Union Place Park

As before stated, the Bowery and Broadway were designed by the commission of 1807 to meet at the "tulip tree"; above this was the Bloomingdale road, into which the Bowery curved slightly from its route over that part of the present Fourth Avenue below Fourteenth Street. 

If the streets planned by the commission were cut through from east to west, there would be formed at this place a number of irregular blocks of inconvenient size and shape.  To get out of this dilemma, the commission laid out at this point a small park where fresh air might be obtained when the city blocks should be built up. This park they called Union Place, because here was the union of the two principal thoroughfares of the island.

In 1815, by act of the legislature, it became the public meeting-place, or commons, for the people of the city; but it was many years before it was used for anything else than for the shanties of the squatters who occupied the site. Like nearly all the public parks of the city, it had before 1815 been used as a potter's field. In 1832, the corporation determined to enlarge and regulate the place to its present area, from Fourteenth to Seventeenth streets and from Fourth Avenue to the extended north line of University Place. It was not until 1845, however, that with an expenditure of one hundred and sixteen thousand dollars, the park was put into shape and that the elegant mansions were erected which once surrounded the park, a few of which still remain as business places. Samuel B. Ruggles, one of the founders of the Bank of Commerce, was chiefly instrumental in developing as a fashionable part of the city this section as well as Gramercy Square.

Farms

In 1762, Elias Brevoort sold twenty-two acres of his farm, extending from the Bowery westward between the present Fourteenth and Sixteenth streets, to John Smith, from whose executors the farm passed in 1788 to Henry Spingler, a shop-keeper of New York, for nine hundred and fifty pounds. Spingler's farmhouse stood within the limits of Union Square. Other farms as far as Twenty-third Street on the west side belonged to Thomas Burling, John Cowman, Isaac Clason, Sir Peter Warren, Isaac Varian, and Christian Milderberger. On the east side, were the two farms of Cornelius Williams and John Watts. At the corner of the present Seventeenth Street and the Bloomingdale Road was a square acre of ground belonging to the Manhattan Bank, acquired so it is supposed, as a sort of refuge for conducting business in case of being driven from the city by the yellow fever.

Other Points Of Interests In The Section Surrounding Union Square

A) Spingler House Hotel
The hotel known as the Spingler House stood for many years on the west side of the square on the site now occupied by the Spingler building.

B) Maison Doree
A fashionable restaurant, on the south side, near University Place.

C) Hotel Churchill
On the southeast corner of Broadway and Fourteenth Street is the Hotel Churchill, formerly the Morton House, and originally the Union Place Hotel, established in 1850.

D) Tiffany & Co.,
Among the prominent shops which occupied the west side of the square was the great jewelry house of Tiffany & Co., which moved here from Broadway and Broome Street in 1870, occupying a site upon which formerly had stood the Spingler Institute. Tiffany remained at the southwest corner of Fifteenth Street until 1905, when the business was moved to Fifth Avenue and Thirty-seventh Street, as the highest class of trade was moving to that avenue.

E) Schirmer, and Ditson & Co.,
Leading music dealers and publishers of the city, were also here for many years before moving up-town.

F) The Equestrian Statue of George Washington
On July 4, 1856, the first statue erected in New York since that of George III. in 1770, was unveiled with appropriate honors in the southeast corner of the square. It is the equestrian statue of George Washington, designed by Henry K. Brown. It stands near the spot where the citizens of New York met Washington on the Bowery Road when he was entering the city to take possession upon its evacuation by the British, November 25, 1783.

G) The Statue Of Lafayette In Union Square
At the head of Broadway is the statue of the gallant Frenchman Lafayette, who gave not only money and supplies to the American army, but his personal services as well, and with such marked ability as to deserve well of the American people. The statue is by Bartholdi and was given to the city in 1876 by its French residents.

Many Businesses Have Moved From The Vicinity

To show how the retail trade is departing, there is one great house of international reputation, located near Twentieth Street, which spent $6000 more in advertising in December, 1910, than in previous years and $55,000 less business in the same month. The assessed valuation of property in this neighborhood for taxes has been decreased in some cases for 1910. The Gorham Company of silversmiths was at Nineteenth Street for nearly thirty years, moving to upper Fifth Avenue in 1906. The great grocery house of Park & Tilford, which had occupied the southwest corner of Twenty-first Street for forty years, moved to the Brunswick building on Fifth Avenue in the fall of 1910.

