USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York : its origin, rise, and progress Vol. III > Part 46
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The site of the Astor Library, in Lafayette Place, cost twenty-five thousand dollars. The edifice, fashioned after the royal palaces in Flor- ence, was completed in 1853. Washington Irving was president of the trustees, and Dr. Cogswell the superintendent of the new 1853. institution. The latter visited all the book-marts of Europe, spending several years in the labor of selecting the works which make the vari- ous departments of the library so well suited to the wants of scholars, investigators, and scientists, and to the pursuit of exact knowledge in all the arts - and few educated men of any age or country could have executed the responsible trust with more taste, skill, and wisdom. William B. Astor subsequently made munificent donations, enlarging the edifice and increasing the books; and his son, John Jacob Astor, has recently contributed further additions. The value of the building and contents, and the funds of the library, in 1880, amount to over one million dollars. The books upon the shelves number about two hun- dred thousand. The library is accessible to the whole community, and to visitors from every part of America or the world, without fee or ceremony, except the requisite age. Its treasures benefit from fifty to sixty thou- sand readers annually, and not less than seven thousand are permitted to study in its alcoves. The class of books in demand reveals the wide range the New York mind is taking in thought and research. The edu- cational influence of the library is better appreciated by remembering that it contains no light or ephemeral books; all are for reference and consultation, to be read within its walls, and as far as practicable are of permanent value.
In the summer of 1853 New York was stirred as never before by the opening of the World's Fair in the beautiful Crystal Palace erected on Murray Hill, in the square adjoining the reservoir. Far back July 14. into the country the thrill of this splendid novelty was felt, and every- body visited the city and the exhibition who could rally the means for a
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journey. The hotels were flooded with silk and broadcloth from all parts of the Union, and the streets and avenues were thronged with eager mul- titudes from sober villages, farm-houses, and log-huts. The collection of sculpture, the largest and best America had ever seen, was the chief cen- ter of attraction for all classes. " We grow sculptors as naturally as we grow Indian corn, and it is no wonder that a taste for their works should be indigenous," wrote one of the editors of the day. " What refining in- fluences have already gone out from the creations of the chisel here ex- hibited can only be guessed. The picture-gallery, so full of wonder and delight, has also revealed a sixth sense to many a fascinated eye and heart. Indeed, we could hardly be persuaded that every day in the
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The Waddell Mansion, Murray Hill. [With view of wheatfield in the grounds, about 1847.]
Crystal Palace does not see the dawn of thought that will yet shine out over the land in modes of beauty and benefit."
In the vicinity of the " House of Glass," with its bewildering dome, and broad galleries filled with the choice productions of all nations, stood for some years a handsome specimen of domestic architecture built about 1845 by Coventry Waddell, who held for a long time a confidential position in the State Department at Washington. The mansion was a famous social center, although at the period of its erection Fifth Avenue above Madison Square was little more than a common road, and the old farm fences were visible on all sides. Mrs. Waddell accompanied her
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THE WADDELL MANSION, MURRAY HILL. 757
husband when he went to conclude the purchase of the site of his dwell- ing, and sat under an apple-tree looking down upon the city in the dis- tance while he was in conference with the owner of the lots. The place when improved was called a suburban villa; its grounds, beautified with taste, covered the whole square between Thirty-seventh and Thirty-eighth streets. A field of wheat was cultivated in the inclosure after the house was built, from which a barrel of flour was made. When Fifth Avenue was graded the edifice was rendered still more imposing and picturesque by its elevated position. A writer in Putnam's Monthly, March, 1854, says : " It is remarkable for being inclosed in its own garden ground, as high as the original level of the island, and descends by sloping grass- banks to the street." It was furnished in a style of costly elegance, and a large conservatory and picture-gallery were among its attractions. From its broad marble hall a winding staircase led to the tower, from which a charming view was obtained of both the East and Hudson rivers, the intervening semi-rural landscape, and the approaching city. It was the scene of many notable entertainments, Mrs. Waddell being a leader in society. "It was said that at her parties one might always be sure of meeting any really worthy celebrity, American or foreign."1 Fancy dress balls were in vogue at the period ; one given by Mrs. Schermerhorn, at her residence in Great Jones Street, required all the guests to appear in the style of dress worn at the French court during the reign of Louis XV. Some idea of the brilliancy of the affair may be formed from the fact that the costumes alone cost between forty and fifty thousand dollars, and the jewelry worn on the occasion was worth half a million. The newspapers of the day describe a similar fête given at the Waddell mansion : "We noticed present a greater array of city fashionables than we have seen gathered before this season; the hostess and the flowers (the beautiful conservatory was thrown open), the bay windows, the winding stairways through the towers, the oriels, the corbels, the tapestries, the supper, the music, and the ball, the gathering of beauty, and the concourse of gallant knights could not be surpassed."
