USA > New York > New York City > History of New York city from the discovery to the present day, V.1 > Part 26
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
The property was purchased by the five merchants already mentioned, for the sum of £2,510, and held by them under the provisions of the Tontine Association, as its first board of directors. -
On the 31st of January, 1792, the same gentlemen bought of Dr. Charles Arding and Abigail his wife, "all that certain corner house and land bounded south-casterly by Water Street, south-westerly by Wall Street, north- westerly and south-easterly by houses and land lately pur- chased by them," for the sum of £1,970, current money of the State of New York. On August 22d, 1792, Hugh Gaine, Thomas . Roach, and John Keese, commissioners appointed by the Court of Common Pleas, then called the Mayor's Court, in settling the large estate of the late Mor- decai Gomez, chocolate-maker, conveyed to the same board of directors, for the sum of £1,000, "all that certain mes- suage and lot of land situate, lying, and being in the Sec- ond Ward, formerly the East Ward, of the City of New York, bounded south-easterly in front by Water Street, north-westerly in the rear by a part of a lot of land lately purchased by the parties to these presents of the second part, of the sheriff of the city and county of New York, under a decree of the Court of Chancery; north-easterly by a house and lot of land late the property of Joseph Royall, deceased, and south-westerly by a house and lot of land lately purchased by the said party of Dr. Charles Arding, and containing in breadth in front and rear at each end, eighteen feet four inches, and in length on each side thirty feet, English measure."
This transaction completed the purchases of land for the Tontine Coffee-house, and the massive building given in the cut on next page, with its heavy wooden cornice, railed balcony, and long stoop or piazza, with steps at each " end, soon rose from the ruins of the houses of Mordecai Gomez and Dr. Arding.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
There was another Tontine society called the New York Tontine Hotel and Assembly Rooms' Association. and on September 27th, 1793, Peter De Lancey and Eliz- abeth his wife, sold to Philip Livingston, John Watts, Thomas Buchanan, Gulian Verplanck, James Watson, Moses Rogers, James Farquhar, Richard Harrison, and Daniel Ludlow, a lot of land bounded east by Broadway, west by Temple Street, south by Thames Street, and north
TONTINE COFFEE-HOUSE AS IT APPEARED IN 1812.
by Little Queen Street, subject to such rights of survivor- ship as the majority of the subscribers should decide. Some years after, during a season of sharp political excitement, the Fifth Ward Tontine was started, for the purpose of making real-estate owners of enough young men to carry a majority vote in the election. The vote was cast, but the city authorities declared it illegal, and that association caused no further public notice.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
On the completion of the Tontine Coffee-house, the Merchants' Exchange was removed to it from the dilapi- dated building in the middle of Broad Street, below Pearl, where it had been since the war.
In 1793 war was declared between France and Eng- land; and on the 9th of April, five days after the news was received at New York, Citizen Genet arrived at Charleston as the accredited Minister to the United States from the new French republic. The war placed this Gov- ernment in an embarrassing position; for, bound to France by obligations of gratitude as well as by the conditions of a treaty of alliance, it was pledged also by the Federal policy to preserve a strict neutrality in European wars. Alexander Hamilton, at the head of the Federalists, in- sisted that the treaty had been annulled by the change in the French government; or, in any event, did not apply in case of an offensive war. Washington inclined to the latter opinion ; and, while he received Genet as the Min- ister of the republic, proclaimed the strictest neutrality in respect to warlike operations. This greatly displeased the anti-Federalists, who cheered on the new republic, and aided Genet in fitting out privateers to cruise against the enemies of France. Genet reached New York on the Sth of August, and was welcomed by salvos of artillery and pealing bells, saluting republican France. On the 12th of June, the Ambuscade, which had brought Genet to Amer- ica, arrived at New York, and her officers and crew were received and entertained with much enthusiasm by the anti-Federalists. The Liberty Cap was hoisted on the flag- staff of the Tontine Coffee-house, and all true patriots exhorted to protect it; tri-color cockades were worn; the " Marseillaise" was sung; and, for a time, New York wore almost the aspect of a French city.
