USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York, Vol. II > Part 18
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27
753
CITY OF NEW YORK.
area of two acres of ground, an exotic from France, which flourished for a few months, then disappeared from the city. Scarcely more lasting was the existence of the beautiful Palace, which vanished in the short space of half an hour before the touch of the fiery element on the 5th of October, 1858, and fell, burying the rich collection of the Fair of the American Institute, then on exhibition within its walls, in a molten mass of ruins.
On the 10th of December, 1853, the printing and pub- lishing establishment of the Messrs. Harper & Brothers, in Franklin Square, was destroyed by fire. This estab- lishment was the largest of its kind in the world, con- sisting of nine five-story buildings, and combining all the departments necessary for the manufacture of books. Over six hundred persons were thrown out of employ- ment by this conflagration, which destroyed more than a million of dollars. The enterprising proprietors im- mediately set to work to retrieve their loss, and in 1854 erected a magnificent structure on the site of the burned buildings, covering half an acre, and extending from Franklin Square to Cliff Street. As this New York publishing house is the most extensive in the world, as well as the largest and now the oldest in the city, the growth of which it serves well to illustrate, it deserves special mention at our hands. It had its origin in a small book and job printing office, established in 1817, by James Harper, the future mayor, and his brother John. In 1823 the third brother, Joseph W. Harper, became a member of the firm, and in 1826 the fourth brother, Fletcher Harper, in turn entered the estab- lishment. At that the their printing office had become
48
754
HISTORY OF THE
the largest in the city, though it employed but fifty per- sons and did its work on ten hand presses. In 1825 the Messrs. Harper removed to 81 and 82 Cliff street, where they entered more largely upon the publication of books on their own account. At the time of the destruction of their establishment, they kept in constant operation thirty-three Adams' power-presses of the largest and best description, and their current publications numbered nearly sixteen hundred. The present establishment pre- sents an imposing appearance, with its ornamental iron façade, five stories high, and one hundred and twenty feet wide on Franklin Square, opposite the old Walton House, the palace of the last century. The four brothers still remain at their post and seem to bid Time defiance. Few firms in New York have remained thus unbroken for half a century, and few, also, are better known through the length and breadth of the country.
CHAPTER XXII.
1855-1860.
Consolidation of Brooklyn, Williamsburgh and Bushwick-Hard Winter-Mayor Wood's Administration-Charter of 1857-Castle Garden transformed into an Emigrant Depot-Rachel and Thackeray in New York-The Central Park- Amended Charter of 1857-Burning of the Quarantine Buildings-Changes in the City-Ridgewood Water Works-Police Riots-Financial Distress-Burdell Mur- der-Potter's Field-Broadway Tabernacle-Burning of Crystal Palace-Japanese Embassy-Great Eastern-Lady Franklin-The Prince of Wales in New York -Election of Mr. Lincoln.
ON the 1st of January, 1855, Mayor Westervelt was superseded in office by Fernando Wood, the successful candidate of the democratic party. High hopes were founded on the new mayor, who inaugurated his rule by advocating numerous municipal reforms, among others the suppression of the Sunday liquor traffic and the pas- sage of the Prohibitory Liquor Law, which was enacted in the course of the winter, only to be declared unconsti- tutional the following season by the Court of Appeals. The contest respecting the sale of intoxicating beverages, which has been continued to our time, was fairly inaugu- rated, and assumed gigantic proportions at this epoch.
The same date was marked by an event of great importance to the sister city of Brooklyn, which is so closely identified in interests with New York, that they can scarcely be separated in thought. On the first of
1
756
HISTORY OF THE
January, 1855, the aet which had recently been passed for the consolidation of the cities of Brooklyn and Wil- liamsburg and the town of Bushwick took effect, and Brooklyn suddenly leaped from the rank of the seventh to that of the third city in the Union, with a territory of twenty-two square miles, and a population of at least 200,000. It had been incorporated as a city just twenty years before, with a population of 24,000. On the same territory the population had sextupled, and the wealth quintupled at this time. The new city was divided into two districts, the Eastern and the Western ; the former comprising the territory north and east of the Naval Hospital and Flushing avenue, or Williamsburgh and Bushwick, and the latter the region south and west of the aforesaid boundaries, or Brooklyn proper. The two districts had separate fire departments and distinct machinery for the collection of taxes ; in all other re- spects they were practically one, with their common centre at the Brooklyn City Hall. By a somewhat singular coincidence the first mayor of the newly-con- solidated city was George Hall, who had been the first mayor of Brooklyn after its original incorporation, twenty years before. Many of the citizens of Brooklyn desired its annexation to New York, and a bill for this purpose was ineffectually introduced the next year into the Legislature.
