by Fran Leadon
27 “Yes, everyone walked in those days”: John Flavel Mines, A Tour Around New York and My Summer Acre: Being the Recreations of Mr. Felix Oldboy. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1893, 56.
27 “We walked everywhere, and saw everything”: George Kirwan Carr diary, Manuscripts and Archives Division, New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations, 74–75.
27 Broadway “might be taken for a French street”: Frances Trollope, Domestic Manners of the Americans. Second edition. London: Whittaker, Treacher & Co., 1832, II, 211.
27 “Broadway became a desert”: McDonald Clarke, Afara: or, The Belles of Broadway. New York: s.n., 1829, 23.
28 Shillings were valued differently: Hopper Striker Mott, The New York of Yesterday. New York and London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1908, 193.
29 “On one occasion we met in Broadway a young negress”: Trollope, Domestic Manners of the Americans, II, 211. Slavery was outlawed in New York in 1827, and the sense of newfound freedom among the city’s black community was perhaps reflected in Frances Trollope’s observations of blacks promenading on Broadway two years later.
29 accused Zion’s congregation of rude manners and insobriety: Untitled letter, New York Evening Post, October 25, 1825, 2.
29 “If a white person were to walk arm in arm”: Isaac Candler, A Summary View of America: Comprising a Description of the Face of the Country, and of Several of the Principal Cities; and Remarks on the Social, Moral, and Political Character of the People: Being the Result of Observations and Enquiries During a Journey in the United States. London: T. Cadell, 1824, 280–281.
30 “Heaven save the ladies, how they dress!”: Charles Dickens, American Notes for General Circulation. Paris: Baudry’s European Library, 1842, 100.
30 New York City’s population: John Disturnell, A Gazetteer of the State of New-York. Albany: J. Disturnell, 1842, 281.
30 “Twice a week they come”: Untitled, New York Aurora, February 2, 1842, 2.
31 “There, amid the splendour of Broadway”: Lydia Maria Child, Letters from New-York. New York and Boston: Charles S. Francis & Co., 1843, 1.
31 “It’s a pity we’ve no street but Broadway”: New-York Historical Society. BV Strong, George Templeton—MS 2472. Journal entry, October 11, 1840, I, 413.
31 Dickens went for a tour of the city: Dickens, American Notes for General Circulation, 106.
31 “These are the city scavengers, these pigs”: Ibid., 107. Pigs remained a fixture on New York streets, including on Broadway, into the Civil War era, and laws prohibiting their roaming remained on the books until 1897.
32 “Then the water leaped joyfully”: Lydia Maria Child, Letters from New York. Second Series. New York and Boston: C. S. Francis & Co., 1845, 80. Those who could afford to pay a fee—anywhere from $10 to $40 a year ($285 to $1,142 in today’s dollars), depending on the kind of dwelling—had Croton water piped directly into their homes. Builders were kept busy adding bathrooms to houses, and daily showers became the latest fad. Everyone else had to make do with public hydrants.
CHAPTER 4. FIRE AND PROGRESS
36 his death in 1875: Strong’s brief but gracious obituary in the New York Tribune commended him for his work as treasurer of the United States Sanitary Commission during the Civil War, but noted that Strong “was not the author of any extensive literary work.” “Obituary. George Templeton Strong,” New York Tribune, July 22, 1875, 5. His journal, which is now in the collection of the New-York Historical Society, wasn’t discovered until the 1930s.
36 “like an earthquake”: New-York Historical Society. BV Strong, George Templeton—MS 2472. Journal entry, July 19, 1845, II, 137.
37 “[The] roof moved”: Augustine E. Costello, Our Firemen: A History of the New York Fire Departments. New York: Augustine E. Costello, 1887, 238.
37 Somehow Hart survived: “The Great Fire—Full Particulars of the Buildings Burnt—Names of the Sufferers—Probable Loss of Stores and Merchandize from Five to Seven Millions of Dollars—Over Three Hundred Buildings—Several Lives Lost,” New York Tribune, July 21, 1845, 2.
37 the fire leapt across Broadway: New-York Historical Society. BV Strong, George Templeton—MS 2472. Journal entry, July 19, 1845, II, 137.
37 “Drays, carts and wheelbarrows, hastily loaded”: “The Great Fire—Full Particulars of the Buildings Burnt,” 2.
38 “not even the daring firemen could venture”: Ibid.
38 The volunteers of Engine Company No. 8: John Doggett Jr., The Great Metropolis: or, Guide to New-York for 1846. New York: H. Ludwig, 60.
38 “a chaos of ruin and smoke”: New-York Historical Society. BV Strong, George Templeton—MS 2472. Journal entry, July 19, 1845, II, 137.
