Nooks and Corners of Old New York Part 9

Banker Street having become a byword, because of the objectionable character of its inhabitants, the name was changed to Madison Street in 1826.

Between Jefferson and Clinton Streets, and south of Henry, was a pond, the only bit of water which, in early days, emptied into the East River between what afterward became Roosevelt Street and Houston Street. A wet meadow, rather than a distinct stream, extended from this pond to the river as an outlet. This became later the region of s.h.i.+pyards.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Church of Sea & Land]

[Sidenote: Where Nathan Hale Was Hanged]

On what is now Cherry Street, between Clinton and Jefferson Streets, was the house of Col. Henry Rutgers, the Revolutionary patriot, and his farm extended from that point in all directions. On a tree of this farm Nathan Hale, the martyr spy of the Revolution, was hanged, September 22, 1776. On this same farm the Church of the Sea and Land, still standing with its three-foot walls, at Market and Henry Streets, was built in 1817.

In 1828, at the corner of Henry and Scammel Streets, was erected All Saints' Church (Episcopal). It still stands, now hemmed in by dwelling-houses. It is a low rock structure. A bit of green, a stunted tree and some shrubs still struggle through the bricks at the rear of the church, and can be seen through a tall iron railing from narrow Scammel Street. In 1825 the church occupied a chapel on Grand Street at the corner of Columbia.

[Sidenote: First Tenement House]

The first house designed especially for many tenants was built in 1833, in Water Street just east of Jackson, on which site is now included Corlears Hook Park. It was four stories in height, and arranged for one family on each floor. It was built by Thomas Price, and owned by James P. Allaire, whose noted engine works were close by in Cherry Street, between Walnut (now Jackson) and Corlears Street.

Where Grand and Pitt Streets cross is the top of a hill formerly known as Mount Pitt. On this hill the building occupied by the Mount Pitt Circus was built in 1826. It was burned in 1828.

At Grand, corner of Ridge Street, is the St. Mary's Church (Catholic), which was built in 1833, a rough stone structure with brick front and back. In 1826 it was in Sheriff, between Broome and Delancey Streets. It had the first Roman Catholic bell in the city. In 1831 the church was burned by a burglar, and the new structure was built in Grand Street.

Actual work on the pier for the new East River Bridge, at the foot of Delancey Street, was begun in the spring of 1897.

[Sidenote: Manhattan Island]

Much confusion has arisen, and still exists, in the designation of the territory under the names of Manhattan Island and Island of Manhattan.

The two islands a hundred years ago were widely different bodies. They are joined now.

Manhattan Island was the name given to a little knoll of land which lay within the limits of what is now Third, Houston and Lewis Streets and the East River. At high tide the place was a veritable island. There seems to be still a suggestion of it in the low buildings which occupy the ground of the former island. About the ancient boundary, as though closing it in, are tall tenements and factory buildings. On the grounds of this old island the first recreation pier was built, in 1897, at the foot of Third Street.

The Island of Manhattan has always been the name applied to the land occupied by the old City of New York, now the Borough of Manhattan.

In the heart of the block surrounded by Rivington, Stanton, Goerck and Mangin Streets, there is still to be seen the remains of a slanting-roofed market, closed in by the houses which have been built about it. It was set up in 1827, and named Manhattan Market after the nearby island.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Bone Alley]

[Sidenote: Bone Alley]

Work on the Hamilton Fish Park was begun in 1896, in the s.p.a.ce bounded by Stanton, Houston, Pitt and Sheriff Streets, then divided into two blocks by Willett Street. This was a congested, tenement-house vicinity, where misery and poverty pervaded most of the dingy dwellings. In wiping out the two solidly built-up blocks, Bone Alley, well known in police history for a generation, was effaced. On the west side of Willett Street, midway of the block, Bone Alley had its start and extended sixty feet into the block--a twenty-five-foot s.p.a.ce between tall tenements, running plump into a row of houses extending horizontal with it. When these houses were erected they each had long gardens, which were built upon when the land became too valuable to be spared for flower-beds or breathing-spots. In time they became the homes of rag-and bone-pickers, and thus the alley which led to them got its name, which it kept even after the rag-pickers and the law-breakers who succeeded them had been driven away by the police.

There was, forty years ago, a well of good, drinkable water at the point where Rivington and Columbia Streets now cross.

[Sidenote: "Mother Mandelbaum"]

The little frame house at the northwest corner or Rivington and Clinton Streets was the home of "Mother" Frederica Mandelbaum for many years, until she was driven from the city in 1884. This "Queen of the Crooks,"

receiver of stolen goods and friend of all the criminal cla.s.s, compelled, in a sense, the admiration of the police, who for years battled in vain to outwit her cleverness. When the play, "The Two Orphans," was first produced, Mrs. Wilkins, as the "Frochard," copied the character of "Mother" Mandelbaum and gave a representation of the woman that all who knew the original recognized. Other plays were written, and also many stories, having her as a central figure. She died at Hamilton, Ontario, in 1894.

At the crossing of Rivington and Suffolk Streets was the source of Stuyvesant's Creek. From there, as the streets exist now, it crossed Stanton Street, near Clinton; Houston, at Sheriff; Second, near Houston; then wound around to the north of Manhattan Island, and emptied into the East River at Third Street.

