Noel Quinones First Tour Mr. Meyers James Kirke Paulding was

Noel Quinones
First Tour
Mr. Meyers
James Kirke Paulding was one of the first writers to provide what we call now an American
feel to writing. In the "Salmagundi Papers" he wrote an essay pertaining to New York City
life and its major sites. He wrote a very descriptive view of the Flag-staff at Battery Park
where two spy-glasses were maintained there. Merchants would pay two shillings a-year to
look through them at the signal poles on Staten-Island. It was a very "pleasant prospect."
College students would come to this spot to buy peanuts and beer, after their morning
studies and some days played ball there. He called it a "delightful place to indulge in the
luxury of sentiment."
This is what I posted on mapsites but I exed it out before I could add a picture. So i have to
wait for it be approved.
James Kirke Paulding was born near Tarrytown, New York in 1778. Despite being selfeducated he was to become one of the first to write in the American style. When
Paulding was 18 he moved to New York City where he stayed with William Irving for a
time while becoming closer friends with Washington Irving. Passively, one day Paulding
suggested to Washington Irving that they write a short piece just for amusement and out
of this collaboration came the “Salmagundi Papers.” These were a collection of satirical
essays published from 1807 to 1808 making fun of New York City’s culture and politics
in a manner much like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert do in our generation. Using
alias’ to hide their identities for fear of being punished for talking about the government,
the “Salmagundi Papers” gathered much acclaim. For my use I want to focus in on one
of Paulding’s essays about New York City landmarks.
This essay was called “The Stranger at Home; Or, a Tour in Broadway.” He
provided the first literary description of these areas that we can note, using descriptive
language and humor to give life to these New York City streets. Paulding starts his essay
off with the Battery talking about the flag-staff kept there by Louis Keaffee which
maintains two spy glasses that merchants pay two shillings a year to look through at the
signal poles in Staten Island. He calls this a pleasant prospect but nothing special
compared to others images to see. His writing are very sporadic, where he jumps from
subject to subject as if when he was writing this his eyes got attracted to a new scene as
soon as he finished writing about the first thing. The young college students go down to
the flag-staff to buy peanuts and beer after a long day of studying and sometimes play
ball there. He calls the Battery “delightful place to indulge in the luxury of sentiment.”
It is a very pleasant place to walk on a Sunday evening but not so polite because of the
crowds. He says the place loses its pleasure because of the numerous people he has to
share it with. He then mocks the “fashionable ladies of New York” who turn you down
when you ask them for a walk on the battery. He seems to make fun of only the highclass individuals in this writing, mocking them for thinking so highly of themselves. He
asks the question whether riches should get you respect in a time when showing off your
wealth was the “in” thing to do.
In chapter II he goes on to the Custom House at which point he starts to criticize
the merchants who enter it so very often. There is a type of mobility in the levels of
merchants that makes the better off one look down on all the others. In chapter III he
speaks about Bowling Green, “fine place for pasturing cows.” He talks about the statue of
King George the 3rd that use to be there but was pulled down to make bullets during the
Revolution. He claims it was a pity it was torn down because we could have sold it and
now all that is left is the pedestal. He suggests they should erect a new statue of someone
or something there because “for truly it looks quite melancholy and forlorn.” Now we
get to Broadway, a place that Paulding has much revere for. Broadway seems to have a
different feel than all the other New York streets, a place that gives a man dignity and lets
him “strut as a person of prodigious consequence!” He wonders for a moment if these
can be attributed to a certain “purity in the air of that quarter.”
The last famous area he speaks of is Wall Street. He despises the men who walk
this area. They go to this place because they have business no where else, they are only
there to “feed and fatten on the common wretchedness of mankind.” These men “trade in
misery, and in becoming the executioners of the law, by their oppression and villainy,
almost counter-balance all the benefits which are derived from its salutary regulations.”
This essay specifically painted a very contradicting picture of New York City. From its
nice areas to its terrible people and vice versa Paulding gives us his first view of New
York City life as an American writer. After the success of these essays Paulding’s career
started to decline as he tried and harder and harder to create a specific form of “American
writing.” He wrote numerous other works but none gained that much notice and he was
criticized for it. Paulding died in 1860 on his farm in Hyde Park, New York.
