USA > New York > New York City > Old New York : a journal relating to the history and antiquities of New York City, Vol. I > Part 28
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brought only $15,000. The lot is thirty-nine feet front on Broadway, twenty-seven feet wide in the rear, and extends through to Greenwich street nearly two hundred feet. This is the saddest proof of the fall in real estate in this devoted city that has been realized as yet. There has been no time within my recollection that this lot would not have brought more money, and before General Jackson's accursed experiments it would have been worth double the price it brought.
May 12, 1840 .- I called yesterday upon Miss Fanny Ellsler. She is an exceedingly fascinating person, not very handsome. Her face has lost its bright bloom, and her complexion ap- pears to be somewhat faded,-the result, probably, of the violent muscular exertions which are required in the profession ; but her manners are ladylike. She is gay and lively, and alto- gether the most perfectly graceful lady I have ever seen ; further the deponent saith not. She is to make her first appear- ance at the Park Theatre, on Thursday evening, in the ballet of " La Tarantule." which all the world will witness who can gain admission to the theatre. Fashion and taste and curiosity are all on tiptoe to see her on tiptoe. aud the pocket of many a sober pa will be drained to furnish the means to his wife and daughters to witness her pas.
May 14. 1540 .- A déjeuner à la fourchette is something of a . novelty in this country, and the last imitation of European refine- ment. This series of breakfasts given by Mr. William Douglass at his fine mansion, corner of Park Place and Church street, can hardly be called an imitation : for in taste, elegance and good management it goes beyond most things of the kind in Europe, and seems to be placed as a bright object in the overwhelming flood of vulgarity which is sweeping over our land. The first of these breakfasts was given last Thursday, and they are to be repeated weekly until further notice. My daughters went there, and their favorable account induced me to join the throng of beauty and fashion this day. The company assembles at about one o'clock, and remains until four. Breakfast is served at 2 o'clock, and consists of coffee and chocolate, light dishes of meat, ice-cream and confectionery, with lemonade and French and German wines. The first two floors, elegantly furnished, of this spacious house
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are thrown open ; the dining-room opens into a beautiful con- servatory, in which, amongst other pleasant objects, is an aviary of singing birds, the delicate notes of the canary mingling sweetly with the shrill pipe of the foreign bullfinch, and the whole con- cert regulated and stimulated by the great leader of the feathered orchestra, our own native mocking-bird. A band, also, of a more material nature, plays at the head of the stairs during the whole time of the entertainment, and after the young folk have partaken of their breakfast-dinner cotillons and waltzes are danced until the hour of reluctant departure. The honors of the house are performed in good taste by the bachelor host, assisted by his sis- ters, Mrs. Douglass Cruger and Mrs. Monroe, and his cousin Mrs. Kane.
Many and many a night has passed since the walls of the Park have witnessed such a scene [as the debut of Fanny Ellsler]. Fanny Ellsler, the bright star whose rising in our firmament has been anxiously looked for by the fashionable astronomers since its transit across the ocean has been announced, shone forth in its brilliancy this evening. Her reception was the warmest and most enthusiastic I ever witnessed. On her first appearance in a pas seul called La Cracovienne, which was admirably adapted to set off her fine figure to advantage, the pit rose in a mass and the waves of the great animated ocean were capped by hundreds of white pocket handkerchiefs. The dance was succeeded by a farce. and then came the ballet " La Tarantule." in which the Ellsler established her claim to be considered by far the best dancer we have ever seen in this country. At the falling of the curtain she was called out. the pit rose in a body and cheered her. and a shower of wreaths and bouquets from the boxes proclaimed her success complete. She appeared greatly overcome by her recep- tion, and, coming to the front of the stage. pronounced, in a trem- ulous voice, in broken English. the words ". A thonsind thanks." the nuirete of which seemed to rivet the hold she had gained on the affections of the audience.
All the boxes were taken several days since, and in half an hour after the time proclaimed for the sale of pit tickets the house was full, so that when we arrived, which was a full hour before the time of commencing the performance, placards were exhibited
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with the words "Pit full." "Boxes taken." This wise ar- rangement prevented confusion. The house, although full in every part, was not erwoded, and a more respectable audience never greeted the fair danseuse in any country she has eharmed.
