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23 December 2010

Obituary of Sarah Jessie Coogan

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(extracted from "New York Times", 07 MAR 1979, PAGE A22):

SARAH COOGAN, MEMBER OF POLO GROUNDS FAMILY

Sarah J. Coogan, a member of the family that had owned the land
under the Polo Grounds in Manhattan, home for many years of the New 
York Giants, died Sunday at a nursing home in Cross River, N.Y., at 
the age of 94.  She had lived for many years at the Biltmore Hotel 
in Manhattan.

Miss Coogan's mother, Harriet Gardiner Lynch Coogan, a descendant 
of John Lion Gardiner of Gardiners Island in eastern Long Island,
had owned the Polo Grounds land, north of 155th Street, near the
Harlem River.  It was originally a Gardiner farm.

The ball park's diamond rested in what was known in 1880's as
Coogan's Hollow, which was under Coogan's Bluff, both named after 
Miss Coogan's father, James J. Coogan, who was appointed 
Manhattan's first Borough President in 1899.

In 1961, New York City took over the Polo Grounds and announced
that housing would be built there. Long litigation followed between 
the Coogans and the city over compensation for the land. In 1964, a 
State Supreme Court decision placed a value of $4,338,889 on the 
Polo Grounds. Of that amount, $2,614,175 was estimated as the value 
of the land, and the rest was the valuation placed on the stadium, 
which was separately owned.

Miss Coogan is surved by six nephews and five nieces.

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(extracted from "New York Times" [NY], 07 MAR 1979, PAGE A22):

COOGAN - Sarah Jessie, 94, on March 5, after a long illness.  
Daughter of the late James J. and Harriett Gardner Lynch Coogan of 
New York City.  Her three brothers, Jay Coogan of Gladstone, N.Y., 
W. Gordon Coogan of Madison, N.J. and Gardner Coogan of New York 
City predeceased her.  She is survived by six nephews Theodore H. 
Coogan of Ridgefield, Conn., Richard C. P. Coogan of Studio City, 
California, Jay G. Coogan of Westminster, Cal., David G. Coogan of 
Boontown, N.J., Fairfield G. Coogan of York, Maine, and Gordon G. 
Coogan of Newport, R.I. and five neices, Mrs. Frederick Fatzler of 
Palm Beach, Florida, Mrs. B. W. Jesser of Ho-Ho-Kus, N.J., Mrs. 
Charles Carey of East Aurora, N.Y., Mrs. Thomas L. Ippolito of 
Norwalk, Connecticut, and Mrs. Frederick O. Lindsley of New York 
City.  Services and interment both private.

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