The last of the old mansions that once stood in this neighborhood was one belonging to Peter Goelet at the northeast corner of Nineteenth Street; it stood until June, 1897, amid the great business houses that surrounded it. It was a rather gloomy place with few signs of occupancy except some peacocks which strutted proudly around within the railed garden in front of the house and attracted the attention of the passers-by. Most of the other great houses on the thoroughfare between Union and Madison Squares, Arnold, Constable & Co., Lord & Taylor, Aitken & Son, Sloan's, Brooks Brothers, and others are too well known at present to call for description.

Miscellaneous Information

For many years the park was enclosed by an iron railing; but about twenty years ago, the city authorities awakened to the fact that the public parks should be free at all hours, especially at night in our hot spells, and the fence was removed. The fountain was erected in anticipation of the admission of Croton water and played for the first time upon the day of the great celebration in 1842. Several smaller fountains for drinking places have been erected about the park.

On the north is a house of comfort with a platform facing the open space of Seventeenth Street from which speakers can address the crowds upon public occasions. This has been a favorite out-door gathering place upon May-day and Labor day for the socialistically inclined; and one can listen upon such occasions to a variety of denunciations by wild-eyed and long-haired foreign citizens. You may not be able to understand anything they say except the one word "Capitalisten" which is hurled with such obvious and bitter hatred that you come to the conclusion that it cannot mean anything else but capitalists. At a meeting of this sort on March 28, 1908, a bomb was hurled at the police, but fortunately no one was killed except the hurler of the missile.

The Great Meeting In Union Square

Of a different class from the socialistic meetings was the great meeting in Union Square on the twentieth of April, 1861, when at three o'clock in the afternoon, over one hundred thousand people assembled in mass convention to take steps to redress the insult to the flag, which had been fired upon at Sumter less than ten days before. The Meeting was presided over by John A. Dix with eighty-seven vice-presidents from the leading men of the community; among whose names you will find only half a dozen, which, at that time, would have been called foreign. The list began with Peter Cooper and ended with John J. Astor. The most famous of the orators who addressed the meeting was Senator Baker of Oregon, who, during the Mexican War, had led a New Meeting gave encouragement to the Government and showed the spirit in which the city viewed the impending conflict.

The mayor of the city at the time of this meeting was Fernando Wood, a wily and disloyal politician, who had proposed the secession of the city, together with Staten and Long Islands, from the State of New York and the formation of a new State, to be called "Tri-Insula." As mayor, he was chosen to preside at this meeting, and it was strongly intimated to hi With this threat in mind, and doubtless still further reminded of the necessity of being loyal by the shrill cry of a small boy perched in a tree; "Now, Nandy, mind what you say; you've got to stick to it this time," he made a speech in accord with the loyal sentiments which animated the great crowd.

The Union League Club

A short time after the meeting there was formed a club of loyal and patriotic men, modeled after a similar one in Philadelphia, and called the "Union League Club." Its object was to assist the government in raising regiments and funds. It first occupied a house loaned for the purpose by Henry G. Marquand at the corner of Seventeenth Street and Broadway, later moving to Madison Avenue and now at Fifth Avenue and Thirty-ninth Street; its membership for many years has been restricted to members of the Republican party.

Dead man's Curve

When the cable road was built on Broadway, it was customary for the cars to take the double curve from the west side of the Square into Broadway at full speed, the company stating that it was impossible to let go and grip the cable while on the curve, and the authorities believed them. So many accidents occurred here that the place became known as "dead man's curve." At last, the authorities threatened to do something, and the car company immediately found a contrivance for picking up and letting go the cable as successfully as on a straight course.

A Surface Car Line On Broadway

Thee idea of a surface car line on Broadway had its inception as early as 1850, and a company of thirty was incorporated for the purpose. This corporation, of which Jacob Sharp and John L. O'Sullivan were the prime movers, secured from the Common Council in December, 1852, a franchise "to lay a double track in Broadway and Whitehall or State Street from the South Ferry to Fifty-seventh Street; and also, hereafter to continue the same from time to time along the Bloomingdale Road to Manhattan Ville." In addition, the company was to give free transfers to omnibus lines at a number of cross streets and to pay an almost nominal sum to the city for the privileges granted. The motive power was to be horses, the only known power at that time for street traction purposes. In granting the company the right to extend their line to the terra incognita of Harlem, the aldermen little thought how promptly the Manhattan Ville section would be built up and that their generous grant would in the near future prove to be of immense value.

