USA > New York > New York City > The Memorial History of the City of New York: From Its First Settlement to the Year 1892, Volume III > Part 48
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The Central Park was scarcely begun; the Battery Park was neg- lected, and lay for many years a repulsive waste. Our streets were
exceed that of any other city in the old world, Pekin not excepted : as will appear from the fol- lowing table.
Progress of Population in the city of New-York, computed at the rate of 25 per cent. every five years.
1805
75,770
1855
705,650
1810
94,715
1860
882,062
1815
110,390
1865
1,102,577
1820
147,987
1870
1,378,221
1825
184,903
1875
1,722,776
1830
231,228
1880
2,153,470
1835
289,035
1885
2,691,837
1840
361.293
1890
3,364.796
1845
451,616
1895
4,205,995
1850
564,520
1900
5,257,493
"From this table it appears that the population of this city, sixty years hence. will considerably
exceed the reputed population of the cities of Paris and London. Cities and nations, however, like individuals, experience their rise, progress. and decline. It is hardly probable that New-York will be so highly favoured as to prove an excep- tion. Wars, pestilence, and political convulsions must be our lot, and be taken into calculation. With every allowance, however, for the "numerous ills which life is heir to," from our advantageous maritime situation, and the increase of agricul- ture and commerce, our numbers will in all prob- ability, at the end of this century, exceed those of any other city in the world, Pekin alone excepted.
"From the data here furnished, the politician. financier, and above all the speculator in town lots (a subject, to our shame be it spoken, which absorbs every generous passion), may draw various and interesting inferences." EDITOR
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PREMONITIONS OF THE CIVIL WAR
noted for their uncleanness and bad pavement; our public buildings were mean and poor; the police was inefficient, the city unhealthy, its death-rate high, and life and property insecure. But already New- York was assuming the position of a metropolitan city, and had drawn in nearly all the commerce of the Union. The California mines contributed to its prosperity; the decay of Charleston and Norfolk sent their ships to its harbor: it had no longer a rival. Yet, more than ever, as it rose to comparative supremacy, did it become dependent upon the strength and prosperity of the whole Union. It was the offspring of union, the seaport of a united nation, the center and source of its politi- cal life. President Pierce, in his messages, had drawn a pleasing picture of the general advance of the country. "It is a matter of congratula- tion," he said in one, "that the republic is ad- vancing in a career of prosperity and peace." New-York reflected the general improvement. One proof of its blind- ness to any political danger at this time was THE MADISON SQUARE COTTAGE.1 the celebration of New Year's day, 1856. "Never," we are assured by a contemporary, "had the venerable custom of New Year's calls been so generally observed." The streets were filled with visitors; the houses thrown open with gen- erous hospitality; in whole blocks there was not a parlor that did not blaze with light, nor a family that did not receive its New Year's guests. The city was all mirth and rejoicing, and one who, in our less fortunate time, wanders through our silent streets on New Year's day, will miss the graceful hospitality that has forever passed away.
Yet the winter of 1856 opened cold and severe upon the city. The snow lay for many weeks upon the ground, until the people grew weary of the sleigh-bells and the impassable streets; the rivers were frozen hard, the means of communication with the interior were still imperfect, and many suffered. All over the country the same rigor- ous weather prevailed. Far away in Kansas the chill winter opened
1 Madison Cottage was situated on the north- west corner of Fifth Avenue and Broadway, on the spot now occupied by the Fifth Avenue Hotel. VOL. III .- 29.
It was a wayside resort kept by Corporal Thomp- son, and from 1850 to 1855 was the principal build- ing in that immediate neighborhood. EDITOR.
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HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
upon the settlers with unexampled severity; the boundless prairies were covered with a thick veil of snow, the thermometer sank to twenty degrees below zero, and the people in their imperfect cabins shivered and froze in the unusual cold. New-York gave liberally to their aid. From Kansas too came often reports of the violence of the opposing factions and the raids from Missouri; yet no one saw the cloud gathering in the West, or fancied that anything could check the rapid progress of our metropolitan city.
