Greatest street in the world : the story of Broadway, old and new, from the Bowling Green to Albany /

Front matter

A Winter Scene in Broadway, i860

an engraving by Girardet, after the painting by H. Sebron

The Greatest Street in the World

Introduction

URING the past ten or more years I have been delivering a lecture in New York and elsewhere, which I have called "Broadway, Old and New, from New York to Albany."

In this volume, I have expanded the lecture to book size.

Broadway is the longest of the modern streets of the world, though it is surpassed in length by two of ancient Roman construction: the Appian Way from Rome to Brundusium, 350 miles, and Watling Street in England, from Dover via London to Chester and York, thence in two branches to Carlisle and the Wall near Newcastle. These have, however, fallen from their high estate ; and of the latter road traces only are found in some parts of its course of over three hundred miles; remains of the former are sometimes unearthed, though a more modern road, built by Pope Pius VI. in 1789 parallels the ancient roadway from Rome to Albano, nineteen miles northeast of the Eternal City.

From the beginning of the nineteenth century Broadway has been the main artery of the city, and its growth has been an indication of that of the old city upon the island of Manhattan. It has become the Mecca toward which the eyes of exiled Manhattanites are always turned, and they long for a sight of "dear old Broadway." It

V vi

Introduction represents to them New York — it is the epitome of the life of the great metropolis, with its various activities, mercantile, social, political, and theatrical. The outsider must also see Broadway, if he should visit New York; though it is greatly to be feared that the gaiety of the thoroughfare is its most potent attraction to him. If you are a New Yorker, let me ask you if you have ever been away from the city for a few weeks? When you return and your footsteps carry you along Broadway, does not every face you see — whether man, woman or child — have for you so marked a familiarity that you feel as if you knew personally each individual, and you have an almost overmastering inclination to nod or to say "How d' ye do?" to each one you pass? In other words, you feel at home, or like Micawber, that "your foot is on your native heath." I sometimes wonder if the naturalized New Yorker ever experiences the same feeling. I do not believe he does.

I think I am right in calling it "the greatest street in the world." There are famous streets in the other great cities of the world, but none that shows such wealth for so great a distance. It is said that when the famous Field Marshal Bliicher rode in triumphal procession through the streets of London after the battle of Waterloo he gazed about him in astonishment, and, true to his upbringing as a soldier of Frederick the Great and the military canons of the time, exclaimed: "Gott in Himmel! Vot a magnificent city to sack!" If we could suppose the doughty old warrior transported to New York and driven over her great thoroughfare, we can readily believe that words would fail him.

The question is often asked whether New York will ever be finished. It does not seem so, for there is such continual tearing down and building up. This has been

Introduction vii a marked feature of Broadway since the days of the Dutch. It is, perhaps, a sign of financial progress and wealth — ■ the desire to have something better than there was before. But it has its unpleasant side if we judge from the sentimental point of view ; for old and historic landmarks have disappeared. Of course, if some of these had been preserved, it would have been expensive toll to pay for sentiment, and we are a practical people and inclined to say

with Sir Peter Teazle : " D sentiment." Then again,

our population is so mixed with foreign elements that historic associations have played but little part when utility has required change or demolition.

In writing this volume, I have tried to be as accurate as possible, and where there has been doubt to give that statement which has the greatest authority. A bibliography will be found at the end of the volume; and I wish here to acknowledge the obligations I am under to the Lenox, Astor, Society, Mechanics, New York Historical Society and Mount Vernon public libraries, and especially to the private library of District Superintendent of Schools, John W. Davis; also to many individuals, both in public positions and private life, to whom I have addressed inquiries which have always been courteously answered.

Stephen Jenkins.