The march of brown stone speedily obliterated all traces of the beauti- ful villa, and upon its site was erected the massive sanctuary of the old
1 Coventry Waddell, son of Henry and Eliza Daubeny Waddell (see p. 157) married Charlotte Augusta, daughter of Jonathan Southwick, of New York City, and granddaughter of Worthington Ely, whose father, Dr. John Ely, married Sarah Worthington, a great beauty, sister to the mother of Governor John Cotton Smith. The Worthingtons were de- scended from Hugh Worthington, who held the lordship of Worthington under Edward IV. in 1474. The Elys settled in Lyme, Connecticut, about 1660, and the family has ever since been one of influence, many of its branches being among the substantial citizens of New York, not least of whom is our recent mayor, Smith Ely. From Sarah Worthington also descended Samuel Goodrich, the famous " Peter Parley " of history.
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Brick Church organization. The rapid improvements in Fifth Avenue above Madison Square date from the completion of the Madison Square Presbyterian Church in 1854-an offshoot from the Broome Street Church. Fifth Avenue is now an almost unbroken line of architectural beauty for full four miles ; and there is probably no street in the world wherein are more elegant and imposing private residences, furnished with princely magnificence, or more exquisite collections of those trifles of art and taste which bespeak a high order of cultivation. Madison Avenue, beginning at the Square, started off about the same time on a race with its rival, and for some two miles is by no means outdone by Fifth Avenue in the costliness of its fashionable dwellings, churches, and club-houses.
The multiplication of churches in New York is a theme for the stu- dent. The number, in 1880, is four hundred and ninety-two, including chapels and missions. Eighty-three of these are of the Episcopal denomi- nation, seventy-six are Presbyterian, twenty-eight are Dutch Reformed, forty-six are Baptist, sixty-six are Methodist, twenty-two are Lutheran, eight are Congregational, two are Moravian, five are Friends, six are Universalist, three are Unitarian, fifty-six are Roman Catholic, twenty- five are Jews, one is Greek, sixteen are undenominational, twelve are independent missions, and thirty-seven are classed as miscellaneous. There are also societies of Spiritualists, Free-Thinkers, and Infidels, who hold meetings from week to week in various halls throughout the city.
One or two examples of church architecture will illustrate the contrast of the present with that of the Colonial period, which is as marked as the wonderful increase of church edifices. Nearly every style and combina- tion of style appears in New York. Yet rarely do we find a model bor- rowed bodily from a foreign land. Independence of thought has led to the rejection of many architectural features and the substitution of others, freshly drawn from the inspiration of the surroundings or suggested by a sense of local fitness. The handsomest specimen of Gothic architecture is Trinity Church, the third edifice upon the same site - overlooking Wall Street. It was finished in 1846. The altar, eleven feet long, is divided into panels, the one in the center bearing a Maltese cross in mosaic set with cameos, and the symbols of the Evangelists ; the reredos occupies nearly the whole width of the chancel, and is about twenty-four feet high ; both were erected as a memorial to the late William B. Astor, by his sons. The churchyard which surrounds the structure is to the New York heart an endearing memorial of the varied and interesting elements of character which have contributed to the present greatness of the city. St. Patrick's Cathedral in Fifth Avenue, occupying the entire front of the