In this period the Central Park, the origin of which has been referred to in the preceding chapter, was gradually transformed from a wild and rocky tract of land to a beautiful pleasure-ground. Its accomplished de- signers prepared a plan that was carried out with rare taste and discre- tion. Over the bare rocks vines were cast and sheets of flowers ; in the valleys the lakes were formed, and swans black and white glided over them in stately grace. The ramble, one of the earliest of its attractions, soon glittered with running streams and was covered with early flowers. The mall, the terrace over the lake, the long line of trees, the fine walks and drives, the wild scenery of the upper park, completed its early charm. And since then, year by year, the Central Park has added a thousand beauties to its earlier grace; its walks, once nearly bare, are now overshadowed by lofty trees and a fine foliage; its meadows are green, its rocks and hills clothed in flowers; the admirable taste of its landscape-gardeners has been proved in the gradual perfection of their plans. No city has so fair a park; none a more valuable and useful ornament. It had long been the desire of the leading citizens of New-York to provide a public park for the use of all the people. Very early in the century it was proposed to .encircle with a fine or- namental garden the lake or pond that then covered all the grounds where now stand the Tombs and its uncleanly neighbors. The lake was then known as the "Fresh-water Pond," and its marshy environs were never healthy, and often covered the city with fogs and malaria. It would have been fortunate if the plan could have been carried out. We should then have had a fine sheet of water in the midst of the city, where now are some of its least reputable districts, and should have lost the "Five Points," and the marshy site of the Tombs and the new municipal building. But the design was never perfected. Gouver- neur Morris, as Miss Booth tells us, when he laid out a plan for the upper part of the city, proposed to form a park of three hundred acres reaching from Twenty-third to Thirty-fourth streets, and from the Third to the Eighth avenues. This too was almost certain to be rejected. It would have made the center of the city a scene of beauty, and given health and recreation to millions. Possibly Madison Square is a poor remnant of the more extensive project. We lost the fine im- provement of the Fresh Pond, the park above Twenty-third street, and
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PREMONITIONS OF THE CIVIL WAR
had left in 1856 only a few squares, scattered over the city, little at- tended to and of less use to the people. In nothing had our rulers been so inattentive to the wants of the city as in providing for it a succession of public pleasure-grounds. They might have been carried all the way from the Battery to the Harlem, and given New-York, like imperial Rome, or even London or Paris, a breathing-spot in the midst of its densest quarters. The opportu- nity was neglected, and our city will not in many years recover its loss. Our crowded quarters are still our disgrace. But a succes- sion of small parks may yet be provided on the east and west sides of Broadway, by some future friends of humanity. BAPTIST CHURCH. 1
It was at first proposed in 1851 to purchase Jones' Wood, a fine tract of land on the East River and bounded by the Third Avenue and Sixty- sixth and Sixty-seventh streets. The site was attractive; it was cov- ered with trees, and the views over the water were fine and varied. Mayor Kingsland had made a report to the board of aldermen, April 5, 1851, as previously stated, recommending the purchase of some land for a new park. A committee of the aldermen decided in favor of Jones' Wood; the common council confirmed their report, and the legislature authorized the purchase of the land. But it was easily seen that, however attractive might be the situation, Jones' Wood was too far away from the center of the town to be easily reached by the majority of its people. Much opposition at once arose to the pro- posed site. The board of aldermen appointed a new commission to select one more accessible; they carefully studied the wants of the city, and decided at last upon the present site. At first the park was to reach only to One Hundred and Sixth street, and was bounded by the Fifth and Eighth avenues; but in 1859 it was extended to One Hundred and Tenth street. A consulting committee, with Washington Irving and George Bancroft at its head, acted in concert with the commissioners. On the finance committee were Charles H. Russell and Andrew H. Green; and to no one is the park more indebted than to Mr. Green, who has so long watched over its interests. Thirty-three plans for its construction and decoration were sent in anonymously to the commissioners; that marked "Greensward" was selected, and proved to be the one offered by Messrs. Olmsted and Vaux, whose taste and skill have since never ceased to add to the attractions of the park.
1 The engraving represents the building known as the Fayette Street Baptist Church, where wor- ship began in 1791; the name was changed to the Oliver Street Church in 1821. In 1795 the congre- gation built a church at the corner of Oliver and
Henry streets; rebuilt in 1800 and 1819; and, it having been destroyed by fire in 1843, a handsome brick edifice was erected the following year. This church, with its increasing numbers and larger buildings, became very prosperous. EDITOR.
