A HISTORICAL TOUR OF THE GREATEST STREET IN THE WORLD.......BROADWAY
FROM THE PARK TO CANAL STREET
Prior to 1911
At Park Row the ancient highway turned off to the eastward until it
joined the Bowery Lane at Chatham Square and became merged in the latter as
the "Great Highway to Boston." The first thoroughfare to extend the length
of the island to Kingsbridge was the Boston Road, which followed the Bowery
and Fourth Avenue to the present Union Square, merging itself there in the
Bloomingdale Road as far as Twenty-third Street, where it branched off to
the eastward and followed an irregular course up the east side of the
island, crossing the northeast corner of Central Park at McGowan's Pass and
following the Harlem Lane (St. Nicholas Avenue) until it reached the
Kingsbridge Road, which it followed to Spuyten Duyvel Creek. These streets
and directions are, of course, only approximate; for many changes have been
made in the direction and nomenclature of the highways of the city during
the course of its development. Part of this road was the road to Harlem,
which place had been first settled about 1658 at the suggestion of Petrus
Stuyvesant, who offered to give the settlers a ferry to Long Island and a
court and clergyman of their own as soon as they numbered twenty-five
families.For many years the road to Harlem led through the woods and was in
such poor condition that it was at times impassable. A new road was laid out
in 1671, leading to the vicinity of Third Avenue and One Hundred and
Thirtieth Street.
1. BROADWAY AS A HIGHWAY DID NOT EXTEND BEYOND CHAMBERS STREET IN
ENGLISH DAYS.
Though, as already stated, Broadway in English days did not, as a
highway, extend beyond Chambers Street, there was a wagon road as far as the
present Canal Street and beyond, for the British had fortifications there
during the Revolution, and there is mention of a "middle" road between the
Boston Road and the road to Greenwich along the shore of the Hudson.
Evidence of this road is also shown when the Americans were retreating from
the city to the upper part of the island in September, 1776. Putnam was in
the city, and the British were prepared to throw a line across the island
from Kip's Bay to the Hudson, when, for some reason____tradition says at
Mrs. Murray's home "Inclenberg"____they stopped near the East River shore.
Aaron Burr knew the island thoroughly, and he was the aid who extricated
Putnam from his dilemma. He guided the American troops over a new road which
had been cut through the hills as an extension of Great George Street.
Though it was so hot a day that several soldiers succumbed to the heat,
Putnam and Burr rode from end to end of the column, encouraging the soldiers
and the women and children who accompanied them, and hurrying them on, so
that Putnam was able to report to the Chief without any loss of men or
baggage to speak of. But the road did not become a legally recognized
highway until much later.
2. 1683 CITY DIVIDED INTO WARDS
In 1683, the city was divided into wards by Governor Dongan.
The West Ward took in both sides of Broadway, its eastern boundary
being New Street, and its western one , the Hudson; it extended from Battery
Place on the south to Wall Street on the North. The Out Ward was "To contain
the town of Harlem, with all the farms and settlements on this island, from
north of the Fresh Water."
3. THE DEVELOPMENT OF BROADWAY IN SECTIONS
The development of Broadway was in sections; first, from Vesey Street
to Duane; second, from Duane Street to Canal; third, from Canal Street to
Astor Place; last, from Astor Place to Union Square.
The first section was surveyed in 1760 by Mr. Marschalk, a city
surveyor, who presented to the corporation the plan of a road from the
Spring Garden House, "where the road is eighty-two feet six inches wide, to
the grounds of the Widow Rutgers, where the street is to be fifty feet
wide"___this is the Great George Street already mentioned. The Rutgers
property was in the vicinity of Thomas Street where the New York Hospital
stood at a later date. The east side of this section was taken up
principally by the Commons. "In 1790, the first sidewalks of the city were
laid on the west side of Broadway from Vesey to Murray Street, and opposite
for the same distance along the Bridewell fence. These were narrow pavements
of brick and stone, scarcely wide enough for two people to walk abreast"
(Booth.) Broadway was a succession of hills above this point, being highest
at Anthony Street, where there was a steep hill over which the road climbed,
dropping down on the other side as abruptly to the stream at Canal Street.
In 1792, John Jay gave the Common Council free right to regulate streets
through his land on Great George Street. Five years later, the grade of
Broadway was established between Duane and Canal Streets, though it was some
years before work was begun. The period of the development of this section
was to about 1830.
4. THE BELGIAN PAVEMENT
In 1833, the first block, or Belgian, pavement was substituted for the
old cobble-stones; the first experiment was tried on the Bowery. In
Broadway, Reuss blocks were tried, but they proved a failure, and the
Belgian replaced them. In 1835, in front of Philip Hone's house, the Street
Department tried a new experiment, between Chambers and Warren streets, in
making a roadbed of two layers of stone, the lower of large pieces and the
upper of crushed stone; then hemlock blocks were laid on top and the cracks
were filled with tar. Vehicles ran so smoothly over the new pavement that
the public was delighted, and one stage owner said he would willingly pay
one
hundred dollars a year for each of his stages if the whole street were to be
so paved. Within a year, however, the street was in a wretched condition,
and the stages were even encroaching on the sidewalks. The wooden blocks
were too soft to stand the heavy traffic at this point, and the pavement
became full of holes, which were repaired with the old cobbles and cement.
It was not until about 1852 that the old pavement of pebbles was removed
entirely from Broadway, and the Reuss blocks were substituted. These, in
time, became so smooth and slippery that the much narrower granite, Belgian,
blocks took their place. Much later, asphalt was used, but proved too soft,
and a return was made to the Belgian, with which the street is at present
paved from the post-office to Canal Street; below, to the Bowling Green, the
roadway is paved with an improved kind of wooden block which seems to be
standing well and which greatly decreases the noise of heavy trucking.