The winter of 1855 was a hard one for the poor. Work was scarce and laborers plenty. Scarcely had the year opened when the cry of famine was raised. Thousands of suffering men, unable to find employ- men or bread, gathered in the Park and elsewhere, and proclaimed their destitution, or paraded the streets with
757
CITY OF NEW YORK.
banners and mottoes appealing for aid, and cases of want and starvation appeared on every side. New York is never deaf to such a cry. Measures for relieving the needy were at once devised, both by private individuals and the municipal authorities, ward relief associations were formed, soup kitchens were opened in every part of the city, where the hungry were fed from day to day, and a system of visitation was organized for the purpose of allaying the, suffering. In the Sixth Ward alone, in one day in the month of January, nine thousand per- sons were fed by public charity ; not one of whom, it may be remarked in passing, was an American. In this connection we will mention an incident which manifests the rapid changes of the panorama before our eyes, so rapid, indeed, that we do not take note in the whirl how the marvels of to-day become the cast-off baubles of to-morrow. The residence of Dr. Townsend, on the corner of Thirty-Fifth street and Fifth avenue, was completed the same season, and was regarded as such an example of almost royal splendor, to use the language of the day, that it was thrown open for exhibition to the pub- lic for the benefit of the Five Points House of Industry. In this short lapse of time the so-called palace has been ruthlessly demolished to make room for a still more sumptuous structure ; and doubtless the latter will ere long be eclipsed by some private dwelling of still greater magnificence.
The year 1855 was an uneventful one to New York. Various schemes were agitated for the erection of a new Post-office,-the old Dutch church in Nassau street having long been inadequate to the needs of the city,- an up-town Post-office and a new City Hall; but nothing
758
HISTORY OF THE
was done. The summer witnessed the transformation of Castle Garden into an emigrant depot, a change which at first seemed desecration, for the old fort at the foot of the Battery, with its beautiful grounds, was hal- lowed to the people by many associations, and was not even yet regarded as too far off from the private resi- dences for a place of public resort. Castle Clinton was first granted to the city of New York by an act of March 16, 1790, it having been previously reserved in the Montgomerie Charter. After the war of 1812, being no longer needed for military purposes, it was used for many years as a place of public amusement. There the annual fairs of the American Institute were held, and there circuses, menageries, concerts, theatricals and operas followed each other, from the Chinese Junk to Bosio, Sontag, Alboni, Jenny Lind and Grisi. But the necessities of the case were urgent ; New York had be- come the great centre of immigration, and it was imper- atively necessary that some place should be provided where these ignorant and friendless foreigners would find a safe refuge on first reaching our shores. After much debate, therefore, Castle Garden was surrendered to the Commissioners of Emigration, who adapted it to its new purpose, and on the Ist of August, 1855, it was opened for the reception of the emigrants, who were landed there direct from quarantine.
In the latter part of the same summer the great tragedienne, Rachel, arrived at New York, where she first appeared at the Metropolitan Theatre, and was received with unbounded applause. In the autumn of the same year Thackeray reached this city, and delivered his first lecture, on George I., at Dr. Chapin's church, on
759
CITY OF NEW YORK.
Broadway, between Spring and Prince streets, on the Ist of November.
In the winter of 1855-56, an important improvement was made in the streets of the city by extending Canal street from Centre street across Baxter to Mulberry street, where it intersected Walker street, and widening the latter street twenty-five feet to East Broadway. Park Place and Duane street were likewise widened. A broad thoroughfare was thus made across the city, which was also greatly improved by the extension of the Bowery and Chambers street.