452
HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
An ordinance passed by the common council, May 19, 1856, ap- pointed the mayor and the street commissioner as commissioners of the Central Park. A number of private citizens of known taste and literary ability were invited to attend the meetings; they were known as the consulting board. They met for the first time May 29, 1856, and chose Washington Irving as their president. As yet no money had been appropriated for the laying out and decoration of the grounds; they were yet a bare and rocky waste. But, fortunately, the rare abilities and artistic taste of Messrs. Olmsted and Vaux were at once recognized, and the plans offered by them were approved, money for the completion of the park was liberally provided by the issue of stock, the new land on One Hundred and Tenth street was purchased, Manhattan Square was added in 1864, and the Central Park now embraces a little more than 862 acres-a public garden laid out with singular beauty, the resort of the people. Here they come in summer, with wives, children, nurses, to sit under the cool shade, listen at times to the music of the band, or walk or drive through the endless paths and roads that invite them to almost rural pleasures. It is, and must always remain, the people's park.
But one excellent trait of the Central Park is that it has been the example and the model to many cities. It has, in fact, reformed and improved the whole system of building and caring for them. No one of our chief towns is now or will long remain without its series of parks, its open squares, its playgrounds for the young and old. Brooklyn soon followed its sister city, and laid out its Prospect Park, whose wonderful woodlands and boundless views of the ocean and the harbor are unrivaled of their kind. Philadelphia planned its park on the banks of the Schuylkill, the most extensive and, in rural scenery, the most beautiful of all. Chicago is a city of parks; San Francisco is richly adorned with them. We may attribute even the Yellowstone Park to the early suggestion of the Central. But its success and its rare value are evidently best felt in our own city, and here the new parks that have been laid out for future generations will always own as their true parents the first founders and promoters of the Central Park. They are, in fact, the natural expansion of its plan. Its chief fault is its narrow limit between the two avenues, and its division into two parks by the reservoirs in its midst. As Clarence Cooke has suggested in "Johnson's Cyclopedia," it should have been extended on both sides and made less formal and confined. It is two and one half miles long, and only half a mile wide. The reservoirs embrace one hundred and fifty acres, and yet one would hardly wish them away; they form cool lakes in summer that are always pleasant to see, and in winter sheets of ice that glitter in our gay sunlight. In spite of its narrowness, our park has endless scenes of beauty. The
453
PREMONITIONS OF THE CIVIL WAR
finest of its views is the wild-wood around the upper pond. The walks through the woodland shade to the Harlem Mere are always charm- ing. The waterfalls, the clear brooks, the yellow leaves of autumn, the birds, the quiet shade, lead one to forget the city and all its toils and splendor. One may be as much lost here as in some rural soli- tude. The lower park has been too much subjected to a taste for building and display. The terrace is well done, its view over the lake pleasing, its carved stonework of American birds, flowers, fruits, and harvests instructive and entertaining; one may spend many days in their study. The mall, with its fine row of elms, its green- sward, its statues and busts, its graceful out- line, and its closing view over the terrace, is better than anything in London or Paris. The ramble, with its well-wooded heights, its cave, its streams, its walks along the lake, its belvedere and graceful landscapes, will . always please. In spring the lilac-clad drives, the rocks covered with pink and gold, the fresh green leaves, and the waters of the Boudinoto lakes gleaming through the trees, are all traits of rare beauty. But the park has yet been too often the prey of the spoiler; corrupt politicians and tasteless rulers have inflicted upon it painful wounds. It is the duty of the people of New-York to save it from their hands and greater disaster. In the future it is capable of endless improvement; it may open the way to that wide system of pleasure-grounds and places of recreation for the people that is to extend over the Harlem River to the limits of the city. It should be left chiefly to the hand of nature and to a natural growth. It is already too artificial. Let its trees grow until they rival the oaks of Kensington Gardens, its greensward be sown with violets and pansies, like. that of the Bois: its wild beauties forming a pleasing contrast with the angry waves of life without.
