Ann Lawrence of Old New York

Ann loved the old farmhouse. Since the death of her parents, she had struggled to keep her brothers and sisters together there. Life on the farm was hard and the boys were always threatening to leave. Ann lived in dread of the day which she knew must come when the family would be broken up, and her one consolation was the farmhouse. But New York was growing fast, spreading farther and farther north. The farms that stood in the way were to be torn down and that meant the Lawrence house too! The farmers banded together, Ann and her brothers among them, to fight for the right to keep their homes. Ann's friend, Peter Elliott, was one of the city planners and she felt sure he would intercede for them. But Peter believed in progress and expansion. The sacrifice of a few small homes to make way for hundreds more was to him a necessary thing. Ann had to fight alone—a bitter, ugly fight, but nothing was so hopeless to Ann as her estrangement from Peter. When Peter himself was faced with tragedy, Ann knew that she and Peter belonged together. This is a dramatic, heartwarming story of New York in the days when Daniel Webster and young Washington Irving walked its cobbled streets. This is a 1947 Junior Literary Guild selection, chosen as an outstanding book for older readers.