38 a prairie fire: New York Evening Post, July 23, 1845. Quoted in I. N. Phelps Stokes, The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498 to 1909. New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915–1928. Reprinted, New York: Arno Press, 1967, V, 1792.
38 The fire displaced at least 400 residents: John Doggett Jr., Supplement to Doggett’s New-York City Directory. New York: John Doggett Jr., viii.
38 “Bank notes of the denomination”: Doggett, The Great Metropolis, 60; and Supplement to Doggett’s New-York City Directory, 2.
38 “[Our] bountiful supply of Croton Water”: “The Great Fire of Saturday,” New York Tribune, July 21, 1845, 2.
39 “Throw down our merchants ever so flat”: The Diary of Philip Hone, 1828–1851, Bayard Tuckerman, editor. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1889, II, 261.
39 the city wouldn’t be “crushed ”: “The Great Fire of Saturday,” 2.
39 an “abundance of capital”: New York Evening Post, July 23, 1845. Quoted in Stokes, The Iconography of Manhattan Island, V, 1792.
40 “cunningly carved”: New-York Historical Society. BV Strong, George Templeton—MS 2472. Journal entry, May 15, 1844, II, 78.
41 “It rivals the accurate taste of the best works”: Arthur D Gilman, “American Architecture,” North American Review, LVIII (1844), 465. Quoted in William H. Pierson Jr., American Buildings and Their Architects, Volume 2: Technology and the Picturesque: The Corporate and the Early Gothic Styles. New York and London: Oxford University Press, 1978, 162.
42 Strong couldn’t find a seat: New-York Historical Society. BV Strong, George Templeton—MS 2472. Journal entry, May 21, 1846, II, 181.
42 worth a reported $800,000: Moses Yale Beach, The Wealth and Biography of the Wealthy Citizens of the City of New York. New York: New York Sun, 1846, 26.
42 dry goods amounted to about one - third of American imports: Robert Greenhalgh Albion, The Rise of New York Port, 1815–1860. New York and London: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1939, 58–59.
43 Philip Hone scoffed at the extravagance: The Diary of Philip Hone, 1828–1851, Bayard Tuckerman, editor, II, 284.
43 “notoriously fatal to the female nerve”: Henry James, A Small Boy and Others. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1913, 66.
CHAPTER 5. BARNUM
44 “Broadway was the feature and the artery”: Henry James, A Small Boy and Others. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1913, 64.
44 “dusty halls of humbug”: Ibid., 155–156.
44 “Electric Fluid”: “The DEAD restored to apparent animation!!” Advertisement, New York Evening Post, March 31, 1807, 2.
45 “some of the finest views in the City”: Edwin Williams, editor, New York as It Is, In 1834; and Citizens’ Advertising Directory. New York: J. Disturnell, 1834, 187–188.
45 To attract business: Advertisements, New York Evening Post, July 20, 1833, 3; New York Tribune, May 5, 1841, 3; and Williams, New York As It Is, in 1834; and Citizens’ Advertising Directory, 187–188.
45 a top hat made of felted rabbit fur: The Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, Connecticut, has in its collection Barnum’s hat, made in Hartford ca. 1830.
46 the $1,000 he had paid: Phineas Taylor Barnum, The Autobiography of P. T. Barnum, Clerk, Merchant, Editor, and Showman; with His Rules for Business and Making a Fortune. Second edition. London: Wa
rd & Lock, 1855, 56.
47 A typical afternoon in Barnum’s “lecture hall”: Advertisement, New York Tribune, June 22, 1842, 3.
47 “The public appeared to be satisfied”: Barnum, The Autobiography of P. T. Barnum, 91. The “Feejee Mermaid” was displayed not at the American Museum but at the Concert Hall, later known as the Minerva Rooms, just up the block at 404 Broadway.
48 The screams of panicked animals: “Great Conflagration. Barnum’s Museum in Ashes,” New York Tribune, July 14, 1865, 1; “Disastrous Conflagration. Destruction of Barnum’s Museum,” New York Sun, July 14, 1865, 1, 4.
49 a “graceful sinking motion”: “Disastrous Conflagration. Destruction of Barnum’s Museum,” 4.
49 “Don’t fret a bit over the Museum”: Ibid.
50 Harper’s Weekly called him “Phoenix T. Barnum”: Quoted in advertisement, New York Sun, March 21, 1873, 4. In 1871, Barnum had organized “P. T. Barnum’s Great Travelling Museum, Menagerie and World’s Fair,” which featured wild animals, circus acrobats, snake charmers, musical and mechanical automatons, and various “Freaks of Nature.” Barnum attractions included “Wild Fiji Cannibals,” “Admiral Dot,” advertised as four times smaller than Tom Thumb, a bearded child, and a woman with no arms. He called it the “Greatest Show on Earth.” In 1875, Barnum opened the “Roman Hippodrome” on the site of the old New York & Harlem Railroad terminal (the future site of the first Madison Square Garden) at the corner of Fourth (Park) Avenue and 26th Street, opposite the northeast corner of Madison Square. Advertisement, Wheeling (West Virginia) Daily Intelligencer, June 1, 1872, 2.