By far the most important event of 1856 was the establishment of the Central Park, now the pride of the city. The need of a large publie park had long been felt, and various schemes had been mooted from time to time for supplying the deficiency; but these had all proved abortive, and as the city extended and became denser, its breathing-places diminished rather than in- creased ; for the Battery was transformed into an emi- grant dépôt, and the City Hall Park, crowded with public buildings, in noway served the purpose for which it was originally designed. In the beginning of the century, as we have already narrated, a plan was set on foot to surround the Fresh Water Pond with ornamental grounds, and thus to secure to New York a natural feature of rare beauty possessed by few cities ---- a magnificent lake in its midst ; but the scheme met with no support, and the crystal Kolck, instead of being preserved, was gradually filled up and became the site of the Five Points district, the most noisome spot in the city. Later, when Gouverneur Morris laid out a map of the upper part of the city, he planned a park containing
760
HISTORY OF THE
three hundred acres, to be bounded by Twenty-third and Thirty-fourth streets, and Third and Eighth Avenues ; but these spacious grounds dwindled down in reality to Madison Square with its six acres, while the remainder became the fashionable quarter of the town. A few other parks were scattered over the city- Tompkins Square, Gramercy Park, Stuyvesant Park, Union Square, Washington Square, and St. John's Park ; but these were altogether insufficient for the wants of the population, being simple promenades, in some cases private, and possessing no facilities for riding or driving. It was of the utmost importance to secure the unappropriated lands of the city for this purpose while there was time. On the 5th of April, 1851, Mayor Kingsland had made a report to the Board of Aldermen, urging the selection of a site for a public park. This was referred to the Committee on Lands and Places, who concurred in the report and recom- mended the purchase of Jones's Wood, a fine tract of forest land extending along the East River, and bounded by the Third Avenue and Sixty-sixth and Seventy-fifth streets. Their report was adopted by the Common Council, and an application was made to the Legislature for authorization to secure the lands in question, which was granted, and the Jones's Wood Bill was passed July 11, 1851.
This was but a first step. Various objections were raised to the proposed site, loth on account of its limited space and the monotonous character of the ground, and its situation at the extreme east of the city, and a more central location was urged. On the 5th of August, 1851, the Board of Aldermen appointed
.
76]
CITY OF NEW YORK.
Commissioners to examine and report upon the merits of the different sites suggested. After mature delib- eration, the Committee made choice of a traet of land bounded by Fifty-ninth and One Hundred and Sixth streets and Fifth and Eighth Avenues, about two and a half miles long by half a mile wide, and comprising 776 7016 acres. The report was approved, and on the 23d of July, 1853, the Legislature passed an act authorizing the purchase of the Central Park. On the same day, the friends of the Jones's Wood Park obtained a similar act in favor of their chosen location, the previous one having remained a dead letter on account of some technical flaw ; and thus the matter stood until the following spring, when the Jones's Wood Act was finally repealed.
On the 17th of November, 1853, five Commissioners of Estimate and Appraisement were appointed by the Supreme Court to take land for the Central Park. They completed their labors in the summer of 1855, valuing the land at $5,398,695 ; and on the 5th of February, 1856, their report was confirmed by the Common Council and the purchase consummated, $1,658,395 of the amount being levied on the owners of the adjacent property. The State Arsenal and grounds were afterwards purchased at a cost of $275,000.
At first sight, the spot selected seemed an unpromising one. The land was as wild and uncultivated as in the days of the aborigines of Manhattan. The surface was greatly diversified, presenting a succession of rocky hills .and marshy valleys, covered with brush and brambles, with a sprinkling of fine trees, and intersected by a few
762
HISTORY OF THE
little rivulets that took their rise among the marshes on the west and flowed eastward to the river. Yet it was admirably designed by Nature for its purpose, lacking nothing but trees, a want that could be supplied by time, and susceptible of becoming a spot of rare beauty in the hands of a skillful landscape gardener, as time has abundantly proved. In area it equaled Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens united, and was seven times larger than all the public parks and squares of New York combined. As its name indicated, it was central in location ; lying at an equal distance from the Fast and North Rivers and the Battery and Kingsbridge, the new park embraced ground rich in historic associa- tion-McGowan's Pass, the scene of the battle of Harlem Plains, the old Boston post road of the carly Dutch settlers, and the fortifications of the War of 1812. Yet fully as we realize the utility of our beautiful Central Park at this day, and disposed as we are to increase rather than lessen it, the citizens of that time were not equally alive to its importance ; bitter complaints were made of the exorbitant sum expended in the purchase of such an unnecessary extent of land, and such earnest endeavors were made to narrow its limits, that the Common Council at last passed a resolution to petition the Legislature to reduce the size of the new park. This resolution, happily, was vetoed by the mayor.