Mount Vernon, New York, January, 191 1.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. — The Dutch Heere Straat i

II. — The Fort and the Bowling Green . . 12

Chapter I

N the fourth of October, 1609, Henry Hudson, having finished the exploration of the river which bears his name, set sail for Europe and wintered in the port of Dartmouth, England. From this point, he sent accounts of his voyage to his employers, in which he named the newly explored river the Mauritius, in honor of Prince Maurice of Orange. Several merchants at once began the fitting out of a vessel to take advantage of Hudson's discoveries. This vessel sailed in the following year (1610), and it is said that it was commanded by Juet, Hudson's mate on the Half-Moon.

This voyage must have been of advantage to its

* Between the Bowling Green and Vesey Street, Broadway has been called at various times in old documents De Heere Wagh Wegh, the Broad Wagon Way, the Common Highway, and the Great Public Road.

I backers, for we find that the United Netherlands Company was formed for the purposes of trade with this new land. From this time forth, a succession of voyages followed under such commanders as Christiensen, May, Block, De Witt, and Volckertsen. While these expeditions ascended the river as far as the influx of the Mohawk— the heart of the fur trade with the Indians — Manhattan Island was made the chief depot of the trade, and Christiensen was made the agent of the Company for the traffic in furs. A small fort was built on Castle Island in the river near Albany, and another on Manhattan Island with a few rough, bark huts near it. This fort was a small block-house surrounded by a stockade. It stood at the junction of Tuyn, or Garden Street (Exchange Place) and the present Broadway — approximately, at 39 Broadway.

In the fall of 1613, Adrian Block lost one of his vessels, the Tiger, by fire; and he and Christiensen built several huts for the accommodation of their crews and spent the winter of 1613-14 upon the island of Manhattan. The site of these huts is marked by a tablet erected by the Holland Society upon the front of the building occupied by the Hamburg-American Line at 41-45 Broadway. These habitations are said to have been the first erected by Europeans upon the island of Manhattan, and the date is that usually given for the first settlement of New York. They were probably the huts of 161 2 repaired for winter use, being contiguous to the small fort, or block-house, mentioned above. The crews were engaged during the winter in building a vessel to replace the one lost by fire. The new vessel was called the Onrest, or Restless. In it Block made explorations through Long Island Sound as far as the island which bears his name, whence he crossed to the northern shore and explored Narragansett Bay.

These earlier voyages were conducted by traders, who, having bartered with the Indians for furs and pelts, returned each year to Holland; unless through some accident, as with Block and Christiensen, they were obliged to stay through the winter.

The charter of the United Netherlands Company expired January I, 1618; but special licenses to trade were granted by the States- General until the formation of the West India Company, June 3, 1621. This company was formed principally through the efforts of Willem Usselinx, a far-sighted patriot and statesman, who had been urging the colonization of the newly explored lands ever since Hudson's report of his voyage had reached Holland, with its description of the richness and productiveness of the country. The formation of the West India Company had three objects primarily in view: first, an immediate source of revenue to the State to aid in supporting the war then waging with Spain; second, to colonize the lands which held out so many prospective rewards to the colonizers; third, to establish a permanent colony in America as an offset to the Spanish colonies, and as a base at which the Dutch vessels could fit out and from which they could sail to pounce upon the richly laden galleons of Spain on their homeward voyages from Mexico, South America, and the West Indies.

In pursuance of these plans, a number of colonists, provided with tools, cattle, and other requisites, were sent out in several vessels and settled near the site of Albany in the first half of May, 1624. It was not until the spring of 1626 that a permanent, agricultural colony under Director Peter Minuits was established upon Manhattan Island; though it must not be forgotten that the island had been occupied as a trading post for several years before this.

In 1841, Dr. Brodhead visited Holland on behalf of the State of New York for the purpose of examining and codifying the ancient records relating to the Dutch occupation of New Netherland. He found that a great mass of the earliest documents and archives had been sold at auction as worthless lumber twenty years before his visit; and these priceless papers have probably disappeared forever. From the year 1638 onwards, however, there are pretty full records, as the correspondence between the West India Company and its agents was very voluminous; and the reports of the directorsgeneral and the petitions of the inhabitants of New Netherland against the tyranny and exactions of the company's representatives to their "Illustrious High- Mightinesses," the States-General, and other matters relating to the colony had been preserved. All of these, as well as similar papers in the possession of the State of New York, have been translated and codified by Brodhead, O'Callaghan, and their successors in the offices of state archivist and state historian ; and the work is still in progress. The very earliest history of Manhattan is, therefore, largely traditional and conjectural.