CHAPTER 6. TRAFFIC
51 One drawing in Harper’s Weekly in 1860: “View of Broadway, Opposite Fulton Street, New York,” Harper’s Weekly, IV, 164 (February 18, 1860), 104–105.
51 Traveling on Broadway: Isabella Lucy Bird, The Englishwoman in America. London: John Murray, 1856, 337.
51 Walt Whitman loved the “tramp of the horses”: Jerome Loving, “ ‘Broadway, the Magnificent!’: A Newly Discovered Whitman Essay,” Walt Whitman Quarterly Review 12 (Spring 1995), 209–216.
54 Broadway’s colorful omnibus drivers: Walt Whitman, Specimen Days & Collect. Philadelphia: Rees Welsh & Co., 1882, 18–19.
54 “It is true here and there a church”: “How to Relieve Broadway,” Harper’s Weekly I, 51 (December 19, 1857), 808–809.
54 “Scarcely a day passes”: “City Items: Reckless Driving,” New York Tribune, October 22, 1859, 10.
54 and crowds began gathering: Fairfax Downey, “Traffic Regulation from Then Until Now,” New York Tribune, Part V (Magazine Section), January 15, 1922, 3.
54 “laughed at and condemned”: “Traffic at a Dead-Lock,” New York Tribune, December 24, 1867, 5.
54 The men of the Broadway Squad: “Sergt. John P. Day, Police Hero for 25 Years, Retires To-Night,” New York Evening World, June 15, 1922, 9; “The City,” New York Tribune, June 1, 1869, 8.
55 “They are generally handsome”: “Broadway During a Thaw,” Harper’s Weekly XVI, 793 (March 9, 1872), 189.
55 “Traffic had to be physically enforced”: Downey, “Traffic Regulation from Then Until Now,” 3.
55 “Tall and handsome fellow”: “The Broadway Policeman” (poem), Harper’s Weekly III, 139 (August 27, 1859), 554.
57 “This din, this driving, this omnibus thunder”: “Anti-Broadway Railroad Meeting,” New York Times, September 8, 1852, 4.
57 Beach ran the pneumatic car: Advertisement, New York Tribune, May 12, 1870, 7.
58 workers digging the tunnel: Robert Daley, “Alfred Ely Beach and his Wonderful Pneumatic Underground Railway,” American Heritage XII, 4 (June 1961), 54–89.
CHAPTER 7. ACROSS THE MEADOWS
63 it was called “Hell’s Hundred Acres”: Fire Commissioner Edward F. Cavanagh coined the nickname following a major fire on November 18, 1960, in the old Lord & Taylor’s store at Broadway and Grand Street. Ralph Katz, “Violations Found Before Loft Fire,” New York Times, November 22, 1960, 37.
64 Broadway’s Stone Bridge became a familiar landmark: Thomas A. Janvier, “Lispenard’s Meadows,” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine LXXXVII, 521 (October 1893), 746–754.
64 “You must not cross the bridge”: John J. Sturtevant memoir, Manuscripts and Archives Division, New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations, 55a.
65 the Common Council spent $13,000: Minutes of the Common Council of the City of New York, 1784–1831. City of New York, 1917, III, 280, 525.
65 a “very offensive and irregular mound”: John Randel Jr., “City of New York, north of Canal street, in 1808 to 1821,” in D. T. Valentine, Manual of the Corporation of the City of New York. New York: Edmund Jones & Co., 1864, 849.
66 In 1809, Broadway was paved: SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District Designation Report, New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, 1973, 5.
66 By 1812 there were still only forty: New York City Municipal Archives, Assessed Valuation of Real Estate, 6th Ward, 1808–1827, Microfilm Roll 27; 8th Ward, 1808–1822, Microfilm Roll 38.
66 Blackwell & McFarlan’s Union Air Furnace: New York Journal, August 20, 1767. Mentioned in I. N. Phelps Stokes, The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498 to 1909. New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915–1928. Reprinted, New York: Arno Press, 1967, V, 777; and Thomas Longworth, Longworth’s American Almanac, New-York Register, and City Directory. New York: Thomas Longworth, 1826.
66 a coterie of prosperous downtown merchants: Residents in 1812 included prominent merchants Benjamin Hyde, George Fairclough, Benjamin Sands, Edward Kirby, David and Andrew Ogden, Peter Hatterick, Peter Talman, and Martin Hoffman. New York City Municipal Archives, Assessed Valuation of Real Estate, 8th Ward, 1808–1822, Microfilm Roll 38.