Primary source quote:
“Broadway … great difference in the gentility of streets … a man who resides in Pearlstreet, or Chatham-row, derives no kind of dignity from his domicil, but place him in a
certain part of Broadway … any where between the battery and Wall-street, and he
straight-way becomes entitled to figure in the beau-monde, and strut as a person of
prodigious consequence! … Quere, whether there is a degree of purity in the air of that
quarter which changes the gross particles of vulgarity, into gems of refinement and
polish?”
Bibliography:
Looking Up Broadway: James Kirke Paulding in Early New York. Zachary G., Mapsites.
Web.
<http://www.mapsites.net/gotham/sec9/tour1zbgerber1.html>.
James Kirke Paulding: Forgotten American. Michael L. Black, Oct. 1995. Web. 6 Feb.
2010.
<http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/nyh/88.2/black.html>.
James Kirke Paulding. Wikipedia, 29 Jan. 2010. Web. 5 Feb. 2010.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Kirke_Paulding>.
Lopate, Phillip. Writing New York A Literary Anthology. New York: Washington Square,
2000. Print.
.
Shaye Roseman
E band Gotham
2/6/2010
FEDERAL HALL
26 Wall Street
(Broad & William)
Constructed before the Revolution and left standing afterwards, the
structure at 26 Wall Street was a backdrop for many of the pivotal events that
shaped American history. New Yorkʼs original City Hall was built on the site in
1703, and it was here that the colonial government met preceding independence.
In 1735 the building served as the trial site of John Peter Zenger, a German
immigrant printer indicted and arrested on charges of seditious libel. He had
published slanderous comments about city governor William Cosby in his paper
The New York Weekly Journal. Although judges hand-picked by Governor Cosby
presided over the trial on August 5th, the twelve jurors returned a unanimously
“not guilty” verdict, laying the foundation for the First Amendment rights that
would later become so integral a part of American law.
Thirty years later, another step towards independence was made on this
site when in 1765 the Stamp Act Congress met to protest taxation without
representation. In 1788 after winning the Revolution and successfully breaking
their European ties, newly American citizens proclaimed the building the first
Capital of the United States. Federal hall housed the first Congress, Supreme
Court, and Executive Branch offices, and on April 30, 1789 President Elect
George Washington took the oaths of office and delivered his inaugural address
from the buildingʼs balcony (the statue of Washington on the current buildingʼs
staircase rises to the exact height of the former buildingʼs balcony on which he
stood.)
But in addition to being the site at which was laid the basis of our nationʼs
democratic government, Federal Hall was also the source of early north/south
tensions. Soon after Federal Hall became the seat of American government,
Southern congressmen decided that New York was too far north to adequately
represent the entire nation. And when in 1790 the capital was moved to
Philadelphia, the building at 26 Wall again became New Yorkʼs City Hall, housing
the city government until it was demolished in 1812.
The current structure was built in 1842 as a customs house, although it
seeks to incorporate through its architecture some of the historical significance of
its predecessor. With Doric columns borrowed from the Parthenon and a domed
ceiling echoing that of the Pantheon, the spirit of Greek democracy and Roman
economic power are literally built into what is now the Federal Hall National
Memorial. And the site served both political and economic ends – in 1862 it
became one of six US Sub-Treasury locations, managing federal funds and
storing millions of dollars of gold and silver in its basement vaults until the
Federal Reserve Bank supplanted the Sub-Treasury system in 1920. Today,
Federal Hall National Memorial Historic Site is a New York City landmark and
museum, paying homage to the central role the site played in our countryʼs
founding. The original edifice may not remain, but the progression of the plot at
26 Wall is representative of Americaʼs political and economic evolution as it
transitioned from British colony to independent nation.
“In these honorable qualifications I behold the surest pledges that as on
one side no local prejudices or attachments, no separate views nor party
animosities, will misdirect the comprehensive and equal eye which ought to
watch over this great assemblage of communities and interests, so, on another,
that the foundation of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable
principles of private morality, and the preeminence of free government be
exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens and
command the respect of the world.” – George Washington, First Inaugural
Address in the City of New York, April 30, 1789
Washington's inauguration on the balcony of Federal Hall, New York City,
April 30, 1789. Engraving (ca. 1790) by Amos Doolittle, after a drawing by Peter
Lacour. J. N. Phelps Stokes Collection, New York Public Library)
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres13.html
http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchresult.cfm?parent_id=690853
&word=
http://www.nps.gov/feha/index.htm
http://www.nyharborparks.org/visit/feha.html
http://www.constitution.org/img/fed-hall.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Hall
http://www.neighborhoodpreservationcenter.org/index.html
Marni Epstein
Trinity Church
The original Trinity Church was founded in 1697 by the Royal Charter of King
William III as a response to the Anglican colonist’s wish to have a church of their own.
