MESEROLE FARM

A new Joe Kirsch original, and a bit of a pet project for me through my imaginary eyes, travelling home to GreenPoint in the late 1700's, and knowing that

Lots of true references in this one from "... mister down the road...", to the "...carousel and porcelain mills..."

Based on the historic Meserole farm built around the footprint 1000 Lorimer Street between Norman and Meserole. The 13 room mansion built in 1790 and sadly torn down in 1919.

The song features two outstanding and "authentic country players": award winning singer and cabaret artist Sarah Mucho and educator, multi-instrument musician, straight outta Tazewell Tennessee, Brian Daniels.

Although the 3-story, 13-room mansion, built in 1790 at 1000 Lorimer Street in GreenPoint Brooklyn is now a multilevel condo, its spirit is more than alive and well with the release of a vivid, musical bluegrass tale by a homegrown local who still lives within the footprint of the old MESEROLE FARM. A tribute and musical account of the historic significance of The Meserole's, one of the first five families of this now prominent Brooklyn neighborhood

Since his retirement in 2018 from ABC radio/television Networks and National Public Radio, former Assistant Director of Engineering and native Greenpointer Joe "Kirsch" Curcio contiues to keep the GreenPoint local history alive at GreenPointMusic.com with an extensive catalog of the rich heritage and music from his "GreenPoint family of artists". Including images, bio's, on-demand and live radio programs, as well as classic "Greenpoint recordings" from the 50s and 60s.

Vinyl digitized music from local talent such as The Pell Brothers, "a couple of neighborhood Italian guys", who after sharing the stage with the likes of Patsy Cline, Wanda Jackson, and being featured with Johnny Cash and the Carter sisters in a 1957 country magazine profile, are now considered to be country music icons -- to a rare audio excerpt from the Ted Mack amateur hour featuring "The Singing Elevator Operator from Brooklyn", Mike D'Alto.

Through his Engineering prowess, Kirsch even took four "geographically imaired" former GreenPoint musicians from four different states and put them back together in the same "virtual" room to record songs and reunite THE RICE MILLER BAND - a local favorite GreenPoint blues band and famous mid 70s, Mercury records act.

Meserole Farm, written by Joe Kirsch and produced by himself and life long music partner Carl Battista features MAC award nominated vocalist and former Greenpointer Sarah Mucho on lead vocal. The lyric cleverly covers everything from the once famous Meserole orchards, Newtown Pippin apples that were once exported to Europe in the late 17th century ("...mister Dobbin down the road pulling apples from the grove..."), to the Union porcelain factory of Eckford street and references to the first carousels produced on Bedford Avenue and Guernsey street, literally steps away from Kirsch's current home ("...as the carousel and porcelain mill burn the candle all night long..."). Even 'till today, visible from Kirsch's"stoop", Guernsey Street, once part of the lush and flourishing Meserole orchards, still has a unique green, leafy roof over its street "like a foliage tunnel".

Long before open mic nights in Williamsburg and metal shows at Brooklyn Steel (which ironically, is on the former sight of Kirsch's paternal grandfathers home), in 1992 Joe Kirsch created GreenPointusa.com, a predecessor to GreenPointMusic, and the first website totally dedicated to GreenPoint Brooklyn.

At its peak, the site was receiving nearly 350 thousand "hits" per month, and became famous for its interactive bulletin board known as The White Wall - an electronic "wall" where users could post and read viewer comments long before FaceBook.

Soon to follow, Kirsch released the first book about GreenPoint since 1945. "Welcome To GreenPoint", a manuscript which is still made available in The Brooklyn Public Library as reference material to those seeking information about the treasures of GreenPoint - Williamsburg Brooklyn, the once working class enclave on the Queens border, along the banks of the Newtown Creek, and the home of Meserole Farm..

THE OLD MESEROLE MANSION

Until the 1960s, New York had very little sense of the importance of historic preservation. It allowed the majestic Pennsylvania Station to be demolished in a tragic act of architectural homicide. The same was true in Greenpoint. In 1919, a similar local crime against posterity was committed with the demolition of the sprawling colonial Meserole family mansion.

The original building was three stories high with a piazza. Later, a two-story extension was built on the west side of the house, and a single-floor extension was added to that western wing. A sitting room at the center of the house had all the original colonial hand-hewn boards, but other parts of the house were remodeled far more comfortably and elegantly.

The house was constructed at a time when Greenpoint was an isolated farming hamlet. Peter Meserole not only built the structure himself, but he even had to manufacture his own wooden �nails� to join the sections of wood together.

