USA > New York > New York City > History of New York city from the discovery to the present day, V. 2 > Part 18
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HUDSON RIVER RAILROAD FREIGHT DEPOT.
fifth, the removal of the courts and civil offices from the City Hall to the New Court House.
The extension of Church Street removes many objec- tionable places, breaks up a number of dens of iniquity, and puts in their stead some really fine structures. Directly in the rear of Trinity Church the " tumble-
know how efficient police-surgeons may be as a rule, but we do know that in some instances they live miles away from the precinct to which they are attached, and if, as it is said, the station houses are unprovided with medical appliances, a physician, called in hurriedly in an imminent and deadly crisis, may find his best efforts frustrated for want of proper means. -
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
down" "rookeries," which formerly stood in that vicinity, have given place to a block of nine elegant stores. The entire building, which is built of iron, painted white, is six stories in height and tastefully ornamented. The north end, fronting on Trinity Place, is occupied by the United States Government as a bonded warehouse -- while the other stores, which are mostly occupied by shipping mer- chants, will compare favorably with any of similar char- acter in New York.
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CHAPTER XIV.
ARCHITECTURE is one of the crowning glories of a city , and nothing more strongly indicates the cultivation of a people than refinement in this beautiful depart- ment of science. "Order is the first law of nature," 1869. and the utter disregard hitherto paid to all established orders of architecture in this country is one reason, prob- ably, that we have become such a disorderly people! The taste of the Greeks in the arts has contributed more to their glory than their deeds of arms. The chisel of Phidias carved for him a name of more true renown than the sword did for Alexander; and the name of Sir Christo- pher Wren will live as long in English history as that of the Duke of Wellington. Every patriotic Gothamite, therefore, should rejoice at each successive improvement in architectural taste among us.
In this respect the present year, as hinted at toward the close of the last chapter, marks an era in the history of the city. There is not space to speak in detail of each of the new buildings which were finished or were building during this year-among the latter of which may be men- tioned the Grand Central Depot, opened in 1871, and the new Post-office, not yet completed .* Great changes were
* This structure, now (1872) building at the southern end of the City Hall : Park, will, when completed, add another to the many magnificent structures which adorn the city. It is to be built of granite, marble, and iron, at a cost of $3,500,000, which amount has been appropriated by Congress.
The style of architecture is the pure French Renaissance. It will be three
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
noticeable throughout the city, but especially so along the line of Broadway. This great thoroughfare will ever be improving ; and property owners will not be satisfied until its entire length presents an even and unbroken front of brown stone or marble. Passing by the many structures erected in 1867 and 1868, such as the Park and other banks,* the Herald Building and others, the following buildings are successively reached, viz .: the Merchants'
stories high, surmounted by a Mansard roof, marked by a center pavilion four stories in height. The pavilion in front will be 160 feet high, and the build- ing facing the City Hall will be 320 feet in length. The first story will be 22 'feet high, composed of arched openings, supported upon square piers ; the second will be 18 feet high, and the third, 16 feet. The style of the building is that of the Tuileries and the Hotel de Ville. The building will display the following statues : America, Commerce, Industry, Washington, Franklin, Jus- tice, History, Peace, Strength, Truth, Genius of the Arts, Virtue, Honor, Litera- ture, Mechanics, Genius of Science, Agriculture, and Navigation. The public corridor will be 25 feet wide and 600 feet in length, with entrances from Broad- way and Park Row. The building can be completed, it is claimed, in two years. Clocks are to be placed at various points around the building for the accommodation of the public.
In his annual report (January, 1872) Mr. Mullett, the architect, speaks of it as follows :
" The progress of work has been not only gratifying, but its cost has been kept within the amount of the estimates. The first story is now nearly com- .pleted. An idea of the immense amount of work that has been done may be formed from the following statement of materials used and labor expended to the present time, viz .: 2,476,960 bricks; 15,701 barrels cement ; 144,087 feet cube granite; 2,689 yards rubble masonry ; 5,206,442 pounds of wrought and cast iron ; and the magnitude of the undertaking, from the fact that there are now engaged at Dix Island 1,002 persons in the preparation of the granite alone, of whom 704 are employed in cutting the granite for the Government, and 298 in quarrying the stock and otherwise for the contractors. Three hun- dred and twenty-seven thousand one hundred and sixty-nine and one-half days' labor have already been expended in cutting and boxing the granite after it has been quarried ; and it is estimated that three hundred thousand days' labor will be required to complete that branch of the work alone."
