USA > New York > New York City > History of New York City : embracing an outline sketch of events from 1609 to 1830, and a full account of its development from 1830 to 1884 Volume II > Part 28
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Late in this decade the most beautiful, chaste, and imposing church "difice in this country, St. Patrick's Cathedral. was begun on Fifth Avenue. Its front occupies the space between Fiftieth and Fifty-first streets, on the east side of the avenue, and the building extends nearly to Madison Avenue. This grand edifice is also from the designs and working drawings of Mr. Renwick. The superintendence of its con- truction was at first intrusted by Mr. Renwick to Mr. Rodrigue, but was at onee brought into a large and lucrative business. He was selected as the architect of Calvary Church, on Fourth Avenue, the Church of the Puritans, on Union Square, and tushy domestic and business edifices. He was chosen the architect of the building of the Smithsonian Institution at Washington, by the board of regents. He was then only twenty-seven years of age. Mr. Renwick was also appointed architect of the board of charities and correction of the city of New York, and remained in that position until 1874.
In 1853 Mr. Renwick competed for the plans of the new Roman Catholic Cathedral, and he was successful. Archbishop Hughes adopted his plans, and the work was begun in INGS. Now the ambitions desires of his youth to " build a cathedral " were fully gratified, and he planned one of the most beautiful edifices in the world. The selection of Mr. Renwick as the architect was a high compliment to his genius and to the wis- Join of Archbishop Hughes. The Cathedral is not yet (1883) completed. A very brief Roto ral description of it is given in the text of this chapter.
Among Mr. Renwick's other works are the Corcoran Gallery, at Washington ; the City Hospital, Small-pox Hospital, Workhouse, and Lunatic and Inebriate Asyluis, on Ward's I-land ; the City Foundling Hospital, on Randall's Island ; Vassar College, at Pough- keepsie, on the Hudson ; the cardinal's residence, on Madison Avenue ; St. Bartholomew's, and the church on Park Avenne and Thirty-fifth Street, both in the Byzantine style ; the Seeund Presbyterian Church, on Fifth Avenne ; St. Ann's Church, in Brooklyn ; the Congregational Church at Chicago, and a great number of churches throughout the United States. In connection with his late partner. Mr. Sands, Mr. Renwick planned the build- ing of the Young Men's Christian Association, Booth's Theatre, Appletons' store in Proalway, and many other fine buildings in the city.
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failing health compelled the latter to relinquish the task, when it was given to William Joyce, who still holds the position, for the structure is not yet completed.
This cathedral was projected by Archbishop Hughes about the year 1850. The plans were drawn soon afterward by Mr. Renwick, and accepted by the archbishop, who proceeded cautiously upon wise busi- ness principles. The corner-stone was laid on August 15, 1858, in the presence of a multitude of people, estimated at 100,000 in number. At that time Fifth Avenue in that vicinity was almost a wilderness, so far as fine houses are concerned, much open common, and unregulated streets. There was no house to be seen between Fifth and Sixth avenues in that vicinity at the time ; now the ground is covered with palatial residences.
The ground plan of the Cathedral is in the form of a Latin cross. Its dimensions are as follows : Exterior length, 335 feet ; interior length, 306 feet : breadth of nave and choir, 96 feet without the chapels, and 120 with them ; length of the transept, 140 feet ; height in centre, 108 feet, and height of side aisles, 54 feet. With the Chapel of Our Lady, which is embraced in the design, the structure will occupy the entire square between Fifth and Madison avenues.
The architecture of the Cathedral is of the decorated or geometric style which prevailed in Europe in the thirteenth century, such as the cathedrals at Rheims and at Cologne exhibit. The interior architecture in every part is grand and beautiful. The high altar is 12 feet in length. The table, or altar proper, is of the finest marble, made in Italy, and is the gift of Cardinal McCloskey. It is inlaid with semi- precious stones. The reredos, of Poitier's stone, is 50 feet in height and 32 feet in width, and is the gift of the clergy of the diocese. There are three other altars, rich and beautiful in structure, the whole costing about $100,000. The archbishop's throne is on the right side of the sanctuary, and is of Gothic design.