5. THE FARM OF THE WEST INDIA COMPANY
On the west side of Broadway, extending down to the shore of the
Hudson, and lying about between Fulton and Duane streets, was the farm of
the West India Company. It became the Duke's farm in 1664, when the Duke of
York became the lord-proprietor, and the King's farm in 1685, when he became
king of England. In 1702, it became the Queen's farm, upon the succession to
the throne of Queen Anne, who held possession of it until 1705, when she
granted it to Trinity Church.
6. TRINITY CHURCH FARM
Trinity built St. Paul's upon the portion lying between Fulton and
Vesey streets, and divided up the remainder into lots which were let on long
leases. The upper portion of the farm included what had formerly been Roelof
Jansen's land, and which passed at his death into the ownership of his
widow, Annetje Jans, who subsequently married Dominie Everardus Bogardus, so
that the farm became known as the "Dominie's bouwerie." It was sold by the
heirs of Annetje Jans to Governor Francis Lovelace in March, 1670-71, and
was confiscated by the Duke of York, because Lovelace was as deeply in debt
to him as to every one else. In the transfer to Lovelace, one of the heirs,
a daughter of Annetje, failed to give her consent, either directly or by
attorney; and this fact has been the basis for all the claims of Annetje's
descendants from that day to this____the suits being decided against the
claimants by the courts. This upper part of the Church farm extended as far
as the neighborhood of Canal Street and the Hudson, one corner of it only
touching Broadway at the southeast corner of Chambers Street, at the
northern boundary of the Queen's farm proper. All of this property was
included in the "Out Ward" of the city according to the division of 1683.
The corporation of Trinity began to lay out the south part of the farm
in lots in 1720, at which time Great George Street did not extend beyond Ann
Street, or the Eastern Highway. On the line of Broadway, abreast of the
Fields, was the rope-walk of Dugdale & Searle, who maintained the place for
over twenty years. The west side of the street was lined with a row of fine
trees. The streets laid out through the farm were Fair (afterwards,
Division, now, Fulton); Vesey, named in honor of the first rector; Barclay,
after the second; Murray and Chambers, after distinguished members of the
Church corporation; and Warren, after Admiral Sir Peter Warren, founder of
Greenwich Village. Between Barclay and Murray, was Robinson Street, later
called Park Place, which only extended to the grounds of King's College at
first, but which was opened through the grounds of Columbia College to
College Place, October 27, 1854.
7. THE ASTOR HOUSE (purchase of property)
In 1830, John Jacob Astor determined to build a hotel which should be
the finest in the country. He bought all the property between Vesey and
Barclay streets, except that belonging to John G. Coster. It is related that
he said to Coster: "You are not especially attached to your house; you can
build somewhere else and find a home. I'll tell you what I'll do, Coster.
You select two friends and I'll select one. Let them get together and
appraise the value of your house and lot, and I'll give you twenty thousand
dollars more than they decide as the value." Under such a liberal
proposition, the transfer of the land was soon made, and the construction of
the mammoth hotel begun.
8. THE ASTOR HOUSE (Its completion and Opening)
It was completed and opened in 1836, the marvel of that age, with its
elegant rooms and equipments, and its interior quadrangle, now used for the
lunch counter and room, laid out as a garden with a fountain in the centre.
Notwithstanding that it was an expensive place___it cost a dollar a
day___the hotel became the stopping-place of many distinguished men. Among
the names of its guests may be mentioned Andrew Jackson, "Sam" Houston,
Webster, Clay, Lincoln, Irving, Hawthorne, Dickens, Macready, Rachel, and
Jenny Lind. Thurlow Weed had his political headquarters in the hotel, whence
he dictated the policy of his party and determined its candidates for
office. He was one of the first of the political "bosses" who have ruled the
state and the nation. Many banquets were given here to distinguished
visitors to the city; among these may be mentioned one given to the Prince
de Joinville on November 26, 1840; and a contemporary historian remarks that
"the dinner was held to be an exceptional one, inasmuch as the great number
of dignitaries, officers of the army and navy, etc., invited, filled the
capacity of the hall and as there was not any space left for the usual
hangers-on of our city fathers, the entertainment was hailed as one worthy
of the guests and of the occasion." In 1844, on St. Valentine's Day, was
given the first of the "Bachelor's balls," which was long remembered for its
brilliancy.
9. THE ASTOR HOUSE INCIDENT
Let us turn to another incident at the hotel as told by the late Rev.
Dr. Dix, the rector of Trinity, describing the passage through the city of
the Sixth Massachusetts, the first regiment of New England troops
immediately after the firing on Fort Sumter.
"They came in at night; and it was understood that,after breakfasting
at the Astor House the march would be resumed. By nine o'clock in the
morning, an immense crowd had assembled about the hotel; Broadway, from
Barclay to Fulton Street, and the lower end of Park Row, were occupied by a
dense mass of human beings, all watching the front entrance, at; which the
regiment was to file out. From side to side, from wall to wall, extended
that innumerable host, silent as the grave, expectant, something unspeakable
in their faces. It was the dead, deep hush before the thunderstorm. At last
a low murmur was heard; it sounded something like the gasp of men in
suspense; and the cause was that the soldiers had appeared, their leading
files descending the steps. By the twinkle of their bayonets above the heads
of the crowd their course could be traced into the open street in front.
Formed, at last, in column they stood, the band at the head; and the word
was given "March!" Still dead silence prevailed. Then the drums rolled out
the time___the regiment was in motion. And then the band, bursting into
volume, struck up___what other tune could the Massachusetts men have
chosen?___"Yankee Doodle." I caught about two bars and a half of the old
music, not more; for instantly there arose a sound such as many a man never
heard in his life, and never will hear; such as is never heard more than
once in a lifetime. Not more awful is the thunder of heaven as, with sudden
peal, it smites into silence all lesser sounds, and, rolling through the
vault above us, fills earth and sky with the shock of its terrible voice.
