Old Taverns of New York

7. The memorable 16th of July, 1779. Stony Point taken by General Wayne.

8. The memorable 17th of January, 1781. General Morgan defeats Tarleton at Cowpens.

9. The memorable 19th of October, 1781. Capture of Lord Cornwallis.

10. The memorable 3d of September, 1783. Definite treaty of peace.

11. The memorable 25th of November, 1783. Final evacuation of the United States by the British.

12. The memorable 17th of September, 1787. New Constitution.

13. General Washington.

Reception of Washington

The constitution had been adopted by eleven states. George Washington had been elected the first president of the United States and great preparations had been made to receive him in New York, then the capital of the Nation. On April 23, 1789, a Federal salute announced that he had arrived and was coming up the East River in the splendid barge which had been built especially for the occasion, accompanied by a large escort of boats, to Murray’s Wharf, where an ornamented and carpeted stairway had been constructed to make his landing easy, safe and comfortable. At the City Coffee House, as it is termed in the newspapers, with a salute of thirteen guns, he was received by the governor and the officers of the state and corporation. The procession then formed and proceeded, with a military escort, from the Coffee House into Queen Street and then to the house which had been prepared for him. The Daily Advertiser, the next day, stated that: “On this great occasion the hand of industry was suspended and the various pleasures of the capital were concentrated to a single enjoyment.” The illumination of the city in the evening was brilliant and remarkable. On Saturday, the 25th, the Chamber of Commerce met at the Coffee House, and headed by John Broome, Theophylact Bache and John Murray proceeded in form to the house of the president-elect to present their congratulations.

Washington at the Ball

The next regular assembly after the inauguration of the President was held at the City Tavern, then under the management of Edward Bardin, on Thursday, May 7th, which Washington was requested to honor with his presence. He accepted the invitation and was present as was also the Vice-President, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War, most of the members of both Houses of Congress, the Governor of New York, the Chancellor, the Chief Justice of the State, the Honorable John Jay, the Mayor of the city, the French and Spanish Ministers, Baron Steuben, the Count de Moustier, Colonel Duer and many other distinguished guests. A newspaper account states that “a numerous and brilliant collection of ladies graced the room with their appearance.” Mrs. Washington had not yet arrived in the city. Among those present were Mrs. Jay, Mrs. Hamilton, Lady Stirling, Mrs. Watts, Mrs. Duer, Mrs. Peter Van Brugh Livingston, Mrs. Clinton, Mrs. Duane, Mrs. James Beekman, Lady Temple, Lady Christina Griffin, Mrs. Livingston, wife of the Chancellor, Mrs. Richard Montgomery, Mrs. John Langdon, Mrs. Elbridge Gerry, Mrs. Livingston of Clermont, the Misses Livingston, Mrs. William S. Smith, daughter of the Vice-President, Mrs. Maxwell, Mrs. Edgar, Mrs. McComb, Mrs. Dalton, the Misses Bayard, Madame de Brehan, Madame de la Forest and Mrs. Bishop Provost. It was a notable gathering of the men and women of the period, then in New York. The company numbered about three hundred. Washington was the guest of honor. The festivities closed about two o’clock in the morning.

On the 4th of July, 1789, General Malcolm’s brigade, under command of Colonel Chrystie, paraded on the race-ground early in the morning and on their way back to the city passed the house of the President. Washington, though ill, appeared at the door in full regimentals. At noon a salute was fired from the Fort and at four o’clock the officers dined at the tavern of Sam Fraunces in Cortlandt Street. After dinner, at the third toast, to the President of the United States, the company rose and gave three cheers and the band played General Washington’s March. The Society of the Cincinnati met at the City Tavern. After the election of officers, a committee was appointed to present its congratulations to the President, Vice-President and Speaker of the House of Representatives. The Society then went in procession, escorted by Bauman’s Artillery to St. Paul’s Chapel, where an eulogium upon General Nathaniel Greene was pronounced by Alexander Hamilton. A dinner at the City Tavern and the drinking of thirteen toasts closed the Society’s celebration of the day.