It was built in 1698, but the land remained property of the Crown until it was granted to
the Church by Queen Anne of England in 17051. The first Church was a simple
rectangular building with a gambrel roof and a small porch. It was burned down in the
Great Fire of 1776. A second structure was built in 1788; however, it was demolished in
1839 due to its structural failure. In 1846, Richard Upjohn designed the third Trinity
Church, which is still standing today. It was built in the Gothic Revival Style, as can be
seen from its huge bronze doors, 280 foot spire, ring of bells, side wall buttresses, and
attention to detail on its exterior and interior.2
The Gothic Revival style of the Third Trinity Church reflects the historical
significance of its origins. Gothic Revival emerged in the late 18th and early 19th century
as a result of the romantic movement, in which the superiority of the Christian medieval
past was embraced. It was strongly associated with Great Britain, liturgical Christianity,
and aristocracy, and so was not highly popular in the United States. The grand
architecture, filled with arches, towers, buttresses, stained glass, and detailed roof edging,
is meant to symbolize the Church’s superiority. The Trinity Church was associated with
the “old ways” of Britain throughout its history- during the American Revolution, the
clergy in the Church were required to be loyalists, despite the increasing presence of
Patriots, including members of the First and Second Continental Congress, in the parish.
The Gothic Revival style of the Third Church is a reminder of the connection
Episcopalians felt with England, even many years after the American Revolution was
over. As Philip St. George Cocke, a member of a consortium, said in June 1958,
“Episcopalians are wedded to forms to what is established- the too like what is old and
English.”3 The Trinity Church stands today as a reminder of the Episcopalian’s
connection to the old ways throughout the history of New Amsterdam.
1
Norval White and Elliot Willensky, A Guide to New York City (Three Rivers
Press: New York, 2000)
2
Gerard R. Wolfe, New York 15 Walking Tours- An Architectural Guide to the
Metropolis, (McGraw Hill: New York, 1988)
3
John C. Poppeliers and S. Allen Chanbers, Jr., What Style is it- A Guide to
American Architecture, (John Wiley and Sons, Inc: Hoboken, NJ, 2003(
The First Trinity Church:
The second Trinity Church:
The Third Trinity Church:
Emma
Hanover Square was the location of The New York Journal owned
by John Peter Zenger. John Peter Zenger was a printer, editor,
journalist, and publisher in New York City. Zenger became
infamous when he printed a document that criticized the Governor
of New York at the time, although the real author of the document
was lawyer James Alexander. When Cosby saw this document
Zenger printed he was infuriated and wanted the Assembly to
approve the burning of The New York Weekly Journal. But when
the assembly refused, Cosby had Zenger arrested for seditious
libel (meaning “brings into hatred or contempt”). However, on
August 5th 1735, the trial ended and the jurors returned a verdict of
“not guilty”, even though the judges were hand picked by the
Governor himself. Zenger’s lawyer, Andrew Hamilton, convinced to
take the case by Benjamin Franklin, argued successfully that even
if the articles Zenger printed were slanderous, they weren’t libelous
because all the statements were based on fact. After the trial,
Zenger wrote that “No nation, ancient or modern, ever lost the
liberty of speaking freely, writing, or publishing their sentiments, but
forthwith lost their liberty in general and became slaves”. This
quote proves that the Peter Zenger trial was a landmark in the
common law protection for free speech and press.
Max
In the early colonial era, Wall Street was just that; a boundary protecting
the colony from indian attack. However, it became a path for commerce;
warehouses for furs, coffee and tea as well as slaughter houses and
tanneries were scattered around the vicinity of Wall Street. In 1792, a
group of 24 of the most successful business men in New York met and
formally founded the "Stock Exchange Office" in the Buttonwood
Agreement. Little did they know that they were establishing the world's
largest stock exchange and an icon of business for centuries to come.
Natasha
Brothels in early New York
In New York from around the 1760’s through 1820 prostitution was
rampant in only certain areas of the city. While places such as
King’s college (later to become Columbia) the sea wharfs, and the
holy ground (behind St. Paul’s chapel) were filled with prostitutes
and desperate women of all races, other parts of the city, wealthier
and more established did not glimpse this fringe culture of early
New York.
