USA > New York > New York City > Leslie's history of the greater New York, Volume I > Part 18
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As the years creep on toward the middle of the century and beyond to the Revolution, we behold spire after spire rising from amid the lowly dwellings of the colonial city. Every steeple then told against the clear blue sky, none of them being buried, as are even the tallest now, among office buildings that tower in all their huge bulk above their highest tapering point. Fortunately one of these early strie- tures still stands amid its modern surroundings, to bring back to our imagination the appearance of all the rest, for we need but look at St. Pant's on Broadway to behold what was the appearance of its ancient sister churches. It was built in 1765. Passing along the line of Broadway the Trinity of 1737, and the Lutheran Church on the corner
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of Rector Street, would be encountered. Going down the hill from Broadway along Exchange Place, in the latter street on the other side of Broad, still stood the " Garden Street " Reformed Church, long past its half-century, therefore more frequently called the Old Church now, with reference to the one on Nassau Street and, again, desig- nated as the South Church, when, in 1769, the Dutch congregation built their third and still handsomer North Church on Fulton Street. corner of William, which stood intact until 1869. The French Church, altered and improved since 1704, held its old place in King (Pine) Street. It received a near neighbor in Little Queen (Cedar) Street in 1768, when the Scotch Presbyterians, aspiring to something more blue than those in Wall Street could exhibit, built a church for them- selves there, excluding carefully the vain trumpery of a church organ. The Wall Street congrega- tion showed no signs of suffering from this desertion. In 1768 it had become so numerous as to need a new church, and so prosperous as to be able to build one. This was done "away np town," in the " Fields," or on the block now occu- pied by the Times and Potter build- ings, the triangle between Nassau and Beekman streets and Park Row. It was familiarly called the Brick Presbyterian Church, a name now borne by its successor on Fifth Ave- nue and Thirty-seventh Street. It was the farthest " up-town " church of that day. Next farthest was the NORTH DUTCH CHURCH ON FULTON STREET, 1769. St. George's Episcopal chapel on Beekman Street, corner of Cliff, erected in 1752; and finally the three Dutch churches were nobly matched by three Episcopal ones, when, in 1765, St. Paul's was erected on the spot it now occupies. All the others have disappeared: St. Paul's alone abides, for Trinity's vastly altered form brings up no memories of the days before the Revolu- tion. It may be useful, if we would vividly set before our minds the city as it was during those momentous times, to fix firmly in thought and picture to our imagination the number, form, and location of these churches. Other municipal conditions-the city's dimensions. appearance, topography, its distribution of streets and population- will then the more readily rehabilitate themselves.
We have, in speaking of the churches of the town, somewhat ex- ceeded the limit of years we had set to ourselves for consideration in this chapter. But all through the period herein embraced a noted
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religions movement swept over America which had a decided effect upon church life in the city as elsewhere. Between 1740 and 1770 the Rev. George Whitefield visited the American colonies seven times, addressing andiences in every important city from Boston to Charles- ton. Everywhere he aroused the greatest enthusiasm. People were awakened to a livelier interest in religion as an emotion and a life. rather than a profession by mental consent to certain theological tenets taught in the schools and recited in the confirmation class. He arraigned the dead formalism of the ministry as well as of the people. Bitter opposition was excited quite as much as a hearty assent given to his just rebukes. But the result was a general convic- tion that religious life and church-membership should be something different from what it had ordinarily been before-a thing more of the heart and conduct than of the head. Hence the work of Whitefield in America was attended by results every- where which have entitled it to be desig- nated appropriately as the " Great Awak- ening of 1740." It is of course of special interest to us to notice that Whitefield also visited New York City. On his tour through the colonies, starting from New England he first came within the present limits of our city at East Chester, where he addressed an audience of three hundred people. At. Kingsbridge he preached from the steps of a public house to five hundred. but with no effect that could be visibly ap- preciated. He arrived in the city proper on October 30, 1740, and was entertained at the house of a Mr. Noble, an elder in the WALL STREET PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHI. Wall Street Church, who had invited him to come to New York. The Episcopal min- isters refused to let him speak in their churches, although he was in the orders of the Church of England. But Mr. Pemberton, pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Wall Street, cordially gave him the use of his pulpit. As the church could not accommodate the crowds that flocked to hear the famous evangelist, he addressed andiences also in the open air " in the fields " or Common. His first sermon was preached on the morn- ing of Friday, October 31. in the church. He preached also in the evening. On Saturday, November 1, he again preached twice to increasing crowds. He had come to New York with misgiv- ings, fearing he would have no results. But he had no canse to be discouraged. The next day, Sunday, he preached morning and evening. At the second service the peculiar demonstrations usually attending his exhortations were apparent in full force. On Saturday
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evening, indeed, some people had fainted away; but on Sunday even- ing " the whole congregation was alarmed. Shrieking, crying, weep- ing, and wailing were to be heard in every corner, men's hearts failing them for fear, and many falling into the arms of their friends." On Monday Whitefield again preached twice in New York, but on Tues- day he left to continue his journey to Philadelphia and the Sonth. He preached that day on Staten Island, standing upon a wagon, to an outdoor audience of some three or four hundred people. In 1748 he was again in the country and possibly at New York ; but on his visit in 1764, he writes that his work here was attended with even more marked effect than at the first visit just describeil.