One terrific roar burst from the multitude, leaving nothing audible save its
own reverberation. we saw the heads of armed men, the gleam of their
weapons, the regimental colors, all moving on, pageant-like; but naught
could we hear save that hoarse, heavy surge___one general acclaim, one wild
shout of joy and hope, one endless cheer, rolling up and down, from side to
side, above, below, to right, to left; the voice of approval, of consent, of
unity in act and will. No one who saw and heard could doubt how New York was
going."
10. NEW YORK CITY'S REGIMENTS MARCHING DOWN BROADWAY
On the nineteenth, New York's pride, the Seventh, marched down
Broadway with nine hundred and ninety-one men at three o'clock in the
afternoon, bound for the national capital, amid scenes of even greater
enthusiasm___ for these were New York's own. Nor were the scenes of wild joy
and pride much less in the following week as the rest of the city's
regiments marched down Broadway enroute to Washington___the Sixth, the
Twelfth, the Seventy-first, the Eighth, the Thirteenth, the Twenty-eighth,
and the Sixty-ninth. The scenes were repeated in 1898, at the time of the
Spanish War, for most of these same regiments, but not for all of those
mentioned above___for two of them had ceased to exist and one of them, alas!
did not go.
11. THE ASTOR HOUSE THE RESORT OF MANY LITERARY MEN FIRST HALF
OF 19TH CENTURY
The Astor House became the resort of many of the literary men of the
first half of the nineteenth century; and it was no unusual thing to see
many of the city's best in journalism, art, literature, science, and
business taking their afternoon lounge upon its steps, watching the
omnibuses, when, as one writer says, "You could walk from Barnum's to the
Battery on their roofs," so numerous were they, or exchanging salutations
with the passing crowds of shoppers and merchants on their daily walk from
business to their homes below Bleecker street; for, like the present mayor
of New York, Mr. Gaynor, they disdained to ride to or from their places of
business.
There were several reasons why they did this: their shops and offices
were not too far away; they liked the exercise; riding would in those simple
days have been considered as tending toward luxury and indolence; and last,
there were very few private equipages and the risk too great to use them
over the rough cobblestones with which the streets were paved. In fact,
there were so few private carriages that each was as well known as if the
owner's name had been blazoned on its sides. The public vehicles were
rickety, dilapidated affairs, taken only in cases of dire necessity. They
were not even needed at funerals, for the body was borne by underbearers and
everybody walked to the grave, usually only a few blocks away.
12. STAGE ROUTES ESTABLISHED
In pre-Revolutionary days, stage routes were established to Boston,
Philadelphia, Bordentown, Burlington, and other distant places. A foot post
to Albany is mentioned in 1730, and the post was sent by rider in colonial
days. In 1786, the Legislature granted to Isaac Van Wyck, Talmage Hall, and
John Kenny, all Columbia County men, the exclusive right "to erect, set up
and carry on, and drive stage wagons between New York and Albany on the east
side of the river, for a period of ten years, forbidding all opposition to
them under penalty of two hundred pounds." The grantees were obliged to
furnish covered wagons, drawn by four horses each, and the fare was not to
exceed fourpence a mile; and weekly trips were imperative. The trip was
advertised to be made in two days in the summer. The venture was evidently a
success; for in 1793, the stage was advertised to leave Albany twice a week
and not to carry more than ten passengers. Notwithstanding the traffic, the
roads were bad, the stages were uncomfortable, and the trip fatiguing, as
the passengers were routed up about three or four o'clock n the morning and
travelled until nine, or later, at night, putting up at poor and ill-kept
inns. The stages originally started from Cortlandt Street, but later from
Broadway and Twenty-third Street; the route, of course, was over the Boston
Road from that point to Kingsbridge. The distance was 159 miles, though
Colles's map of the roads of the United States in 1789 gives it as 155 1/2
to the ferry at Greenbush. Every one who could do so travelled on horseback,
as the stage was not of the kind we read of in Dickens. The steamboat and
the railroad sealed the doom of the old stages.
In an advertisement of 1811, there is notice of the stage to Greenwich
Village, and evern earlier there was a stage to Harlem. In 1816, Asa Hall
started a stage route from the Battery via Broadway to Greenwich, which
years afterwards came into the possession of Kipp & Brown; and stages ran to
other parts of the island. Kipp & Brown were very popular; and when their
stables were burned out in 1848 a performance was given at the Broadway
Theatre for their benefit. In 1819, a stage route was started from the
Bowling Green to Bloomingdale.
13. STAGES SUPERSEDED BY THE OMNIBUSES
For the city travel, these stages were superseded by the omnibuses,
the first of which appeared in 1830, running from the Bowling Green via
Broadway to Bleecker Street; but the drivers were obliging,, and if the
weather was bad, or there was a lady passenger, the bus would go as far as
the Kip mansion between Washington Place and Waverly Place, on the site of
the New York Hotel. The buses, at first, were few in number, but were finely
painted and decorated, bearing the names of distinguished Americans upon
their sides. There were the Lady Washington, the Lady Clinton, the George
Washington, the De Witt Clinton, the Benjamin Franklin, and others. Some of
the panels with whcih the buses were decorated were true works of art. The
buses became popular, and there were soon three lines, run by Brower, Jones,
and Colvin; the fare was a shilling (twelve and a half cents), collected by
a small boy who stood at the entrance step. The entrance at first was on the
side until Kipp & Brown changed it to the rear of the Greenwich buses, and
the others followed suit. Other stage routes were established to the
shipbuilding section on the east side, to Harlem, to Chelsea (Shepherd &
Johnson), and to other places on the island.