During the year ending April 2d, 1811, the association was called to mourn the decease of Gulian Verplanck, 41
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
William Laight, and John Broome. The board of directors was reduced to John Watts and John Delafield, who, in conformity with the second section of the Constitution- that, whenever the trustees, in whom the fee-simple is vested, be reduced to less than three, then five others should be elected, and the property conveyed to them-transferred their trust to Richard Varick, Matthew Clarkson, Francis B. Winthrop, John B. Coles, and Gulian Ludlow. The old Coffee-house was then in full operation, but who can tell us of the scenes therein? Who can call back the voices of the old merchants of that day, and repeat the stories ·they often laughed over in the Coffee-house on "opening night ?"
At length the Merchants' Exchange moved further up Wall Street, and sales of merchandise were not so frequent within the old house, but the long stoop on the Wall Street front was still used, and the advertisements of the day read, " At X o'clock, in front of the Tontine Coffee- house, will be sold
In 1826 and 1827 the Tontine Coffee-house was in the hands of John Morse, who had formerly kept the old Stage-house at the corner of Church and Crown Streets, New Haven. He turned the entire house into a tavern, and it so remained for several years. The first floor was in one room, running the full length of the house, and fronting Wall Street. At the back of the room, extending nearly its whole length, was the old-fashioned bar. Jutting out from the counter were curious arms of brass supporting the thick, round, and mast-like timber on which the heavy dealers leaned while ordering refreshments. About the room were numerous small tables, and after supper, in fair weather, around the tables could be seen many of the wealthy city men diminishing the contents of their pewter mugs, or planning, amid the curling smoke in the room. their operations for the next day. Morse was not success-
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ful in the Tontine, and was finally sold out for the benefit of " whom it might concern."
In 1832, it was kept as a hotel by Lovejoy & Belcher, and was the scene of several brilliant Masonic dinners. The lodges, in annual parade, would march from the City Hotel, on Broadway, down to Broad Street; through Broad to Pearl, and through Pearl Street to Wall and the Coffee-house-which they thought a long tramp. . After the banquet, the march would be resumed along Pearl to Beekman Street, up Beekman to Chatham Street, down Chatham to Broadway and the City Hotel.
In 1834, the Court of Chancery issued a decree re- moving the restrictions by which the Tontine Association were required to maintain the building as a Coffee-house, and it was then leased for general business purposes. In 1834, two brothers named Hudson came to New York, from Boston, and established on the first floor of the house a news-room, on the plan of that one now in Pine Street, near William. They also originated the Express news- paper, the early numbers of which were printed in the old Tontine.
The balcony had been removed, the interior of the building somewhat changed, but the memory of happy hours spent within its walls thrilled the hearts of the gallant bands of men who composed the old volunteer Fire Department when the bells struck off the first alarm for the great fire of 1835.
Down through the narrow streets, amid the rush and roar of the flames, the dense volumes of smoke and the crash of falling warehouses, the firemen fought for every inch of ground. Streets were obliterated by the ruins, block after block of stores and dwellings vanished in the crimson cloud that surged and rolled over them. At length the flames reached the old Tontine, and the cornice took fire. Among the bravest of the brave throughout
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that fight was the daring company of Engine No. 10. As the cry went out, "There goes the old Tontine," the brakes of No. 10 began to work with great vigor, and a stalwart fireman, who held the pipe, directed the stream against the threatened building. The atmosphere, un- usually cold even for December, caught the spray from the upward stream and dashed it in icy particles back on the face and clothing of the sturdy pipeman. Three times the cornice caught fire, and each time the pipe of No. 10 saved the Tontine. The plucky fireman was John Betts, formerly a clerk with Hoffman & Glass, auctioneers, after- wards with Glass & Gerard, and more recently of the firm of Gerard & Betts. He is still living, and will doubtless remember that, when he gave up the pipe at the Tontine fire, the palms of his gloves, frozen to the pipe, were left on it when he went away.
After the fire, and in 1836, the Hudson Brothers gave up the news-room, and the lessee of the building, Peter McCarty, engaged Mr. James W. Hale to continue the establishment, which was then called " Hale's News-room." Mr. Hale occupied the whole of the lower floor as the news-room; and Caldwell & Kenyon kept a restaurant in the basement. Caldwell & Kenyon afterwards sold out to Charles Ridabock, familiarly known as the " Alderman." Charles was a heavy, good-natured German, who kept the dirtiest shop and the best oysters in the city. He had been for many years an employee of George Washington Brown, at the Auction Hotel, in Pearl Street. He re- mained at the Tontine until just before the house was torn down.
