First Savings Bank
Other buildings erected in the Park were The Rotunda, 1816, on the site of the brown stone building afterwards occupied by the Court of General Sessions, where works of art were exhibited; and the New York Institute on the site of the Court House, occupied in 1817 by the American, or Scudder's Museum, the first in the city. The Chambers Street Bank, the first bank for savings in the city, opened in the basement of the Institute building in 1818. In 1841 Philip Hone was president of this bank. It afterwards moved to the north side of Bleecker Street, between Broadway and Crosby, and became the Bleecker Street Bank. Now it is at Twenty-second Street and Fourth Avenue, and is called The Bank for Savings.
Fences of City Hall Park
The statue of Nathan Hale was erected in City Hall Park by the Sons of the Revolution. Some authorities still insist that the Martyr Spy was hanged in this park. Until 1821 there were fences of wooden pickets about the park. In that year iron railings, which had been imported from England, were set up, with four marble pillars at the southern entrance. The next year trees were set out within the enclosure, and just within the railing were planted a number of rose-bushes which had been supplied by two ladies who had an eye to landscape gardening. Frosts and vandals did not allow the bushes more than a year of life. Four granite balls, said to have been dug from the ruins of Troy, were placed on the pillars at the southern entrance, May 8, 1827. They were given to the city by Captain John B. Nicholson, U. S. N.
The building 39 and 41 Chambers Street, opposite the Court House, stands on the site of the pretty little Palmo Opera House, built in 1844 for the production of Italian opera, by F. Palmo, the wealthy proprietor of the Café des Mille Colonnes on Broadway at Duane Street. He lost his fortune in the operatic venture and became a bartender. In 1848 the house became Burton's Theatre. About 1800, this site was occupied by the First Reformed Presbyterian Church, a frame building which was replaced by a brick structure in 1818. The church was moved to Prince and Marion Streets in 1834.
Office of Aaron Burr