November 5th, 1841 .- The people will be amused ; they must have some way of passing their evenings besides poking the fire and playing with the children.
The theatre does not seem exactly the right thing; when it revives a little and raises its head, the legitimate drama-good. honest tragedy, comedy and opera-has to encounter a host of competitors ready to administer to a vitiated publie taste. The good is mixed up with the bad ; Shakespeare and Jim Crow come in equally for their share of condemnation, and the stage is indis- eriminately voted immoral, irreligious, and, what is much worse, unfashionable. But the good folks as well as the bad must be amused, and at the present time lectures are all the vogue. Reg- ular courses have commenced at the Mercantile Library Associa- tion, the Mechanics' Institute, the Lyceum, and the Historical Society, at all of which some of the ablest and most distinguished men of this and other States have agreed to contribute their learning and eloquence. Jared Sparks, for the Historical Society, is engaged in a course of eight lectures on the "Events of the American Revolution." to which crowds so numerous are at- traeted that the chapel of the New University cannot hold them. and they have had to adjourn to the Tabernacle, the omnium gatherum and hold-all of the city. Concerts, vocal and instru- mental, are also well attended. Mr. Knoop fiddles and Braham sings to large audiences, whose 8400 or $500 is made as easily as a broker's commissions : and ladies' recitations come in for a good. share of public patronage. This is all right ; it is more rational than the expensive parties for which New York was formerly celebrated, where friendly intercourse was stitled in a crowd of oyster-eating parasites. modest merit put to the blush by reckless extravagance, and good fellowship voted vulgar by parvenu pre- tension : but I cannot help thinking that the theatre, well con- dueted. should come in for a better share of support; its morals will always be regulated by the countenance it receives from the respectable part of the community. Vice naturally shrinks from
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the contact with virtue. If good plays are encouraged and decent theatres frequented by respectable people, none but such will be presented to the public.
November 17, 1841 .- The rotunda of the Merchants' Exchange in Wall street, the magnificent room in which the merchants of New York are to " congregate," was opened this day for their use. The façade wants three columns to be complete, and the offices are all occupied by brokers, banks, money changers, and those who deal in pigeons, if not " those who sell doves." The following memoranda are taken from an account in one of the morning papers of this superb edifice, which will be an ornament to the city, but a very bad concern for the stockholders, of which number I am one to the amount of $2,500. I may say as Gomerts, the Philadelphia Jew, said to me, when I congratulated him on the news of peace. " Thank you. thank you, Mr. Hone ; but I wish I had not bought them calicoes." The ground ou which the building stands cost 8750,000. The cost of the building will be about 81,100.000, so that the whole expense will not be much short of 82.000,000 : and it is doubted whether the revenue of all kinds. with all the advantages of situation and contiguity to the great centre of business. will be more than sufficient to pay the interest on the foreign debt contracted over and above the amount of subscriptions raised from such simpletons as myself for the erection of this costly temple of mercantile pride.
November 27, 1841 .- The great affair given in honour of the French Prince de Joinville by Dr. and Mrs. Mott, at their elegant honse in Bleecker street, formerly the residence of Washington Coster, came off last evening in a style of magnificence which we have not witnessed for a long time. Cutting of limbs has been a better business of late than trade, and the doctor having been absent in Europe during the dark days of New York has had no temptation to invest his money in stocks which have become worthless : " tant mieux pour hii." I rejoice in the worthy doc- tor's ability to honor his royal guest and do credit to our city in a manner equally worthy of himself and the occasion. My wife and daughters and myself were invited, but I alone represented the family. I called and took Mr. Hughes to this " Doctor's Mob." for so, in fact, it was. The house is curiously constructed, with a
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great number of small rooms, but none large enough to accommo- date such a great crowd; and the fine women and lovely girls, dressed in a style of taste and splendor for which they are remarkable, were squeezed in corners by fat men in black and boys with long beards which the bloodthirsty Venetian Jew might have envied in his day. And as for dancing, one cotillon was all that could find room, and that only the one in which the Prince and his happy partner were exhibited from time to time to the admiring multitude who gazed upon him, the tall ones over the heads of the short ones, and the short ones under the arms of the long ones. I came away before supper, which I am told was in equal splendor with the rest of the entertainment. It was a superb, hot-pressed edition of New York's " good society" elegantly bound, with gilt edges and rich illustrations. Lord Morpeth divided the notice of the company with the distinguished gnest of the evening. His society and conversation were much courted.