Other than the leading sects possessed fine churches. New York now, as of old, had its share of all kinds of sects; and they existed without molestation. The Lutherans had two churches, one on Rec- tor, the other on Frankfort streets; and the Quakers had a meet- ing-honse on Crown (Liberty) Street. The Moravians also had a congregation, with a modest chapel on Fair (Fulton) Street. Their services were in the English language, and a contemporary says that they " consisted principally of female proselytes from other socie- ties." The Baptists had a small meeting-house on Vandercliff (Cliff) Street ; and the Jewish synagogue in Mill (now South William) Street, while of no architectural pretensions outside, was said to be very " neat within." A curious instance of a condition of affairs that has now utterly passed away, and an evidence that church and state were not as yet severed in America, is the record upon the Common Council minutes of 1747, that four pounds be paid the publie printer to defray the cost of printing fifty copies of " An Essay on the Duties of Vestry- men." We note once more that William Bradford was still alive to see to this ecclesiastical job, for he did not die till five years later. As regards schools in 1743, we find as yet no buildings put up for their special accommodation; and in regard to their quality, we have only the most gloomy contemporary testimony: "The schools are in the lowest order, and the instructors want instruction." In 1748 the first schoolhouse was put up on Rector Street for the Episcopal children; and in the same year one was built by the Dutch people in Garden Street, opposite the church, containing also accommodations as a residence for the teacher. In 1743 a school had been opened by the Dutch deacons in a house in Cortlandt Street, with Abraham De Lahoy as teacher, presumably a son and namesake of the person who taught school for the Dutch congregation in 1679. Free education was an established fact in the city as early as 1749. The chorister of the Middle Church, who was its teacher, had at least twelve of his scholars on the free list, six in reading and six in writing, for whom he received from the consistory a load of wood, " half nut, half oak," for each scholar, and £12 10s. per annum in money.
A great step forward in education was taken in the founding of
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Columbia College, at tirst called King's. A bill passed the Assembly on October 22, 1746, anthorizing the raising of a fund of £2.250 by lot- tery. Large gifts also came from individuals, among them Governor Hardy. Classes were not formed till about 1750, and in 1753 the first President was called, the Rev. Dr. Samuel Johnson, of Stratford, Con- nectient. He was an Episcopal clergyman, and the charter called for membership in that church as a requisite for the position. This gave great offense to people of other communions, and unfortunately this excellent undertaking led to another division of New York City into parties, headed in this instance by the De Lancey family and following on the side of the Episcopalians, and by the Livingston family and following on the side of the Presbyterians and others. It imbittered relations in politics for many years thereafter. The col- lection of funds went ou slowly. Trinity Church gave ground for the buildings, comprising the block bounded by Murray, Church, and Barclay Streets and College Place, aud here at last. on August 23. 1756. the cornerstone was laid by Governor Hardy. Among the early graduates of the college were such names as those of John Jay, Robert R. Livingston, and Gon- verneur Morris.
