Old Taverns of New York

by W. Harrison Bayles

“Come let us chant our joys,
We now are foes no more;
Now we are honest boys,
However so before.”

Dyde’s house was next door to the Park Theatre, facing the Park. He called it the London Hotel and proposed to keep it “in the true Old English Style, the principles of which are cleanliness, civility, comfort and good cheer.” In March, 1806, the Park Theatre announced the play of Macbeth, to be followed by the comedy of the Farm House, the curtain to rise at half-past six o’clock. The announcement was followed by a card stating that there could be obtained “an excellent supper at Dyde’s Hotel between the play and farce at 50 cents each; the same every other night at half-past 9 o’clock.” Verily our ancestors took their pleasures in large and heavy doses. For a time Dyde’s Hotel was quite popular. On Sunday, January 11, 1807, Mr. Foster preached a sermon here, and a meeting of the Philharmonic Society was held at Dyde’s Hotel, next to the Theater, on Thursday, January 29, 1807. The Philharmonic Society met here again in December of the same year for the election of officers of the society when it was called the Washington Hotel. When a public ball was given here in February, 1808, by Mr. Armour, a teacher of dancing, it was still known as the Washington Hotel. In the early part of the year 1809, it appears to have been called the Mercantile Coffee House, and also the Commercial Coffee House, but neither of these names clung to it very long.

WHITE CONDUIT HOUSE

Tea Gardens

The so-called gardens, where ice cream, tea and other beverages were served to the sound of music, were, about the beginning of the century, and had been for some time, popular with the people of New York. During the war, while the city was occupied by the British, near the present corner of Broadway and Leonard Street, there was a public house called the White Conduit House, so called from a popular tavern of that name in London. On the 24th of June, 1779, the Freemasons, in remembrance of St. John, their patron saint, went in procession to St. Paul’s Church, where an excellent sermon was preached by Dr. Seabury; “from thence they proceeded, accompanied by the clergy and band of music to the White Conduit House, where there was an elegant dinner prepared, and the day was celebrated with great harmony and brotherly love.” At the close of the war the place became a public garden and pleasure resort. In 1796 it was under the control of William Byram. Soon after, when the street was cut through, it came into the possession of Joseph Corré, who some years before, had been the landlord of the City Tavern, and was at the time keeper of an ice cream and tea garden on State Street, called the Columbian Garden. Under his management it was known as the Mt. Vernon Garden. The cutting through of the street left the house high above the level, and it was reached by a flight of steps. Flying horses and other like amusements were the attractions of the place. Corré opened here a Summer Theater, in which members of the Park Theater company played during the time their own theater was closed.

Second Vauxhall

Bayard’s Mount, or Bunker Hill, as it was sometimes called, at the present junction of Grand and Mulberry Streets, the highest point on the island near the city, was a well known landmark in its time, overlooking the city and a wide extent of country including the North and East Rivers. There is no sign to-day that such an elevation ever existed at that place. Nearby was the Bayard homestead which had been the residence of the Bayard family for fifty years. In 1798, this, with the surrounding premises, was converted by Joseph Delacroix, a Frenchman, into a popular resort, known as Vauxhall Garden. It was the second of the name, the first, at the corner of Warren and Greenwich Streets, which, before the war, flourished under the management of Sam Francis, having been converted, some years previous, into a pottery.

On Independence Day, 1802, particular exertions were made by the summer gardens to attract visitors. It was announced that the open air theatre at the Mount Vernon Garden, under the management of John Hodgkinson, of the Park Theatre, would open the season on Monday, July 5th, in celebration of Independence Day, with the play of “All the World’s a Stage,” after which would be recitations and songs, followed by “The Sailor’s Landlady or Jack in Distress”; concluding with a grand display of fireworks. Tickets to Box, six shillings, Pit and Gallery, four shillings. Refreshments as usual. Joseph Delacroix informed his friends and the public in general that on Monday, July 5th, the anniversary of American Independence would be celebrated at Vauxhall with great splendor, surpassing everything ever yet exhibited in America. A beautiful drawing of the Triumphal Car which was to take part in the spectacular scene could be seen at the Tontine Coffee House. Doors open at four o’clock. Tickets, four shillings. Grand illuminations and transparencies were promised at the Columbian Garden, in State Street, opposite the Battery. Open from six o’clock in the morning until ten o’clock at night. Tickets, two shillings.