In 1843, the Legislature changed the name to the "Tontine Building," and gave the management of its affairs into the hands of " The Committee of the Tontine Building."
The old Tontine was also the birth-place of what is
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
now one of the institutions of our country-its express system. It was here, in 1837, that Mr. J. W. Hale originated the package and letter express business, and started William F. Harnden for Boston, three times a week, with his little carpet-bag seldom more than half full. His only advertisement was a slate hung up in the News-room, and in a stationer's office at the corner of Nassau and Wall Streets. The first customers of the express were the visitors to Hale's News-rooms.
As there were no lines of mail steamers then running, foreign correspondence was always sent by packet-ships and other sailing vessels, the letter-bags for which were kept at Hale's, as were also those of the steamers Sirius and Great Western, after they commenced running to New York.
In 1855, the New York Journal of Commerce, speaking of the Tontine Coffee-house, said :
" There are few, however, whose age links them to the olden time, when it was the chief center of the commercial interests, who cannot recall scenes within its walls ' the like whereof we ne'er shall see again.' A public meeting convened within its roof, sent forth a decision which was almost universally respected. As a single instance of this, let us turn back for forty years, when the habit of distributing expensive scarfs to bearers and others at ordinary funerals was so prevalent, that many poor families were sorely pinched to provide this necessary mark of respect for a departed relative. Some benevo- lent individuals, seeing the evil influence of such a fashion, called a meeting at the Coffee-house, when nearly two hundred of those whose weight of character gave force to their decisions, signed a pledge to abstain from the custom of distributing scarfs, except to the attendant ministers and physicians. This was the death-knell of the oppressive fashion. In matters of more vital moment, when great public interests were at stake, a voice has gone out from the Coffee-house, which, like a recent echo from Castle Garden, has been heard throughout the length and breadth of the land. Some of the noblest charities, too, which the world has ever witnessed, received their first contri- butions beneath this time-hallowed roof.
" But the history of this organization is highly instructing in another point of view. The longevity of the nominees has been remarkable, we believe, beyond any similar experiment of the kind ever witnessed. It is true that the circumstances under which their names were selected would naturally lead us to expect for them a longer average period of existence, but this average has been so far extended as to be quite extraordinary. Of the two hundred and three, whose names were handed in about sixty-one years ago, fifty-one
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still survive ! Of these, the youngest is about sixty-two, and the oldest eighty- three. This is about one-third greater longevity than the average of European estimates. Only three of the nominees died in 1854, or one in every eighteen, which, considering their average age, was very remarkable."
In 1855, during the month of May, the old building was demolished, and the ground leased to Mr. William H. Aspinwall, with the condition that he should pay to the Tontine Association, as rent, the sum of $5,500 per annum, and should pay all taxes and assessments levied by the city upon the ground, and upon such buildings as should be upon it; also, that the said lease should expire and all the buildings upon the ground should revert to the a'ssociation when by death the nominees should be reduced to seven. Mr. Aspinwall caused the erection of the present building soon after he obtained the lease.
The walls are of Massachusetts yellow free-stone, the keystones in the arches of the windows and doors being of the same material. On the left of the picture, on the Wall Street front, is seen the narrow alley mentioned in the title deeds, showing that the heirs of Francis Clark had the right of way in 1791 .*
The death of Mr. John P. De Wint, at Fishkill, in November, 1870, severed the last link in the Tontine
* The interior is cut up into offices, a large shaft near the rear of the hall- way giving room for the main staircase and the facilities for ventilation. The history of the building since 1855 has not differed so much from that of others in the vicinity as to make a detailed sketch of it necessary, but an incident of 1858 may be worth relating. The office of Messrs. W. T. Coleman & Co., the shipping merchants, was on the first floor of the new building, and the senior member of the firm was seated at his desk one afternoon, busily examining the papers of a California ship nearly ready to sail. A hack was driven up to the door. A moment after, a hearty slap on the shoulder started Mr. Coleman, and the nasal tones of a gentleman from " down East " resounded in his ear- " Saay, Squire, jest yeou give me the best room in ther heouse, will yer ?"