The Company built a fort at the lower end of the island, and about this clustered the houses of the first settlers ; these were rude affairs of bark. Later, there was expansion along the shore of the East River as the settlers began to cultivate their bouweries, or farms. When Director-General Kieft massacred Indians at Pavonia and on Long Island and brought about the Indian wars of 1 641, and later, the people were obliged to flee from the outlying farms to the protection of the fort in order to escape death or bondage at the hands of the redskins. As it was, their cattle were killed, and their houses destroyed, while many of the men were tomahawked, and the women and children carried into captivity. The annals of these Indian wars teem with horrors — of the two belligerents, it appears that the Dutch were the more savage.

MAP OF NEW YORK IN 1642, DRAWN " FROM THE BEST DATA IN HIS POSSESSION" BY D. T. VALENTINE

There was at first no order in which the houses were built. Each settler "squatted" wherever he pleased, his one desire being to get as close to the fort as possible. He built his house and cultivated his garden ; and after a period of occupancy, usually six years, received from the Company the grond brief, or patent, for his land. The first grant of land was probably that made in 1636 or 1637 to Roelof Jansen of a tract of sixty-two acres on the west side of Broadway, extending from Warren Street to Christopher. It was not until 1642 that any grants were made of town lots; and it was not until the following year that such grants were made on the Heere Straat. These were principally on the east side, as the west side was taken up with the burying -ground (Morris Street), the garden, and the orchard of the Company, the Company's bouwerie, and the country places of Vandergrift and Van Dyke. In 1631, a windmill for the use of the town was erected on the Heere Straat between the present Liberty and Cortlandt streets.

On account of this "squatting" of the first settlers, there grew up that irregularity of streets which distinguishes to-day the lower parts of the city of New York. Streets were unknown in those early days; but about the time of the first grants two streets leading from the fort seem to have formed themselves by common consent; one, the Heere Straat, which followed a ridge of land northward through the Company's farms and fields, the other, a street leading along the shore of the East River, which became the Great Queen Street of the English and the Pearl Street of the present. It was along this latter street that the settlement grew away from the fort, having its greatest density of houses and population in Blommaert's Vly, through which flowed a sluggish stream that drained the swamp near the Heere Straat. As early as 1638, it appears that measures were taken to drain this marsh, but it was not until 1643 that an artificial ditch was constructed to carry off the swamp water. At first, a roadway twenty-five or thirty feet wide was left on the west side only; but in 1657-59, arrangements were made with the landholders on the eastern side, and a similar width of roadway was secured on that side also.

At the same time, the ditch was deepened and widened and its sides sheathed with planks, so that it became a canal through which the tide ebbed and flowed almost to Beaver Street. Here were conditions and surroundings with which the Dutchman was familiar ; he was reminded of home, and this section became the most desirable and thickly settled on the island. The street was called De Heere Graft; in English days and our own, Broad Street. By 1676 the ditch had become so unsanitary that Governor Andros ordered that the street be filled up, and the ditch became a covered sewer as far south as the bridge (Bridge Street).

From the very beginning of the Dutch occupation, differences arose between them and the English as to the ownership of the land. It is stated that as early as 1614, Captain Argall, while returning from his eastern explorations, stopped at Manhattan Island, and made the traders whom he found there acknowledge the supremacy of Virginia and pay quit-rent for the privilege of trading in the valley of the Hudson; and Captain Thomas Dermer, the first Englishman to sail through Long Island Sound is known to have stopped at the Manhadoes in 1 61 9. There were constant disputes with Connecticut over the boundary line between the two colonies — a dispute that was handed down to our own time, for it was not until 1879 that the two States interested finally came to an agreement which was ratified by the Congress of 1880-81.