On the 19th of May, 1856, the Common Council adopted an ordinance ereating the Mayor and Street Commissioner, Commissioners of the Central Park. The latter immediately invited a number of private citizens, distinguished for their taste and knowledge, to attend the meetings, and form a Consulting Board. In pursu-
CITY OF NEW YORK.
763
View in the Central Park.
N. ORR-CO Ss.
765
CITY OF NEW YORK.
ance with this invitation the Consulting Board met, for the first time, on the 29th of May, 1856, and elected Washington Irving president. Under the united super- intendence of , these bodies, preliminary surveys were made, and a plan offered by Lieutenant Viele, under whose superintendenee the survey had been made, was adopted, though nothing further was done for the want of the necessary appropriations. To meet this exigency, on the 17th of April, 1857, the control of the Park was placed by the Legislature in the hands of a Board of Commissioners, not to exceed eleven in number, who were to hold office for five years, and who were empow- ered to expend the moneys to be raised by the issue of stock by the Common Council. Upon consideration, the plan already adopted was abandoned by the new Com- missioners, who advertised for fresh plans, and in April, 1858, adopted that of Messrs. Olmstead and Vaux, and at once commenced its execution. On the 2d of April, 1859, an act was passed by the Legislature extending the Northern boundary of the Park to One Hundred and Tenth street, and thus including a high hill west of MeGowan's Pass, which embraces a view of the whole island. In 1864, the Park was again enlarged by the annexation of Manhattan Square, a rugged tract of un- improved ground, covering a space of 1975, acres, and bounded by Seventy-seventh and Eighty-first streets, and Eighth and Ninth Avenues. The whole area of the Park was thus increased to 862-59 acres. The largest of the London parks has but 403 acres.
Under the skillful and judicious management of the Board of Commissioners, to whom too much praise can- not be awarded, the admirable plan of Messrs. Olmstead
766
HISTORY OF THE
and Vaux was executed as rapidly as possible, and the barren waste transformed into pleasure grounds almost unrivaled in natural and artistic beauty, and which are of inestimable value to the citizens of New York. Free alike to all classes, with no restriction save that of good conduct, the poor man, who has no other escape from brick walls, here finds a place where he can drink health and life from the pure breezes in the moments snatched from labor, and enjoy the beauties about him far more than his richer brethren who whirl past him in gilded carriages along the gay drive ; for pedestrians alone can appreciate the Park to the full; the shaded by-paths, sheltered nooks, and fascinating views of the romantic Ramble are accessible to them alone; and the riders only obtain a bird's-eye view of the place, without ever penetrating to its inner arcana.
At present, the Park is well-nigh completed, as far as the general design is concerned. Time alone will supply its greatest lack, that of fine trees. The cost to the city, thus far, has been over $10,000,000, and never was money more judiciously expended. By successive acts of the Legislature, the entire control of the reser- voirs, and the laying out and grading of the adjacent streets, has been given to the Park Commissioners, who are thus enabled to carry out their plans untramneled. The Park, itself, is too well known to require more than the briefest description at our hands; we will only attempt to specify a few general features. It is virtually divided into two parks, an upper and a lower, by the old Croton reservoir, covering an area of thirty acres in the centre of the grounds, and the new reservoir, just above the latter, which comprises one hundred and six
.
CITY OF NEW YORK.
767
Skating Scene in the Central Park.
31
CITY OF NEW YORK. 769
acres. The lower park is most highly finished ; here are found the arsenal, now used as a museum ; the lake, cov- ered by gondolas and filled with swans in summer, and the resort of merry skaters in winter; the mall, the water-terrace and fountain, the magnificent bridges, with their exquisite sculpture, the shaven lawns, the music-pavilion, and the bewildering Ramble, with its cave. The upper park is wilder, and more in the state of nature : here are the lofty hill of which we have spoken, the fortifications and block-house of 1812 ; Har- lem Lake, and two smaller sheets of water ; Mount St. Vincent, which was occupied, for more than three years, as a soldiers' hospital during the late war; the rugged cliff's, and the broad meadows. It is in contemplation to devote Manhattan Square, the last acquisition, to the purpose of a zoological garden. The number of ani- mals, both foreign and domestic, that are already in the Park, is considerable ; stately Cape buffaloes, timid deer, and placid southdown sheep, with abundance of rabbits and squirrels, are met in the grounds. A fine collection of birds and animals form the nucleus of the proposed zoological gardens. Statues, also, are in pro- cess of erection. Choice shrubs and flowers everywhere adorn the grounds, through which wind over ten miles of carriage-road and thirty miles of walks ; in short, everything gives promise that the Central Park will, in time, be unsurpassed by any public park in existence.