[Sidenote: Allen Street Memorial Church]

In Rivington Street, between Ludlow and Orchard, is the Allen Street Memorial Church (M. E.), built in 1888. The original Church, which was built in 1810, is two blocks away, in Allen Street, between Delancey and Rivington Streets. It was rebuilt in 1836, and when the new Rivington Street structure was erected the old house was sold to a Jewish congregation, who still occupy it as a synagogue.

In Grand Street, between Ess.e.x and Ludlow Streets, the Ess.e.x Market was built in 1818. The court next to it, in Ess.e.x Street, was built in 1856.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

[Sidenote: Mile Stone On the Bowery]

On the Bowery, opposite Rivington Street, is a milestone (one of three that yet remain) which formerly marked the distance from the City Hall, in Wall Street, on the Post Road. The land to the east of the Bowery belonged to James De Lancey, who was Chief Justice of the Colony in 1733, and in 1753 became Lieutenant-Governor. A lane led from the Bowery, close by the milestone, to his country house, which was at the present northwest corner of Delancey and Chrystie Streets. It was in this house that he died suddenly in 1760. James De Lancey was the eldest son of Etienne (Stephen) De Lancey, who built the house which afterwards was known as Fraunces' Tavern, and which still stands at Broad and Pearl Streets. He later built the homestead at Broadway and Cedar Street.

Originally the name was "de Lanci." It became "de Lancy" in the seventeenth century, and was Anglicized in the eighteenth century to "De Lancey."

Where Grand Street crosses Mulberry was, until 1802, the family burial-vault of the Bayard family, it having been the custom of early settlers to bury their dead near their homesteads. The locality was called Bunker Hill.

[Sidenote: St. Patrick's Church]

St. Patrick's Church, enclosed now by the high wall at Mott and Prince Streets, was completed in 1815, the cornerstone having been laid in 1809. It was surrounded by meadows and great primitive trees. This region was so wild that in 1820 a fox was killed in the churchyard. In 1866 the interior of the church was destroyed by fire. It was at once reconstructed in its present form. Amongst others buried in the vaults are "Boss" John Kelly, Vicar-General Starr and Bishop Connelly, first resident bishop of New York.

At Prince and Marion Streets, northwest corner, the house in which President James Monroe lived while in the city still stands.

[Sidenote: An Unsolved Crime]

The St. Nicholas Hotel was at Broadway and Spring Street, and on the ground floor John Anderson kept a tobacco store, to which the attention of the entire country was directed in July, 1842, because of the murder of Mary Rogers. This tragedy gave Edgar Allan Poe material for his story "The Mystery of Marie Roget," into which he introduced every detail of the actual happening. Mary Rogers was a saleswoman in the tobacco store, and being young and pretty she attracted considerable attention. She disappeared one July day, and, soon after, her body was found drowned near the Sibyl's Cave at Hoboken. The deepest mystery surrounded her evident murder, and much interest was taken in attempts at a solution, but it remained an unsolved crime.

On the east side of Broadway, between Prince and Houston Streets, on July 4, 1828, William Niblo opened his Garden, Hotel and Theatre, to be known for many years thereafter as Niblo's Garden. Prior to that, he had kept the Bank Coffee House, at William and Pine Streets.

[Sidenote: Niblo's Garden]

The Metropolitan Hotel was built in Niblo's Garden, on the corner that is now Broadway and Prince Street, in 1852, at a cost of a million dollars. The theatre in the hotel building was called Niblo's Garden.

The building was demolished in 1894, and a business block was put up on the site.

Across the street from Niblo's, on Broadway, in a modest brick house, lived, at one time, James Fenimore Cooper, the novelist.

At No. 624 Broadway, between Houston and Bleecker Streets, was Laura Keene's theatre. On March 1, 1858, Polly Marshall made her first appearance on any stage at that theatre. Later it became the Olympic Theatre.

At Broadway and Bleecker Streets, a well was drilled, in 1832, which was four hundred and forty-eight feet deep, and which yielded forty-four thousand gallons of water a day.

[Sidenote: Tripler Hall]

Tripler Hall was at No. 677 Broadway, near Bond Street. Adelina Patti appeared there on September 22, 1852, when ten years old, giving evidence of her future greatness. She sang there for some time, usually accompanied by the boy violinist, Paul Julien.

Tripler Hall had been renamed the Metropolitan Hall, when it was destroyed by fire in 1854. Lafarge House, which stood next it, was also burned. The house was rebuilt on the site, and opened in September, 1854, under the name of the New York Theatre and Metropolitan Opera House.

Rachel the great was first seen in America at this house, September 3, 1855. Later the house became the Winter Garden.

[Sidenote: First Marble-Fronted Houses]

The first marble-fronted houses in the city were built on Broadway, opposite Bond Street, in 1825. They were called the Marble Houses, and attracted much attention. Being far out of the city, excursions were made to view them. Afterwards they became the Tremont House, and are still in use as a hotel.

A pipe for a well was sunk in Broadway, opposite Bond Street, in April, 1827, it being thought that enough water for the supply of the immediate neighborhood could be obtained therefrom. The water was not found, however.