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block between Fiftieth and Fifty-first streets, is the most magnificent ecclesiastical building in the New World. It was projected by Arch- bishop Hughes about 1850, and the plans were drawn by James Renwick. The corner- presence of
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stone was laid in 1858, in a great multitude - esti- one hundred thousand per- architecture is of the deco- metric style that prevailed in the thirteenth cen- ground plan is in the form cross. The material is of ble, with a base-course of tabernacle over the altar is with Roman mosaics and stones, and with a door of It is lighted by seventy win- seven of which are memorial presented by individuals. It ly dedicated by Cardinal Mc-
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steadily go- ing forward for twenty- two years. It is esti- mated that the cost will reach two millions five hundred PHOLO-FITEMPO thousand St. Patrick's Cathedral. [Fifth Avenue.] dollars. To the casual observer, the church architecture of New York, in hundreds of instances, is impressive in its costliness and massive- ness. To the artist, it has become a unique and interesting study. Suggestions of Italian Renaissance, of Romanesque, Norman, and Byzan-
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tine, are by no means rare. Grace Church in Broadway, at Tenth Street, completed in 1845, is an elegant Gothic structure of white granite; it has two fine organs connected by electric machinery, the gift of Miss Catharine L. Wolfe - as was also the recently erected reredos - who is said to be the richest single woman in America. The interior decorations of St. Thomas Church, in Fifth Avenue, corner of Fifty-third Street, sug- gest early Italian art, and are full of pleasing effects and colors. The chimes in the steeple of this church rival those of Trinity and Grace churches. In the second block above St. Thomas, in Fifth Avenue, stands the new Presbyterian Church, known as Dr. Hall's, a simple but singu- larly graceful adaptation of the French Gothic. The Dutch Reformed Church in Fifth Avenue, corner of Forty-eighth Street, in the steeple of which hangs the " silver-toned bell " cast in Holland for the old Middle Dutch Church, in Nassau Street, is an exceptionally fine specimen of Gothic architecture in brown stone. Representing one of the earliest churches in the city, it is peculiarly illustrative of the changes wrought by the march of time.
The final service in the Middle Dutch Church occurred in 1844, on the Sunday evening prior to its occupation by the United States Government as a city post-office. The senior pastor, Rev. Dr. John Knox, assisted by Rev. Dr. Thomas De Witt, conducted the exercises. The old historical edifice was thronged to its utmost capacity, and many tears fell when the benediction was pronounced in the Dutch language. An elegant structure had been erected in Lafayette Place in 1839, based in its design upon ancient examples of Grecian architecture. Another church edifice was projected in 1851, in Fifth Avenue, corner of Twenty-ninth Street, and dedicated in October, 1854, two months prior to the dedication of the Madison Square Church. Rev. Dr. De Witt was settled in the ministry of the Collegiate Churches in 1827, Rev. Dr. Thomas E. Vermilye in 1839, and Rev. Dr. Talbot W. Chambers in 1849, each of whom were gifted and influential, and not only secured the love and confidence of their people, but of the whole community. The beautiful white marble edifice in Fifth Avenue, corner of Twenty-first Street, arose from the ashes of the old Garden Street Church, as did the noble structure in Washington Square.