The seating capacity of the Cathedral is 2600, in 408 pews, built of ash, and the aisles will afford standing-room for nearly as many more. The Cathedral is lighted by 70 windows, 37 of which are memorial windows. Most of these were made in France, and cost about $100,000. The windows were presented by parishioners and individ- uals throughout the country. There are also a number of fine paint- ings in the Cathedral .* . The total cost of the new Cathedral up to
* A full description of these windows, the paintings, and of the exterior and interior of the Cathedral may be found in a little volume printed at the New York Catholic Pro- teetory in 1879.
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1-3 wasabout 82,000,000. It is estimated that by the time it shall be completed according to the design it will cost $2,500,000. The great church was dedicated on Sunday, May 20, 1579, by Cardinal McClos- kev. * It is open all day on Sunday, and on other days until nine J'elox k in the evening.
The Cathedral progresses toward completion as fast as funds are provided. One of the most successful efforts to provide money for the
& John Mecloskey, Cardinal and Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York, was born 3. Franklyn, L. I., on March 20, 1810. His parents came to America from Derry County, Ials 1, and were in comfortable circumstances. This son was baptized in St. Peter's 1. irch, in New York, one of the two Roman Catholic churches in the city. He lost his father when he was ten years of age. His mother, who had been left with a competence, onled him a liberal education. His collegiate course was finished at Mount St. Mary's Collage, at Hunnittsburg, Md., in 1827, when he was seventeen years of age. He gradu- atel with the highest honors, prepared for the ministry, and was ordained a priest by Bishop Dubois in St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York, in January, 1831. In November of the same year he left for Europe, where he remained three years, a part of the time in France, and a part in Rome. On his return he was appointed pastor of St. Joseph's Church, which position he filled seven years. On the organization of St. John's College, s: Fordham. in 1841, this young but learned clergyman was appointed to the presidency by Bilo Hughes. There he remained about a year, when he restned the charge of his pari.b. In 1511, when only thirty-four years of age, he was consecrated coadjutor to Bebop Hinglas, but continued his pastorate of St. Joseph's. When the diocese of All My was created, in 1817, he was transferred thither. There were then only 40 churches and a few priests in it ; when he left it, seventeen years afterward. there were in the diocese 113 churches, 8 chapels, 54 mission stations, $5 missionaries, 3 academies for boys and 1 for girls, 6 orphan asylums, and 15 parochial schools.
On the death of Archbishop Hughes, in 1864, Dr. MeCloskey became his successor. He tilled the exalted station with great ability and untiring zeal. The progress of the Cathedral was an object of his special care, and he gave it much of his personal super- vision, especially of its interior arrangements. He went to Europe in 1871, chiefly to look after the construction of the altars, the statues, stained windows, and other interior decorations of the sanctuary, and to this work he contributed $30,000 of his income.
In the Consistory, held at the Vatican on March 15. 1875, Archbishop MeCloskey was elevated to the high dignity of a cardinal-the first in America. The ceremony of im- posing the beretta took place at St. Patrick's Cathedral in April following. the Arch- bishop of Baltimore officiating. The cardinal has made a number of visits to Rome in connection with his exalted office. The Church, in him, finds a zealous and efficient leader. In person he is above the medium height, sparsely made, and ereet. His conn- tenance is strongly expressive of amiability and benevolence. In his manner he is digni- fied, courteous, and kindly. The late Pope Pius IX. said of him, " He has the bearing of a prince." He is a ripe scholar and a bold and devoted churchman. " His eloquence," says a late writer, " is of the tender, deeply religious kind, uttered with fervent sinerrity, and in language at once of simplicity and elegance. A man of energy and of sleepless vigilance in the discharge of his duty, still he always seeks the most unostentatious manner of performing it. He provokes no contliets and offers no opinions, but with humility and prayerfulness toils on in the sphere of his own duties."
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purpose was that of a great fair held within its walls, the net proceeds of which amounted to $175,000.
The beginning of this decade was marked by a long-remembered event in the social history of New York City. It was the advent of Jenny Lind, who was called the " Swedish Nightingale." She was the sweetest songstress that ever visited America, and was one of the best of women in private life. She sang in the United States under the admirable management of P. T. Barnum. She was twenty-nine years of age when she arrived in New York, in 1850, having been born in Stockholm in 1821. She had already acquired a European reputation. Her father was a teacher of languages. She sang in vaudevilles at the age of ten years, and at sixteen was the prime favorite of the Stockholm opera, where she made her first appearance as Agatha, in Der Freischutz. She became a pupil of Garcia, and was engaged by Meyerbeer for the opera at Berlin.