Another evidence that New York peo- ple were alive to something more thau commerce and poli- tics, is afforded by COLUMBIA (KING'S) COLLEGE, 1758 the founding of the "Society Library " in 1754. The corporation had come into possession of a library much earlier. In 1700 the Rev. John Sharpe. Lord Bellomont's chap- lain-in-the-fort. having been much worried by Rector Vesey's con- duct toward him. left to return to England, and generously donated his library to the city. This was supplemented in 1728 by the gift of another clerical library. A Rev. Mr. Millington had bequeathed his books, over sixteen hundred in number, to the " Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts," who de- cided to bestow them upon the benighted town on the shores of the Hudson. Thus the " City Library." doubly theological, had attained some respectable size, and the corporation devoted a room in the City Hall to its proper preservation. As Mv. Sharpe was back in the coun- try, he was made enstodian: but being well stricken in years he did not long live to attend to this congenial duty, and after his death the books fell into sad neglect. In the month of March, 1754, there were
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together at an evening company the three brothers, Philip, Robert R., and William Livingston; with John Morin Scott, later to be heard from; William Alexander (afterward General and Lord Stirling of the patriot army) and William Smith, Jr. The last two will be recog- nized as sons of James Alexander and William Smith, respect- ively. They determined to start a movement to found a library " to- ward promoting a spirit of inquiry among the people, by a loan of books to non-subscribers." These few young friends, four of them graduates of Yale College, went to work so energetically that before the end of March six hundred pounds had been raised. Permission was readily obtained from the Corporation to add the City Library to their own, and to place the whole in a room in the City Hall.
Taking our stand -- anywhere between the years 1743 and 1769 on the heights above the Brooklyn ferry we could have taken in the whole City of New York at one glance, from Peck Slip to the Battery. A few scattered honses might have been seen on the hills back of Corlaer's Hook; then in quick succession would have been counted the steeples of St. George, Brick Presbyterian, North Dutch, St. Paul's, and all the rest down to the one in Garden Street. Here and there an elegant mansion might have been picked ont-Walton's, and De Peyster's, in Queen Street; possibly De Lancey's on Broad- way. Generally the houses were of modest elevation. and of no very great size, but all very neat. Most of the blocks between the fort and Hanover Square were now solidly built up; east of Broadway this featme was apparent as far as Wall Street, and cast of William Street as far as Golden Hill, the continuation of John Street; or even as far as Fair (Fulton) Street. But west of Broadway the blocks were sparsely beset all the way from the fort to Chambers Street, and in that far-away region the streets-Warren, Murray, Robinson (Park Place), Barclay, and Vesey-were scarcely more than laid out on paper. In 1756 a line of palisades extended from the North River to the East River, just beyond Chambers, running along the hill that sloped down toward the Collect Pond (Tombs Prison), and then ent- ting through some of the laid-out streets on the east side, leaving a few clusters of dwellings outside the defenses. Who could expect, living, say, at Park Row and Pearl Street, to be included in the pro- tection of the city proper? It was too unreasonably far ont of town! But within the palisades there were several large vacant spaces even in 1756. For instance, the entire triangle bounded by Fulton Street. Park Row, and Nassan Street, was quite innocent of habitations. Sey- Pral streets were now paved; Broadway and others beset with trees. AAltogether the appearance of the town was quite respectable, if we are to judge from the enthusiastic language of an officer in the Royal British navy writing home in 1756. " The nobleness of the town," he observed, " surprised me more than the fertile appearance of the country. I had no idea of finding a place in America, consisting of
-
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nearly 2,000 houses, elegantly built of brick, raised on an eminence, and the streets paved and spacious, furnished with commodions keys [quays ] and warehouses, and employing some hundreds of vessels in its foreign trade and fisheries-but such is this eity that a very few in England can rival .it in its show, gentility, and hospitality."