A Court Matter Over Thirty Years

As Broadway was then the chief residential street of the best society of the city, strong objections were made, and the company was enjoined from building the road. The matter was carried into the courts, where the fight lasted for over thirty years. The aldermen and assistant aldermen who, notwithstanding the vetoes of the mayor, granted this and other franchises without adequate compensation to the city, were denominated "The Forty Thieves," as each board consisted of twenty members. William M. Tweed was at this time an alderman, and Richard B. Connolly, his coadjutor in the later infamous Tweed ring, was already known in political and municipal affairs as "Slippery Dick." As a result of failing to obey an order restraining them from granting the franchise, many of the aldermen were
fined and one was imprisoned for contempt of court. When the rail-road matter was finally settled in 1885, most of the aldermen of 1852 were dead and not more than half a dozen of the original incorporators were alive.

Between The 1852 Franchise and 1885 Road Construction A Bitter Fight

Between the granting of the franchise in 1852 and the construction of the road in 1885, the fight against it was so bitter and politics entered into it so largely that the contest had its effect upon the election of both state and city officials. In 1863, Commodore Vanderbilt stole a march on Jacob Sharp by getting the aldermen to grant him a franchise for the extension of the Fourth Avenue surface road down Broadway from Fourteenth Street to the Battery. He was the controlling power in the Harlem railroad which owned the Fourth Avenue line, the first surface car line in the city. In furtherance of his plan, the block between Thirteenth and Fourteenth streets on Broadway was torn up: but an injunction stayed the work, and the block remained in a disgraceful condition for two years while the matter was being adjudicated.

Broadway and Seventh Avenue Car Line Established in 1864

In 1864, the Broadway and Seventh Avenue car line was established, and the cars were run on Broadway above Union Square, continuing through University Place below Fourteenth Street. Sharp was one of the directors of this line and it became the backer of the Broadway line and the corporation through which the financial manipulations of the Broadway Surface Company, as Sharp's line was officially known, were made. The principal difficulty experienced by the exploiters of the road was in getting the consent of property owners on Broadway below Fourteenth Street. At last, in 1883, Sharp succeeded in having passed at Albany a general railroad act which permitted the aldermen to offer the franchise of a street railway for sale or not, "at their option."

More Conflict Regarding Surface Road

On August 6, 1884, the aldermen, with only one dissentient vote, gave permission to lay tracks on Broadway; but the mayor promptly vetoed the resolution. A taxpayer named Lyddy then enjoined the board from passing the resolution over the veto; but Lyddy was bought off, and at nine o'clock on the morning of August thirtieth, the eighteen aldermen in favor of the franchise were called secretly together and repassed the resolution granting the franchise. No notice of the meeting was sent to those aldermen opposed to the grant, and the city got little for a franchise so valuable that two millions of dollars had been offered for it. The feeling of the public in regard to this flagrant abuse of power is shown in a cartoon of Harper's Weekly at the time. Two strangers inquiring their way are saying to a New Yorker: "We want Broadway and Tenth Street." The reply was: "Broadway has already been given away; but if you make haste, you may be able to secure Tenth Street from the aldermen."

The Act of the board had hardly become public before injunctions were at once applied for. The Supreme Court appointed a commission to examine into the matter and to report upon the case. It was shown in the senate investigation that some members of the commission were connected with the interested parties. Upon a decision of the Supreme Court in favor of the Broadway surface railway, Sharp lost no time in laying tracks and securing equipment, buying up all the stages and horse of the omnibus lines, many of whose drivers he later used on the horse cars. The last bus ran on Broadway below Fourteenth Street on June 20, 1885, and the first public horse-car ran over the route from Fifty-seventh Street to the Bowling Green the next day. The cost of building the road was about $138,000, but the company was financed for over two millions.

The action of the Board of Aldermen aroused the ire of the public, and the State Senate began an investigation. Their counsel was Roscoe Conkling, and the leaders of counsel for the railroad were James C. Carter and Elihu Root. One of the striking features of the investigation was the inability of Sharp to remember anything about transactions involving the drawing of checks amounting to over half a million dollars, though his memory was wonderful in regard to other matters. The Senate committee found that no legal authority had ever existed for the construction of the Broadway surface road; that the Broadway Surface Railway Company was a sham and a scheme shaped in conjunction with the directors of the Broadway and Seventh Avenue Company; that bribery had been employed and the city defrauded in the granting of the franchise, and that the franchise should be revoked.