The omnibuses were drawn by four matched horses, and there was great
rivalry among the different lines. The drivers were wonderful whips, and it
was truly a marvelous sight to see the dexterity with which they steered
through the crowded thoroughfare, avoiding accidents and collisions by a
hair's breadth. In the winter time great sleighs, drawn by four, six, or
eight horses, took the place of the buses, and the New York boy thought he
had a perfect right to snowball the passengers as the great sleighs passed
by. Many people took the sleighs for the pure enjoyment of the ride; and as
there were no car tracks to be cleared, the snow remained in the street for
weeks, making a long spell of sleighing weather. The doom of the stages was
sealed when the street cars came; though Broadway stages held on until the
seventies, because there was no car track on Broadway and the people were
set against the street being still further congested in its traffic by the
presence of surface cars. The Fifth Avenue line remained as a relic of the
golden era of the omnibus; it "lagged superfluous on the stage" and was the
butt of many jests on the part of the up-to-date New Yorker until the
introduction of the automobile omnibus in July, 1907, though experiments
with electricity and gasoline motors had been carried on since 1900. Another
one of the lines, started in 1819 from the Battery to Bloomingdale,
gradually worked its lower terminus up Broadway until it reached the
starting-point in front of the Union Dime Savings Bank at Broadway and
Thirty-second Street in the eighties and then disappeared from human ken.
14. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A DESIRED COLLEGE
In 1746, an act of the Provincial Assembly authorized the holding of a
lottery to raise a sufficient sum of money for the advancement of learning
within the colony, "and Towards the Founding a College with the same." It
took many lotteries and many excise moneys before a sufficient sum was
obtained for the establishment of the desired college. Religious
controversies arose as to the management, the Presbyterian and the Reformed
Dutch Churches objecting to the prospective control of the college by the
Established Church when all of the colonists were to be taxed for its
support. Trinity Church gave a tract of land on the west side of Broadway,
provided the president should be a member of the Church of England. The
differences were not yet healed when the corner-stone of King's College was
laid in 1756, with Dr. Samuel Johnson of Stratford in Connecticut as the
first president. He was succeeded, in 1763, by Dr. Myles Cooper, who
remained until the Revolution. He was a hot-headed royalist and took the
wrong side in the dissensions which arose from the passage of the Stamp Act
onwards, and when the news of Lexington reached New York barely escaped from
maltreatment by a mob of patriots.
During the Revolution, the college buildings were used as barracks and
hospitals by the British, and the college was closed as an institution of
learning. It was reopened in 1784 as Columbia College, and remained in the
vicinity of Park Place until 1857, when it was removed to Madison Avenue and
Forty-eighth Street. The neighborhood of the college at Park Place was the
location of the best society of the city for many years.
15. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A PUBLIC HOSPITAL
As early as 1770 several physicians notified Lieutenant-Governor
Colden that subscriptions were being solicited for the establishment of a
public hospital; and a royal charter was obtained the following year. The
land secured was from the Rutgers farm and was considered far out of town.
It comprised five acres on the west side of Broadway, between the present
Duane and Worth streets, Thomas Street being cut through later. The
corner-stone of the building was laid by Governor Tryon, September 2, 1773.
The building was partially burnt before completion, but was repaired and was
ready for occupancy at the time the Revolution began. It was located on the
Kalck Hook, a hill some forty or fifty feet high, situated on the line of
Broadway, and, therefore, a commanding position for fortifications, which
were erected here by the British, the hospital building, itself, being used
by the soldiers and being surrounded by a fort.
16. THE DOCTOR'S RIOT
After the Revolution, the buildings and grounds were put in order, and
the hospital was ready for the reception of patients in 1791. In 1787 and
1788, a number of bodies for the purposes of dissection by the students were
dug up from the potter's field and from the old negro burial-ground. These
were legitimate fields for cadavers; but when the resurrectionists began to
invade private cemeteries, the indignation of the people was aroused, and
the medical profession was looked upon with scant reverence by the people at
large. On the thirteenth of April, 1788, while the minds of the people were
in this agitated state, some students at the hospital exposed the limbs of a
body at one of the windows in full view of a group of boys who were at play
near the building. The news spread like lightning, and soon an enormous
crowd assembled, burst open the doors of the hospital, destroyed a valuable
collection of anatomical specimens, and carried off and buried several
subjects which they found. The physicians hid themselves, but were
discovered and would have suffered severely at the hands of the infuriated
mob if the magistrates had not interfered; at last, the mob dispersed,
carrying the accounts of their actions to all parts of the city.
The next morning a still larger crowd gathered with the intention of
searching the houses of all suspected physicians; but owing to the
remonstrances of Clinton, Jay, Hamilton, and others of the leading citizens,
the mob dispersed. The students were removed to the jail; but in the
afternoon a violent party gathered about the Jail and demanded the surrender
of the students, a demand that was, of course, refused. This aroused the
worst spirits of the mob; and Mayor Duane, fearing mob violence, called out
the militia, one party of which went quietly to the jail without
interference. A second party was arrested and disarmed by the mob, who then
attempted to storm the building. The mayor, John Jay, and others attempted
to pacify the mob, and Jay was struck by a brickbat and felled to the earth.
The mayor was about to give the order to fire, when Baron Steuben interposed
and implored him to desist; but before he could finish his entreaty, a stone
whizzed through the air and laid him prostrate. "Fire, mayor, fire!" he
cried; and Mayor Duane gave the order; the militia blazed away, and a number
of rioters fell. Five persons were killed and seven or eight severely
wounded. The students were sent out of town, and the public excitement
slowly died out, though it was a long time before the ignorant could look
upon the hospital without a sort of horror. Thus ended what is known in New
York History as the "Doctors' Riot." It is surprising how much trouble can
sometimes be caused by the pranks of thoughtless students.
17. THE NEW YORK HOSPITAL GROUNDS
The grounds of the hospital extended to church Street, and in the
early days constituted with those of Columbia College a sort of park in
which were to be found some of the finest trees of all varieties on the
island of Manhattan.
In 1807, a lunatic asylum was built on the south side of the New York
Hospital grounds and was used for that purpose until 1821, when the asylum
was removed to Bloomingdale, overlooking the Hudson. The beautiful lawn and
grand trees of the old hospital formed a delightful relief to the eye amid
the lines of brick and stone that grew up on each side of Broadway; and the
spot was a favorite one with the firemen and others when they held parades.
