But according to popular tradition Mr.Wendell clung to the garden because his sisters desired it as a place in which to exercise their dogs.

Now, after the death of John Gottlieb, the three elderly sisters still live in the house, in a state of the same old-time plainness.

They, with a married sister, are the sole heirs of the eighty million dollars in New York real estate left by their brother.

The house, a few years ago, was assessed at five thousand dollars, the site is valued at two million.
Directly across the Avenue from the Wendell house is the Union League Club, on land that formerly was occupied by Dickel's Riding Academy, fifty years ago the fashionable equestrian school of New York.

The early story of the organization will be found in another chapter.