In 1654, some English from Connecticut, probably in furtherance of that colony's claim to all the land as far as the ocean, settled on Westchester Creek, in what is now the Borough of the Bronx. Director Stuyvesant, and his council, fearing further encroachments by the English upon the land of New Netherland, and even upon

New Amsterdam itself, sent an expedition to arrest the audacious intruders, and also during the same year, caused a palisade to be built from the East River to the Hudson. This palisade, or wall, was regularly patrolled by the soldiers of the Company, and several falcons were distributed along its length. Two gates gave egress and ingress; one being located at the upper end of the Heere Straat, called De Landt Poorte, or land gate; the other, the more important of the two, called the water gate, at the shore of the East River. The land gate was opposite where Trinity Church now stands and gave access to the Vlacte, or pasture; the water gate gave access to the ferry to Brooklyn, to Allerton's warehouse, and to the other houses along the river road. In the morning men went through the streets blowing horns, and the cattle of the different inhabitants were put in their charge to be driven through the two gates to the common for pasture ; at night the cattle were driven back again through the gates, but distributed themselves to their own quarters.

This palisade, or wall, gave its name to the street which was afterwards laid out along its length and which has become the financial centre of New York — Wall Street. The wall was, therefore, the upper limit of the town of New Amsterdam. If we measure the extent of the town from north to south by the scale on the " Duke's Plan " of 1664, we shall find that it did not exceed five hundred and fifty yards from the southern extremity to the wall. The palisade was allowed to decay, but was repaired from time to time as the danger of invasion arose during both Dutch and English days. In 1692, during the alarm of King William's War with the French, fears were entertained of an invasion from Canada, and two stone bastions were erected, one of which, called "Zealandia," stood at the land gate. The wall was finally demolished in 1699. When the workmen were digging up Broadway in 1799 to lay the water pipes of the Manhattan Company, they came upon the foundations and posts of the old city gate at Wall Street.

In 1652, upon petition of the inhabitants, the Company granted them a burgher government; — this constituted the first incorporation of the city. In 1656, the first map of the city was drawn, showing seventeen streets, "to remain from this time forward, without alteration." In 1657, the average price of the best city lots was fifty dollars, and these were not on the Heere Straat. The rent of an average good house was fourteen dollars a year. In 1658, contracts were awarded to some of the city shoemakers to make leather fire-buckets; and a few months later, these buckets were distributed to several houses in the town, eleven being assigned to Heer Paulus Leendersen Vandergrift, whose house was on the Heere Straat nearly opposite Exchange Place.

In 1664, at the time of the surrender of the province to the English under Colonel Nicolls, in addition to the tracts of land on the west side of the street already mentioned, were the farms of Nicholas William Stuyvesant and Balthasar Stuyvesant, sons of the governor. Outside the city gate, the Heere Straat did not extend as far as Fulton Street. This section had been granted in 1644 to Jan Jansen Damen, whose property extended, with some slight variations, from river to river, and was now rented by his heirs to five tenants.

On the east side of the street, was a grant taken in 1 643 by Govert Loockermans and Isaac Allerton, an Englishman who had come over in the Mayflower to Plymouth. The property extended one hundred feet above Beaver Street on the Heere Straat, and two hundred and fifty

ORIGINAL GR^

(«> the inhabitant s of

mow NEW -YORK.) tying below the present line of flail Sire 'I

JW 'Hirer ii feet back to the swamp on Broad Street. Above this, was another farm of Jan Jansen Damen, which had been used formerly by the negro slaves of the Company to cultivate for their own use. Damen cultivated part of it, and used part of it for a sheep pasture. The next property was that belonging to Secretary Cornelis Van Tienhoven, which he had acquired in 1644. The few houses on the east side of the road were of a mean character, little better than hovels, with one room and a fire-place, being occupied by mechanics and laborers. This was due to the fact that the Heere Straat was remote from the business parts of the town.