Visitors to the city (and students in the university) were the regular
frequenters of the sexual institutions. There is documentation of
this in the diary of Lieutenant Isaac Bangs, published in 1890. It
was written in 1776. It is a short personal narrative about life as a
Lieutenant in the continental army. During his time in the army he
visited New York and referred to a place in Lower Manhattan called
the “Holy Ground.” The holy ground was populated by prostitutes in
the years leading up to the 19th century and a little while into it.
Isaac Bangs mentions his men frequenting the “loose women.” It
cannot be denied that as a largely impoverished port city lower
Manhattan was home to much sexual exploitation of women.
It is important to note however, that this was concentrated in the
areas around the east river wharves, and the holy ground. While
there is documentation by the likes of Isaac Bangs and also foreign
visitors such as Hector St. John de Crevecoeur that prostitution was
rampant, there are also writings, by the likes of William Cobbett, a
labor reformer form England, that describe early New York as less
plagued by prostitution than other cities, i.e. London.
This is perhaps where the puritan roots of our culture shine through.
According to Timothy J. Gilfoyle the proximity of families to one another
and the crude housing made prostitution logistically quite difficult for any
poor native New Yorkers to participate in. Ultimately it seems as if the
brothels in New York before 1820 were mostly used by sailors and visitors
to the city. Those employed by the brothels were largely immigrants and
sex slaves brought in from England and the West Indies.
It is almost as if the entire affair happened in a way independent of
the lives of most mainstream New Yorkers. Of course this changed
in the 19th century, but in the preceding years Prostitution very
much remained on the fringe.
Quotes:
Lieutenant Isaac Bangs: “When I visited them at first, I thought
nothing could exceed them for imprudence and immodesty; but I
found the more I was acquainted with them the more they excelled
in their Brutality. To mention the particulars of their behavior would
so pollute the paper I write upon that I must excuse myself”… “It
seems strange that any man can so divest himself of manhood as to
desire an intimate connection with these worse than brutal
creatures.”
William Cobbett: “Men go to bed with scarely locking their doors;
and never is seen in those streets what is called in England, a girl of
the town.”
Staten Island Group: Culture
Yasmin Shahida
Topic: Lovelace’s tavern/Drinking in Dutch New Amsterdam
History:
The Dutch loved drinking so passionately that Willem Kieft reported that nearly a
quarter of the town’s buildings were “grog shops or houses where nothing is to be got but
tobacco and beer.4” The West India Company had almost immediately built a brewery in
Staten Island and the company also imported wine and brandy. “Staat’s Herberg” tavern
was opened by Kieft in 1642 and it only served spirits distilled by the Dutch West India
Company. Taverns were the sole place for new immigrants or visitors to sleep, drink, eat
and have sex, thus with the increasing number of taverns there was a huge problem with
public rowdiness and alcoholism. The first laws enacted in New Amsterdam were to
control drinking and it was forbidden to sell alcohol on Sunday and no alcohol was to be
sold to the Indians or slaves.
Francis Lovelace was the second British governor of the New York colony in
1668. In 1670 the governor constructed Lovelace Tavern which stood next door to the
Stadt Huys (also known as City Hall or City Tavern). During a short transition period in
the colony when the Dutch temporarily reclaimed the city, Lovelace Tavern served as a
temporary home for City Hall. In 1706, Lovelace Tavern apparently burned down and
City Hall moved to the site of Federal Hall on Wall Street. 5
Primary Source Quote:
“New York [City] was pretty much alone in establishing taverns in the seventeenth
century. The Puritans of New England were too tight-laced, the Quakers of Pennsylvania
were homebodies and models of sobriety, and the colonists in the South were widely
dispersed on isolated plantations, with no cities large enough to make the exploitation of
restaurants profitable.” –Waverly Root and Richard de Rochemont, Eating in America
Analysis:
Through the eighteenth century in Dutch New Amsterdam taverns became the
“social centers of the city6” and therefore crucial aspects of everyday early New York
life. Taverns in the Dutch years were a meeting place for people of all classes to mingle
and share a drink thus they helped breach social barriers in New Amsterdam society.
They were social, political and business centers, which also served the favorite brew.
Dutch taverns lead to the first laws enacted in New Amsterdam which controlled drinking
and forbade the consumption of alcohol by slaves therefore playing a role in the presence
of slaves in society. Yet with the arrival of the English, each tavern quickly started
serving its own particular clientele hence aiding the vast class separation, which quickly
consumed the greater community.