This was followed by the arrest of Alderman Jachne, one of the "solid eighteen," on March 18, 1885. Of the twenty-two members of the Board of Aldermen that passed the franchise in August, 1884, all but two were found to be implicated. One of the two, Hugh J. Grant, later became mayor of the city. Of the remaining twenty, two were dead and three fled at the time Jaehne's arrest. The others were indicted and tried for bribery and suffered various degrees of punishment from fines to imprisonment. The arch briber, Jacob Sharp, suffered imprisonment. It was shown that the price paid for votes was as high as $20,000.

In the thirty-three years during which the conflict for the surface road had been carried on, the character of Broadway had changed completely. It was no longer a select residential thoroughfare, but it had become the main artery of the city's trade, and the advent of the horse-cars was hailed by the merchants with satisfaction. In a little more than five years the question arose of changing the motive power to cable. The public was strongly opposed to it; but other cities had already introduced the cable, and New York was obliged to get rid of the antiquated horse-car, and the railway company finally won out. For months, the street was torn up from end to end and business was in a demoralized condition; but the work was at last done and the first cable cars were run in June, 1893. 

The change from the small, bumpy, and slow moving horse-car satisfied the public; and when, on September 5, 1898, an accident happened to the power house at Houston Street and the cars had to be hauled by horses from Thirty-fifth Street to the Bowling Green, their reappearance was greeted with derision. Then came the final change to electric traction. Overhead trolley wires with their potentiality of danger in a great thoroughfare like Broadway were out of the question, and the underground trolley was decided upon. Other city lines were changed first; and as they worked successfully, even with heavy snow on the ground, the work of changing on Broadway was begun in September, 1898. It was expected by the railway people that the change would be effected by December of the same year; but it was not until May26, 1901, that the cars were running by electric traction.

This, briefly, is the history of the Broadway Surface Railway Company, a history replete with bribery, corruption, "Boodle" aldermen, iniquitous legislatures, and complaisant courts.

Buck's Horn Tavern

At Twenty-second Street and Broadway was situated the Buck's Horn Tavern, which is spoken of in 1816 as "an old and well-known tavern." It was ornamented with the head and horns of a buck and was set back short distance from the street about ten feet higher than the present grade. It was a favorite road- house for those who drove out upon the Bloomingdale Road (Boston Post-road). Almost opposite the tavern, the Abingdon Road (Love Lane) followed approximately the line of the present Twenty-first Street as far west as the Fitzroy Road (Eighth Avenue). The drivers of that day used to come as far as the Buck's Horn, then turn through the quiet and shady Love Lane to Chelsea, and thence by the river road through Greenwich village back to the city across the Lispenard meadows. Three hotels still stand in this section between Union Square and Twenty-third Street; these are the Continental, at the northeast corner of Twentieth Street; the Bancroft, at the corner of Twenty-first Street, and the Bartholdi, at the southeast corner of Twenty-third Street.

Abbey's Park Theatre

Nearly on the site of the old Buck's Horn Tavern, Abbey's Park Theatre stood in the seventies and eighties. The Stock company was one of the best in New York, containing several actors who later joined Daly's company. Between seasons many well-known actors appeared; among them, Mrs. Langtry, who made her American debut upon this stage. The house was planned by Dion Boucicault, but he got into difficulties and was not its manager when it opened in 1874. It came under the management of Abbey on November 27, 1876, the actress Lotta being his financial backer. Among the plays first given here was "The Gilded Age" in which John T. Raymond appeared as the protagonist, Colonel Mulberry Sellers. The play was founded on Mark Twain's story of the same name. The house was destroyed by fire, October 30, 1882, several hours before the evening performance, and was not rebuilt.

Flat-Iron Building

The high building at the junction of Broadway and Fifth Avenue is one of the curiosities of New York architecture, and from its resemblance in shape to the common household utensil is popularly called the "Flat-iron Building." Its site was owned by Eno of the Second National Bank , who also owned the Fifth Avenue Hotel property. The triangular block was occupied for many years previous to the construction of the "Flat-iron" by a row of two-story buildings used as shops and offices, and at the Twenty-second Street boundary by a tall building called the Hotel St. Germaine, the whole pre-senting an anomalous appearance upon one of the most beautiful squares in New York, with the trees and lawns of Madison Square Park so prominent in the view. At the time that the Fuller Company was constructing the building to its dizzy height, the streets of the city were torn up and gouged out by the workmen on the subway. A French visitor was moved to remark upon the idiosyncrasies of the American people. "I look up zare," he said, "and zay are going up to heaven; I look down zare, and zay are digging down to ze ozzer place."