Mr. Coleman .-- " This is not a tavern, sir. It's the office of the California packets."
Stranger .- " No! Well, I hain't been to York for thirty year, but used to come pretty often then, and always stopped at the old Tontine Coffee-house."
Mr. Coleman kindly directed the stranger to the Astor House, and thither the old guest of the Tontine was hurried.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
chain, the lease of the building terminated, the property reverted to the owners of the shares represented by the surviving seven nominees, and the affairs passed into the hands of Mr. Frederick De Peyster, and Mr. W. T. Horn, as attorney. The surviving nominees are Robert Benson, Jr., William Bayard, Gouverneur Kemble, Horatio Gates Stevens, Daniel Hoffman, Mrs. William P. Campbell, and Mrs. John A. King. The heirs of George Bright, who died two years after he nominated Gouverneur Kemble,
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TONTINE BUILDING AT THE PRE.ENT DAY.
, have yet to be found. The property will then be sold, and the Tontine Association, like the old Coffee-house, things of the shadowy past, will go down into the grave of memory with its epitaph, " Well done," written on it by the merchants of New York .*
On the 12th day of May, 1789, about two weeks after General Washington had taken the oath of office, as the
* This sketch of the TONTINE ASSOCIATION is taken from an article pub- lished in the New York Journal of Commerce, July 25th, 1871:
For the constitution of the Tontine Coffee-house, in 1796, see Appendix No I.
,
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
first Chief Magistrate of the United States, the oldest
political organization in the city now in exist- 1789. ence, and which has recently (1871) been the subject of much obloquy-the TAMMANY SOCIETY, or COL- UMBIAN ORDER-was instituted .*
The year following (1790), a most interesting event in the history of this organization occurred, which, at the
1790. time, excited considerable interest among the citi-
zens of New York. The United States had long been desirous of forming a treaty of friendship and alli- ance with the Creek Indians, and various unsuccessful attempts had been made to effect this object. At length, Colonel Marinus Willet went to that nation, and induced Alexander McGilvery, a half-breed, with about thirty of
* The history of the origin of this name-which is involved in much obscurity-is as follows :- ST. TAMMANY was the name of an Indian chief, who has been popularly canonized as a saint, and adopted as the tutelary genius of one branch of the Democratic party. TAMMANY or TAMMENUND (the name is variously written), was of the Delaware nation, and lived probably in the middle of the seventeenth century. He resided in the country which is now Delaware, until he was of age, when he moved beyond the Alleghanies, and settled on the banks of the Ohio He became a chief sachem of his tribe, and, being always a friend of the whites, often restrained his warriors from deeds of violence. His rule was always discreet, and he endeavored to induce his followers to cultivate agriculture and the arts of peace, rather than those of war. When he became old, he called a council to have a successor appointed, after which the residue of his life was spent in retirement ; and tradition relates that "young and old repaired to his wigwam to hear him discourse wisdom." His great motto was, " Unite in peace for happiness, in war for defense." Where and by whom he was first styled SAINT, or by what whim he was chosen to be the patron of the Democracy, does not appear.
The New York Daily Gazette for May 12th, 1790, contains the following list of the officers of this order :
" The Society of St. Tammany, being a national society, consists of Americans born, who fill all offices, and adopted Americans, who are eligible to the honorary posts of warrior and hunter.
" It is founded on the true principles of patriotism, and has for its motives, charity and brotherly love.
" Its officers consist of one grand sachem, twelve sachems, one treasurer, one secretary, one door-keeper; it is divided into thirteen tribes, which severally represent a State ; each tribe is governed by a sachem, the honorary posts in which are one warrior and one hunter."