One of these English taverns was “Sergeant Litschoe’s”, where farmers from
outside the city, traveling to sell crops or do business, congregated. “The White Horse”
4
Willem Kieft quote taken from New York Food
http://anthroinpractice.blogspot.com/2009/11/finding-traces-of-new-york-citysdutch.html
6
New York Food
5
was another tavern, which opened in 1641 and primarily attracted servants and soldiers.
“The Blue Dove” tended to soldiers as well as sailors and tradesmen apprentices and
“Monayne’s” was “the house where all the Riotous Liberty Boys met in 1765 and 1766.”7
Visual:
7
according to Sharon V. Salinger’s Taverns and Drinking in Early America
Fieldston Upper
Selkridge
Mr. Meyers (E Band)
2010
Isaiah K.
February 6,
First Walking Tour Presentation
History: Born January 19, 1809, in Boston, Massachusetts, Edgar Allan Poe first
visited the city in 1831 after being expelled from West Point Academy. He
prepared his third book of poetry in “Elam Bliss’s bookstore” at 111 Broadway.
While editing the Graham’s Magazine in Philadelphia, he used a New York event as
the basis of one of his short stories “The Mystery of Marie Roget”. He had read
many newspaper accounts of the murder of Mary Cecilia Rogers, who lived at
114 Liberty Street. In his story Poe made the victim’s name French and changed
the setting to Paris in order for it to be used as a sequel to “The Murders in the
Rue Morgue”.
Mary Cecilia Rogers was known as the “Beautiful Cider Girl” and her
“murder” story became a national sensation. She was born in Connecticut in
1820 and her father died when she was 17 years old. She got a job at a tobacco
shop in New York City and her boss paid her more than minimum wage because
of her ability to get customers through her attractiveness. Many customers
claimed to have stayed for a whole day just to exchanger “teasing glances” with
her. Many of these customers referred to her heaven-like smile and star-like
eyes.
She had initially disappeared in 1838. Her mother had found a suicide note
which was analyzed and believed to have read that she had a, “fixed and
unalterable determination to destroy herself”. However, this disappearance was
determined a hoax and she had gone to visit a friend in Brooklyn. Three years
later in 1841 she told her fiancé she was going to visit relatives and three days
later her body was found floating in the Hudson River. Which consequently lead
to her fiancé committing suicide.
Finally after writing this short story Poe moved permanently to New York
City in 1844. Upon arriving here Poe became the editor and part owner of the
Broadway Journal. He published work by Walt Whitman and many other famous
writers. The Poes lived in lower Manhattan for many of the following years. Poe’s
feelings and thoughts about the city were best expressed in a series of leters he
wrote for the Columbia Spy. He said,
“I have been roaming far and wide over this island of Mannahatta. Some portions
of its interior have a certain air of rocky sterility which may impress imaginations
as simply dreary - to me it conveys the sublime... on the eastern or ‘sound’ face
of Mannahatta are some of the most picturesque sites for villas to be found
within the limits of Christendom. These localities, however, are neglected –
unimproved. The only mansions upon them (principally wooden) are suffered to
remain unrepaired, and present a melancholy spectacle of decrepitude. In fact,
these magnificent places are doomed. The spirit of Improvement has withered
them with its acrid breath. Streets are already “mapped” through them, and they
are no longer suburban residences but “town-lots.” In some 30 years every
noble cliff will be pier, and the whole island will be densly desecrated by
buildings of brick, with portentous facades of brown-stone…”
- Primary
Quote
Analysis: I feel like although Poe is usually remembered in romantic terms he
had a big impact on the literary element of NYC and had a sound reputation as
one of the cities most astute and successful writer and editor.
Visual: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mystery_of_Marie_Roget.jpg
Bibliography
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Rogers
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mystery_of_Marie_Rog%C3%AAt
1. Edmiston, Susan, and Linda D. Cirino. Literary New York A History and
Guide. Salt Lake City: Gibbs Smith, 1991. Print.
Alex Beer
2/4/10
E Band
Walking Tour: St. Paul’s Chapel
Introduction: St. Paul’s Cathedral, a chapel of the parish of Trinity Church, was erected on
land granted by Queen Anne of Great Britain in 1766 - making it the oldest public building
in continuous use in New York City as well as the city’s only remaining colonial church.
Architecture: The Georgian style architecture made its debut in Manhattan with St. Paul’s
Chapel, modeled after James Gibbs’ London Church of St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields. It is
constructed of Manhattan mica-schist with brownstone quoins; its
woodwork, carving, and door hinges are handmade. The impressive
steeple and spire were added after the Revolutionary War. The
beautiful, ornamental design above the alter is the work Pierre L'Enfant,
the architect of Washington, DC.
