Old Taverns of New York

by W. Harrison Bayles

The General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen, founded November 17, 1785, incorporated March 14, 1792, erected a hall of their own on the corner of Broadway and Robinson Street (now Park Place), in 1802. They held their annual celebration in it for the first time on the 6th of January, 1803. After the election of officers and other business before the society, the two hundred and fifteen members in attendance sat down to a dinner prepared for them by Mr. Borowsen, who was then in charge of the house. The day was spent with the utmost hilarity and good humor, enlivened by appropriate toasts and songs. The mayor of the city was a guest of the society. Mechanics’ Hall is described as a building eighty by twenty-seven and a half feet. In the basement was a spacious kitchen, etc.; on the first floor a large coffee room, bar, dining room and landlady’s room; on the second floor, ceiling sixteen feel high, a large hall fifty-two by twenty-five feet, with a handsome orchestra and a drawing room twenty feet square. On the third floor were five spacious rooms for the use of clubs and meetings of any kind and on the fourth twelve bedrooms. In the spring of 1803, the house was taken by Michael Little, and soon became a popular place for balls and concerts. It was for some years one of the prominent hotels of the city. The twelfth anniversary of the society was celebrated here in 1804, when Mr. Little was the landlord of the house.

New England Society

New York, as headquarters of the British forces in the Revolutionary war, had attracted much attention to her advantageous situation, and when peace returned men of energy flocked to it, as offering a good field for enterprise. Among these were many from New England, and it is claimed that the city owes much to this element, endowed with intelligence, vitality and perseverance. Soon after the opening of the nineteenth century the New England Society was formed. Their first dinner was given December 21, 1805. For some years their meetings were held at the Tontine Coffee House and at other prominent public houses, but about 1812 the society settled on Niblo’s Bank Coffee House as the regular place for their annual dinners. On December 22, 1807, the society held a grand celebration of their anniversary at the City Hotel, where at three o’clock in the afternoon, four hundred gentlemen sat down to an elegant dinner prepared by Mr. Dusseaussoir. The Reverend Doctor Rodgers and several of the venerable clergy from New England sat at the head of the table on the right of the president. It seems to have been a very merry dinner. An account of it, with the songs and toasts, fills over a column of the Evening Post. To honor the day, the proprietors and masters of all vessels in the port of New York, belonging to New England, were requested to hoist their colors on the 22d.

Washington Hall

The Washington Benevolent Society was organized on the 12th of July, 1808. On Washington’s birthday, February 22, 1809, after electing officers of the society, they repaired to Zion Church, where an oration was delivered. In the evening, about one thousand members of the society sat down to suppers provided for them at five different houses. On the next Fourth of July the society celebrated the day with more than usual enthusiasm, taking a leading part. They had a grand parade and laid the corner stone of Washington Hall on the corner of Broadway and Reade Streets. The president of the society, Isaac Sebring, after going through the formalities of the occasion, turned to the society and thus impressively addressed them: “While I congratulate the society on this occasion, I cannot but express the hope that the Hall, to be erected on this spot, may be sacredly devoted to the cultivation of Friendship, of Charity, of correct principles and of ardent Patriotism. Built by the friends of Washington, may it never be polluted by the enemies of that illustrious and revered statesman. * * * Designed as the seat of rational republican sentiments, may it be forever preserved from the infuriated footsteps of Monarchy, Aristocracy, Anarchy and Jacobinism. And may our descendants in the latest generation, meet at this spot to commemorate the virtues of their revolutionary ancestors.”

WASHINGTON HALL

Although the Washington Benevolent Society was not organized as a political association there is no doubt that its members were mostly of the Federal party. The Hamilton Society, whose headquarters were at the Hamilton Hotel in Cherry Street, was very friendly. This, too, no doubt, was strongly Federal, and Washington Hall, where the two societies joined in celebrating Washington’s birthday, became, soon after its completion, the headquarters of the Federal party, in opposition to Tammany Hall, completed about the same time, as that of the Republicans or Democrats. Washington Hall, at the time of its erection, was considered one of the handsomest structures in the city. Although intended to be used as a public hall for meetings, assemblies, etc., it was also kept as a hotel. Its first landlord was Daniel W. Crocker.

Tammany Hall

The corner-stone of Tammany Hall, corner of the present Park Place and Frankfort Street, was laid on Monday, May 13, 1811, the twenty-second anniversary of Tammany Society. Abraham M. Valentine was the grand marshal of the day. The members of the society appeared in aboriginal costume, wore the buck-tail as usual and marched in Indian file. Clarkson Crolius, grand sachem, laid the corner-stone and made a short and spirited address. Alpheus Sherman delivered the oration. Joseph Delacroix, proprietor of Vauxhall Garden and a good Tammanyite, celebrated the twenty-second anniversary of the Tammany Society and the laying of the corner-stone of the Great Wigwam by an unusual exhibition and a grand feu-de-joie at the garden at half-past eight o’clock in the evening. When the hall was completed, besides being used as the Great Wigwam of the Tammany Society, it was taken by Abraham B. Martling, and with his nephew, William B. Cozzens, conducted as a hotel.