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the principal chiefs, to come to this city. The Tammany Society determined to receive them with great ceremony. The members, at that day, were accustomed to dress in the Indian costume, and on this occasion they wore feathers, moccasins, leggings, painted their faces, and *ported huge war-clubs and burnished tomahawks. When the Creeks entered the wigwam, they were so surprised to see such a number of their own race, that they set up a whoop of joy which almost terrified the people present. On the occasion of this interview, Governor George Clin- ton, Chief-Justice Jay, Mr. Duane, the Mayor, Mr. Jef- ferson, Secretary of State, and other distinguished men were present. The Creeks were overjoyed with their reception ; they performed a dance, and sang the E-tho song. Mr. Smith, the Grand Sachem of the Society, made a speech to the Indians, in which he told them that, although the hand of death was cold upon those two great chiefs, Tammany and Columbus, their spirits were walking backward and forward in the wigwam. The Sag- amore presented the chiefs with the calumet, and one of them dubbed the Grand Sachem " TULIVA Mico, or Chief of the White Town." In the evening they went to the theater, attended by the Sachems and members. Before they left the city they entered into a treaty of friendship with " Washington, the Beloved Sachem of the Thirteen Fires," as they were pleased to call him.
In June, of the same year, the Society established a museum for the purpose of collecting and preserving every- thing relating to the history of the country. A room was granted for its use in the City Hall, and Gardiner Baker was appointed to take charge of the collection. In 1794, it was removed to a brick building standing 1794. directly in the middle of the street, at the intersection of Broad and Pearl Streets, called the Exchange. The lower . part was used as a market, but the upper part, being light 42
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and airy, was well calculated for displaying the many curiosities which now, by the indefatigable exertions of Mr. Baker, had been collected. On the 25th of 1795. June, 1795, the Society passed a resolution relin- quishing to Gardiner Baker all their right and title to the museum. He had taken so much pains and incurred so much expense in getting it up, that he could, with good. reason, make a claim upon it. It was, therefore, given up to him, upon condition that it should be forever known as the " Tammany Museum," in honor of its founders, and that each member of his family should have free access to it. This museum, after the death of Baker, was sold to Mr. W. I. Waldron, and, after passing through various hands, formed the foundation of what was afterwards called the " American" or " Scudder's Museum," in Chat- ham Street .*
In September of the same year (1795) the city was visited by that dreaded scourge, the yellow-fever, when seven hundred and thirty-two persons died from the dis- ease. In speaking of the situation at this time, the New York Journal, of October 17th, says: "This city has been in a truly melancholy situation; although the accounts of the mortality have been greatly exaggerated in the country. Consternation has added greatly to the distress of the city ; the poor have suffered much, but their wants have been liberally supplied from the hands of benevolent donors. Very little business has been done-a solemn calm has reigned through every street. We are now blessed with salubrious western gales, which are conceived to be sent in mercy, and presage to our hopes that the city will be free from the epidemic in a little time. It certainly puts on a less terrible hue-not more than one
* History of the Tammany Society, by R. G. Horton.
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in twenty dies. Those who have died were the greatest part new residents."
In the month of December, 1796, the Fish-market was torn down for the purpose of arresting a very destructive fire. This conflagration is thus noticed in the Minerva* for December 9th, 1796: " About one 1796. o'clock this morning, a fire broke out in one of the stores on Murray's Wharf, Coffee-house Slip. The number of buildings consumed may be from fifty to seventy-a whole block between the above slip, Front Street, and the Fish Market. The progress of the fire was finally arrested by cutting down the Fish Market."
So many fires occurring at about the same time, led many of the citizens to believe that the slaves were again conspiring to destroy the city. Great excitement was caused and much preparation made to guard against such a calamity. The same paper, of the 14th instant follow- ing, says :- " Serious Cause of Alarm : Citizens of New York, you are once more called upon to attend to your safety. It is no longer a doubt-it is a fact, that there is a combination of incendiaries in this city, aiming to wrap the whole of it in flames ! The house of Mr. Lewis Ogden, in Pearl Street, has been twice set on fire-the evidence of malicious intent is indubitable-and he has sent his black man, suspected, to prison. Last night an attempt was made to set fire to Mr. Lindsay's house, in Greenwich Street-the combustibles left for the purpose are preserved as evidence of the fact. Another attempt, we learn, was made last night in Beekman Street. A bed was set on fire under a child, and his cries alarmed his family. Rouse, fellow-citizens and magistrates! your lives
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