66 the “healthy part of Broadway”: Advertisement, New York Evening Post, June 25, 1823, 1.
67 lots on Broadway in 1812: At first, it wasn’t Astor but Abijah Hammond, obscure today but in his day well known in New York, who acquired much of the land along Broadway’s second mile and on adjacent streets. In 1812, Hammond owned the entire block on the west side of Broadway between Grand and Broome streets, plus 38 additional lots on Mercer Street, 41 on Greene Street, and 49 on Wooster Street. Like Astor, Hammond wasn’t in any hurry to develop his land, and in 1812 there wasn’t a single building on any of Hammond’s 142 lots on or near Broadway’s second mile. Over the next five years the value of vacant lots on Broadway between Canal and Houston streets grew exponentially, and Hammond’s Broadway lots, worth a total of $8,400 in 1812, were worth $20,000 only two years later. (By 1817 Hammond had sold all but four of his Broadway lots.) New York City Municipal Archives, Assessed Valuation of Real Estate, 6th Ward, 1808–1827, Microfilm Roll 27; 8th Ward, 1808–1822, Microfilm Roll 38.
67 by 1822 there were twice as many houses: New York City Municipal Archives, Assessed Valuation of Real Estate, 6th Ward, 1808–1827, Microfilm Roll 27; 8th Ward, 1808–1822, Microfilm Roll 38.
67 By 1825 the 8th Ward: “Census Memorandum,” New York Evening Post, October 25, 1825, 2. The population of the 8th Ward grew from 13,766 in 1820 to 24,285 in 1825, but the growth would have been even more dramatic had the 8th Ward not lost much of its territory to the newly created 10th Ward. As the city developed, new wards were created by subdividing old ones. Within a generation most of the houses built in the 1820s building boom along Broadway’s second mile were torn down to make way for stores, warehouses, and office buildings. Only one of them remains today: 423 Broadway, built by shipmaster Benjamin Lord on the west side of the street between Canal and Howard streets in 1822.
CHAPTER 8. “A GLANCE AT NEW YORK”
69 “I ain’t a goin’ to run”: Thomas Allston Brown, A History of the New York Stage from the First Performance in 1732 to 1901. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., I, 284. The published version of A Glance at New York printed Chanfrau’s pronouncement as “I’ve made up my mind not to run wid der machine any more.” Benjamin A. Baker, A Glance at New York: A Local Drama, in Tw
o Acts. New York and London: Samuel French & Son, 1890, 9.
69 popular actor Frank Chanfrau: Chanfrau was supposedly the son of a Bowery grocer, and therefore a favorite of newsboys and Bowery toughs. Whether Chanfrau was actually a product of the Bowery is debatable: A “Raymond Chanfraud, grocer,” was listed in Longworth’s Directory at various Bowery addresses between 1822 and 1833, and he certainly could have been Chanfrau’s father. No one with that surname appeared in directories between 1834 and 1838. “Raymond Chanfraud, clerk,” is listed at various addresses on the Lower East Side beginning in 1839. Beginning in 1844, the spelling of his name as listed changes from “Chanfraud” to “Chanfrau.” Other people named “Chanfrau” began appearing in city directories around that time, including Henry, Peter, Jane, and Joseph Chanfrau. The actor Frank Chanfrau doesn’t appear in directories until 1849, when he is listed as a boarder at the New England House hotel.
69 “Fellow citizens”: Baker, A Glance at New York, 17.
70 “I declare,” she exclaims: Ibid., 7.
70 Chanfrau supposedly based the Mose character: Humphreys was listed in Longworth’s Directory as a dresser of morocco leather, which was used in bookbinding, from 1824 to 1838–39, and, beginning in 1839, as a printer. From 1824 to 1828–29 he lived on William Street, from 1829 to 1830 on Grand Street, and on Mulberry Street after that.
72 William Makepeace Thackeray: Frank Kernan, Reminiscences of the Old Fire Laddies and Volunteer Fire Departments of New York and Brooklyn: Together with a Complete History of the Paid Departments of Both Cities. New York: M. Crane, 1885, 63.
72 “How comes it I find you”: Baker, A Glance at New York, 10.
72 “The fire - boys may be a little rough”: Ibid., 20.
73 Tattersall’s famous horse market: Tattersall’s, 442-448 Broadway, occupied the old Broadway (West’s) Circus building next door to Mitchell’s. It was demolished in the fall of 1850 to make way for stores and, in the rear, the City Assembly Rooms, designed by John M. Trimble. “The Metropolis. . . No. V. Architectural Improvements,” New York Tribune, October 5, 1850, 1–2.