Significance: Aside from its architectural precedents, the St. Paul’s Chapel holds immense
historical significance. During the Revolutionary War, British Generals Cornwallis and
Howe attended services at the chapel. Following the Revolution’s Battle of Quebec, the
Continental Congress commissioned America’s first war monument to Richard
Montgomery, a hero of the battle. Also during the Revolution, when one-fourth of
Manhattan was set ablaze in the Great Fire of 1776, the chapel survived, while its
surroundings perished. Once the fighting had ceased, on April 20th, 1789, the day of George
Washington’s inauguration, Washington worshipped at St. Paul’s with other members of
Congress. Washington continued to attend services at St. Paul’s for the next two years until
the capitol was moved. Above Washington’s original pew hangs an oil painting displaying
the first rendition of the Great Seal of the United States. The history of St. Paul’s would not
conclude with Washington’s inauguration.
One block away from the World Trade Center, St. Paul’s miraculously avoided obliteration,
just as it did in 1776, on September 11, 2001. For eight months following the attack, St.
Paul’s served as a place where hundreds of volunteers tended to the needs of those
recovering by serving meals, making beds, counseling construction workers and fire
fighters, etc.
Primary Source – “The Resilient City” John P. Avalon
“I wandered down to St. Paul’s Chapel off the southern tip of City Hall Park, passing
rescue workers trudging back from the smoking skeletal wreckage of ground zero,
discouraged to their bones that so few survivors had been found. When St. Paul’s had been
built in 1766, the land around it was considered countryside. George Washing had walked
there to pray after he was inaugurated the fist President of the United States. Since 1973, St.
Paul’s had stood across the street from the World Trade Center. Now in the Chapel’s
graveyard, trees were torn out at their roots, two-hundred-year-old tombstones were cracked
or knocked over entirely, ripped sections of Venetian blinds rattled amid branches, and a six
inch thick blanket of papers, debris, and ash coated the ground. Upon closer inspection,
these were pieces of bills bank statements old photographs and company ledgers from
people who had worked in the World Trade Center. What once seemed important was
brutally exposed as irrelevant. One minor miracle was apparent Amid the devastation – St.
Paul’s Chapel had escaped the towers’ collapse without a single broken window.
St. Paul’s has withstood the test of time in ways akin to the Parthenon or Pyramids. When
destruction pounded at the doors, it was sent away. St. Paul’s Chapel existence today can
easily be used by some as proof that there is, indeed, a god.
Bibliography:
The City Observed New York: A Guide to the Architecture of Manhattan. Paul Goldberger.
Vintage Books New York 1979
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Paul's_Chapel_(New_York,_New_York)
http://www.saintpaulschapel.org/about_us/
Empire City: New York Through the Centuries. “The Resilient City” John P. Avalon.
Columbia University Press, New York 2002
John Street Theatre
The Theatre on John Street opened in 1767. It’s first performance was a comedy called
The Beaux' Strategem performed on December 7th, 1767. This theatre was the home to
the American Company of Comedians a group from London that was led by Lewis
Hallam and John Henry. David Douglass was the owner of John Street Theatre.
Before John Street Theatre, the most popular theatre in New York was the Theatre on
Nassau Street, which was owned by Rip Van Dam, acting governor. In the 1760’s John
Street took over as the premiere theatre for New York. The theatre was a social ground
for many classes. During the British occupation, John Street Theatre was renamed
Theatre Royal and was the taken over to provided entertainment for British soldiers. The
theatre returned to it’s old name in 1777. John Street Theatre was demolished and turned
into a feedlot store in 1798. The new theatre for New York became the Park Theatre
Interesting fact: While New York was the capital of New York, George Washington
attended a few performances at John Street Theatre.
Cultural Significance: John Street Theatre was important to colonial New York because it
had great influence from Britain and London but was also developing into something
very American. New American playwrights were able to show some of their new pieces
to audiences in the new world. The theatre was also a scandalous place where prostitution
did occur. Many classes could attended the theatre and see comedies, tragedies and opera.
John Street Theatre had many performances of Shakespearen plays.
Quote:
“THE comick muse pleas d with her new
Steps forth in sportive tho in moral mode
Proud of her dwelling in our new made
She s set about a serious reformation
For faith she d almost lost her reputation.”