The pulpits of the various denominations have been filled by a long catalogue of eminent divines, distinguished for learning, eloquence, varied accomplishments, and piety. In no city have able preachers of the gospel commanded more genuine appreciation, or remained longer in one pastorate. The late Rev. Dr. William Adams, the leading clergyman of the Presbyterian Church, became the pastor of the Broome Street Church
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in 1834, and of the Madison Square Church, built by his people, nine- teen years later. For nearly half a century, in the pulpit, on the plat- form, in popular assemblies, in refined and brilliant social circles, in private conferences on matters of critical moment, and in the high coun- sels of the church, his magnetic voice commanded admiring attention. He was of fine personal ap- pearance, tall, graceful, dignified, courtly, with a calm scholarly brow, clear penetrating eye, firmly set but delicately chiseled lips, a sweet smile, and a light elas- tic step. The whole make and bearing of the man rendered him always conspicuous and prominent. He was of the same common an- cestry as the two Presi- dents, John Adams and John Quincy Adams. His father, John Adams, was one of the most distinguished educators of the country ; and his mother, Elizabeth Rip- ley, was a lineal de- Rev. William Adams, D.D. scendant of Governor Bradford, who came over in the Mayflower. He was graduated from Yale in the class of 1827, and pursued his theological studies at Andover. His influence in all the departments of human action increased with his years. No pastor was ever more easily or frequently approached by all classes and conditions of people in want of advice or aid ; and no one was oftener designated to represent the clergy in positions of honor and responsibility. He stood in the great meeting of the Evangelical Alliance in 1873, with all Protestant Christendom around him, by general consent, the foremost minister in America; and none of the thousands present on that memorable occasion will ever for- get the majestic grace, the fervor, the imagery, and the eloquence of his address of welcome to the learning and genius of the church beyond the sea. He spoke extemporaneously, but his words were the key-note to
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the deliberations of the whole series of meetings. In the autumn of 1873 he was elected president of the Union Theological Seminary, of which he had been one of the original projectors, and was assigned to the chair of Sacred Rhetoric. In accepting, he closed his pastoral career. Henceforward the intellectual vigor, amplitude of learning, and freshness in the use of words, phrases, and illustrations, which for twoscore years had been a perpetual surprise and delight to one of the largest and most scholarly congregations in the city, were turned to account in the training of ministers for all parts of the country. It was almost a liberal Chris- tian education in itself for a student of divinity to sit three years at his feet. His method of instruction was unique. Every morning some one young gentleman was invited to his library, frequently to breakfast, from which the two passed into the church-building - adjoining his house - where the student was required to enter the pulpit and preach an original sermon, conducting the complete exercises of church service, even to the benediction, with only Dr. Adams for an audience. In the criticism which followed the student received the full benefit of ripe experience ; and this instruction was valued as it deserved. The influence of such a long and beautiful life as that of Dr. Adams upon the general welfare of the city and its institutions is better and broader than can ever be recorded in words.1
In connection with the churches of the various denominations in New York are four hundred and eighteen Sabbath schools. The same spirit which prevailed among the founders of the city, quickened and cherished by their descendants, has led to mission enterprises in every quarter where wretchedness and vice exist. While costly edifices have arisen in such abundance for the wealthier classes, the poor have not been neglected. Nearly every church has its mission territory, independent of a multitude of private charities, and the world outside little dreams of the labor per- formed by ladies and gentlemen who never tire of the civilizing and Christianizing process - that never ends. In no portion of the metrop- olis have the fruits of this feature of philanthropy been more apparent
1 Rev. William Adams, D. D., was born in Colchester, Connecticut, January 25, 1807, died at his country-seat on Orange Mountain, August 31, 1880. In 1842 he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from the University of the City of New York. It was chiefly through his instrumentality that the reunion of the two schools of the Presbyterian Church was suc- cessfully accomplished in 1869. Since he became president of Union Theological Seminary the endowments of the institution have been increased nearly $500,000, of which James Brown, the senior member of the great banking firm of Brown Brothers, made the princely donation of $300,000, and ex-Governor Edwin Dennison Morgan gave $100,000. Dr. Adams left a widow, and two sons and two daughters : Thatcher M. Adams ; William Adams ; Mary Adams, who married John Crosby Brown, son of James Brown, of Brown Brothers ; and Susan Adams, who married Eugene Delano.
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than in the region known as Five Points. Dickens wandered into that focus of iniquity while visiting New York in 1841, and described its horrors ; near The Tombs, Worth, Baxter, and Park streets came together, making five corners or points of varying sharpness, hence the name. It was an unwholesome district, supplied with a few rickety wooden build- ings, and thickly peopled with human beings of every age, color, and condition. An old brewery, built long before the city hove in sight on its northern route, tottering with yawning seams in its walls and broken, gaping windows, sheltered daring outlaws and furnished a place of ren- dezvous for the vilest of the vile. The police were dismayed and dis- couraged. With the history of the old brewery are associated some of the most appalling crimes ever perpetrated. The arrival of every emi- grant ship rendered this plague-spot more hideous. City missionaries finally ventured into its dangerous precincts and began their humanizing work with success.
