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70 Willow Street
70 Willow Street
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[70 Willow Street.]

Originally Adrian van Sinderen house. Truman Capote wrote "Breakfast at Tiffany's" here.

1978

70 Willow Street

[70 Willow Street.]

Originally Adrian van Sinderen house. Truman Capote wrote "Breakfast at Tiffany's" here.

IMAGE DATE1978
FromMuseum of the City of New York logoMuseum of the City of New York

In 1831, Adrian Van Sinderen, president of the Brooklyn Savings Bank, was also president of the Brooklyn Colonization Society, a local branch of the American Colonization Society (ACS). The organization sought to relocate free black communities to Liberia, and Van Sinderen raised a significant amount of money for that purpose. They did not believe American society could or should be culturally diverse. Ironically, James W. C. Pennington, one of the earliest opponents of colonization schemes, worked as Van Sinderen’s coachman. The lives of pro- and anti-slavery activists were intimately intertwined.

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