On the 7th of April, 1856, considerable interest was awakened by the launch of the Adriatic, the largest steamship as yet afloat. In the same spring, a well- known landmark passed away from New York ; namely, the Brick Church in Beckman street, which, erected in
49
770
HISTORY OF THE
1767-68, on the edge of the Swamp, or what was formerly a portion of the estate of Jacob Leisler, had reared its tall spire there for nearly a century. On the 25th of May, 1856, service was held for the last time in the old church, which was soon afterwards replaced by the Times Building, one of the finest structures in the city.
The great popular excitement of the spring of 1856 was the assault on Senator Sumner by Preston Brooks, which roused the indignation of the whole North, and created great excitement in New York City. This excitement found expression in an immense mass meeting at the Broadway Tabernacle, the largest ever held in that well-known hall. George Griswold was chosen president, and a large number of the most influential citizens acted as vice-presidents. Speeches were made and resolutions adopted expressive of sympathy for Mr. Sumner, and indignation for the outrage which he had suffered.
In July, 1856, the first statue of modern New York was set up ; namely, the equestrian statue of Washington, at the lower end of Union Square. Since the demoli- tion of the Pitt statue in Wall street and the statue of George III. on the Bowling Green, the public places of the city had remained unadorned by works of art. A resolution was adopted by the Common Council in the same month, authorizing the erection of a monument to General Worth, whose remains had been brought from San Antonio at the close of the summer of 1855, by the city, and deposited in Greenwood Cemetery. The triangle formed by the intersection of Fifth: Avenue and Broadway, west of Madison Square, was
-
771
CITY OF NEW YORK.
selected as the site of the monument. Even at that late date, this location was regarded as far out of town, almost beyond the inhabited part of the city.
On the 31st of July, 1856, the ground was broken for the construction of the Ridgewood Water Works, designed to supply the city of Brooklyn with water. The sources of supply were a number of small lakes, nineteen miles distant, the chief reservoir being in the vicinity of Cypress Hill Cemetery, six miles from Brooklyn. This great public work was completed within three years. The inauguration of the Ridge- wood Water Works was celebrated in an imposing manner on the 28th of April, 1859. The reservoir covered twenty-seven acres, and contained 173,000,000 gallons of water.
The year 1857 was a disastrous one to New York ; a year of mob rule ; beginning with civil strife and end- ing with financial ruin. Many defects in the city charter called for remedy, and the growing abuses in the municipal government of New York, proceeding from the ignorant majority that controlled the elections, seemed to demand that certain powers should be trans- ferred from the keeping of the city to that of the state, which was so deeply interested in the welfare of the great American Metropolis. It began to be more and more realized that there were two peoples in New York, the property owners, or bona-fide citizens, who were for the most part respectable, orderly, and law- abiding men ; and the poor and illiterate masses, chiefly of foreign birth, who owned scarce a rod of land or a dollar, yet who ruled the city by their votes, and elected to office only such men as would pander to their
772
HISTORY OF THE
vices. Nevertheless, the latter class represented and still represents New York City in the eyes of many ; a most unjust judgment.
In the spring of 1857, the State Legislature passed several bills relating to New York, and amended the charter in several important particulars. The charter and state elections, which had hitherto been held on the same day, were separated ; the first Tuesday in Decem- ber being fixed as the date of the former. The comp- troller, as well as the Corporation Council and mayor, were to be elected by the people. The city was divided into seventeen aldermanic districts, from each of which an alderman was to be elected by the people once in two years. The Board of Councilmen was composed of six members elected annually from each senatorial district, or twenty-four in all. The Alins- house and Fire Departments remained unchanged ; and the superintendence of the Central Park was given to a Board, to be appointed by the State Government. The most important innovation, however, was the transfer of the Police Department from the city to the state. By the Metropolitan Police Act, a police district was created, comprising the counties of New York, Kings, West Chester and Richmond ; and a Board of Commis- sioners was instituted, to be appointed for five years by the governor and Senate, to have the sole control of the appointment, trial and management of the police force, which was not to outnumber two thousand, and to appoint the chief of police and the minor officers. This Board was composed of five members. The Police Commissioners were to secure the peace and protection of the city, to ensure quiet at the elections, and to
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.