Some particularly handsome private residences deserve notice The finest of all was that built by a merchant of the name of William Walton. He had acquired great wealth in the trade with the Spanish colonies. In 1738 Lientenant-Governor Clarke had written of him to England that he was " the only person in the place whom the Span- iards permit to trade at St. Augustine." His means increasing with the years he resolved to build him a house in keeping therewith. He was living on Hanover Square, but he selected for his new house a spot further up town, on a hill along the line of Queen (Pearl) Street.
where now we have Franklin Square, and the numbers 324 to 328 Pearl Street will pretty near- ly indicate the precise location. Here, as late as 1867. a sign still announced " The Old Walton Honse." it being then used as a boarding - house or hotel for sail- ors; but in 1881 THE WALTON HOUSE. it was torn down to make room for business. In the New York Mirror of March 17, 1832, there is a description of its appearance as it was then: " A brick oditice fifty feet in front and three stories high, built with Holland bricks, relieved by brownstone water tables, lentils, and jams. The superb staircase in its ample hall, with mahogony hand- rails and banisters, by age as dark as ebony, would not disgrace a nobleman's palace." A lady who had seen it illuminated in cele- bration of the repeal of the Stamp Act in 1766, spoke of it as having " five windows in front, a double-pitched roof covered with tiles, and a double course of balustrades thereon." The garden extended down the hill as far as the river. No wonder some one in 1762 referred to it as " the nonpareil of the city." Mr. Walton lived in a style suitable to his dwelling-house, so that the dinners, the plate, the wines, were
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quoted in the House of Commons, to prove the wealth of the colonists in an argument for their taxation. The De Lanceys also had fine residences. Stephen De Lancey, the founder of the family's fortune, built a noble mansion on Broad Street on the corner of Dock (Pearl) Street. This fell to Oliver De Lancey, his son, and became later the Frannces Tavern. Stephen De Lancey built another large house on Broadway, between the Trinity churchyard and Cedar Street. This became the property of his son James, the Lieutenant- Governor, and still later was transformed into the " City Hotel." Abraham De Peyster had long before this built a broad mansion on Queen (Pearl) Street, just opposite Little Queen (Cedar) Street. It was within sound, therefore, of that beautiful bell which he had ordered cast at Amsterdam, and had donated to the Nassau Street Church; and which still rings ont from the 48th Street Collegiate Church on Fifth Avenue.
It has already been observed that life in New York was of such a nature as to entitle it to be regarded as a colonial capital. From the standpoint of the strictly conservative colonist, who would never have had it anything else but a colonial capital, it had at this time reached a very ideal condition. " In the year 1752 New York was in its happiest state," wrote a loyalist historian afterward, deploring severance from the mother country. To him this was the " Golden Age of New York," which could not be improved upon. " The colony was extending its trade, encouraging the arts and sciences, and culti- vating its lands. Its inhabitants were daily increasing in riches and wealth and opulence. They were at the same time laborious, indns- trions, and frugal, lived in the most hospitable manner, though with great economy." It was too bad that all this should have been dis- turbed by a struggle for independence, but there are some that do not regret it quite so much as honest JJudge Thomas Jones. Perhaps one reason that the people could not be kept contented with a meek colo- nial condition, in which they might be happily robbed, and prosper- onsly trampled upon, was that newspapers were increasing among them, for, of course, their business is to find fault with all existing things. The old New York Gazette, as already stated, was taken in hand by James Parker in 1743 and published under the name of the New York Gazette and Weekly Postboy. In a conflict of an- thority between Clinton and the Assembly in 1747, James Parker boldly defied the Governor. But when the Assembly ordered the arrest of him and his partner in 1756 for having criticised sharply the people of some of the upper counties, the two editors very meekly apologized and retracted their statements. The New York Jour- mal held on to life until 1752, but it must have been somewhat pre- carious, for in 1751, in the issne of February 25, we find an earnest ap- peal to the " country subscribers " to pay their arrears. Some of them were behind upward of seven years. "Now." continnes
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young Zenger with much pathos, " as I have served them so long, I think it is time, ay, high time, too, that they give me my outset, for they may verily believe that my very clothes (sic) are almost worn out." In 1746 the Evening Post was added to the number of the city journals, and died soon from a " looseness in grammar and com- plications in orthography." In 1752, Hugh Gaine, printer and book- seller at the sign of the " Bible and Crown," in Hanover Square- where he sold theatre tickets, as duly recorded in Cooper's " Satans- toe "-added also this other service to the public by starting a news- paper, which he gave the airy title of the New York Mercury. It was well conducted and won fame as the best paper in the col- onies. In 1763 the name was changed to New York Gazette and Weekly Mercury; it was then inclined to be patriotic, but its poli- ties changed with the advent of the British in town. Out of the con- troversy between Episcopalian and Presbyterian leaders anent the control of Columbia (King's) College, grew the establishment of a
periodical that was somewhat of the nature of a magazine. It was called the Independent Reflector. Its first issue was dated November 30. 1752. but its last came out as early as October. 1753. Its liter- ary standard was quite in advance of its con- WALTON HOUSE-INTERIOR. temporaries. and it counted among its con- tribntors William Livingston, the Rev. Aaron Burr. President of Princeton College, and William Alexander.