Chapter II

Tmmmm1^^^^ HE fort at Garden Street (1612) I I ! was a block -house surrounded by

-vT^ palisades, or, in the language of

C&^HH^^y^^ the times, "stockadoes." The fort ^^^P^4^5 erected by the West India Com- ^^^Jr^T^^r pany under Kieft at the lower end of the island was of similar description; but it was the first building intended to be permanent. It was called Fort Amsterdam, and the settlement which grew up about it, New Amsterdam. In 1633, a more pretentious fortification was begun by Van Twiller. This was planned to be three hundred feet long and two hundred and fifty feet wide, with four corner bastions built of stone, the ramparts between being of earth. It was finished in 1635 at an expense of $1688, and contained the governor's house, barracks for the garrison, secretary's office, etc. The stone church, seventy-two feet long, fifty-two feet wide, and sixteen feet over the ground, was begun by Kieft in 1641 and finished the following year. The roof was of split shingles; and upon the front was placed a tablet stating in Dutch: "Anno Domini, 1642, Wilhelm Kieft, Director-General, hath the Commonalty caused to build this Temple." The cost of the church,

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1 cd > one thousand dollars, was raised by subscription, advantage being taken of a wedding party to get the merry guests to subscribe sums at which in the "cold, gray light of the morning after," they opened their eyes. The church was named Saint Nicholas in honor of the patron saint of Holland; but later it was also known as "The Dutch Church within the Fort." The contractors were John and Richard Ogden of Stamford, in Connecticut.

During colonial and provincial times, the fort was the centre of political action, and, to a great extent, owing to its being the official residence of the governor, of the social life as well. Its site was on the plot of ground bounded by Whitehall, Bridge, and State streets, and the Bowling Green. The last named was on a hill outside the fort — it is there that Broadway begins. Whitehall Street was so called because it led down to a white building erected by Governor Stuyvesant, afterwards used by the English Governor Dongan, and later as a custom-house. J. H. Innes* suggests that it may have been so called by the English in derision, as the building was not an imposing one and may have recalled to them the dilapidated appearance of their own Whitehall Palace in London. Bridge Street led to the "long bridge" across the canal in Broad Street. State Street, afterwards the locality of some of the finest mansions in the city, was named in honor of the State.

The Bowling Green was the open space north of the fort, originally called '/ Marckveldt (the Marketfield) or "The Plaine." A lane led to it from Broad Street, called 't Marckveldt steegie, popularly known in English days as Petticoat Lane. A portion of the ancient lane is still hidden away between the Produce Exchange and the American Bank Note Company's building at Broad

* New A msterdam and its People.

and Beaver streets. Beaver Street also led into the Marketfleld; and on the west, leading to the Hudson, and the landing-place of the Jersey farmers, was the Beaver path, an extension of Beaver Street, but closed as a highway and granted to private parties before 1650.

In 1641, Director Kieft ordered that an annual fair for the sale of hogs should be held in the Marketfield on the first of November. In 1658, a meat market, the first in the city, was established in the same place, and a shed was erected for the purpose. In the following year (1659) a great, annual, cattle fair was established in front of the fort between October twentieth and the last week in November, during which time no one could be arrested for debt. This, no doubt, added materially to its popularity, for it lasted for thirty years. The cattle to be sold were ranged along the west side of Broadway and fastened to stakes driven for the purpose in front of the burying-ground (Morris Street).

The open place served not only as a market, but also as a parade for the soldiers, for a common out-door meeting-place of the inhabitants, and for bonfires, Maypole dances, and similar celebrations. The old parade also saw the departure and return of many a warlike expedition. In 1 69 1 a shambles was established on the Marketfield, where meat only was to be sold.