During the year preceding March 1, 1789, three hundred and thirty tavern licenses were granted in the city and gambling with cards and dice was pretty general. A game of cards called Pharoah seems to have been one of the most popular for that purpose. Other games with cards were whist, loo and quadrille. It seems to have been thought necessary to place some restraint on gambling, for a law passed in 1788 prescribed the forfeiture of five times the amount won for the winner of more than £10 at a sitting. Tavern-keepers were subject to fine and imprisonment if they should allow cock-fighting, gaming, card-playing, dice, billiard-tables or shuffle boards in their houses; but the law was not completely effective. Drunkenness was unlawful, but a popular failing.

Simmons’ Tavern

In Wall Street, on the corner of Nassau Street, was the tavern of John Simmons. In this tavern were witnessed the formalities which gave birth to the new American city of New York. Here, on the 9th of February, 1784, James Duane, at a special meeting of the City Council, having been appointed by the governor and board of appointment, was formally installed mayor of New York City and took the oath of office in the presence of that body and of the governor and lieutenant-governor of the State, representing the State Provisional Council, whose duties now ceased, the city corporation being now restored in all its forms and offices. The Regents of the University of the State met at Simmons’ Tavern, at seven o’clock in the evening on Monday, August 2, 1790. It is said that Simmons was a man of such bulk that at the time of his funeral, the doorway of the house had to be enlarged to admit the passage of his coffin. His widow continued the business, and was still keeping the house in 1796.

Sam Fraunces the Steward of Washington

When the new constitution had been adopted by eleven states and the prospect was that New York would, at least for a time, be the seat of government with Washington at its head, Sam Fraunces could no longer remain in retirement on his Jersey farm. He came to the city and became steward in the house of the President. He also opened a tavern in Cortlandt Street, which was managed by his wife. This tavern at No. 49 Cortlandt Street had been kept, some years before, by Talmadge Hall, one of the proprietors of the Albany Stages, who was succeeded in 1787 by Christopher Beekman from Princeton, New Jersey. Beekman stated that the house had been commonly known as the Boston, Albany and Philadelphia Stage Office, and that he had agreed with the proprietors of the Albany and Boston stages to make his house the public stage house. The Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen held its anniversary meeting on the 6th of January, 1789, at the tavern of Sam Fraunces in Cortlandt Street, and indulged in a dinner at which one of the patriotic toasts was: “A cobweb pair of breeches, a porcupine saddle, a trotting horse and a long journey to all the enemies of freedom.” The election of governor of New York in 1789 was energetically contested, but George Clinton, who was at the head of the party yet strongly opposed to the new constitution, was elected, although the vote in New York City was overwhelmingly against him. On the 5th of June he and his friends held a grand jubilee at Fraunces’ Tavern to celebrate their success. Sam Fraunces kept the Cortlandt Street house until November, 1790, when, as he says, “through the advice of some of his particular friends,” he removed to a house in Broad Street near the Exchange, formerly occupied by the Widow Blaaw, and solicited the patronage of his brethren of the Tammany Society, and of the respective Lodges of the city. This, as far as we know, was the last place kept by Sam Fraunces in New York. He soon bid us a final farewell and left the city.

Dinner to the Judges

John Francis, who, we have supposed, was a son of Sam Francis, in August, 1785, opened the True American at No. 3 Great Dock, now Pearl Street. In May, 1789, he removed to the historic building now known as Fraunces’ Tavern, on the corner of Broad and Pearl Streets. On February 2, 1790, the Supreme Court of the United States was opened in the city by James Duane, Judge of the district of New York, “in the presence of national and city dignitaries, of many gentlemen of the bar, members of Congress and a number of leading citizens. In the evening the Grand Jury of the United States for the district gave a very elegant entertainment in honor of the Court at Fraunces’ Tavern on Broad Street.” Among those present were John Jay, of New York, Chief Justice of the United States, William Cushing, of Massachusetts, John Rutledge, of South Carolina, James Wilson, of Pennsylvania, Robert Harrison, of Maryland, and John Blair, of Virginia, Associate Justices, also Edmond Randolph, of Virginia, Attorney-General of the United States. It was the first Grand Jury assembled in this state under the authority of the United States. In the list of jurors are the names of many prominent men.