After the Civil War, the property became too valuable to be longer used for
hospital purposes, so it was cut up into building lots and sold, while the
grand old trees went the way of all trees that stand in the way of
improvement. The original building was vacated February 19, 1870. The
hospital then remained in a state of suspension until the property on
Fifteenth and Sixteenth streets, west of Fifth Avenue, was obtained. The new
hospital on that site was begun in May, 1875, and opened on March 16, 1877.
18. AN UNSOLVED MYSTERY
Adjoining the hospital grounds on the south was the tobacco shop of
John Anderson. His assistant in the shop was Mary Rogers, a handsome
brunette, known as "the beautiful cigar girl." She received a good deal of
admiring attention from the youth of the period. The whole city was
horrified one day to learn that her lifeless body had been found floating in
the Hudson near the Elysian Fields in Hoboken. The mystery of her death has
never been solved, but her sad fate furnished Edgar Allan Poe with his story
of The Mystery of Marie Roget.
19. THE BREAD AND CHEESE CLUB 1824
James Fenimore Cooper originated a club in 1824 which met at
Washington Hall; this was the "Bread and Cheese Club," which numbered among
its members the most eminent scholars and professional men of New York.
Among these were Halleck, the poet; De Kay, the naturalist; William and John
Duer, representing the bar; Renwick, philosophy; Verplanck and King,
letters; Charles Davis and Philip Hone, merchants, and several who were
politicians. It received its curious name from the fact that in balloting
for membership, bread signified AYE, and cheese NO.
20. WASHINGTON HALL
At this date, (1796) there were several houses on Broadway, one being
occupied by the Widow Provoost; on the corner of Reade Street there was a
stable. In 1810 the construction of Washington Hall was begun, taking up
about half the block on the east side between Chambers and Reade Streets; it
was completed in 1812. The building was one of the finest in the city and
was to be used as a hotel and meeting-place, especially of the Federalists,
as an offset to Tammany Hall, the rendezvous of the Republicans. On the
twenty-second of February, 1813, during the war with Great Britain, Captain
James Lawrence in command of the Hornet defeated and sank the British
Peacock. Upon Lawrence's visit to New York in May, he was given the freedom
of the city and was tendered a great banquet at Washington Hall on the
fourth. Before the month was out, he was in Boston in command of the
Chesapeake, and within a month of the banquet in his honor, Lawrence was
dead. At the conclusion of the war, a great ball was given at the Hall in
honor of the return of peace, and among the participants were the best
people of the city. In 1816, according to Haswell, there were only two
billiard rooms in the city, one at the Cafe Francais in Warren Street, and
the other in Washington Hall.
21. KNICKERBOCKER AUTHORS
Knickerbocker (a name used of residents of New York descended from
the Old Dutch settlers; it is sometimes extended to include old New Yorkers
of other stock.)
The litterateurs, dramatists, actors, and others of this period have
been styled the "Knickerbocker Authors" the writers of the first half of the
nineteenth century, who by their work rendered idle the sneer of the English
that America had no literature and that we were a race of cribbers and
coyists. The taunt was certainly well deserved in our early days, for our
journals, and especially our first magazines, were nothing better than
reproductions of the critiques, essays, poems, and other articles of the
English journals. Irving and Cooper did an inestimable service to American
literature by convincing Englishmen that we could do original writing, and
Nathaniel P. Willis constituted the last of a triumvirate whose work was
recognized across the water as being worthy and distinctive___in fact, the
recognition of heir literary ability came from the other side first, and it
needed the british stamp of approval before they were fully accepted by our
own people.
Among other contributors to the "Knickerbocker Literature" were some
whose names have endured, as William Cullen Bryant and Edgar Allan Poe; but
how many know of James K. Paulding, the colleague of Irving in the
Salmagundi papers, or of Gulian C. Verplanck? Fitz-Greene Halleck, the first
American writer to have a statue erected to him in New York, is known to
every schoolboy as the author of Marco Bozzaris. George P. Morris is known
as the author of one poem, Woodman, Spare that Tree, and Samuel Woodworth as
the author of The Old Oaken Bucket; but outside of these their work is
unknown except to the student of American literature. Perhaps, after all,
their cases and those of their contemporaries are only proofs of the
universal law of the "survival of the fittest."
Others of the group were Bayard Taylor, Dr. Griswold, Richard Henry
Stoddard, Charles Fenno Hoffman, and, later, Edmund Clarence Stedman; and
among the journalists were Charles Dana, James Gordon Bennett, Horace
Greeley, William Cullen Bryant, and William L. Stone.
We are more or less familiar with the features of Cooper, Irving,
Bryant, Taylor, and others; but they are portraits taken in later life. It
is hard for us to realize that these men were once young and that their
youth was remarkable for its gaiety, if we except the greatest genius of
them all, Edgar Allan Poe. They were full of the wine of life, endowed with
the creative, imaginative, and poetic temperament. Their gatherings were
jovial and friendly, and their feasts by no means patterned after those of
Barmecide. These were the men who entertained Dickens and Thackeray at
stately banquets at the City Hotel or Washington Hall or at less
conventional, but probably more enjoyable, private affairs. The Irvings and
their closest friends cut up "high jinks" when they went down to Cockloft
Hall on the Passaic near Newark, which appears so often in the Salmagundi
papers. Their satire was not always gentle, and there are accounts of
challenges to the duelling ground at Weehawken, when some butt felt himself
too much aggrieved at newspaper articles. Irving, of course was the creator
of Diedrich Knickerbocker, that fine old Dutch historian, who is the symbol
of New York just as much as John Bull is of England, or Uncle Sam of the
United States.