Madison Cottage

On the west side of Madison Square, between Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth streets, there stood for about thirty years the "Madison Cottage", kept by Corporal Thompson. This house had formerly been the homestead of John Horn, who owned the land where Madison Square is now located. When the improvements were made in this vicinity, the old homestead was moved from the bed of Fifth Avenue to the site described above. It was a favorite road-house on the Bloomingdale Road, and at certain times of the year a cattle fair was held in the adjoining lot. In 1853, the Cottage gave way to Franconi's Hippodrome, a two story, brick building, where performances of a superior quality were given. In 1858, the Hippodrome in turn gave way to a magnificent marble hotel, which was for many years the most notable in New York.

The Fifth Avenue Hotel

This was the Fifth Avenue Hotel, which was the usual stopping place of most of the presidents after 1860 when they visited the city. When Arthur was President, he received here the first Corean embassy that visited the country. The interpreter was a naval officer named Foulke, a classmate of the author. It was here that in 1884, during the Blaine-Cleveland campaign, the Rev. Mr. Burchard made use of his famous saying in referring to the Democratic Party as the party of " Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion." The alliterative remark, made in the presence of Mr. Blaine, went unrebuked at the time; and as it was repeated in the public press throughout the country, it gained such wide notoriety as to aid materially in the defeat of Mr. Blaine for the presidency. The hotel also sheltered the famous "Amen Corner", where the politicians, journalists, and newspaper men used to gather in social intercourse, resulting in an annual dinner somewhat resembling that of the famous "Grid-iron Club" of the national capital. At these dinners gather the jurists, editors, journalists, and politicians, and current affairs are burlesqued in such a manner as to make lots of fun, at the same time conveying a moral. The hotel was demolished in 1908, making way for the great office edifice now occupying the site.

Bloomingdale Road

The Bloomingdale Road was in colonial times a country road leading to the hamlet of Bloomingdale and to the farms and country residences of wealthy citizens on the west side overlooking the Hudson. In 1760, this road was widened to four rods to about the present Fortieth Street, and remained so until the improvements in this section subsequent to 1845. It was lined with farmlands belonging, on the west, to Matthew Dyckman, Jacob Horn, Isaac Varian, James Stewart, Samuel Van Norden, extending on both sides of the road, Mary Norton, and L. Norton as far as Forty-fourth Street. On the east side, above the arsenal, were the Samler, William Ogden, and John Taylor farms, some land belonging to the corporation and the farm of Arthur Kind, extending to Forty-fifth Street. Many of these farms both above and below this immediate section, were the country places of well-to-do New York merchants who had their city homes and shops below Canal Street. There was no Newport, Lenox, or Bar Harbor in those early days to take the people away from the island; and if there had been there were no luxurious boats or Pullmans to whisk them hundreds of miles in a few hours.

The Hoffman House

On the west side of Broadway, at Twenty-fifth Street, the Hoffman House was located in the eighties and soon became one of the sights of the city on account of the paintings displayed in its barroom , all of them by the greatest of American and European artists, the especial object of interest being Bouguereau's Nymphs and Satyr. The Albemarle Hotel adjoins the Hoffman House on the Twenty-fourth Street corner; and at the southeast corner of Twenty-seventh Street is the Hotel Victoria, at one time the home of the late President Cleveland after his first term of office.

The Worth Monument

At the junction of Broadway, Fifth Avenue, and Twenty-fifth Street is a small, triangular park, in which is a granite obelisk, known as the Worth Monument. If we read the bronze bands which are around the stone, we find inscribed Chippewa and Lundys Lane of the War of 1812 and nearly every battle of the Mexican War in which either Taylor or Scott fought; for Major-General William J. Worth was the right hand man of both these commanders. Worth was a native of Hudson and a very distinguished officer. He died in Texas in 1849, and his body was brought here later. After lying in state in the City Hall, it was buried with imposing ceremonies on November 25, 1857, under this monument erected by the City of New York. It has become customary in late years to erect reviewing stands abreast of the monument when parades and processions pass down Fifth Avenue to the Washington Arch, or up the avenue to points above. Here the reviewing officer, whether president, governor, mayor, or other distinguished person, takes his stand.