The later additions to the park of the Metropolitan Museum, the Museum of Natural History, the Menagerie, and the skating-pond, the restaurants, and the cottages, have increased its attractions, and made it the joy of thousands. Still, it may be doubted whether these ex- tensive buildings should have been allowed to encroach upon its al- ready narrow limit. They might have been placed on the avenues at its side, and left its greensward and its woodlands in their natural state. But while the Central Park was thus advancing, the Battery Park, the finest seaside resort possessed by any city, was left to neg- lect and decay. It was to have been filled out to its present limit, and properly cared for and enlarged. Once it had been the fairest and
454
HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
favorite resort of all our citizens. It was now, in 1858, become a foul and noxious waste, where the filling in of its new area was composed of the least desirable materials. It had fallen into the hands of corrupt officials. Mayor Daniel M. Tiemann, in his message, said : "In con- sequence of the imperfect manner in which the work is done, the de- posits thrown in are washed away by the tide, and the East River, between Diamond Reef and the Battery, is shoaling rapidly." The unfinished work he thinks "a disgrace to the city." It was long be- fore the Battery was tolerably cared for, and it is still a neglected spot that might easily be made the chief attraction of New-York. Its sea view and sea air are unrivaled. A skilful artist-an Olmsted or a Vaux - would convert it into & scene of unsurpassed beauty.
Among the noted events of the year 1856 were the removal of the Brick Church from Beekman street, and the erection of the "Times" building on its site. The church had long been famous as the scene of the ministrations of the Rev. Dr. Gardiner Spring, an eminent Presbyterian clergyman. The last ser- John Jay vices were held in it on May 25, 1856. In its place rose the scene of a still larger influence, and of the editorial toils of Henry J. Raymond, one of the leading editors of the day. Soon after the city was aroused to an unusual excitement by the assault upon Charles Sumner in the senate chamber at Washington. An immense meeting was gathered in the Broadway Tabernacle-the largest, it is said, ever held in that once famous hall. George Griswold presided, and many noted citizens were chosen as vice-presidents. The speak- ers denounced the brutal act with proper severity, and expressed their sympathy with Mr. Sumner. At this time, too, the first statue was erected in New-York since the fall of that of George III. on the Bowling Green. It was that of Washington on Union Square. Since then the number has grown with unprecedented rapidity. Another statue and monument was authorized by the common council, to be raised to the memory of General William J. Worth, a hero of the Mexican war. It was placed farther up-town, on the western side of Madison Square. Brooklyn now began the con- struction of its Ridgewood waterworks. As the year passed on, the excitement of a presidential election filled the city with anima- tion. The chief newspapers of the day were the "Tribune," "Times,"
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" Herald," "Courier and Enquirer," "Sun," "World," "Express," "Commercial," and "Evening Post." As the editor of the "Tribune," and leader of the Republican party, Horace Greeley showed his rare versatility and mental strength. The editors formed a conspicuous class of our citizens. Bryant, poet and thinker, gave the "Evening Post" its wide renown. Webb of the "Courier," the Brooks brothers of the "Express," Raymond, Bennett, Hale, and their associates, each marked by his individual traits of intellect the journal he directed. They have all passed away, but they have left behind them influences that never pass away. The printing-press of New-York at this time was giving forth some of the fairest fruits of American genius. Bry- ant, Whittier, Longfellow, Willis were the poets of the day; Bancroft, Motley, Prescott, the historians.
An extraordinary prevalence of crime marked the opening of the year 1857, and the records of the courts show a startling succession of famous causes. One, the Cunningham or Burdell case, filled the pa- pers with its shocking details. On the morning of Saturday, January 31, Dr. Harvey Burdell, a dentist, was found murdered in his room - stabbed in fifteen places- on the second floor of his residence at 31 Bond street. In the house with him lived a Mrs. Cunningham, her two daughters, and two young sons, a man named Eckel, a young man named Snodgrass, and Daniel Ullmann, a noted politician. Bur- dell seems to have been passionate, violent in anger, immoral; Mrs. Cunningham, who was of respectable connections, was of indifferent character, the widow of a distiller, and kept the house for boarders. No sooner had the news of the murder spread over the city, than hun- dreds of persons crowded into Bond street to look at the fatal house. A coroner's jury sat on the victim. No case ever in New-York at- tracted so wide an interest. The jury brought in a verdict that the murder had been committed by Mrs. Cunningham and Eckel, with the knowledge of Snodgrass and the daughters. To add to the interest of the case, Mrs. Cunningham produced a certificate showing that she had been married to Dr. Burdell on October 28, declared her innocence, and claimed her share in the estate. The case now came up in the Surrogate's court, before the Hon. Alexander W. Bradford. It was contested with rare vigor. Again the newspapers were filled with the details, and crowds surrounded the court-room. But the surro- gate evidently did not believe the marriage was a real one, and the estate was placed in the hands of the public administrator. It was believed that some one had personated Burdell at the ceremony, and that it formed a part of the plot to obtain his estate. The grand jury indicted Mrs. Cunningham and Eckel for murder, and held Snod- grass, who was of weak intellect, as an accessory. The daughters were held innocent. One is reminded in this fearful tragedy of some
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of the worst crimes of imperial Rome, or of several of the most fa- mous trials defended by Cicero. New-York watched with ceaseless interest the progress of the case as it passed through the courts. At the final trial neither of the accused was convicted, and the mystery that hung over the famous case has never been dissipated.
