On the corner of Nassau and George (now Spruce) Streets, was a tavern kept by Captain Aaron Aorson, who had seen service during the war and was present at the death of General Montgomery at Quebec. He was a member of the Society of the Cincinnati. In his house was a long room suitable for public gatherings. Notice was given that a lecture would be delivered here for charitable purposes October 6, 1789, by a man more than thirty years an atheist. Some years later this Long Room became the Wigwam and the house the headquarters of the Tammany Society.
There was a tavern on Broadway just above Murray Street which, before the Revolution, had played a conspicuous part in the conflicts with the British soldiers over the liberty pole. During the latter part of the war John Amory had been its landlord. In June, 1785, Henry Kennedy announced that he had taken the well known house lately “occupied by Mrs. Montanye, the sign of the Two Friendly Brothers,” but in 1786 or soon after it again passed into the hands of a member of the De La Montagnie family, after which we find it at times kept by Mrs. De La Montagnie, Mrs. Amory or Jacob De La Montagnie. In the Directory of 1795, Mary Amory and Jacob De La Montagnie are both set down as tavern-keepers at 253 Broadway.
In December, 1791, the members of the Mechanics’ and Traders’ Society were notified that the anniversary of the society would be held on the first Tuesday of January next at the house of Mrs. De La Montagnie, and that members who wished to dine should apply for tickets, and were further requested to attend at 9 o’clock in the morning for election. In 1792, the house appears to have been kept by Mrs. Amory and known as Mechanics’ Hall. The Mechanics celebrated Independence Day here that year, and it was probably their headquarters. In June, 1793, Mrs. Amory, heading her announcement—“Vauxhall, Rural Felicity”—gave notice that on the 25th, beginning at five o’clock in the afternoon, would be given a concert of instrumental music, consisting of the most favorite overtures and pieces from the compositions of Fisher and Handell. The notice states that, “At eight o’clock in the evening the garden will be beautifully illuminated, in the Chinese style, with upwards of 500 glass lamps,” and that “the orchestra will be placed in the middle of a large tree elegantly illuminated.” There was to be tight rope dancing by Mr. Miller, and fireworks on the tight rope, to be concluded with an exhibition of equilibriums on the slack rope. Tickets for admission were four shillings each. The triangular piece of open ground in front of the tavern, called the Fields or Common, had been, since the war, enclosed by a post and rail fence and had assumed the dignity of a park. The neighborhood was rapidly improving.
The Bull’s Head Tavern
On the post road, in Bowery Lane, stood the Bull’s Head Tavern, where the Boston and Albany stages picked up passengers as they left the city. This had been a well known tavern from a period long before the Revolution, much frequented by drovers and butchers as well as travelers. It was a market for live stock and stood not far from the slaughter house. Previous to 1763, it was kept by Caleb Hyatt, who was succeeded in that year by Thomas Bayeaux. From 1770 until the war of the Revolution, Richard Varian was its landlord, and also superintendent of the public slaughter house. In a petition to the common council after the evacuation, he states that he had been engaged in privateering until captured near the end of the war, after which, he returned to the city and found his wife in prosperous possession of the old tavern. He was the landlord of the house the year of Washington’s inauguration and we find that in 1796 he was still the tenant of the property, then belonging to Henry Ashdor, a well-to-do butcher of the Fly Market, who resided a little north of the tavern. As appears by petitions to the common council, Henry Ashdor, or Astor, as the name sometimes appears, was accustomed to ride out on the post road to meet the incoming drovers and purchase their stock, thus securing the best, and obliging the other butchers to buy of him at a profit, which was characterized by the butchers in their petitions as “pernicious practices.” The Bull’s Head Tavern remained the meeting place of the butchers and drovers until 1826, when Henry Astor, associating himself with others, pulled it down and erected on its site the New York Theatre, since called the Bowery Theatre, the mayor of the city laying the corner stone.
THE BOWERY THEATRE