The Naval Memorial Arch

This was a beautiful arch and colonnade erected in 1899 when Admiral Dewey returned from Manila. The arch was miscalled the "Dewey" arch. It was, in fact, a naval memorial arch; and upon it and the columns were the names of John Manley and John Paul Jones, Decatur, Hull, Perry, Stockton, Farragut, Porter, and a host of others who have carried the flag upon the seas and added luster to it in all of the wars in which the United States has been engaged from the Revolution to the present. The whole affair was made of "staff," and in the course of several weeks became so dirty and bedraggled that it had to be removed. It was intended to perpetuate the arch and colonnade in marble, and subscriptions were started with this end in view; but for some reason, perhaps because the admiral became too prosaic an individual by getting married, the scheme fell through. It is a great pity; for the Farragut statue opposite the Worth Monument is the only memorial in New York which tends to do honor to that service that has always distinguished itself in time of war, and which is immediately forgotten in time of peace.

Police Precinct Known As "Tenderloin".

Twenty years ago, this section between Twenty-third and Thirty-fourth streets was the liveliest in the city. Here were located many of the popular hotels; and in the adjoining territory was the police precinct known as the "Tenderloin," to be the commander of which was the ambition of many police captains, as after one or two years of it they were assured of being able to retire with at least a competency for their declining years.

Hotels Of The Area

Besides the hotels mentioned, the Hoffman and the Albemarle, there were the Gilsey at Twenty-ninth Street on the east side, the Grand at Thirty-first Street, just above, now called the New Grand, the Coleman House on the west side between Twenty-seventh and Twenty-eighth streets, the Hotel Martinique at the north-east corner of Thirty-second Street, and the Sturtevant at 1186 Broadway, a favorite stopping place for officers of the army and navy. The last two have disappeared, the Gilsey is termed the New Breslin, and the Imperial at Thirty-first to Thirty-second streets, the finest hotel of all, has been erected and enlarged within less than fifteen years. Where the Gilsey House now stands was the field of the St. George Cricket Club, which was formed by the Englishmen who patronized Clark and Brown's English chop-house in Maiden Lane; the grounds of the club are now on Staten Island. At the southeast corner of Twenty-sixth Street, Delmonico's up-town restaurant was located from 1876 to 1888, when the Cafe Martin took its place and succeeded to its popularity. There are a number of well-known restaurants and Rathskellers on this part of the thoroughfare.

The Varian Tree

One of the last relics of the olden time to disappear was a tree on the west side in front of Number 1151, near Twenty-sixth Street, which was the Varian Tree, which had been at the gateway of the old Varian farm near the homestead; it stood until before 1880.

A Few Tid-Bits Regarding Theatres Of The Area

The San Francisco Minstrels moved up-town between Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth streets, on the west side, in 1874, and with Birch, Wambold, and Backus ran successfully for several years. J. H. Haverly secured control on December 1, 1883, and ran his "Mastodon," or "Megatherian," Minstrels for some time. He was obliged to go back to the paleozoic age for an animal big enough to represent the size of his show, with eight end men and the company in proportion. The house was the Comedy Theatre under Haverly and was run as a combination house. Dockstader had the place for a while and gave his amusing monologue Misfits. The house belongs to one of the Gilsey family, and it has been through all sorts of theatrical vicissitudes down to 1909, rejoicing then in the name of the Princess Theatre."Sam" T. Jack ran it for some time with a somewhat risky show.

He appeared one morning in the Gilsey office, after he had signed the contract, with an old valise and several bundles tied up in newspapers, and notified the clerk he had come to pay his first six months' rent. The clerk expected a check; but instead of producing one, Jack tumbled his bundles onto the table and said: "Here it is; count it and see if it is right." An examination showed the bundles to contain a collection of bills of all denominations, mixed up in apparently inextricable confusion. One of the Gilseys and the clerk put the bundles into a cab and drove to the bank, where, after two hours' work, assisted by several of the bank clerks, they succeeded in sorting out the mixture and found it correct to the last dollar.

Two other theatres have entrances from Broadway: Daly's old Twenty-eighth Street house, and Jo Weber's. The first began as Apollo Hall, and later became Daly's Fifth Avenue Theatre. After Daly's removal, it became Harry Miner's Theatre and was burned out January 2, 1891; it is now Keith and Proctor's. The other theatre on Twenty-ninth Street was originally Weber and Field's, where those amusing comedians gave very funny burlesques of the passing shows. After the dissolution of their partnership, it became Jo Weber's Theatre.