22. GEORGE P. PUTNAM
George P. Putnam first established himself as a publisher at 155
Broadway, almost within the shadow of the City Hotel. Putnam moved in 1849
to Park Place, where the second edition of the Fable was brought out; but by
a curious oversight, the title-page was not re-edited, and the "G.P.Putnam,
Broadway," stood as in the first edition. Hawthorne's first novel was
published by the same house, but it was not a success. In 1853, Putnam's
Monthly was first published at 321 Broadway, adjoining the Hospital. It was
the first of the magazines which might be called American; that is, it was
not made up of extracts from the British periodicals with a few poems and
minor articles by American writers, for which very little, if anything, was
paid. Putnam's, on the contrary, solicited work from American authors, to
whom it paid at least five dollars a page for prose and ten dollars for a
poem. It ceased publication in the panic of 1857, to resume again after the
Civil War; but it was finally merged in Scribner's Magazine, and that in the
Century.
23. A. T. STEWART
One of the houses on the same block as Washington Hall contained two
stores about twelve feet wide, one of which was occupied by A.T. Stewart.
Stewart's career exemplifies the opportunities of this land better,
probably, than that of any one else, if we except John Jacob Astor. Stewart
came to this city in 1823 at the age of twenty, just after his graduation
from Trinity College, Dublin. He readily found employment here as a teacher
of modern languages and mathematics, in a private school in Roosevelt
Street, and he stumbled into the dry-goods business almost by accident. A
friend with whom he became intimate asked him for a loan of money with which
to start a dry-goods store, and Stewart advanced the money. The friend was
unable to begin business after he bought his stock; and Stewart, rather than
lose his money, decided to open the store himself. This he did, first going
to Ireland, where he converted all he had into cash, and returned with a
stock of Belfast laces. He struggled along as best he could; but he did not
make much headway, and found out very soon that he would be unable to meet a
note which was falling due. He marked his goods down to wholesale prices and
flooded the town with advertisements of the remarkable bargains he had to
offer. Customers flocked to his store, and he soon had closed out his stock
for enough to pay his note and restock his store. His customers found they
had good bargains, and continued to trade with him, and his business grew.
He had learned one lesson, however, which he practised through his
subsequent career___and that was not to buy on credit.
At first he was his own clerk, porter, office boy, and everything
else; but he was able to move from Number 283 Broadway in 1827 to a larger
store at Number 262, and not long afterward, in 1830, to number 257. April
7, 1844, Stewart bought from the heirs of John G. Coster, Washington Hall
and its site, and proposed to turn it into a dry-goods store; but the
building was burned on July fifth. The construction of his new building,
which now occupies the entire block between Chambers and Reade Streets, was
at once begun, and the original part, about half the block, was completed
and opened for business in 1845. By 1862, the uptown movement of business
and population was pronounced; and his business had so increased that he
erected the store at Broadway and Tenth Street, gradually increasing it
until he had the whole block to Ninth Street, and from Broadway to Fourth
Avenue.
Stewart was also a great buyer of real estate, second only to Astor,
and when he died, was the richest merchant in the world, his estate bing
valued at fifty millions of dollars. There was much litigation over it, as
he left no direct heirs; and the stealing of his body from St. Mark's
churchyard was more than a nine-days' sensation. His business enterprises
went through several hands before they came into those of John Wanamaker,
the great Philadelphia merchant, who continues the uptown store. The lower
business was discontinued, and the edifice was converted into the Stewart
office building, in which are housed several of the departments of the
municipal government. The site has been considered several times for a new
municipal building, but the Centre Street site was finally selected in 1909,
and the building is now in course of construction.
24. THE MASONIC HALL
Several of the frame buildings between Duane and Pearl Streets were
demolished in 1826 to make way for Masonic Hall. This was a fine, Gothic
structure intended for the purposes of the Masonic fraternity. The second
floor was considered the most splendid apartment of the kind in the United
States, being ninety-five feet long, forty-seven feet wide, and twenty-five
feet high. The room was an imitation of the Chapel of Henry VII. in London,
and was designed for public meetings, concerts, balls, and similar
functions.
25. THE WILLIAM MORGAN AFFAIR
The same year that the Hall was erected, William Morgan, a member of
the Masonic order living in Batavia, threatened to divulge the secrets of
the organization. He was arrested on trumped-up charges and put in jail, in
order to prevent him from making the anticipated disclosures. He was taken
secretly from the jail by a party of Masons to Fort Niagara, where he
remained several days as a prisoner, and then was seen no more. A body was
found in the Niagara River which was identified as that of Morgan, though
the identification was afterward discredited. "It was a good enough Morgan
until after election," was the remark made by a political leader of the
anti-Masonic party; and so it proved. The whole affair was investigated by
committees of successive Legislatures, but nothing positive as to his fate
has ever been determined. The Morgan affair, however, was sufficient to
arouse the passions of the people of the State; and Freemasonry was so
decried on all sides that it became extremely unpopular. The politicians
took hold of the matter, and exploited it for their own purposes, so that
for a number of years, anti-Masonry was one of the planks in the political
platforms of the warring parties, even spreading to other states. Under such
circumstances, Masonry received "a black eye" from which it did not recover
for many years; and Masonic Hall lost its popularity. In 1841, it changed
hands, the original stockholders receiving neither principal nor interest
for their investment;. The building then became known as Gothic Hall, and
was used as a concert hall and for public meetings of various kinds, but was
demolished after about twenty years of existence, and made way for fine
business buildings at 314 and 316 Broadway.
26. THE SOCIETY LIBRARY
Some buildings gave way in 1840 to the building of the Society
Library, used occasionally for entertainments. This Society had been started
in 1754, and incorporated in 1772, the books being stored in the old City
Hall in Wall Street. During the Revolution, the library was looted by the
British soldiers, and the books hawked about the streets, and sold for
drink, so that few of them remained when the Americans came into their own
again. The Society started once more in 1793 in Nassau Street, removing
later to Chambers Street, where it remained until 1840, when it removed to
the above site on Broadway. It was soon crowded out of this last place by
the upward trend of business in 1853, and removed temporarily to the Bible
House, and to its present home in University Place in 1857. The vacated
building on Broadway was occupied by D. Appleton & Co., the publishers.
