The story of Hale's confinement in the Beekman
greenhouse at Fifty-first Street and First Avenue
on the night of September 21, 1776, is generally
accepted. Former stories of the place of execution
are disproved by the first extract from the Orderly
Book, while the others indicate the location of the
Artillery Park. It therefore appears that Hale
was executed upon some part of this common land
of the Corporation of the City of New York, and it
is probable that his body was buried there.

The tract is now covered mainly by buildings
devoted to educational and philanthropic uses.
Possibly the dust of the Martyr Spy may lie in the
grounds of the Normal, or Hunter, College.

Other materials, found since Mr. Kelby wrote,
confirm his conclusions and make Third Avenue,
not far north of Sixty-sixth Street, the most probable
spot of Nathan Hale's death. The noblest
educational institutions in New York City could
have no more appropriate foundations than those
laid above the bodies of patriots who have died,
not only for the freedom of the city, but for that
of the whole land.

For a time, as was inevitable, a pall seemed
thrown over the memory of Nathan Hale, and at
first only the love of his own family strove to commemorate
his life and death. A stone was erected

[[100]]

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