Lester Wallack's Theatre

Lester Wallack moved into his up-town theatre at the northeast corner of Thirtieth Street in February, 1881, but the building was not ready for opening until January 4, 1882. The exterior of the building has never been completely finished. Here Wallack had an excellent stock company as before; but the house never became so famous or so popular as the old Thirteenth Street theatre perhaps, because a new generation of theatre-goers had grown up and the actor-manager was getting old. He retired from active management, and the house opened as Palmer's Theatre on October 8, 1888, to become and remain Wallack's once more on December 7, 1896.

Banvard's Museum and Theatre

The oldest theatre in this neighborhood was originally Banvard's Museum and Theatre at 1221 Broadway, near Thirtieth Street. It was the first building in the city erected expressly for museum purposes, and was opened June 17, 1867. It became Wood's Museum and Metropolitan Theatre in 1868, and Wood's Museum and Menagerie in 1869. Very good plays with first-class actors were given under both managers, as I can personally testify. In 1877, it became the Broadway Theatre, and two years later it became Daly's remaining under the management of Augustin Daly until his death. It was the one theatre where the visitor could find the perfection of acting, management, and presentation, whether the play were a French or German farce or a Shakesperian revival. Ada Rehan, John Drew, Mrs. Gilbert, James Lewis, George Clarke, and others were known, admired, and loved by a generation of theatre-goers.

The Brighton Theatre

The Brighton theatre at 1239 Broadway opened with a variety show on August 26, 1878; and after many changes of names, became the Bijou Theatre, December 1, 1883.

The Manhattan (or Eagle) Theatre

The Manhattan (or Eagle) Theatre stood on the west side of Broadway between Thirty-second and Thirty-third streets. It was opened with a variety show October 18, 1875; later, it became the Standard Theatre, becoming the Manhattan again August 30, 1897. It was the first house in New York to present Gilbert and Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore which became so popular that it was played at over half a dozen theatres at the same time; that was before the days of international copyright. Towards the end of its career, it was about the only theatre of prominence the city outside of the theatrical trust. At the last it became a moving-picture house, and was torn down in 1909 to make way for Gimbel Brothers' big department store.

The Herald Square Theatre

At the northwest corner of Thirty-fifth Street a building called the Coliseum was opened with a panorama in 1873 and was run until the following year, when it was taken down and removed to Philadelphia during the Centennial Exposition. October 11, 1876, the New York Aquarium took its place with a theatre, and later, a circus attached. The place was very popular until 1883, when it was torn down and the New Park Theatre was erected, opening on October fifteenth. Harrigan took possession and opened on August 31, 1885, after the destruction of his New Theatre Comique. It was called Harrigan's Theatre and was successful, but the rent ate up the profits and Harrigan was obliged to give it up. It then became the Herald Square Theatre on September 17, 1895, and has retained that name until the present.

The Knickerbocker

After the destruction of his Park Theatre at Twenty-second Street, Henry E. Abbey had no house that he could call his own until 1893, when he opened the theatre at the northeast corner of Thirty-eighth Street, where he introduced Irving, Bernhardt, and other foreign actors of high rank, opening with the first named on November 8, 1893. On September 14, 1897, the house was opened as the Knickerbocker, a name that it still retains.

The Casino

The Casino, at the southeast corner of Thirty-ninth Street, was opened October 21, 1882, with "The Queen's Lace Hankerchief." The building is in the Moorish style, and has been, more than any other theatre in New York, the home of comic opera. Among its greatest successes were Erminie and Florodora, the latter of which seems to have been unfortunate for many of its participants, as several murders and numerous scandals in which Florodora girls were concerned filled the columns of the daily papers and set the town by the ears for some time during and after the run of the play.

The Union Dime Savings Bank

The Union Dime Savings Bank stood on Thirty-second Street, facing Greeley Square, from 1876 to February, 1910. From in front of the bank the old Bloomingdale stages had their point of departure before going out of existence altogether. About fifty years ago, the property belonged to Richard F. Carman, who asked $90,000 for the plot, but took $87,500, remarking to his agent with a chuckle of satisfaction as he closed the bargain: "I guess that fellow's stuck." Such was the opinion of many who considered the price beyond all reason for property in the neighborhood of Thirty-fourth Street; in 1874, when the savings bank took title, it paid $275,000, or about seventy dollars a square foot for approximately four thousand square feet. At the sale in October, 1906, the bank received about two hundred and fifty dollars a square foot; and the purchaser sold to an English syndicate in June, 1909, at a price which is stated to have been in the neighborhood of three hundred and seventy five dollars a square foot, a value for city property only exceeded so far by the plot at the corner of Broadway and Wall Street. This will give some idea of the increment in land values in this vicinity within half a century.