The corporation of New York gave a grand dinner this day to the Prince de Joinville at the Astor House. The company, for so large a one, was very select, including none of the vulgar hanger -- on of the corporation, who are apt to creep in and un- gentlemanize the company on these occasions. The company, about two hundred in number. consisted besides " their honors " of the Prince and officers of the Belle-Poule and Cassarde : the French committee : officers of the Army and Navy of the United States ; militia officer, of the rank of general : members and ex- members of Congress ; chancellors and judges : ex-mayors, which dignified corps was confined to C. W. Lawrence. Aaron Clarke and myself : Lord Morpeth : Colonel Clive and Colonel Percival : Mr. Bacourt, Freuch minister ; Christopher Hughes, charge d'affaires at Stockholm : Francis Granger. Postmaster General, out of place : Bishop Onderdonk: Dr. Knox and Rev. Mr. Verren : and a fair representation of the respectable gentlemen of the city, Whigs as well as Locofocos. The Mayor, of course. presided. with AAldermen Bennett and Shaler as vice-presidents : there was good material in the company, but the president had not the tact to bring it out intil after the French guests retired, which was soon after the regular toasts were done, when affairs
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took a livelier turn, and the usual amount of speech making and toastifying came into play. The Mayor in his toast, the first after the regular ones, paid a handsome compliment to Lord Morpeth ; to which he replied in a short speech, in excellent taste and fine language, evidently prepared, however, and com- mitted to memory, and delivered in the strained, awkward, sing- song style of elocution which characterizes most of the parliamen- tary orators. The handsome dining-room of the Astor House was tastefully decorated with the flags of France and the United States, and devices and inscriptions appropriate to the two nations ; and the dinner, which cost the good people of Gotham $2,000, was gotten up in Stetson's bset style.
December 1, 1841 .- We had a very pleasant dinner party, con- sisting of the following gentlemen : Lord Morpeth, Henry Bre- voort, Mr. Charles H. Russell, Peter Schermerhorn. Washington Irving. E. II. Pendleton, John Duer, Dr. Wainwright. Dr. Francis, Ogden Hoffman. James G. King.
His Lordship has been so feted and lionized at large public dinners, and has been so thrust forward to make speeches and be stared at, that he declared himself delighted with the ease and sociability and repose of this little party of talented and agree- able men. He left at ten o'clock to attend an evening party at Mr. Isaac Jones's, but some of my guests remained until half-past eleven. Lord Morpeth grows upon us amazingly : his fine talents. improved by education of the highest sort, and the frank urbanity of his social intercourse. make us overlook his awkwardness of manner, and a half-hour's conversation alnost persnades ns that he is a handsome man.
February 15, 1842 .- The anthor of the " Pickwick" Papers is a small. bright-eyed, intelligent looking young fellow, thirty years of age, somewhat of a dandy in his dress, with " rings and things and fine array." brisk in his manner and of a lively conversation. If he does not get his little head turned by all this, I shall wonder at it. Mrs. Dickens is a little, fat, capitally English-looking woman. of an agreeable countenance and, I should think. " a nice person." :
July 12, 1842 .- My wife and I drove out this afternoon to see the two reservoirs in which the Croton water was introduced a
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few days since. This great work is thus completed, with the ex- ception of the magnificent aqueduet by which it is intended to convey the water across the Harlem River, where pipes are now temporarily laid down from one bank to another on a level with the water. We visited first the receiving reservoir near York- ville, consisting of two basins which cover about thirty acres, a solid fabrie, erected on a height sufficient to convey the water to the tops of the houses in the city. The outer walls are handsome broad stone, the basins lined with a dry slope wall one twenty and the other thirty feet in depth. They are at present about half full and the clear, sweet, soft water (clear it is, and sweet and soft ; for to be in the fashion I drank a tumbler of it and found it all these) is flowing in copiously, and has already formed two pretty, limpid placid Mediterranean seas of wholesome temperance beverage well calculated to cool the palates and the thirst of the New Yorkers, and to diminish the losses of the fire insurance com- panies. There were a great number of visitors at this place -- pedestrians, horsemen, railroad travellers, and those who, like myself. came in their old carriages (which, if they had no more right than me to do, was very reprehensively)-for it has become a fashionable place of resort; and well it may, for it is well worth seeing. We then came down and stopped at the lower or distrib- uting reservoir at Murray's Hill. about two miles above my house, which I had not seen since the arrival of the waters. The two basins here are about one-third of the quantity of water, and the distributing pipes are filled and the water works being sup- plied to such places in town as are prepared for it. This great. enterprise will cost 810,000.000, and it is somewhat remarkable and an evidence of irs acknowledged utility that. with the eer- tainty of a tremendous increase of taxation consequent upon it to the present generation and posterity. and in party times too. when men are so hard to please, not a voice has been raised against it. and all parties hail the advent of the " pure and whole- some water." after its journey ou the earth and under the earth. and across the water courses of miles as a proud event of our city, and one which enables Knickerbockers to hold their heads high among the nations of the earth.