27. WINDUST'S FAMOUS OYSTER CELLARS
Edward Windust conducted one of the most famous oyster cellars in the
city. It was situated on Park Row, not far from the Park Row Theatre, and
was the resort of actors and literati. To give a list of its patrons would
be to print a roster of the famous actors who made the old Park famous.
Windust waxed rich, and about 1836 he opened the Athenaeum Hotel, corner of
Broadway and Leonard Street; but his trade did not follow him, and Windust
was only too glad to return to his former location, to find, alas! that his
trade had deserted him.
28. PROPERTY BETWEEN LEONARD AND FRANKLIN STREETS
The property on the block between Leonard and Franklin Streets was
occupied by David Clarkson until 1808, when he sold out for $30,000 to Rufus
King and John Lawrence, who cut the property up into building lots. The land
extended about one hundred and sixty feet on Broadway, with a depth of three
hundred and eighty feet. A panoramic exhibition was conducted here in 1810
by John J. Holland, but within five years afterwards fine residences were
constructed. Numbers 350 and 352 were owned by Thomas Cooper, the tragedian,
and Stephen Price, joint lessees of the Park Theatre. Their houses were
joined together about 1850, after the death of Price, and conducted for
several years as the Carlton House, which gave way in turn to the Wholesale
dry-goods house of E.S. Jaffray & Co.
29. PERSONAGE TO BE SEEN ON BROADWAY
There were several characters to be seen on Broadway in those early
days, threescore of years ago.
A) Prominent among these was McDonald Clarke,
familiarly known as "the mad poet." He had no ostensible means of support,
but his friends saw that he did not want. Occasionally a set of verses over
his signature would appear in print; and, as they were always love sonnets
of a melancholy type, it was believed that the poet's madness was due to
disappointed love.
B) Another character was the "Gingerbread" man,. a harmless lunatic,
who
was always seen on the trot as if anxious to get somewhere, but who never
succeeded in getting to his destination, whereever it was. He received his
odd name from the fact that his only visible diet was composed of the
grotesque gingerbread figures which were common enough in all bakeshops
until a few years ago. His pockets were usually well supplied with these
delectable articles; he would be seen to take one out, munch it, and then
run along on his usual trot to a street pump, take a drink of water, and
then resume his never-ending journey to nowhere.
C) Another personage was the "Lime-Kiln" man, also a harmless lunatic,
whose clothes were always streaked with whitewash. It was surmised that he
slept in the vacant lime-kilns that stood on the shore of the river, and the
finding at last of his dead body in one of these gave confirmation to the
story. The identity of these two way-farers has remained a mystery.
D) Of a different class from these three, was "Dandy" Cox, a
good-looking, showy mulatto, who made a living by repairing men's clothes;
and a very good living too, if we are to judge by his appearance in public
with his high-stepping horse, his brilliant, not to say gaudy, apparel, with
his little darky tiger hanging on behind his high two-wheeled vehicle. Cox
was a caricature of the ultra-fashionables of the period, but his showy
appearance on Broadway was as good an advertisement as any Barnum could
concoct.
E) An adventurer who cut a wide swath in society for a time was the
bogus Baron Von Hoffman, who came near to marrying one of the rich society
belles. His imposture was detected, and he made a pre-tence of shooting
himself. The Evening Post of June 12, 1823, says; "Baron Von Hoffman of
Sirony, who used to serenade our ladies with the Tyrolese air so merrily,
under their windows on Broadway, a year or two ago, and one day took French
leave of them all, now shows away as one of the "nobility and persons of
distinction in Dublin." Halleck followed this up with an ode addressed to
the vanished "Baron."
F) One of the two four-in-hand teams known to the Knickerbocker era
was that owned and driven by Henry Marx, a noted fop of the day with
independent means, who had the courage to depart from the sombre dress of
the period and appear in habiliments expressing his own fancy; in
consequence, he was known as "Dandy" Marx. He was the first man to appear on
Broadway with a waxed moustache. He originated and commanded a company of
hussars which became famous among the militia of the city and which had
enrolled in its ranks the young fellows of the best families of the city___a
forerunner of Squadron "A." Marx himself belonged to one of the leading
families, and though handsome, manly, and generous, died a bachelor.
G) Another wretched individual who haunted Broadway and the publishers
there, was Poe, who made double money on more than one occasion by selling
the same poem or article to two different magazines___one of the vagaries of
his genius, a lack of conscience. Upon one occasion he entered the office of
Mr. Putnam on Broadway and, like Coleridge's Ancient Mariner, fixed the
publisher with "glittering eye." "I am Mr. Poe." Mr. Putnam was all
attention at this self-introduction from the author of The Raven and The
Gold Bug. The visitor then went on to explain that he had a new theory of
the universe, in comparison with which Newton's discovery of gravitation was
a mere incident. He called for pen, ink, and paper and was soon furiously at
work. The publisher left the office to go home, the bookkeeper also left,
and finally the porter, who put the poet out. Poe returned the next day, and
continued at work and completed his paper on the third day, working at high
pressure in a half-intoxicated condition. After receiving two advances from
the publisher for his work, the poet demanded a third; and, upon being
refused, threatened to take a copy and sell to another publisher. Poe was
very optimistic about this work__Eureka, a Prose Poem___and wanted Putnam to
issue a first edition of one million copies; the publisher printed seven
hundred and fifty, two thirds of which were on the shelves at the end of the
year. In this new theory of the universe it seems that Poe may have
forestalled the nebular hypothesis as put forth by the astronomers. Whether
it was an inspiration on his part, or whether he had picked up some stray
facts in regard to it from various scientific articles, who can say?
30) OTHER MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION
On the site now occupied by the Astor House, there stood in the
earlier part of the eighteenth century the Drovers' Inn, which was the
resort of the sporting gentry of the period. There was a race course laid
out on the Church farm adjoining, a fee of sixpense being charged for
spectators. Later, the sports were transferred to the Bull's Head in the
Bowery, on the subsequent site of the old Bowery Theatre.