Herald Square and Greeley Square

Broadway crosses Sixth Avenue at Thirty-fourth Street; and from Thirty-second to Thirty-fifth, there is an open space, except for two triangular parks. The lower one contains a statue of Horace Greeley and is called Greeley Square. The upper space contains a statue of William E. Dodge, one of New York's famous merchants, but since it stands in front of the Herald Building, it is called Herald Square. The crossing here at Thirty-fourth Street is probably the most dangerous and the most congested spot on the whole line of Broadway at present. Though the houses on the west side from Thirty-second to Thirty-fourth Street, and on the east side above the latter to Thirty-fifth Street are actually on the line of Sixth Avenue, they are numbered as being on Broadway.

The Hotel McAlpin

There is now in course of construction on the block between Thirty-third and Thirty-fourth streets, on the east side, the Hotel McAlpin, which is to be a commercial hotel twenty-five stories high, with stores on the ground floor, one of which at the Thirty-fourth Street corner has already been rented at twenty dollars a square foot, the highest rent paid in New York. The hotel is to be the largest in the city and will cost for building, furnishings, lease, etc., over thirteen millions of dollars..

Thirty Fourth Street-Thirty Sixth Street Area

When the congregation owning the Tabernacle sold out their property in lower Broadway, they established themselves at the northeast corner of Thirty-fourth Street and remained until March, 1902, when they moved temporarily to Mendelssohn Hall in Fortieth Street near Broadway until such time as their new Tabernacle was ready for them. While at Thirty-fourth Street, the Rev. Dr. William Taylor continued to uphold the fame of the church. The wedge-shaped block between Thirty-fifth and Thirty-sixth streets, occupied by the New York Herald and the Evening Telegram was previously occupied by a building the upper floor of which was the armory of the Seventy-first Regiment of the National Guard. The newspapers introduced an innovation in exposing to public view the great presses upon which the papers are printed and folded when they took possession, August 20, 1893; and the windows overlooking the press-room are always occupied by curious and interested spectators.

No section of the city has shown such remarkable advance as this portion has in the last decade. Macy's opened here on November 8, 1902; Saks & Co., a Washington firm, a year or so earlier; and at this writing, the Gimbel Brothers from Philadelphia have just opened on the block below another mammoth store. This region is becoming the greatest retail section of the city. This is due to a great extent to the fact that within the past five years the Pennsylvania Railroad has erected a great station a few blocks west and has connected this with New Jersey and Long Island by means of tunnels under the city and under the two rivers.

The Great White Way

Broadway from Thirty-fourth to Forty-seventh Street has been for the last few years the locality where the gay life of the metropolis has been most readily seen. Here are congregated great hotels, famous restaurants, and theatres; and the brilliant illumination at night by the countless electric lights has caused this section of the avenue to be called the "Great White Way"; and no stranger has seen New York who has not traversed it.

It is to this part of the town that the heart of the exiled New Yorker turns, and it is hither that the footsteps of visitors bent on gaiety naturally and inevitably find their way. The occupants of stores and theatres as far down as Twenty-third Street claim to be a part of it all, and they were ten years ago, but they cannot stop the law of progress up the famous thoroughfare. From abreast of the City Hall Park, in the first half of the nineteenth century, gay fashion has gradually worked its way northward to this present section. Perhaps, at the end of this century, the "Great White Way" will be as quiet and colorless as is now the section of Broadway below Fourteenth Street, while the gay populace of that future time will find its pleasures in the neighborhood of Kingsbridge. This seems to be the law of the street. When that day comes, Manhattan Island will have lost the greater part of its population and will be devoted almost entirely to business; while the enormous mass of the people will live in the suburbs of Westchester County, of New Jersey, and of Long Island, carried daily to and from their occupations at rates of speed now undreamed of, and by means of transit which exist at present only in the dreams of visionaries.

The Rialto Section

A quarter of a century ago, the south side of Union Square was the lounging place of many actors seeking employment at the