DeLancey's Cherries.

DeLancey's Cherries.

Hopping off the train at the ever bright and fragrant subway station at Delancey Street, you may have noticed large pairs of crimson berries dangling hither and yon. What’s the deal with the recurring cherry motif at Delancey Street, you ask? Well, it has nothing to do with Pac Man, slot machines or a veiled reference to?Chekov . As it happens, Delancey Street was named after the blue-blooded?Loyalist ?and acting colonial governor of New York in the 1750s,?James DeLancey.

DeLancey was one of the earliest?Trustafarians , born into a wealthy landowning family who owned a massive rambling farm in downtown Manhattan that stretched all the way from the East River to the Hudson. And the pride and joy of DeLancey’s farm? A?spectacular and sprawling cherry orchard,?located on the site of present day Orchard Street.

The American Revolution was raging at the time, and our man Jimmy D was deeply convinced the thirteen colonies were much better off remaining part of Merry Olde England.?Spoiler alert: it was a loser’s bet. And so it was at the war’s conclusion (and after the Redcoats were sent packing) that?DeLancey's farm was forcibly confiscated and divided up among smaller (and not British sympathizing!) landowners.?Presumably DeLancey’s prized cherry trees were plowed under with gusto, seeing as how the last time we were on neighboring Orchard Street there were none to be found.

Today, all that remains of the legendary DeLancey cherries can be found on the uptown side of the F train subway platform in the form of several beautiful mosaics, forever dangling for posterity.