The promoters of the New York Manufacturing Society, for the encouragement of American manufacturers, met at Rawson’s Tavern, 82 Water Street, on the 7th of January, 1789, and chose the officers of the society. Melancthon Smith was chosen president. Subscriptions were received for the establishment of a woolen factory which was considered a very patriotic undertaking. At a meeting held at the Coffee House on the 24th of February, Alexander Robertson in the chair, a committee was appointed to prepare the draft of a constitution and to report on a plan of operation. The society was incorporated on the 16th of March, 1790, and appears to have been the owner of a factory and bleaching ground at Second River, New Jersey, but the business was not successful. The investment proved a total loss.

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.

XI

The Tontine Coffee House

The Tammany Society

Long before the Revolution, there had been various societies in New York under such names as St. Andrew, St. George, St. David and St. John, all of which professed the most fervent loyalty to the King of Great Britain. This induced the projectors of a new society, composed of many who had belonged to the Sons of Liberty, of Stamp Act and Revolutionary times, to select for their patron saint a genuine American guardian, and thus was originated the Tammany Society, or Columbian Order, in May, 1789. At first, it was strictly a national and patriotic society, “to connect in indisoluable bonds of friendship American brethren of known attachment to the political rights of human nature and the liberties of the country,” and it remained so for many years.

Tammany, the celebrated chief of the Delawares, who has been described as a chief of great virtue, benevolence and love of country, to whose actual history has been added a great deal of legendary and mythical lore, was cannonized as a saint and adopted as their guardian spirit. The members of the society styled themselves the Sons of St. Tammany, and adopted aboriginal forms and customs as well as dress. This was not the first society that had claimed the patronage and adopted the name of that famous Indian saint, but the new organization proposed a wider scope and added to its title also that of “Columbian Order.” It was organized also as a contrast or offset to the aristocratic and anti-republican principles attributed to the Society of the Cincinnati, the membership of which was hereditary.

The birth of the new organization is set down as on May 12, 1789, which was spent in tents erected on the banks of the Hudson River, about two miles from the city, where a large number of members partook of an elegant entertainment, “served precisely at three o’clock; after which there was singing and smoking and universal expressions of brotherly love.” During the year 1789 its meetings were held at the tavern of Sam Fraunces.

In the year 1790, the 4th of July falling on Sunday, the anniversary of Independence was celebrated on the 5th. The Society of St. Tammany assembled early in the day, and, after a short address from the Grand Sachem, the Declaration of Independence was read. There was a grand military review. Colonel Bauman’s regiment of Artillery appeared in their usual style as veterans of the war. At one o’clock they fired a federal salute and a feu-de-joie on the Battery, after which they escorted the Society of the Cincinnati to St. Paul’s Church, where an elegant oration was delivered by Brockholst Livingston to a large audience, including the President and Vice-President of the United States, members of both Houses of Congress, and a brilliant assembly of ladies and gentlemen. The Society of the Cincinnati dined at Bardin’s, the City Tavern, and the Grand Sachem and Fathers of the Council of the Society of St. Tammany were honored with an invitation to dine with them. After dinner the usual thirteen toasts were drunk with all the hilarity and good humor customary on such occasions.

