Nooks & Corners

of

Old New York

By

Charles Hemftreet

Illustrated

By

E. C. Peixotto

New York

Charles Scribner's Sons

MDCCCCV

COPYRIGHT, 1899

BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

NEW YORK

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

The points of interest referred to in this book are to be found in the lower part of the Island of Manhattan.

Settlements having early been made in widely separated parts of the island, streets were laid out from each settlement as they were needed without regard to the city as a whole; with the result that as the city grew the streets lengthened and those of the various sections met at every conceivable angle. This resulted in a tangle detrimental to the city's interests, and in 1807 a Commission was appointed to devise a City Plan that should protect the interests of the whole community.

A glance at a city map will show the confusion of streets at the lower end of the island and the regularity brought about under the City Plan above Houston Street on the east, and Fourteenth Street on the west side.

The plan adopted by the Commission absolutely disregarded the natural topography of the island, and resulted in a city of straight lines and right angles.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

NOOKS AND CORNERS

OF OLD NEW YORK

I

On the centre building of the row which faces bowling Green Park on the south there is a tablet bearing the words:

THE SITE OF FORT AMSTERDAM,

BUILT IN 1626.

WITHIN THE FORTIFICATIONS

WAS ERECTED THE FIRST