1845–1875
TAKEN DOWN 1882
This church was a notable place of worship; the last in the city to represent strict simplicity of religious service as contrasted with modern ease and elegance. The post-office occupied the building until its removal to the structure it now occupies. The second home of the Middle Dutch Church was in Lafayette Place.
Pie Woman's Lane
Nassau Street was opened in 1696, when Teunis de Kay was given the right to make a cartway from the wall to the commons (now City Hall Park). At first the street was known as Pie Woman's Lane.
The Maiden's Lane
Where Maiden Lane is there was once a narrow stream or spring water, which flowed from about the present Nassau Street. Women went there to wash their clothing, so that it came to be called the Virgin's Path, and from that the Maiden's Lane. A blacksmith having set up a shop at the edge of the stream near the river, the locality took the name of Smit's V'lei, or the Smith's Valley, afterwards shortened to the V'lei, and then readily corrupted to "Fly." It was natural, then, when a market was built on the Maiden's Lane, from Pearl to South Streets, to call it the Fly Market. This was pulled down in 1823.
The Jack-Knife
On Gold Street, northwest corner of Platt Street, is a wedge-shaped house of curious appearance. It is best seen from the Platt Street side. When this street was opened in 1834 by Jacob S. Platt, who owned much of the neighboring land and wanted a street of his own, the house was large and square and had been a tavern for a great many years. The new street cut the house to its present strange shape, and it came to be called the "Jack-knife."
Golden Hill
Golden Hill, celebrated since the time of the Dutch, is still to be seen in the high ground around Cliff and Gold Streets. Pearl street near John shows a sweeping curve where it circled around the hill's base, and the same sort of curve is seen in Maiden Lane on the south and Fulton Street on the north. The first blood of the Revolution was shed on this hill in January, 1770, after the British soldiers had cut down a liberty pole set up by the Liberty Boys. The fight occurred on open ground back of an inn which still stands at 122 William Street, and is commemorated in a tablet on the wall of a building at the corner of John and William Streets. It reads:
"GOLDEN HILL"
HERE, JAN. 18, 1770
THE FIGHT TOOK PLACE BETWEEN THE
"SONS OF LIBERTY" AND THE
BRITISH REGULARS, 16TH FOOT
FIRST BLOODSHED IN THE
WAR OF THE REVOLUTION
The inn is much the same as in early days, except that many buildings crowd about it now, and modern paint has made it hideous to antiquarian eyes.
Delmonico's
On the east side of William Street, a few doors south of Fulton, John Delmonico opened a dingy little bake shop in 1823, acted as chef and waiter, and built up the name and business which to-day is synonymous with good eating. In 1832 he removed to 23 William Street. Burned out there in 1835, he soon opened on a larger scale with his brother at William and Beaver Streets, on which site is still an establishment under the Delmonico name. In time he set up various places—at Chambers Street and Broadway; Fourteenth Street and Fifth Avenue; Twenty-sixth Street and Broadway, and finally at Forty-fourth Street and Fifth Avenue.
John Street Church
John Street Church, between Nassau and William Streets, was the first Methodist Church in America. In 1767 it was organized in a loft at 120 William Street, then locally known as Horse and Cart Street. In 1768 the church was built in John Street. It was rebuilt in 1817 and again in 1841. John Street perpetuates the name of John Harpendingh, who owned most of the land thereabout.
John Street Theatre
At what is now 17, 19 and 21 John Street, in 1767 was built the old John Street Theatre, a wooden structure, painted red, standing sixty feet back from the street and reached by a covered way. An arcade through the house at No. 17 still bears evidence of the theatre. The house was closed in 1774, when the Continental Congress recommended suspension of amusements. Throughout the Revolutionary War, however, performances were given, the places of the players being filled by British officers. Washington frequently attended the performances at this theatre after he became President. The house was torn down in 1798.
The site of the Shakespeare Tavern is marked by a tablet at the southwest corner of Nassau and Fulton Streets. The words of the tablet are:
ON THIS SITE IN THE
OLD SHAKESPEARE TAVERN
WAS ORGANIZED
THE SEVENTH REGIMENT
NATIONAL GUARD, S. N. Y.
AUG. 25, 1824
Shakespeare Tavern
This tavern, low, old-fashioned, built of small yellow bricks with dormer windows in the roof, was constructed before the Revolution. In 1808 it was bought by Thomas Hodgkinson, an actor, and was henceforth a meeting-place for Thespians. It was resorted to—in contrast to the business men guests of the Tontine Coffee House—by the wits of the day, the poets and the writers. In 1824 Hodgkinson died, and the house was kept up for a time by his son-in-law, Mr. Stoneall.
First Clinton Hall
At the southwest corner of Beekman and Nassau Streets was built, in 1830, the first home of the Mercantile Library, called Clinton Hall. In 1820 the first steps were taken by the merchants of the city to establish a reading room for their clerks. The library was opened the following year with 700 volumes. In 1823 the association was incorporated. It was located first in a building in Nassau Street, but in 1826 was moved to Cliff Street, and in 1830 occupied its new building in Beekman Street. De Witt Clinton, Governor of the State, had presented a History of England as the first volume for the library. The new building was called Clinton Hall in his honor. In 1850, the building being crowded, the Astor Place Opera House was bought for $250,000, and remodeled in 1854 into the second Clinton Hall. The third building of that name is now on the site at the head of Lafayette Place.
St. George's Church
The St. George Building, on the north side of Beekman Street, just west of Cliff Street, stands on the site of St. George's Episcopal Church, a stately stone structure which was erected in 1811. In 1814 it was burned; in 1816 rebuilt, and in 1845 removed to Rutherford Place and Sixteenth Street, where it still is. Next to the St. George Building is the tall shot-tower which may be so prominently seen from the windows of tall buildings in the lower part of the city, but is so difficult to find when search is made for it.
Barnum's Museum
Barnum's Museum, opened in 1842, was on the site of the St. Paul Building, at Broadway and Ann Street. There P. T. Barnum brought