Reception of the Indians by the Tammany Society

Shortly after this, a most interesting event occurred, which created considerable excitement among the people of New York and gave to the Tammany Society an opportunity to make an impression on the public mind not often presented, and which could not be neglected. Efforts had been made by the government of the United States to pacify the Creek Indians of the South and to make with them a treaty of peace and friendship. In March, 1790, Colonel Marinus Willett was sent out on this mission, and early in July news came that he was on his way to New York, accompanied by Colonel Alexander McGillivray, their half-breed chief, and about thirty warriors of the tribe, traveling northward at public expense and greeted at every stage of their journey by vast crowds of people. They arrived on the 21st of July. A boat was sent to Elizabethtown Point, under the direction of Major Stagg, to convey them to New York and the Tammany Society met in their Wigwam to make their preparations. This Wigwam, which they used as their headquarters for many years, was the old Exchange building at the foot of Broad Street. As the boat passed the Battery about two o’clock a Federal salute was fired and when the Indians landed at the Coffee House it was repeated. Here they were met by the Tammany Society, dressed in full Indian costume, which very much pleased McGillivray and his Indian warriors, and by General Malcolm with a military escort. They were conducted in procession to the house of General Knox, the Secretary of War, after which they had an audience with the President, who received them in a very handsome manner. They were also introduced to the Governor of the State, who gave them a friendly reception. They were then taken to the City Tavern where they dined in company with General Knox, the Senators and Representatives of Georgia, General Malcolm, the militia officers on duty, and the officers of the Saint Tammany Society. The Indians seemed greatly pleased with their friendly reception and a newspaper states that “the pleasure was considerably heightened by the conviviality and good humor which prevailed at the festive board.” The usual number of toasts were drunk after the dinner.

Grand Banquet at the Wigwam

On the 2d of August the Indians were entertained by the Tammany Society with a grand banquet at their Great Wigwam in Broad Street, at which were present, the Governor of the State, the Chief Justice of the United States, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War, the Mayor of the City and Colonel Willett. The richly ornamented Calumet of Peace was passed around and wine flowed freely. Colonel Willett had delivered his big talk and partaken of their black drink on his visit to them, and the Indians were now receiving a return of hospitality. Patriotic songs were sung by members of the society and the Indians danced. The Indian chief conferred on the grand sachem of Tammany the title of “Toliva Mico” – Chief of the White Town. The President of the United States was toasted as “The Beloved Chieftain of the Thirteen Fires.” The President’s last visit to Federal Hall was to sign a treaty with these Indians, which was attended with great ceremony. Tammany had taken the lead in all this Indian business and Tammany had made its mark.

The Tontine Coffee House

In the year 1791 an association of merchants was organized for the purpose of constructing a more commodious Coffee House than the Merchants’ Coffee House, and to provide a business centre for the mercantile community. The company was formed on the Tontine principle of benefit to survivors, and the building they erected was called the Tontine Coffee House. Among the merchants who were interested in this enterprise were John Broome, John Watts, Gulian Verplanck, John Delafield and William Laight. On the 31st of January, 1792, these five merchants, as the first board of directors of the Tontine Association, purchased from Doctor Charles Arding and Abigail, his wife, the house and lot on the northwest corner of Wall and Water Streets, for £1,970. This was the house which had been known as the Merchants’ Coffee House from about 1740, when it was first opened by Daniel Bloom until 1772, when its business was carried by Mrs. Ferrari diagonally across the street, where it had since remained. It was sold in 1759, as related in a previous chapter, by Luke Roome, owner and landlord of the house, to Doctor Charles Arding, who had ever since been its owner. They had already purchased, December 1, 1791, for £2,510, the adjoining lot on Wall Street, and shortly after, for £1,000, they purchased the adjoining lot on Water Street. On the ground of these three lots the Tontine Coffee House was built. Thus the business originated on this spot was coming back to its old home.

In January, 1792, “the committee to superintend the business of the Tontine Coffee House Institution,” gave notice that they would pay a premium of ten guineas to the person who should hand in before the 20th of February next, the best plan for the proposed building, and a premium of five guineas for the second best plan. The objects to be considered in the plans were, “Solidity, Neatness and Useful Accommodation”; the building to be four stories high and to occupy a space of fifty feet by seventy. The plans in competition were to be sent to Mr. David Grim. A petition for the privilege of adding to the Tontine Coffee House a piazza to extend over the sidewalk, presented by John Watts and others in March, 1792, was refused, but, on May 11 permission was given for a piazza to extend six feet over the Wall Street sidewalk. The corner-stone of the building was laid with considerable ceremony on the 5th of June. The first landlord of the house, when completed, was John Hyde.