Nov. 12. 1.42 .- Mr. John Delmonico, the respectable proprietor
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of the great hotel and restaurant in William street, died on Thurs- day morning in a strange and awful manner. He was with a party deer-hunting at Snedecor's, Islip, L. I. He was placed on a stand up the creek and a deer coming, he fired. The deer, badly wounded, took to the water, and was killed by one of the number on another stand. After some time his companions, going to join him, found him lying on his face in the same spot where he had fired, quite dead of apoplexy, probably produced by the excite- ment which the sport of deer-hunting always occasions with per- sons unaccustomed to it. Mr. Delmonico was an amiable man, very obliging in his house, and will not fail to be remembered as long as good dinners dwell pleasantly upon the recollection.
Nov. 14, 1842 .- " Business is Business." as some man says in some play. The following notice, which was published the day after the funeral of poor Dehnonico, is very much in the style of the inscription on a tomb stone in Pere-la-Chaise, which runs somewhat in this form : " Here lies the body of Pierre Quelquechose, who died so and so. This is erected to his memory by his widow, who takes this occasion to inform her friends and customers that the pastry-cook establishment is continued at such a number Ruc St. Honoré, where she would be happy to receive their orders."
This is the counterpart :
" A Card-The widow, brother, and nephew Lorenzo, of the late and much respected John Delmonico, tender their heartfelt thanks to their friends, benevolent societies and Northern Liberty Fire Engine Company, who accompanied his remains to his last home. The establishment will be reopened to-day. by the same firm of Delmonico Brothers, and no pains of the bereft family will be spared to give general satisfaction. Restaurant. bar-room, and private dinners No. 2 South William street ; fur- nished room, No. 76 Broad street, as usual."
June 18, 1845 .-- Grace Church, at the corner of Broadway and Rector street, has been sold for $65,000. It is to be converted into stores below, and the upper part into a splendid museum of Chinese curiosities, which is likely to prove a good speculation. Doctor Taylor, the rector. preached the last sermon on Sunday last in the old edifice. The congregation will occupy a temporary place of worship until their splendid new church at the upper end of
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Broadway is finished. It will be second only to the magnificent Trinity, and will probably be finished about the same time.
Sept. 10, 1845 .- Mr. Stewart's splendid edifice, erected on the site of Washington IIall, in Broadway, between Chambers and Reade streets, is nearly finished, and his stock of dry goods will be exhibited on the shelves in a few days. There is nothing in Paris or London to compare with his dry-goods palace. My atten- tion was attracted in passing this morning to a most extraordinary and I think useless piece of extravagance. Several of the win- dows on the first floor, nearly level with the street, are formed of plate glass, six feet by eleven, which must have cost four or five hundred dollars each, and may be shivered by a boy's marble or a snow-ball as effectnally as by a four-pound shot: and I am greatly mistaken if there are not persons (one is enough in this heterogeneous mass of population, influenced by jealousy. malice, or other instigation of the devil) bad enough to do such a deed of mischief.
Jan. 26. 1849 .-- The California fever is increasing in violence : thousands are going. among whom are many young men of on best families : the papers are filled with advertisements of vessels for Chagres and San Francisco. Tailors, hatters, grocers. provi- sion merchants, hardware men. and others are employed night and day in fitting out the adventurers. John Bull, too, is getting as crazy as Brother Jonathan on this exciting subject.