Jenny Lind arrived at New York in September, and made her first appearance at Castle Garden, where she was greeted by a brilliant company of the elite of New York society, who crowded the vast auditorium to its utmost capacity. The company was spellbound by her marvellous voice. She sang in the principal cities in the Union, and everywhere her progress was like a triumphal march. Her in- come was large, and so was her heart, manifested by her deeds of charity, in the United States, in which she distributed about $50,000. While here she married Otto Goklschmidt, an eminent pianist, re- turned to Europe in 1852, abandoned publie singing, and took up her abode in London, in the enjoyment of a happy domestic life. At the age of sixty-two her eyes are as bright and blue as ever, and her voice still as rich and sweet, but she has lost the capacity for producing the higher notes. It is said she is a great favorite of the royal family of England. The Princess Helena passes much time with her.
At the time we are considering, Barnum's lecture-room, at his Museum, at the corner of Broadway and Ann Street (site of the Herald office), was a place of great resort. In it was a stage whereon were given theatrical performances, dances. etc. Crowds of persons, who would shun the theatre as a place of wickedness, felt no admonitions of conscience in Barnum's lecture-room, where the Drunkard and other "moral plays," with Clarke as a star, drew crowded houses.
Castle Garden, where Jenny Lind made her first bow to an Ameri- can audience, has a history. It was originally a fortification. named Castle Clinton, in honor of De Witt Clinton. Like Castle Williams, on Governor's Island in the harbor, it was circular in form and pierced for
Commonclan Car. Com. 7 th.
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THIRD DECADE, 1850-1860.
many guns pointing seaward. It was erected on a bed of rocks a short distance from the sea-front of what is now Battery Park, and was con- nected with the main by a drawbridge. When it was no longer need- ed for military purposes, the Castle was converted into a summer gar- den or place of social resort and public amusement, and named Castle Garden. It was the place of reception for distinguished visitors to the city coming by water. There Lafayette was received by the civil and military authorities of New York, when he revisited this country in 1824 ; there President Jackson had a grand reception, in 1832 ; there President Tyler was publicly received in 1843 ; and there Kossuth, the great Hungarian patriot, received his first welcome to America, in 1851. Never before was such a vast concourse of citizens seen in the streets of New York as welcomed the Hungarian exile and his friends on that cold but serene December day. It was a foretaste of his warm reception by the hearts of the whole nation.
Castle Garden became a concert-hall and place for summer theatrical and operatic performances, and finally, in 1835, it was transformed into an emigrant depot for the reception of transatlantic emigrants, under the charge of the commissioners of emigration, a board estab- lished in 1847. To these commissioners was, at first, transferred the Marine Hospital, on the eastern end of Staten Island, with the exclusive control of it and all the buildings connected with it, excepting in regard to the sanitary treatment of the inmates, which was left to the minis- trations of persons under the direction of the board of health, or health commissioners.
The commissioners of emigration purchased land and erected build- ings on Ward's Island from time to time as necessity demanded. At length it was perceived that some central depot for newly-landed emi- grants was an urgent necessity, and, as we have observed, the State of New York made Castle Garden that depot in 1855. It was still con- nected with the main by a bridge. Since then the Battery Park has been enlarged, and solid ground extended out to the Castle, around which suitable buildings have been erected for the accommodation of the thousands of unbidden European guests who land on the shores of Manhattan Island.
This reception-house for the strangers, with its present arrange- ments, is a great blessing for the emigrants. For a time they were subjected to the frauds and the greed of " emigrant runners," who infested the Garden, and who preyed upon the strangers, many of whom could not understand a word of English. That evil has been remedied. Now the European steamers land the emigrants at Castle
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Garden directly, where they and their luggage are taken charge of and protected. The strangers are sheltered, fed, and transported to any depot or landing-place whence they may depart-largely to the fertile regions of the great West. The emigrants rarely remain at Castle Garden over twenty-four hours, so perfect are the arrangements for " forwarding" them. At times from five hundred to one thousand emigrants are sheltered at the Garden at one time, and present a most interesting appearance. There are accommodations in the Garden for three thousand emigrants and their luggage, and for all the offices."