About the beginning of the nineteenth century, when fashion began to
creep abreast of the Park, there were several of the leading stores of the
city, such as "Old Paff's" bric-a-brac shop, Wells & Patterson's for the
exclusive sale of men's furnishings (the first of its kind in the city),
Jotham 's dry-goods store, and Cotte's confectionery shop.
These gave way in a few years to residences of wealthy merchants____on
the Astor House block, among others, John Jacob Astor, John G. Coster, and
Philip Lydig. Mayor Philip Hone's house at Number 235 was above at Park
Place. He sold it on March 8, 1836, for $60,000, and the lower part was
converted into shops, while the upper part became the American Hotel. The
last transfer of this property was in March, 1910, when it and the adjoining
property on Park Place were sold for prices which would have seemed fabulous
in Hone's day and beyond the dreams of the most imaginative. The last
purchasers of the property have already filed plans and begun work upon the
erection of a forty-five story building, which will be the third loftiest
building in the world and the second in America, being surpassed only by the
Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Metropolitan Life building in New York. It is
to be known as the Woolworth building from the president of the company
erecting it, and will cost over $5,000,000.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the city extended as far
north on Broadway as Anthony (Worth) Street; on the North River, as far as
Harrison Street, and on the East River, as far as Rutgers Street. Above
Worth Street there was a hilly country, sloping on the east toward the
Freshwater, and on the west toward the Lispenard meadows and the Hudson, and
dotted with the country seats of wealthy citizens. The Middle road ended at
the present Astor Place, where a pale fence stretched across the road and
formed the southern boundary of the Randall farm. When Broadway was
regulated and graded through this section as far as Canal Street, there was
considerable grading to be done; the deepest cut was on the hill south of
Canal Street, between White and Walker, where the street had to be lowered
twenty-three feet; over the ditch in the valley there was considerable
filling in.
When the old palisade on Wall Street was removed (1699), it was
necessary that there should be some northern line of defensive
fortifications: and a palisade, following the configuration of the land
approximately on the line north of Chambers Street, was erected from river
to river. In 1756, during the French and Indian War, a row of one-story log
huts, surrounded by a high wall, was erected on the negro burial-ground
close to the line of the palisades. These extended from Broadway to Chatham
Street and were used as barracks for the soldiers. After the Revolution,
these buildings were in a dilapidated condition; but in 1794 they were
leased by the corporation as dwellings and were occupied by free negroes and
Indians engaged in broom-and basket-making. They did not long survive,
however, but gave way to houses of a better character, Chambers Street being
opened in 1796.
Booksellers and publishers grew with the advancement of an American
literature and followed the fashionable folk uptown from below Canal Street.
Twenty-five years ago, many of the book-houses were located on or near
Broadway from Spring Street northward; now we find most of them above
Fourteenth Street as far as the Forties; but they have deserted Broadway.
Dr. William Langstaff was an intimate friend of Drake and Halleck, and
his shop at 360 Broadway was a favorite lounging-place of the two poets.
Langstaff had been unsuccessful as a physician, and was set up in business
by his friend, Henry Eckford, who also paid his expenses abroad, where he
went with Drake and the latter's wife.
In 1828, Thomas Hogg was located as a florist in the Bowery, but
removed to 388 Broadway in 1832; he was probably the first florist in the
city. His nurseries, as we would call them to-day, were on the Bloomingdale
Road near Twenty-third Street, and were known in those days as Hogg's
Gardens, an objective point to which to drive from the city.
In the days when Stewart first opened his marble store between
Chambers and Reade Street, the opposite corner was occupied by the Irving
House, a fashionable hostelry, extending from Number 273 to Number 287 1/2.
Ball, Black, & Co., the jewellers, were located at the corner of Murray
Street for some years, moving later to the neighborhood of Houston Street
and then to Fifth Avenue, where they became Hays & Co. In an illustrated
paper of 1858, their store at Murray Street, and many other points on
Broadway, are shown as decorated and illuminated on September first of that
year in honor of the laying of the Atlantic cable by Cyrus W. Field.
The same rule held in this portion of Broadway as in the section below
the Park___the east side of the street was occupied at first by meaner
buildings, which gave place to those of a better quality before 1815. The
first residence of any degree of elegance was that erected by David Clarkson
opposite the New York Hospital, at which point the proposed sidewalks were
to stop___this was before 1800. Numbers 306 and 308 were exceptions to the
rule, being three-story brick buildings of good quality. About 1818 a fine
house was erected at 306 by John McKesson, and seems to have been a favorite
with drug merchants, for it was occupied later by H.H. Schieffelin.
Above Anthony Street, but one house had been erected previous to 1800.
The property belonged to a Mr. Snyder who conducted a brewery between Pearl
and Anthony Streets. After his death, his widow married Anthony Steenbach,
who continued the brewery in connection with James Brown; their houses stood
at the southeast and northeast corners of Anthony Street. Within a decade
afterwards several fine residences were erected on the block.
On the next block above, between Catherine Lane and Leonard Street,
there was a grocery store occupied by Cahoone and the hardware store of
Stephen Conover, established in 1810, developing later into the firm of
Conover & Co., dealers in tiles, mantels, etc.
Between Franklin and Canal Streets, a great part of the land belonged
to the Van Cortlandts; and other lots, including the old Colles reservoir at
White Street, belonged to the city. There was little improvement here until
after 1815, though in 1795 there appears an advertisement of Rickett's
Amphitheatre, which stood on three lots north of White Street and which was
used as a circus and for panoramic and theatrical shows. Within five years
later the erection of fine residences began; among the public buildings on
the two blocks between White and Canal Streets were Florence's Hotel,
Concert Hall at 404, Enterprise Hall at 410, and the Apolo Gallery at 412.
Source: The Greatest Street in the World (The story of Broadway, old and
New, from the Bowling Green to Albany)
Author: Stephen Jenkins
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons-New York and London
The Knickerbocker Press
Copyright: 1911
_________________________________________________
Researched, Prepared and Transcribed by Miriam Medina
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