Charlotte Temple

A book by Susanna Haswell Rowson (c.1762-1824) titled Charlotte Temple: A Tale of Truth (1794) was the first American best seller. This grave was supposed to be that of the Charlotte Temple, the book's main protagonist. The grave drew crowds who came to weep over the grave in Trinity Churchyard. According to the book, within a few steps of the Bowery on the north side of Pell Street, in a frame house, Charlotte Temple died. The character, whose sorrowful life was held up as a moral lesson a generation ago, had lived first in a house on what is now the south side of Astor Place close to Fourth Avenue