If the house was impressive, then the grounds were even more so. Once the house was surrounded by the famed Meserole orchard, which in its heyday produced hundreds of boxes of apples and cherries that were exported to Europe. The orchard was also famed for the many songbirds, which rid it of insects that ate the valuable fruit. The orchard extended east to Leonard Street, west to the river, south to Norman Avenue, and north to Calyer Street. Manhattan Avenue was once even called Orchard Avenue, so famous were the Meserole groves. There was a kind of clearing in the orchard with a fine view of 23rd Street in Manhattan in the far distance.

Adrian Meserole, Peter�s son, born in 1822, was the last occupant of the house. He was lonely as a young boy, because there were only five families in all of Greenpoint and only one boy his age. There was no local church or school, so he had to walk to Bushwick, unlocking the gates of the farms he passed on his way to school.

Adrian and his nine siblings were raised tending the orchard and harvesting its abundant fruit. The orchard was such a beautiful spot that it was compared to the Garden of Eden, which is perhaps the reason why the area came to be known as � The Garden Spot� of Brooklyn. Meserole was old enough to recall his parents� stories of slaves who cleared lumber in Greenpoint before the revolution.

Adrian loved the orchard, but he loved money even more, and he began to sell parts of the orchard off for real estate development. To facilitate his property�s development, he cut a lane through his groves later called �Meserole Avenue.� It became Greenpoint�s first street. Selling off the land made him a rich man, and he died a millionaire. He died 91 years after his birth�only a few feet away from the very spot in the house where he was born.

I am not a Meserole, but came across this and thought someone might find it helpful.

Greenpoint Daily Star � 23 July 1898

The "Orchard"
Brief History of This Prosperous Section of Greenpoint.

The reader interested in antiquarian lore can see here presented the first tree of the famous "Orchard" of Greenpoint, which was cut down in the spring of 1846, to help make way for opening of Meserole avenue to Guernsey street.It was an apple tree, and its cutting may be said to mark the birth of the newGreenpoint.It was the early springtime, and that is the reason why there is no foliage on the trees of the Orchard still standing.It will be observed that the man who cut the tree down was of an economical turn of mind, for he proceeded immediately to saw the old tree into firewood.

But, pleasantry aside, the time of the beginning of the disappearance of the famous old Orchard, in the spring of 1846, was a noteworthy event in the history of Greenpoint.Though hundreds of houses now stand on the site of this orchard, the section still bears the name, and thousands of people nowwalk where only a little over fifty years ago a solitary person might now and again be seen wending his way over the green grass where the old orchard swayed in the breezes.
There is always something pleasant in the suggestion of an orchard.It means cleanliness, quiet, repose and delightful fragrance.It is doubtful if any of the hurrying multitudes of the present day find the peace and contented mind that characterized the people of the section in the old, old days.

Jacob MESEROLE, the grandfather, and Peter, the father of Adrian, could stand in the front doorway of the family residence, still to be seen on Lorimer street (and then in the midst of the Orchard), and look down to the East river and over to sparsely settled New York to the present Twenty-sixth street on the north and Houston street on the south.There was an opening in the Orchard from this doorway,a sort of avenue, or more properly speaking a pathway, lined on each side with fruit trees.
A Delightful Place.

It was a delightful place, that old Orchard, from all accounts.Within these limits now are half a dozen or more churches.From the designation comes the title of various organizations, etc., that will carry the appellation, the "Orchard," to a period when the majority of men living will wonder when ce the distinction.We have today the Orchard Primitive Methodist Church.As State the locality still goes under the name of the Orchard, and as already intimated the name alone is suggestive of peace and plenty, green grass, fresh air, sunshine and shade, and the scent of the apple blossoms pervades the air, provided it was the time of year for them.
The big orchard, it may be said, ran from the east of the present Leonard street nearly to Guernsey street and Norman avenue on one side, and to about half way between Calyer street and Meserole avenue.There was a stone wall on the east side east of Leonard street.

The first trees of the Orchard were set out in 1774 just previous to the outbreak of the Revolutionary War.They were apple trees, and were set out by the grandfather of Adrian MESEROLE.The old homestead (the present residence of Adrian MESEROLE) stood pretty near the middle of the Orchard.Nearer the house were cherry trees. Two willow trees and two poplars stood near the house like sentinels.Looking toward the river were two rows of pear trees on one side of the lawn, and on the other and north side were apple trees.Then there was another and smaller orchard around the old original Jacob MESEROLE homestead, which stood facing Guernsey street south of Norman avenue.Near the residence on Lorimer street is still standing a big pear tree which is over one hundred years [old] which was one of the once original orchard.Cherry trees stood on the site of the building now facing Manhattan avenue and occupied by the CRANE furniture store.Many residents of the Ward remember a part of the orchard, that which surrounded the old homestead.The Sunday Schools at one time held their May Walk celebrations in the grove.Near by can be seen the stump of an old cherry tree that was set out in 1790.