In the year of the advent of Jenny Lind (1850), the wonderful singer, there arrived in New York from Germany a musical-instrument maker. who with his sons planted there the germ of an establishment which . to-day, it is said, is of greater magnitude than any of its kind in the world. That immigrant was Henry Engelhard Steinway, founder of the great pianoforte manufactory in New York, who was born in a hamlet of the Hartz Mountains, in the Duchy of Brunswick. His ancestors were patricians of the city of Stralsund, on the Baltic Sea. one of whom while mayor made himself famous by his gallant defence of the town during its siege by the famous General Wallenstein.
Mr. Steinway and his three grown-up sons worked for three years in piano factories in New York. In 1853 they founded the famous house of Steinway & Sons, known all over the musical world. They began modestly in a rented small rear building in Varick Street, and made square pianos at the rate of one a week.
From the beginning their work attracted wide attention among pro- fessors of music. Very soon their business quarters were too narrow,
* During the year 1882 the number of emigrants who landed at Castle Garden was 520,355, of whom 476,086 were aliens, and 44,269 were citizens of the United States or had previously visited the country. It was the largest number arriving in one year since the establishment of the commission. By far the largest proportion of them were from Germany. The number from that empire was 198.468. There were nearly 60,000 from Scandinavia ; from England, 41,000, and from Ireland, 52.768. The avowed destination of nearly 167,000 of these emigrants who arrived was New York State.
There are nine commissioners of emigration, six of whom are appointed by the gov- ernor of the State of New York. The other three are the mayor of the city and the presidents of the Irish Emigration Society and the German Society. The cost of the maintenance of the bureau devolves upon the State of New York. The amount for 1852 was $160,000.
The comtuissioners of emigration for 1883 were : Henry A. Hurlbut, president ; George J. Forrest, George Starr, Charles F. Ulrich, Edmund Stephenson, Charles N. Taintor, Franklin Edson, mayor ; James Lynch, president of the Irish Emigration Society, and Charles Hanselt, president of the German Society. H. J. Jackson is treas- urer. Galian C. Verplanck was president of the commission from 1818 until his death, in 1870.
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sal they took more spacions ones in Walker Street, near Broadway. When they had been only one year in operation they were awarded the first price for pianos at a fair held at the national capital. The sune Sostr they carried off the first prize-a gold medal-at the fair of the American Institute. Soon afterward they constructed a square a system which achieved such success that Steinway & Sons received the first prize at all exhibitions. It has since uneddl the standard of construction for square pianos, and is now by all manufacturers.
The business of the firm increased so rapidly that in 1859 they pur- ยท hased almost an entire block of ground between Fourth and Lexington avenues, at Fifty-second and Fifty-third streets, on which they have built a colossal establishment, in modern Italian style of architecture. The factory buildings proper cover twenty city lots, and the floors of the buildings have a surface of 175,140 square feet. Beneath the ground they have storage vaults for coal and four steam boilers. of an aggregate of 340-horse power, by which steam is generated to serve 76,000 feet of iron pipe for heating the workshops and driving a large steam-engine to move the machinery.
In 1883 the Messrs. Steinway built a new warehouse, white marble front, on East Fourteenth Street, near Irving Place. In 1866 they built Steinway Hall, in the rear of their new warehouse-a concert- room 123 feet in length, 75 feet in width, and 42 feet in height. To accommodate their ever-increasing business they have erected an immense factory at Astoria, on Long Island. Their land has a water frontage of more than half a mile. There they manufacture nearly everything needed in making a piano. They have a large school for children, in which English, German, and music are taught ; a large bath, with fifty dressing-rooms, and a beautiful little park adjoining. all for the free use of their workmen and their families. They have in their employ in New York and at Astoria about one thousand work- men. At the close of 1852 they completed their piano No. 50,000.
The founder of the house of Steinway & Sons died in February. 1871, aged seventy-four years. The business is now conducted by his eldest son, C. F. Theodore Steinway, and his brother William, and several grandsons of the founder .*
* Henry Englehard Steinway was born in Wolfshagen, a forest hamlet in the Duchy of Brunswick, on February 15, 1797. He was the youngest of a family of twelve children. of whom, when he was fifteen years of age, he was the sole survivor. In the summer of 1-12 he was, with his father, three brothers, and two hirel men, caught in a severe thunderstorm, and took shelter in a collier's hut. While Henry was starting a fire to dry
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During this decade several eminent (or at least popular) musical and theatrical characters appeared in New York. Catharine Sinclair. the recently divorced wife of Edwin Forrest (who assumed her maiden name), made her first appearance on any stage, under the instruction of George Vandenhoff, at Brougham's Lyceum, in 1852, as Lady Teazle, in the School for Scandal. She was a daughter of John Sinclair, an English vocalist. Her brief stage career was successful, if drawing full houses may be taken as a criterion of success. Perhaps ber social position at that time made the public anxious to see her.