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* The more prominent banks of New York include the Bank of New York, corner of Wall and William Streets, the Mechanics' Bank, the Merchants' Bank, the Manhattan, the Bank of Commerce, Nassau Bank, &c. The banks of New York are daily becoming more important in an architectural point of view.
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The American Exchange Bank, 128 Broadway, corner of Liberty Street, is 8 splendid building of Caen stone.
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.IFREK
NEW YORK LIFE INSURANCE CO.'S BUILDING.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
Exchange Bank, a few doors south of Warren Street; the elegant stores on the grounds of the old New York Hospi- tal; the Ninth National Bank Building, between Walker and Lispenard Streets ; the large iron building on the site of the well known Costar property, which has a frontage of seventy-five feet on Broadway, and extends back two hundred feet to Mercer Street ; and the iron store of A. T. Stewart, occupying an entire block, until, in Union Square, we come to two fine iron buildings on the former site of Dr. Cheever's Church. But perhaps the two most costly buildings which deserve especially to be noticed are those of the Equitable Assurance Company and the New York Insurance Company. The building of the former Company, at the corner of Broadway and Cedar Street, is probably the strongest and most solid structure in the United States. The building is of Concord granite, and
The Bank of Commerce, in Nassau Street, facing the Post-office, is one of the finest marble edifices in the city. Its capital is $10,000,000.
Duncan, Sherman & Co.'s Banking House is built of brown stone. and stands on the corner of Nassau and Pine Streets; it cost $150,000. Adjoining this is another splendid establishment-the Continental Bank.
The Bank of the Republic is situated at the corner of Broadway and Wall Street ; it is a noble edifice, built of brown stone; its entire cost is estimated at about $175,000. Its capital is $2,000,000.
The Metropolitan is also built of brown stone, and is located at the corner of Pine Street and Broadway ; its cost is stated at $160,000.
The Bank of the Commonwealth, 15 Nassau Street, is a beautiful brown stone structure of elegant proportions.
The Bank of America is one of the old established banks, situated 46 Wall Street. Its capital is $3,000,000.
On the corner of Wall and William Streets is another fine edifice, the Bank of New York, recently built with brick and brown stone facings. Its capital is $2,000,000.
The Bank of North America, 44 Wall Street, has a capital of $1,000,000.
Broadway Bank, corner of Broadway and Park Place, is a massive brown stone building ; its cost is stated at $127,000.
The Park. Bank, 214 and 217 Broadway, is a recent establishment, with a capital of $2,000,000.
The Phenix Bank, 45 Wall Street.
The Shoe and Leather Bank, corner of Broadway and Chambers Street, has a capital of $1,000.000.
The Union Bank, 34 Wall Street, has a capital of $1,500,000.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
the successive stories are in the doric and composite orders, surmounted by a balustrade, dormer windows, and a double-pitched French roof. The elevation of the build- ing is one hundred and twenty-five feet from the side- walk, and it is readily discerned above all other houses in approaching the city from the ocean. Over the main entrance is placed an allegorical group, representing the Guardian Angel of Life Insurance stretching an arm of protection over the widow and fatherless. The cost of the structure was one million five hundred thousand dollars.
EQUITABLE BUILDING.
The New York Insurance Company's building, on the - corner of Broadway and Leonard-the site formerly occu- pied by Appleton & Co., and more recently by S. B. Chit- tenden & Co., until the latter were burned out-is also an ornament to the city, and cost, exclusive of the ground, one million of dollars. It is in many respects like the Equitable; but though very strongly built, it lacks that massiveness that is apparent in the walls and solid stone pillars of the other.