The sociability and hospitality of New York people are constantly spoken of by those whose words have come down to us from these early days. It was their uniform testimony that. New York was one of the most social places in the world. Smith, the historian, tells of weekly clubs among the men, and doubtless it was at one of those happy, informal meetings in March, 1754, of which he writes, that the project of the Society Library was started. The ladies, he says, were not readers; but they were extremely fine housekeepers, which he is just enough to ascribe to the influence of Dutch traditions. Yet the ladies enjoyed " concerts of music," while balls and receptions, too, were not infrequent. These that were held at the houses of the great, were, of course, exclusive. But there were also those of a more public and promisenons sort, which were held nsnally in the large assembly or reception-rooms, called " Long Rooms," of the principal taverns; and frequently also in the spacious hall in the second story of the
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Royal Exchange in Broad Street. It is stated that dancing assem- blies were held once a fortnight during the winter seasons. Gayeties like these were of course quite in keeping with the city's character as a colonial capital, and would give the young people from up the river all the polish they needed in the elegancies and graces of society. Again, as a result of the constant presence of the troops in the city, these entertainments were supplemented by performances on the stage. There had been theatrical performances in New York before this period, in storehouses on the wharves, and other places. In 1750, however, something more nearly like a theater was begun in a barn- like structure on Kip (Nassau) Street not far from the Dutch Church, which had belonged to Rip Van Dam, and could hold only about three hundred people. Here, still, in November, 1753, Shakespearian plays were given, followed always by some brief farce. It was then called the New Theater, so that the place first occupied in 1750 may have been enlarged and better adapted to its purposes. A second theater must have been put up soon after, for in 1754 the deed for a lot at 144 Fulton Street mentions that its situation was in " the rear of the theater-lot." This brings the theater at 17 JJohn Street, between Broadway and Nassau. In January, 1760, Lieutenant-Governor De Lancey gave permission to build another theater in Chapel Street, near Beekman. In November it was ready for the public, a tragedy being presented, followed by a farce, according to the regulation- program of those days. Boxes were sold for Ss. Tickets for the pit cost 5s, for the galleries 3s. But the population of New York was not vet ripe for this advanced state of " capital " existence. When Colden granted a license for another theater in Beekman Street, the Assem- bly disapproved of his act. Mayor Cruger even urged the passage of a law forbidding theatrical performances altogether, and in 1766 a mob destroyed the Beekman Street theater.
There were other evidences that New York was as yet quite pro- vincial, however much of a colonial capital. The dress was modeled after the costumes of the Court of St. James. Gentlemen in evening companies wore long-waisted coats of velvet of various colors, em- broidered with gold or silver lace; the vests were long and of brilliant patterns and hues; small clothes of rich stuff, silk stockings, with dia- mond, or gold, or silver buckled shoes. There was of course the peruke npon the head, and the handsome, straight rapier by the side. The ladies dressed their hair low or high, whatever the latest mode demanded; wore stiff-laced bodices, high-heeled colored shoes, or slip- pers of the daintiest make. They carried costly fans. Yet while these fashions remind one of polite circles " at home," there is something suggestively bucolic abont the fact that when. in 1757. the wife of General Gates was seen riding abroad in a riding-habit such as Eng- lish ladies were accustomed to wear, people raised their hands in holy horror, saying that she wore " men's clothes," and protested that
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