NewtownPippins.
The sale of Newtown pippins was immense.It would almost seem as though we do not have such apples now; but that is possibly due to the glamour of imagination, and the fact that distance always lends enchantment, but , at the same time, good judge do say that Newtown pippins are not now what they were.The great product of the region, lying out toward Maspeth, was Newtownpippins .Pears ripened about July 1st, and apples later in July.There was an early summer apple.The cherries ripened about the middle of June.
Peter MESEROLE once shipped 800 barrels of Newtown pippins to Europe, all at one time.This will give an idea of the size of the crop.

It was a big business, this raising of cherries, apples, and pears, and the crop handsome and there was not the labor and worry incident to tilling the soil.

There were boys in those days who robbed � well borrowed the fruit from the Orchard without the formality of asking, just as they would now if the opportunity offered.But those boys of the long ago are just as prim and respectable now as we, who were not tempted, and no doubt one meets them of a Sunday on Manhattan avenue on their way to church.One of them told Mr. Adrian MESEROLE on Monday of this week of the way in which he and others used to visit the Orchard to see if the fruit was properly ripened and free from bugs.And the only manifestations of Mr. MESEROLE was a quiet smile.He probably knew it already.Whether or no the confession if made fifty years ago would have had a like result, or been followed by a long foot race ending in a spanking interview if caught, is impossible now to tell.

Along somewhere near or in the Orchard, probably at Eckford street, between Norman and Nassau avenues was located at one time the grounds of the Henry ECKFORD Base Ball Club.Frank PIGEON was the captain of this nine.The players came from the Eleventh Ward, New York.Indeed, it may be said that the Eleventh Ward was the mother of Greenpoint.From there came John C. ORR, the STEERS family and hosts of others.John C. ORR is remembered as a scholar in the old Fifth Street School in New York.
Mr. DOBBINS.

Soon after the first tree of the famous old Orchard was cut down, Mr. James DOBBINS appeared on the scene and built the first house in the Orchard.He came from the Eleventh Ward, of course.He built the house on ground where now stands the present Masonic Temple, at Manhattan and Meserole avenues.He cut down dozens of trees of the Orchard as he had a right to do as he had bought the land.This house was built in the fall of 1846, and Mr. DOBBINS and his family no doubt got in some way before the real "cold spell" set in.

One characteristic of the famous old Orchard was the many birds of various species.They made music all the day long amid the leafy branches through which the sun glinted.Their twittering and chirping in the early summer morning was delightful to hear � little busybodies out hunting for the early worm for breakfast for the waiting ones at home.All the varieties of Long Island birds were represented, and the thrifty MESEROLES aided and encouraged the birds to stay and rid them of the worms.Then there were crows in the famous old Orchard, and their resonant caw! caw! caw! was heard from one end to the other.There was a crow�s nest on the very spot where now stands the rink on Meserole avenue, and the crows worked for the thrifty MESEROLEs and drove away or ate up unseemly things that would destroy the apple, pear, and cherry trees.Peter MESEROLE could sit in his doorway and hear the cawing of the crows and the twittering of the birds and know that everything was all right.Peter MESEROLE would not allow any one of the family or out of the family to throw a stone at a robin or any other bird on his property.He knew their value.
More Building.

Well, to get back to building.In the summer of 1847, after Mr. DOBBINS built, other people began to do likewise and soon it became evident that the famous old Orchard was doomed.Clearings appeared here and there.James DOBBINS got into his new house on January 1st, 1847.He was a foreman for Schermerhorn & Banker, the ropemakers of Williamsburg.T.D.VANDEVEER, James CUTLER, John GRATAN, and King BARNS built in 1847 on Meserole avenue.Soon after Mr. BERRY, a caulker, built on Leonard street.Next came Edwin SMITH on Leonard street and he resides there now.Then there was Mr. PARAMORE on Leonard street.The first three to build on Lorimer street were William GILES, Charles OSBORN, and Andrew ROGERS, but none of these are there now.They and others were the advance guard of the host of business men who now swarm within the precincts of the famous old Orchard, and are as busy as were the birds and crows before them; for, as is well known, and to quote a trite aphorism, "it is the early bird that catches the worm," and there is nothing like being up in the morning before breakfast.