Famous Ankles

At Vanderbilt Avenue and 46th Street (right across the street from Grand Central, on the west side) is a nice little place with the initials YC.

It’s the Yale Club. There are a whole bunch of these little university-based clubs in NYC. The only one I’ve been to was the Princeton Club, but that was by invitation from a vendor at my company (the vendor’s owner was, I think, a member).

But the site is more than the current location of the Yale Club. I recently spotted the plaque below just at the edge of the building.

It reads “At the British artillery Park near this site, Nathan Hale, Captain in the U.S. Army, Yale Graduate of 1773, apprehended within enemy lines while seeking information, was executed on the morning of September 22, 1776. His last words were ‘I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country’ Erected by Mary Washington Colonial Capter, D.A.R. and the Yale Club of New York”

I hadn’t realized it had taken place so close to where I live. Nor had I ever realized how early in the Revolution that his hanging had occured, only about 3 months into it.

-H

This entry was posted on April 27, 2008 at 5:18 pm and is filed under Manhattan, Mid-town, Wanderings. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.