The benevolent societies and institutions of New York at the present time number over three hundred - aside from the public charities - and receive and disburse annually about four million dollars. It would seem as if there could be no infirmity or calamity to which the human family is subject for which provision has not been made. The poor who receive aid and assistance are from forty different nationalities; and while two hun- dred thousand immigrants land yearly at Castle Garden the demand for benevolence is not likely to diminish. The tide sweeps on to all parts of the country, but it is estimated that one fourth of the immigrants remain to become part and parcel of the city population. The tenement-houses of New York shelter full five hundred thousand people, and in some local- ities they are crowded far beyond the most densely populated districts of London. In one block on Avenue B, near the East River, there are fifty- two tenement-houses occupied by two thousand three hundred and fifty- six persons. There is one house in the city where the number of tenants reaches fifteen hundred ; and it is by no means unusual for one hundred to lodge in a house twenty-five feet front.
Brief mention of a few of the philanthropic organizations of modern New York will enlighten the reader somewhat as to the character of the many. In 1848 was incorporated the New York Association for Improv- ing the Condition of the Poor, which was formed in 1843. The president was James Brown, of the banking-house of Brown Brothers, and the vice- presidents were James Lenox, John C. Green, Horatio Allen, Apollos R. Wetmore, and John David Wolfe; the treasurer was Robert B. Minturn, corresponding secretary Robert M. Hartley, recording secretary Joseph B. Collins ; and the elected members of the board of managers were
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
Stewart Brown, Jonathan Sturges, George Griswold, and Erastus C. Bene- dict, the late Chancellor of the University of the State of New York. They were all men of responsibility and high position, commanding the entire confidence of the community. The particular object of the associa- tion, as stated in the act of incorporation, was to elevate the physical and moral condition of the poverty-stricken, and so far as practicable relieve their necessities. Visitors, numbering several hundred, were regularly appointed, many of whom were among the wealthy donors; sanitary re- forms were projected, since a sickly population is always expensive as well as dangerous, and every effort was made to meet the claims of humanity without creating or encouraging a dependent class. This care- fully adjusted, skillfully managed, unostentatious, and excellent scheme of benevolence conflicted in its operations with no other organized charity, but occupied a special field - relieving annually about forty thousand persons- and its bearings for almost half a century upon the economical, social, and moral concerns of the city admit of no numerical estimate. The magnitude and unity of the organization, sustained by voluntary contributions and gratuitous labors, have been the wonder and admiration of philanthropic foreigners. Its methods of dealing with poverty have been adopted in other cities throughout the land, and in Germany, Switzer- land, and many of the European countries. Even in Athens and in other parts of classic Greece organizations founded upon the New York princi- ples by Michiel Diogenes Kalopathakes, a young Greek of superior talents who familiarized himself with the practical workings of the association while on a visit to America, have been eminently successful.
Asylums and hospitals were the natural outgrowth of such an institu- tion. Robert M. Hartley digested a plan for the benefit of neglected and vicious children in 1849, and in connection with Luther Bradish, Benjamin F. Butler, Horatio Allen, Thomas Denny, Apollos R. Wetmore, and Joseph B. Collins, acted as a committee to devise plans for the establishment of a permanent reformatory institution. Simultaneously with this movement, Dr. John Dennison Russ, secretary of the Prison Association, agitated the same subject ; it was estimated that over three thousand children were floating on the current, educated only in crime, and growing into the worst of beggars. Dr. Russ called a meeting at the office of Mayor Woodhull on the 26th of January following the Astor Place Riot, which had shown the public the fearful character of the ignorant and degraded masses, and com- mittees from both associations presented written plans ; these were duly united and digested, and the New York Juvenile Asylum was incorporated by act of the Legislature in 1851. Dr. Russ was its superintendent for the first seven years. Two buildings were erected, a House of Reception
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in West Thirteenth Street, and an asylum in One Hundred and Seventy- fifth Street, near Tenth Avenue. The former accommodates one hundred and fifty inmates, and the latter six hundred and seventy. The city con- tributes moderately for each child supported during the year, to which is added a share in the school fund, and from ten to twenty thousand dollars is raised every year by private subscriptions. Within the first fourteen years upwards of twelve thousand pilfering and vagrant children were supported, nearly three thousand of whom, after arriving at proper age, were placed in country homes in the State of Illinois ; less than five per cent of the children brought under the influence, tuition, and discipline of the asylum prove to be incorrigibly bad.
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