ear of his
house on Washington Square!'" When James Boorman built his house, it was
all open country behind it. Mr. Boorman built also the houses Nos. 1 and
3 Fifth Avenue and the stables that were the nucleus of the Washington
Mews of the present day. In the houses was opened, in 1835, a select
school for young ladies, presided over at first by Mr. Boorman's only
sister, Mrs. Esther Smith.

Soon, from Worcester, Massachusetts, came a Miss Green, a girl of
eighteen, to teach in the school. Another sister followed and in the
course of a few years the establishment became the Misses Green School,
which, for a long period, before and after the Civil War, was one of the
most distinguished institutions of its kind in the city. Later it was
carried on by the Misses Graham. There were educated the daughters of
the commercial and social leaders of New York. Among the pupils were
Fanny and Jenny Jerome, the latter afterwards to become Lady Randolph
Churchill, and the mother of Winston Churchill. A brother of Lucy and
Mary Green was Andrew H. Green, the "Father of Greater New York." He had
for a time a share in the direction of the establishment, and in 1844,
taught a class in American history. Some of the younger teachers came
from the Union Theological Seminary in Washington Square. Among the men
later to become distinguished, who lectured at the school, were Felix
Foresti, professor at the University, and at Columbia College, Clarence
Cook, Lyman Abbott, John Fiske, John Bigelow, teaching botany and
charming the young ladies because he was "so handsome," and Elihu Root,
then a youth fresh from college. To quote from Miss Henderson: "Miss
Boorman has often told me of the amusement that the shy theological
students and other young teachers afforded the girls in their classes,
and how delighted these used to be to see instructors fall into a trap
which was unconsciously prepared for them. The room in which the
lectures were given had two doors, side by side, and exactly alike, one
leading into the hall and the other into a closet. The young men having
concluded their remarks, and feeling some relief at the successful
termination of the ordeal, would tuck their books under their arms, bow
gravely to the class, open the door, and walk briskly into the closet.
Even Miss Green's discipline had its limits, and when the lecturer
turned to find the proper exit he had to face a class of grinning
schoolgirls not much younger than himself,