White Street has also been built up rapidly, and so valuable has it become that lots now sell readily for $50,- 000 to $60,000 each ; and it would scarcely be credited-
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
at least by a Rip Van Winkle-that three hundred feet nearer Broadway will make an average difference of $6,000 or $7,000. A very fine building was erected on this street the present year, intended for the straw-goods trade, at a cost of $50,000 for the building and $55,000 for the lot. It is chiefly of iron, and measures 25 x 100 feet .*
In this connection it will be interesting to quote an article which appeared in the Historical Magazine for Feb- ruary, 1868 :
" BROADWAY, PAST AND PRESENT .- We have received a communication which gives some interesting facts concerning the territory of Broadway. Our correspondent, who lived in New York in 1800, says :
'It occurred to me a few days since, when I noticed in your columns the advertisement of sale at auction, by E. H. Ludlow, of the plot of ground on the corner of Broadway and Canal Street, that it might interest some of your young readers, and those who have, within the past ten years, made our city their residence, to learn a few facts about the early territory of Broadway. The above plot, which the owners, I am told, have refused to sell for four hun- dred thousand dollars, I know was purchased by John Jay, the grandfather of the present owners, for the sum of one thousand dollars, and had he or his son William lived a century beyond this they would never have sold it. In their day they never believed in selling real estate; so it was with the late owner of the corner of Broadway and Chambers Street, Benjamin Stevens. He purchased that lot for one thousand dollars. The corner of Broadway and Broome Street was bought by a barber for five hundred dollars, and remained in the hands of his heirs until within a few years. The Jay lot above referred to is held under lease by Patrick Dickie, at a rent of two thousand dollars per annum, and for which he receives from the occupants about sixty thousand dol.
* In order to show the immense percentage paid on investments made in real estate, we give an authentic table of the value of a few of the buildings referred to in the text, and the rents that are expected for them by their owners :
Buildings.
Cost.
Rent Expected.
Marble Store.
$50,000
$13,000
Iron Store
95,000
25,000
Factory
45,000
10,000
Store; Iron
110,000
....
28,000
Store
70,000
....
18,000
Store.
70,000
....
16,000
Store ..
125,000
....
35,000
By which it appears that the rental averages a little more than twenty-five per cent, on the outlay.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
lars. It may not be generally known that the site where Stewart's store stands, on Broadway and Reade Street, was formerly occupied by a hotel known as Washington Hall, and that it was so far from the business center of the city that country merchants would not go out to it, and every one failed who kept the hotel. The lot owned by Gemmel, the watchmaker, on the cor- ner of Broadway and Duane Street, was sold in 1812 for fifteen hundred dollars · down. It was the first house built in the city with an under cellar. About fifteen years since, when walking up Broadway with.one of our old Irish resi- dents, he mentioned that he had seen lots sold since his arrival in New York, on Broadway, for one thousand dollars, which were then worth about seven thou- sand. He lamented his neglect in not availing himself of the chances of making a fortune in Broadway property, which he had suffered to pass. The same lots to-day are worth one hundred thousand dollars; yet I am told by those who know, that lots in London, situated with equal business advantages to lots on Broadway, in the most favorable locations, are worth in London quite double the present value on Broadway. All owners of Broadway property should bear in mind that there is but one Broadway in the world, and they have only to learn themselves, and to teach their heirs, to wait ; and while waiting they will get a large interest upon present values, and in twenty years from to-day the values will be double ; and it is more than probable they will be increased to more than three times the present prices they are selling at.' "
The following account of an auction sale, held the 11th of January 1872, and clipped from the New York Tribune, is also in point :
".A large attendance of wealthy real estate owners attended the sale con- ducted by Messrs. Muller, Wilkins & Co., under direction of the executors of the late Daniel Devlin. The property comprises four first-class marble stores and lots on the north side of Canal Street, 227 feet east of Broadway, known as Nos. 261, 263, 265 and 267 Canal Street, and two five-story stores and lots on the South side of Howard Street, connecting with the Canal Street property- lot on Canal Street 100 x 110, lot on Howard Street 49.8 x 100. By direction of Mr. Devlin's will the property was sold at auction. The executors offered the whole in one lot, and, after languid bidding by a few prominent capitalists, it was sold to Mr. E. S. Higgins for $363,000. The stores are now rented, on a lease expiring May 1st, for $55,000, and are sublet for $72,000.
" Adrian H. Muller sold, by order of the Supreme Court, under direction of W. W. Goodrich, referee, one-third interest in the two blocks of ground on the north side of Sixty-first Street, and commencing at Eighth Avenue. The property was struck off at $65,000, and was purchased by the parties in interest. .