From the Prologue of The Father of American Shandyism by Willam Dunlap, performed
at John Street Theatre.
Sam Guff
Inventing Gotham: Mr. Meyers
2/3/10
Federal Hall & Architecture
The architectural style of Federal Hall is one that has been changed just as many
times as the building’s function has. First built in 1699, the edifice on the corner of
Nassau and Wall Streets served as New York’s third City Hall. In 1763 it underwent
minor renovations, two years before it would hold the meeting of the Stamp Act
Congress. In 1788, it was once again renovated, this time in preparation for becoming
America’s first Capital building, and was renamed Federal Hall. French Architect Major
Pierre Charles L’Enfant designed the new structure, which was so vastly different from
the original design that it was an entirely new building all together. It was built in a
Federal style, an architectural style influenced by Grecian and European classical
techniques. It was viewed by adversaries of the new and emerging government as
symbolic of Federalist aristocracy, described by Frederick Muhlenberg, Pennsylvania
representative, as “really elegant and well designed – for a trap.” Despite the bad reviews
of Federal Hall, it received plenty of good ones too. Pro-Federalist representatives
commented that “this superb edifice is upon the whole, superior to any building in
America – and for its competency to the great design for which it is constructed, does
honor to the architect.” In 1789 President George Washington delivered his inaugural
address from the balcony of Federal Hall. In 1812, the building was razed and sold at an
auction due to the city’s northern expansion and the building’s obstruction of much of
Nassau Street. New York’s capital was moved to Albany and the Nation’s Capitol was
moved to Virginia, so the new building would no longer serve as a capital building.
The current structure was built in 1842 as a Customs House, and later served as a
Sub-Treasury location. Built in a Greek Revival style, it features intricate and meaningful
aesthetic details. The Doric columns on the front of the building mirror those of the
Parthenon, and were built as an homage to Greek democracy. The interior domed ceiling
was also inspired by the Parthenon, and pays tribute to the economic might of the
Romans. The architects who designed the current Federal Hall felt it important for
American ideals to be incorporated in every aspect of the building, façade included. It was
built to convey the same democratic principles that America sought to embody. Federal
Hall has served as a government building since the original structure was built, and is now
a memorial museum. A bronze statue of George Washington now stands in the front of
the building to commemorate his inaugural address, and serves as a constant reminder to
New Yorkers and Wall Street tycoons of one of America’s most intrepid leaders.
Bibliography
Federal Hall Revisited
Torres, Louis
Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 29, No. 4 pp. 327-338
Federal Hall National Memorial
HYPERLINK "http://www.nyc-architecture.com/LM/LM050-FEDERALHALL.htm"
http://www.nyc-architecture.com/LM/LM050-FEDERALHALL.htm
(Picture source as well)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Hall
Jacob Bratman
Inventing Gotham
Trinity Church
Plans for the construction of Trinity Church of New York City began in 1696
when Benjamin Fletcher, the governor of the state, granted to a small number of Anglican
petitioners, the right to buy the property on which the church is now situated. The land
was bought from New York’s Lutheran congregation. Trinity received its charter as a
Protestant Episcopalian, or Anglican, church from King William III the following year,
and a year later the church, then a small, simple structure, was built and opened. The
annual rent for the church was one peppercorn a year to the crown, while the right to the
purchase and use of the land was sixty bushels of wheat. The original church stood until
1776, although it was damaged by fire in 1750. The church provided the city’s first
services for black citizens in 1705. Church leaders founded the Charity School, now the
Trinity School, in 1709. Much later, in 1754, the church established what was then called
King’s College and is now Columbia University with a charter from King George II.
During the revolution, the church’s Clergy remained loyalists, although several members
of the congregation were also active in the Second Continental Congress. Alexander
Hamilton and John Jay were both members of the congregation, and for several years
George Washington regularly attended services. In 1784 the state appointed patriots as
vestrymen and altered the church’s charter so that it no longer reflected allegiance to the
crown. The second church, completed in 1790, was torn down in 1839, making way for
the structure that still stands on the site today.