The difficulty of governing the various elements that now made up the people of New-York had long been felt by its wisest citizens. Yet in a great measure the city had been allowed to grow up under its ancient charters, and with little care from its uncultivated rulers. It began to assume all the vices and all the least creditable traits of a Euro- pean capital. Many of its districts, chiefly on the east side, were the haunts of a crowded and degraded foreign population. Here the poor and the vicious, thieves, beggars, the dissolute, were herded together. The "Five Points" and its neighborhood was one of the most noto- rious of these districts; it was so lawless and dangerous that few honest citizens cared to pass through it even in midday. Our police was held in check by the thieves, or often was in collusion with them; our officials were sometimes unscrupulous politicians. On the west side of the city, Church street had almost as evil a reputation as the "Five Points"; and these haunts of vice, infamy, and lawlessness were rapidly overspreading New-York. It had long been apparent that some change in our police system was necessary; the example of the improved metropolitan police of London was urged on our legis- lators; and in 1857 the State legislature passed several bills amend- ing the charter of New-York. Separate days were provided for the State and municipal elections. The controller and the corporation counsel, like the mayor, were to be chosen by the people. Seventeen aldermen were to be elected from as many districts, to hold office for two years. Twenty-four councilmen were chosen annually. The management of Central Park was placed in the hands of a commis- sion appointed by the State. But the chief and most valuable of these reforms was the creation of the new metropolitan police. A district was formed composed of the counties of New-York, Kings, Westchester, and Richmond, and a board of five commissioners was appointed to insure the peace of the city, and provide for its sanitary reform. The first members were Simeon Draper, James W. Nye, and Jacob Caldwell of New-York, James S. T. Stranahan of Kings, and James Bowers of Westchester County, and the mayors of New-York and Brooklyn ex officiis.
The new police commissioners were at once met and defied by the mayor, Fernando Wood. He had opposed the new system in the legislature; he now pronounced it unconstitutional, and refused to obey the law. He gathered around him the old police force, refused to surrender the property of the department, and threatened with vio-
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, those who attempted to get the offices in their control. When rnor John Alsop King appointed Daniel D. Conover a street nissioner, Wood drove him from the City Hall. A strange scene occurred: the commissioner obtained one warrant for the arrest ayor Wood on the charge of inciting a riot, and another for vio- , offered to his person. Armed with these, and followed by fifty le new metropolitan police, he returned to the City Hall, but d it closed against him. It was filled with armed policemen, who ked the new-comers; the
without aided the for- and an affray followed in h many of the police were rely wounded. The worst of the population, eager plunder, gathered around or Wood, and for a time city seemed about to fall their hands. Fortunately, his moment, the Seventh ment was passing down dway, on a visit to Bos- by the evening boat; it stopped on its way and d upon to quiet the dis- ance. General Sandford THE OLD PARK THEATER. itened to use force unless the mayor submitted to the service 10 writs; the mayor, alarmed, obeyed. The Seventh Regiment proceeded on its way to Boston, but so great was the excite- t in the city that nine of the city regiments were ordered to in under arms. Soon the Court of Appeals decided against or Wood's plea, and the metropolitan police took the place of the orce. But the change was not completed before a succession of rkable riots and disorders had proved the dangerous nature e political excitement aroused by the example of the mayor. A g of the worst class of the populace took place, that had nearly d in scenes not unlike those of the Paris commune, or the draft of 1863. There was, in fact, a strong resemblance-an anticipa- of these later crimes. The mob rose in revolt in the "Five ts" district on July 3, and two factions began a fierce fight. One [ of ruffians attacked the other in Bayard street; men, women, children were hurt in the fray; the few police were beaten off, aded, or perhaps fled not unwillingly. The rioters next seized I trucks, drays, and various articles to build barricades, and led about to hold complete control of the city. The police were
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