" Messrs. Arnold, Constable & Co. have recently purchased two lots on the north-east corner of Eighty-third Street and Fifth Avenue for $95,000, paying $55,000 for the corner lot and $40,000 for the one adjoining."
Before closing the record of this year allusion should be made to the elegant buildings of the Young Men's
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
Christian Association, Booth's Theater, and the Grand Opera-house.
The Young Men's Christian Association of New York City was organized July, 1852, and incorporated April, 1860, for the "Improvement of the Spiritual, Mental, Social, and Physical Condition of Young Men." The Association seeks to accomplish the purposes of its organ- ization by the employment of the following agencies, namely : Free Reading-Rooms, a Free Circulating and a Free Reference Library, Sunday Evening Sermons, Free Lectures at Rooms, Prayer Meetings, Bible Classes, Social and Musical Meetings, Readings, a Literary Society, and a Musical Society; by aiding in the selection of good boarding-places; by obtaining, as far as possible, situations for those who are out of employment ; by visiting and relieving those who are sick and in want ; by introducing strangers to fit persons for friends and acquaintances, and to suitable church connections ; and by the use of every other means in harmony with the name it bears, that may tend to cheer, aid, and guide young men, especially such as come from country homes or foreign lands."
It was soon found, however, that the general rooms of the Association, which were situated at 161 Fifth Avenue, were entirely too small to accommodate the con- stantly increasing influx of young men. Accordingly, in 1868, a very valuable plot of land on the south-west cor- ner of Fourth Avenue and Twenty-third Street was pur- chased, at a cost of one hundred and forty-two thousand dollars, for the erection of a building worthy of the work to which the Association had devoted its energies. The
* " Hundreds of young men," writes Mr. McBurney, the Secretary, to the writer, " from all parts of our own land, as well as from Europe, come to us for advice on temporal and spiritual things. We are careful not to make pub- -ne cases which come under our notice, so that young men may come to us with full confidence when in difficulty. Many who have been thus quietly ' helped are now holding prominent positions in the city."
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
vigor and good judgment with which the Association con- ducted its work gave to it the full confidence of the very best men in the city (its real estate is held by a Board of Trustees, composed of such men as Stewart Brown,
YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION BUILDING.
Robert L. Stuart, James Stokes, Charles C. Colgate, Robert Lenox Kennedy, Jonathan Sturges, and others), and the result was that in the summer of this year the building
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
was completed and thoroughly furnished at a cost of about three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The building itself stands directly opposite the Academy of Design, on the south-west corner of Fourth Avenue and Twenty-third Street. It is acknowledged to be one of the finest specimens of the Renaissance order of archi- tecture in the city. The roof is of the steep Mansard pattern, presenting towers of equal height at each corner of the building, and a larger tower (windowed) over the entrance (on Twenty-third Street), which is simple and elegant. . The dimensions of the building are one hundred and seventy-five feet on Twenty-third Street, eighty- three feet on Fourth Avenue, and ninety-seven feet at the rear. The material is New Jersey brown-stone and the yellowish marble from Ohio in almost equal parts, though on account of the latter composing the trimming mate- rial the brown stone gives the building the controlling air. The building contains twenty-five apartments in all, including gymnasium, library, lecture-rooms, offices, etc. Besides this general building, the Association has rooms at 76 Varick Street, One Hundred and Twenty-Second Street and Third Avenue, and at 97 Wooster Street, for colored young men.