Kate Rouhandeh
Tontine Coffee House
History
Coffee became a presence in New Amsterdam in 1668, after tea had already been
introduced. After New York’s surrender to the British in 1674, many British customs
were adopted in New Amsterdam, and Coffee began to replace beer at breakfast. Coffee
not only became a fixture in the home, but in the coffeehouse as well. A need for
coffeehouses, which already existed in cities like London and Paris, arose. Once
coffeehouses were established in New York, they served many of the same purposes that
they had served in old world European cities. They were centers of business, politics, and
social life. These coffeehouses were not only places to socialize and do business over
coffee; they also served alcohol, and eventually evolved into bars. But there were some
distinctions between European and American coffeehouses. Literature was not as much
of a product of American coffeehouses as it was of European ones, because there were
not many writers of note in New Amsterdam at the time. Also, in New Amsterdam, court
trials were occasionally held in coffeehouses. The Tontine Coffee was the final
coffeehouse in a succession of famous ones, which was completed in 1792. 150
merchants got together to finance the coffeehouse, using a slightly modified version of
Frenchman Lorenzo Tonti’s plan. The coffeehouse served many functions, as per its
original articles, until 1834, when it became solely a business center and office building.
It is often said of Tontine’s that “most of the leaders of the nation, together with
distinguished visitors from abroad, had foregathered in the large room of the old coffee
house at some time during their careers.”8 Tontine’s also happens to be the site where the
public received updates as to Alexander Hamilton’s condition after his duel with Aaron
Burr.
Analysis
Coffeehouses were sites of social, political, and business events. But this was not
something that was sustained. Eventually all of these things became quite separate. A
coffeehouse today is primarily a social space. The fact that all of these things were
originally clumped together implies a sort of organic connection between the social,
political, and business worlds. As a young colony starting out, much of the activity
outside of the home in New Amsterdam was very connected. As social-life, the political
world, and the business market expanded, they need their own spaces. It makes sense
therefore that a coffeehouse to serve all of these purposes was originally effective, and
later inefficient.
Primary Source Quote
To the Inhabitants of New York:
It gives me concern, in this time of public difficulty and danger, to find we have in this
8
site
city no place of daily general meeting, where we might hear and communicate
intelligence from every quarter and freely confer with one another on every matter that
concerns us. Such a place of general meeting is of very great advantage in many respects,
especially at such a time as this, besides the satisfaction it affords and the sociable
disposition it has a tendency to keep up among us, which was never more wanted than at
this time. To answer all these and many other good and useful purposes, coffee houses
have been universally deemed the most convenient places of resort, because, at a small
expense of time or money, persons wanted may be found and spoke with, appointments
may be made, current news heard, and whatever it most concerns us to know. In all cities,
therefore, and large towns that I have seen in the British dominions, sufficient
encouragement has been given to support one or more coffee houses in a genteel manner.
How comes it then that New York, the most central, and one of the largest and most
prosperous cities in British America, cannot support one coffee house? It is a scandal to
the city and its inhabitants to be destitute of such a convenience for want of due
encouragement. A coffee house, indeed, there is, a very good and comfortable one,
extremely well tended and accommodated, but it is frequented but by an inconsiderable
number of people; and I have observed with surprise, that but a small part of those who
do frequent it, contribute anything at all to the expense of it, but come in and go out
without calling for or paying anything to the house. In all the coffee houses in London, it
is customary for every one that comes in to call for at least a dish of coffee, or leave the
value of one, which is but reasonable, because when the keepers of these houses have
been at the expense of setting them up and providing all necessaries for the
accommodation of company, every one that comes to receive the benefit of these
conveniences ought to contribute something towards the expense of them.
A Friend to the City.9
An Englishman’s account of Tontine Coffeehouse in 1794:
The Tontine tavern and coffee house is a handsome large brick building; you ascend six
or eight steps under a portico, into a large public room, which is the Stock Exchange of
New York, where all bargains are made. Here are two books kept, as at Lloyd's [in
London] of every ship's arrival and clearance. This house was built for the
accommodation of the merchants by Tontine shares of two hundred pounds each. It is
kept by Mr. Hyde, formerly a woolen draper in London. You can lodge and board there at
a common table, and you pay ten shillings currency a day, whether you dine out or not.10
Visual
9
From the New York Journal of October 19, 1775 (supplied by http://www.webbooks.com/Classics/ON/B0/B701/18MB701.html)
10
http://www.web-books.com/Classics/ON/B0/B701/18MB701.html
The Tontine building of 1850
The Tontine Building (second from left)
Sources of Information:
1. The History of Coffee in Old New York. http://www.webbooks.com/Classics/ON/B0/B701/18MB701.html
2. New York City Food by Arthur Schwartz. English Taverns, p. 20 – 22. Published
by Stewart, Tabori and Change, 2004.