them during construction. It's my contention that this house may have been moved to its present location in the early 1700's. I also think that this house could have been built by Micha Tompkins ( Deacon Michael Tompkins, Lot #6 on the 1666 Map of Newark). In 1726 when Stuyvesant Avenue was being laid out out. It spoke about a road four rods in width running northerly across on the easterly side of Micha Tompkins orchard and house. It takes many years to develop an orchard. I would guess that his house was built in circa 1700.

The house was replaced by a small apartment.

(The 1881 map is large. Please remember that the bar at the top of the image allows you to place it anywhere on the page. The close button is at the far right.)