" Branching off along the same street, to the west of Fifth Avenue, will bring us to Booth's new theater, on the corner of Sixth Avenue and Twenty-third Street. The building is in the Renaissance style of architecture, and stands seventy-five feet high from the sidewalk to the main cornice, crowning which is a Mansard roof of twenty- four feet. The theater proper fronts one hundred and forty-nine feet on Twenty-third Street, and is divided into three parts, so combined as to form an almost perfect whole - an arched entrances at either extremity on the . sine for the admission of the public, and on the other for another entrance and the use of actors and those employed
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
in the house. There are three doors on the frontage, devised for securing the most rapid egress of a crowded audience in case of fire, and, in connection with other facilities, said to permit the building to be vacated in five · minutes. On either side of these main entrances are broad and lofty windows; and above them, forming a part of the second story, are niches for statues, surrounded by, coupled columns resting on finely-sculptured pedestals. The central or main niche is flanked on either side by quaintly- contrived blank windows; and between the columns. at · the depths of the recesses, are simple pilasters, sustaining the elliptic arches, which will serve to span and top the niches, the latter to be occupied by statues of the great creators and interpreters of the drama in every age and country. The finest Concord granite, from the best quar- ries in New Hampshire, is the material used in the entire fagade, as well as in the Sixth Avenue side. The interior -- probably the most complete and elegant in the world- is equally deserving of notice. It is subdivided, architect- urally speaking, into four heights. The first and lower- most embraces the parquet, circle, and orchestra seats. for the accommodation of eight hundred persons. The second . tier is thrown into the dress-circle ; the third constitutes the family circle; and the fourth embraces the gallery. or amphitheater. There is something of the French model suggested by the general effect of the interior, but there are many graceful and pleasing originalities. The stage is fifty-five feet in breadth, seventy-five feet in depth. fifty in total height, and is set in a beautiful ornamental framework, so as to give the effect of a gorgeously framed picture to the mise en scene. The boxes are tastefully arranged on either side of the stage; and all of the inte-
· rior divisions and subdivisions unite in their construction the latest and most improved appliances for celerity and ease in the manifold operations of the entire company.
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工验乳
BOOTH'S THEATRE.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
Taken from a point embracing the Sixth Avenue and Twenty-third Street facades, the glittering granite mass, exquisitely poised, adorned with rich and appropriate carving, statuary, columns, pilasters, and arches, and capped by the springing French roof, fringed with its shapely balustrades, offers an imposing and majestic aspect, and forms one of the architectural jewels of the city.
" The Grand Opera-house is an imposing and elegant structure, and occupies the block on Eighth Avenue between Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Streets. It is estimated to have cost nearly half a million of dollars. It fronts one hundred and thirteen feet on the Avenue, and ninety -. eight feet on Twenty-third Street, and is eighty feet high from the base to the cornice. It has a basement and four foors-the former being occupied by a warming appara- tus, and as a general store-room for the theater. The main entrance to the theater is twenty-one feet wide, and leads up a passage eighty feet long into a vestibule forty- five by seventy-two feet. Thence the visitor passes up the main staircase, twelve feet wide, which conducts him directly into the dress-circle. The upper stories, which are divided into the family-circle and the amphitheater, have their entrance on Twenty-third Street. The parquet and orchestra are arranged in the usual manner-the for- mer occupying the elevation of the inclined plane. The stage is seventy-two by seventy-six feet, which, including the proscenium, makes a total depth of eighty-four feet. It is capitally adapted for setting elaborate scenes and spectacles, the ground beneath being excavated to the depth of twenty-five feet. The scenery is so arranged as to descend through the stage and slide at the sides in the usu.l way. The exterior of the building is a good speci- men of the Italian order of architecture. At the top, over the main entrance, is a statuesque group representing
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
Apollo and Erato. Below this are medallions of Shake- speare and Mozart; and on either side of the window below are large figures representing Comedy and Tragedy. Emblazoned coats-of-arms brighten the main entrance on either side. One of the most praiseworthy features of this noble theater is the ease with which the audience can make their exit from the building in case of fire-there being no less than seven exits leading directly to the streets, and all readily accessible. The front of the the- ater, on Eighth Avenue, is of solid marble, with orna- , mental cornice ; and the interior is lighted by chandeliers in a dome thirty feet in diameter." *
Indeed, it needs no prophetic vision to foretell that soon New York will have justly entitled herself to the name of the CITY or PALACES. In fact, only two things are now apparently required to enable the keystone to be placed upon the edifice begun by our Dutch ancestors, viz., a good municipal government, and a safe and rapid means of transit from the upper to the lower portions of the island. From the peculiar topographical situation of .New York-it being, in effect, a long and narrow penin- sula-the population, unable to spread itself out on each side, is either obliged to reside on the opposite banks of two rivers, or is forced into the upper portion of the island-either of which alternatives is extremely incon- venient to the business community. To lessen this in- convenience various. schemes have been devised, such as an " arcade railroad " underneath Broadway, or a horse- car railroad on the surface of the same thoroughfare. There was also this year a pneumatic railroad started underground, at the corner of Warren Street and Broadway, which has been carried as far as Murray ; while an elevated railroad, on iron pillars, was com-
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