Old Taverns of New York

by W. Harrison Bayles

Every business committed to his care shall be executed by the subscriber with diligence, faithfulness and secrecy, and he trusts that his conduct will confirm the confidence, and secure the patronage of his friends and fellow citizens.

John Pintard.”

The first evidence of an approach to anything like organization was an announcement made in the early part of March, 1792, that “The Stock Exchange Office” would be open at No. 22 Wall Street for the accommodation of dealers in stocks, in which public sales would be daily held at noon, as usual, in rotation. Soon after this, on Wednesday, March 21st, a meeting of merchants and dealers in stocks was held at Corre’s Hotel, when they came to a resolution that after the 21st of April next, they would not attend any sales of stocks at public auction. They appointed a committee “to provide a proper room for them to assemble in, and to report such regulations relative to the mode of transacting business as in their opinion may be proper.” This resulted in the first agreement of the dealers in securities, the oldest record in the archives of the New York Stock Exchange, dated May 17, 1792, fixing the rate of brokerage. It was signed by twenty-four brokers for the sale of public stocks. For some time the brokers do not appear to have had a settled place of meeting. Their favorite place was in the open air in the shadow of a large buttonwood tree, which stood on the north side of Wall Street, opposite the division line of Nos. 68 and 70. Here they met and transacted business something like our curb brokers of to-day, but in a much more leisurely way. When the Tontine Coffee House was completed in 1793, it became the Stock Exchange of New York and remained so for a great many years.

The Roger Morris House

A stage coach line was opened to Boston in 1784 and to Albany the next year, when the Roger Morris House on the Kingsbridge road was opened by Talmadge Hall as a tavern for the accommodation of the stage coach passengers, and was probably the first stopping place going out. It continued to be kept as a tavern for many years after this and is said to have been a favorite place of resort for pleasure parties from the city. It became known as Calumet Hall. Its landlord in 1789 was Captain William Marriner. In October, 1789, President Washington visited, by appointment, the fruit gardens of Mr. Prince at Flushing, Long Island. He was taken over in his barge, accompanied by the Vice-President, the Governor of the State, Mr. Izard, Colonel Smith and Major Jackson. On their way back they visited the seat of Gouverneur Morris at Morrisania, and then went to Harlem, where they met Mrs. Washington, Mrs. Adams and Mrs. Smith, daughter of the Vice-President, dined at Marriner’s and came home in the evening. In July following a large party was formed to visit Fort Washington. Washington, in his diary, does not state that Mrs. Washington was of the party, but it is to be presumed that she was; the others, beside himself, were “the Vice-President, his Lady, Son and Mrs. Smith; the Secretaries of State, Treasury and War and the ladies of the two latter; with all the Gentlemen of my family, Mrs. Lear, and the two children.” This was a notable party. They dined at Marriner’s, who, no doubt, felt the importance of the occasion and exerted himself accordingly.

OLD SLEIGH

Marriner’s Tavern, the Roger Morris house, was situated at such a distance from the city, on the only road of any length on the island, as to make it a good objective point for pleasure parties. An English traveler who visited New York in 1796, writes: “The amusement of which they seem most passionately fond is that of riding on the snow in what you would call a sledge, drawn by two horses. It is astonishing to see how anxiously persons of all ages and both sexes look out for a good fall of snow, that they may enjoy their favorite amusement; and when the happy time comes, to see how eager they are to engage every sleigh that is to be had. Parties of twenty or thirty will sometimes go out of town in these vehicles towards evening, about six or eight miles, when, having sent for a fiddler, and danced till they are tired, they will return home again by moonlight or perhaps more often by daylight. Whilst the snow is on the ground no other carriages are made use of, either for pleasure or service.” Marriner’s house was well suited for just such parties of pleasure and we can easily imagine that the large octagonal room was about this time, of crisp winter nights, the scene of many a merry dance. The English traveler is supported in what he says by the announcement of Christopher Colles in a New York newspaper in January, 1789, that so long as the sleighing lasted he would continue his electrical experiments and exhibition of curiosities, at Halsey’s celebrated tavern in Harlem. It would seem from this that his lectures needed the incentive of a sleigh ride to make them more popular.

Captain Marriner was still keeping the house in the summer of 1794 when it was visited by an Englishman who thus writes about his visit to the place: “Whoever has a vacant day and fine weather, while at New York, let him go to Haarlem, eleven miles distant. There is a pleasant tavern on an eminence near the church; a branch of the sea, or Eastern River, runs close beneath you, where you may have excellent fishing. On the opposite side are two pleasant houses, belonging to Colonel Morris, and a Captain Lambert, an English gentleman, who retired hither after the war. Mr. Marriner, the landlord, is a very intelligent, well educated man; I fished with him for an hour and received a great deal of pleasure from his conversation.” * * * “He pressed me very much to stay at his house for a week, and I should pay what I pleased. On our return Mr. L—— and myself drank tea and coffee at Brannon’s Tea Garden. Here was a good greenhouse, with orange and lemon trees, a great quantity of geraniums, aloes and other curious shrubs and plants. Iced creams and iced liquors are much drank here during the hot weather by parties from New York.” Brannon’s Tea Garden was on the road leading to the village of Greenwich at the present junction of Hudson and Spring Streets, and had been there since previous to the Revolution.