It was at about that time that Brougham's Lyceum passed into the hands of James Wallack. It was opened as Wallack's Theatre in Sep- tember, 1852, with Lester Wallack as stage manager. It soon became a model playhouse, and remains so until this time (1883). It rivalled and soon superseded Burton's Theatre. Taste, propriety, dignity, and the hand of genius were displayed in its management from the begin- ning.
Late in 1851 Lola Montez, the Countess of Lansfeldt, a wayward Irish girl, appeared as a dancer at the Broadway Theatre, as Betty the Tyrolean. Her real name was Maria Dolores Rosanna Gilbert, and she was then thirty-three years of age. Her career in Europe seems not to have been an exemplary one. As a dancer she was a failure, but curiosity to see the famous woman gave her full houses for a short time. "She was graceful but not brilliant, beautiful but reck- less, and finally died in New York of paralysis, a repentant and humble Christian, in 1861, at the age of forty-three years." "
Madame Sontag, one of the renowned singers of the world, began a series of concerts at Niblo's Garden, in September, 1852. A native of
their clothes, the hut was struck by lightning, and all but himself were slain by the bolt. Robbed of his inheritance by public plunderers, he was lett penniless to fight the battle of life. He served as a conseript for a time. Having a natural fondness for music, he whiled away the tedinm of garrison life by acquiring a knowledge of it, and in construct- ing a good musical instrument. He learned the trade of a cabinet-maker, and in time, after many difficulties, became a pianoforte-maker. He married a beautiful young girl, prospered in business, had many children, and on account of great depression in his trade caused by public acts, he came to America in 1850, leaving his eldest son, C. F. Theodore, in the same business in Germany. His family then consisted of himself, wife, and four sons and three daughters, the eldest of his sons who came with him being twenty-one years of age. The prominent events of his life after his arrival here have been mentioned in the text. At his death, on February 7, 1871, he was buried by the side of his two deceased sons and a daughter, in his family vault in Greenwood Cene- tery, which he had caused to be constructed at a cost of $80.000. It is built of granite, on Chapel Hill, and is one of the most imposing structures in the cemetery. * Ireland's " Records of the New York Stage, " vol. ii.
,
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Coblentz, Prussia, she was introduced as a vocalist, at Prague, when she was nine years of age. She became an idolized favorite in London about 1826. In 1830 she married Count Rossi, and retired from the stage. Her husband having been ruined by the tempest of revolution which swept over Europe in 1848, she devoted her talents to the sup- port of her family. Her voice was a fine soprano, and she was un- surpassed in opera. After singing in the United States and Mexico, she was about to return to New York, when she died of cholera at Vera Cruz, in June, 1854, in the forty ninth year of her age. She was succeeded in New York by Monsieur Jullien.
Castle Gallen was occupied by Maretzek in the summer of 1854. Hackett opened a brief operatie season there in September, 1854, with Grisi and Mario, then the most brilliant stars in the musical firmament. This company was transferred to the new Academy of Music as soon as it was finished, and opened a season there early in October, 1834, with the opera of Norme.
The Academy of Music was built on the corner of Fourteenth Street .
and Irving Place by a company of gentlemen in 1854. It is devoted principally to Italian opera. The building was burned on the night of May 22, 1866, and was rebuilt the same year. It is one of the best appointed buildings for its purposes in the country. The cost of the present building with its decorations was about 8360,000. It is occa- sionally used in winter for fashionable publie balls and other entertain- ments. * Ole Bull, who became lessee of the Academy of Music in 1855, was unsuccessful, and soon gave it up. Then Mlle. Rachel and a company directed by her brother began a series of performances in September, 1855. She was regarded as the first tragic actress in the world. Her name was Elizabeth Rachel Felix, born in Switzerland in 1820. Her parents were Jew peddlers. She rose to eminence from the depths of poverty. Before she came to America she had amassed a fortune which gave her an income of $$0,000 a year. Her perform- ance in New York ceased in about a month after its beginning. After visiting Boston she returned to New York, and played a short time at the , Academy of Music in November. She then went to Havana, thence to France, where she died of consumption in 1858, the result of a heavy cold taken in New York.
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