The first Indian war of Kieft's administration was ended here on August 30, 1645, when the chiefs and sachems of the hostile tribes assembled on "The Plaine," smoked the peace pipe, and buried the tomahawk in sign of amity, at the same time marking their totems in sign of acquiescence upon the treaty which the Dutch had prepared for them. In 1655, Stuyvesant marshalled his army in front of the fort before starting on his successful expedition against the Fort Christina of the usurping

Swedes upon the Delaware; and "The Plaine" also beheld the triumphant return of his (according to Diedrich Knickerbocker) motley army. For the last time Stuyvesant marched his little army out of the fort with the honors of war, August 26, 1664, while the tri-colored flag of Holland fluttered to the ground and the standard of Great Britain rose in its place.

Under Colonel Nicolls, New Amsterdam became New York, and the fort became Fort James in honor of the lord-proprietor, James, Duke of York and Albany (afterwards King James II.). For nine years, the English remained undisturbed; then, England and Holland being at war, a Dutch fleet of five vessels under command of Admirals Benckes and Evertsen appeared off New York, and the province became once more Dutch, with Captain Colve, commanding one of the vessels, as governor. The city was called New Orange, and the fort, Fort William Hendrick, August, 1673. In November, 1674, the Dutch, by the treaty of Westminster, ceded the colony to the English, and the fort and city became again English, to remain so until the Revolution.

As stated above, the fort was the centre of the political and social life of the city. Here the governors resided, here the taxes and quit-rents for land grants were payable, and here was quartered the garrison, consisting usually of a regiment of foot and a company of artillery. It is not necessary to give a list of these governors, most of them bad, some indifferent and a few, good. Probably the worst from a moral point of view was my Lord Cornbury, a dissolute profligate, who amused himself and shocked the worthy citizens by parading about the fort dressed in women's clothes — his only title to consideration being that he was a cousin of Queen Anne and that he needed all the money that he could force or beguile from the inhabitants.

When, in August, 1689, the news of the abdication of James II. reached the city, the great mass of the citizens determined to get rid of the obnoxious Governor Nicholson and declared for William and Mary; but there was far from being unanimity of opinion. A committee of safety was formed, and Jacob Leisler, one of the wealthiest merchants of the city and a captain of the militia, was declared commander-in-chief until such time as instructions could be received from England. The five train-bands of the city and one from Eastchester paraded in front of the fort and refused to obey the orders of their colonel, Nicholas Bayard, but declared instead for Leisler, who then took possession of the fort and became the actual governor. When on March 19, 1691, Governor Sloughter arrived under appointment of William and Mary, the fort was, after some delay, surrendered, and Leisler was arrested and accused of high treason. A court of eight judges was appointed by Sloughter, and Leisler and his son-in-law, Jacob Milborne, were convicted of treason and sentenced to death.

Sloughter, who appears to have been a well-meaning man when not under the influence of drink, would not sign the death warrant, probably believing that, while Leisler might be technically guilty, he had, in fact, saved the colony from anarchy and been loyal to the king, under whose orders he claimed, and rightly, always to have acted. There was also fear on the governor's part that he might incur the displeasure of the king by summarily executing the man who had been the first to raise the standard of William and Mary in New York. However, Leisler's enemies were determined upon his death and took advantage of the governor's weakness to accomplish 2 their purpose. They invited Sloughter to a banquet, got him drunk, and, while he was in that condition, induced him to sign the death warrant. Before he became sober, Leisler and Milborne had been executed. On July 23, 1 69 1, two months afterwards, Sloughter died suddenly while in a drunken state. It is to be hoped that remorse helped him on to his untimely end. Four years later, Parliament reversed the attainder, the confiscated property of the two victims was restored to their heirs, and the bodies of Leisler and Milborne were disinterred and buried with high honors in the Dutch church in Garden Street. For a quarter of a century afterwards, the politics of the city were swayed by the Leislerians and the anti-Leislerians.