Sept. 3. 1850 .- " Sing a song of sixpence." at the rate of a thousand dollars a night. Our new city is in a new excitement. So much has been said, and the trumpet of fame has sounded so loud. in honor of this new importation from the shores of Europe. that nothing else is heard in our streets, nothing seen in the papers, but the advent of the " Swedish Nightingale." Jenny Lind has arrived on Sunday. in the " Atlantie." This noble steamer was a most fitting fiddle-case. a suitable cage for such a bird. The wharf was thronged with anxious expectants of her landing.
A BOY'S REMINISCENCES.
I was born December 12, 1795, in the city of Albany. We soon removed to New Galway, Saratoga County, which at that time was situated on the extreme border of civilization, and in the vicinity of the road which Burgoyne cut through the woods just before his defeat and capture on the heights of Saratoga. From Galway we removed to Stillwater, or Half-Moon Point as it was sometimes called.
We continued our progress toward New York by removal to the village of Haverstraw, no'w called Warren, in Rockland County. The commercial intercourse of this town with the out- side world was carried on by means of a single sloop, and that a small one, named " The Farmer's Daughter." Her freight con- sisted of cord wood and farm produce, with now and then a solitary passenger who was anxious to see the great city. The majestic Hudson at this place is some six or eight miles wide, forming an extensive bay. A strong gale from the South produces such a swell that the bay might almost be mistaken for an ocean.
During our residence at Haverstraw my father was employed in the stone quarry at Nyack, some ten or twelve miles down the river. The stone so freely used in the construction of edifices, public and private. in the city of New York, the forts on the three islands -- Governor's, Gibbet, Ellis's -- and Castle Garden, came from this quarry and the two at Newark and Belleville.
In the Autumn of the year 1803 we left Haverstraw in the sloop and arrived safe at the dock in the great city of Gotham. Dur- ing the Summer and early Autumn the yellow fever had been prevalent and often fatal in the lower part of the city, and many families removed to the suburbs or country .*
That part of the city, or more properly the suburbs, including Jane. Horatio. West Twelfth, Betline, West Eleventh and Perry streets. and from the river out to Greenwich avenue, was then known as Greenwich village. The village was nearly west of what is now known as Washington square, at that time Potter's * The deaths this year, from July 26th to November, were six hundred and seventy.
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Field. In front of the village was located the first State prison, with its front on the road and its yard extending to the river.
In this village we obtained a small vacant tenement, the most of the houses being ocenpied already by families from the infected portions of the city. Then, with my brother Calvin, who was my inseparable companion, I commenced the exploration of the city. Day by day we extended our peregrinations, and after many a weary walk we arrived at the Battery at the extreme south end of the island.
The city, its extent. condition and appearance were as I saw them in the Autumn of 1803 and the Summer of 1804, but the in- cidents which I shall relate transpired in all the years up to 1811, - when I left the city for New Jersey, where I went to learn my trade, being sixteen years of age. The years 1815 and 1816, when I was once more a resident of the city. together with occa- sional short visits since that the. complete my personal knowledge of New York city.
The Battery was all of four miles from Greenwich village. Its front was a stone wall laid in mason work, six feet above high water mark, and surmounted by a post and joist railing. Some ten or twelve rods in the rear of this was the fort, which was in the form of a crescent. Its perpendienlar front. six feet in height, was composed of large square timbers. The interior was so filled with earth as to form a gentle declivity to the plane below, where the star spangled banner floated from the flagstaff on each national holiday. The fort was well supplied with cannon, both of iron and brass, many of which exhibited on the breech a crown and the initials G. R .. signifying that they once belonged to King George. They had either been taken in battle or left by the British when they had evacuated the city. On each returning Fourth of July the remaining few of the old Revolutionary guards assembled, elad in the oll uniform of blue with yellow facings, having gaiters upon their feet, the old chapean upon their heads, hair profusely powdered. their swords newly brightened and their belts and scabbards newly whitewashed. Their duty on that day consisted in the firing of the national salute of thirteen guns upon the first appearance of the sun. The fort. the guns and the veterans have long since passed away. The Battery was then,
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