Bellevue Hospital
Bellevue Hospital has occupied its present site; at the foot of East Twenty-sixth Street, since about 1810. The hospital really had its beginning in 1736, in the buildings of the Public Work-house and House of Correction in City Hall Park. There were six beds there, in charge of the medical officer, Dr. John Van Beuren. About the beginning of the nineteenth century, yellow fever patients were sent to a building known as Belle Vue, on the Belle Vue Farm, close by the present hospital buildings. In about 1810 it was decided to establish a new almshouse, penitentiary and hospital on the Belle Vue Farm. Work on this was completed in 1816. The almshouse building was three stories high, surmounted by a cupola, and having a north and south wing each one hundred feet long. This original structure stands to-day, and is part of the present hospital building, other branches having been added to it from time to time. The water line, at that time, was within half a block of where First Avenue is now.
In 1848 the Almshouse section of the institution was transferred to Blackwell's Island. The ambulance service was started in 1869, and was the first service of its kind in the world.
Bull's Head Village
Bull's Head Village was located in the district now included within Twenty-third and Twenty-seventh Streets, Fourth and Second Avenues. It became a centre of importance in 1826, when the old Bull's Head Tavern was moved from its early home on the Bowery, near Bayard Street, to the point which is now marked by Twenty-sixth Street and Third Avenue. It continued to be the headquarters of drovers and stockmen. As at that time there was no bank north of the City Hall Park, the Bull's Head Tavern served as inn, bank and general business emporium for the locality. For more than twenty years this district was the great cattle market of the city. As business increased, stores and business houses were erected, until, toward the year 1850, the cattle mart, which was the source of all business, was crowded out. It was moved up-town to the neighborhood of Forty-second Street; later to Ninety-fourth Street, and in the early 80's to the Jersey shore. The most celebrated person connected with the management of the Bull's Head Tavern was Daniel Drew. He afterwards operated in Wall Street, became a director of the New York and Erie Railroad upon its completion in 1851, and accumulated a fortune by speculation.
Peter Cooper's House
At Twenty-eighth Street and Fourth Avenue, on the southeast corner, the house numbered 399-401, stands the old "Cooper Mansion," in which Peter Cooper lived. It was formerly on the site where the Bible House is now, at the corner of Eighth Street and Fourth Avenue. Peter Cooper himself superintended the removal of the house in 1820, and directed its establishment on the new site so that it should be reconstructed in a manner that should absolutely preserve its original form. Now it presents an insignificant appearance crowded about by modern structures, and it is occupied by a restaurant.
This corner of Twenty-eighth Street and Fourth Avenue was directly on the line of the Boston Post Road. Just at that point the Middle Road ran from it, and extended in a direct line to Fifth Avenue and Forty-second Street.