Just a year later, on Wednesday, June 5, 1793, one hundred and twenty gentlemen sat down to a dinner provided by Mr. Hyde at the Tontine Coffee House to celebrate the anniversary of the laying of the corner-stone of that building. After dinner when fifteen toasts had been drunk, the chairman offered an additional toast, which was: “Success to the Tontine Coffee House and may it long continue to reflect credit on the subscribers.”

The Cap of Liberty

During the French revolution the sympathies of the people of the United States were greatly excited, but many of those who wished success to France were filled with disgust and indignation at the behavior of the French Minister Genet, and of Bompard, the commander of the French ship, L’Ambuscade, who, after landing Genet at Charleston, South Carolina, made his way north to Philadelphia, boarding American ships on his way and seizing British merchantmen near the coast and even in the very bays of the United States. Bompard and his officers were received at Philadelphia with great enthusiasm. On the 12th of June, 1793, they arrived in New York. Instantly there was great excitement. Those friendly to them carried things to extremes. Opposed to them were the supporters of government and good order, joined to the strong English faction that had long prevailed. Two days after their arrival, the Cap of Liberty was set up in the Tontine Coffee House, according to one account, by “the friends of Liberty, Equality, and the Rights of Man, amid the acclamations of their fellow citizens, in defiance of all despotic tyrants. It was a beautiful crimson adorned with a white torsel and supported by a staff.” The cap, “Sacred to Liberty,” was declared to be under the protection of the old Whigs, and the aristocrats, as the opposite party was tauntingly called, were defied to take it down. This defiance brought forth a threat that it would be done, and, in expectation that its removal would be attempted, for several days, hundreds of people gathered in front of the house. No attempt, at that time, seems to have been made to remove the cap, and the excitement gradually subsided.

The Cap of Liberty remained undisturbed in its place for almost two years. A newspaper of May 19, 1795, states that “the Liberty Cap having been removed from the Barr of the Tontine Coffee House by some unknown person, the ceremony of its re-establishment in the Coffee House took place yesterday afternoon. A well designed, carved Liberty Cap, suspended on the point of an American Tomahawk, and the flags of the Republics of America and France, attached on each side, formed a handsome figure.” A large gathering of people attended “the consecration of the emblem of Liberty,” and the meeting was highly entertained by numerous patriotic songs. Voluntary detachments from several of the Uniform Companies joined in the celebration.

On the 22d of May, only four days after being placed in the Coffee House, the French flag was removed. An attempt was made to recover it and arrest the person who took it down. A boat was dispatched in pursuit of the person who was supposed to have taken it, but it returned without success. Colonel Walter Bicker, in behalf of a number of citizens of New York, offered a reward of one hundred and fifty dollars for the capture of the thief who stole the French flag from the Coffee House, with what result is unknown.

New York Stock Exchange

An English traveler, who visited New York in 1794, writes that: “The Tontine Tavern and Coffee House is a handsome, large brick building; you ascend six or eight steps under a portico, into a large public room, which is the Stock Exchange of New York, where all bargains are made. Here are two books kept, as at Lloyd’s, of every ship’s arrival and clearing out. This house was built for the accommodation of the merchants, by Tontine shares of two hundred pounds each. It is kept by Mr. Hyde, formerly a woolen draper in London. You can lodge and board there at a common table, and you pay ten shillings currency a day, whether you dine out or not.”

As stated above, the Tontine Coffee House had become the Stock Exchange of New York. In the first directory of the city, published in 1786, there is only one stock-broker, Archibald Blair. On January 9, 1786, Archibald Blair announced that he “has a Broker’s Office and Commission Store at 16 Little Queen Street, where he buys and sells all kinds of public and state securities, also old continental money. He has for sale Jamaica rum, loaf sugar, bar iron, lumber and dry goods.” A few years later several announcements of such brokers are found in the newspapers, among others the following which appeared in the Daily Advertiser of December 9, 1790.

“Sworn Stock Broker’s Office

No. 57 King Street

The Subscriber, having opened an office for negociating the funds of the United States of America, has been duly qualified before the Mayor of the City, that he will truly and faithfully execute the duties of a