The Columbia War Hospital

The Columbia War Hospital is a unique institution. It is designed to care for the sick and wounded soldiers returning from the trenches or those invalided to New York from camps. The hospital is organized on military lines both as regards the administrative and medical organization. Physicians and surgeons who propose to enter the military service of the United States during the World War can receive their training and education at this hospital.

The hospital was made possible by an act of impulsive generosity on the part of Mr. Daniel G. Reid. Dr. Alexander Lambert, president of the Medical Society of the State of New York and brother of Dr. Samuel W. Lambert, dean of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, who worked out the plans of the hospital and was also seeking the necessary funds, laid the facts before Mr. Reid and he immediately contributed the amount required to complete and equip the plant, $175,000, making the laconic remark, "Now, get busy." The hospital was finished in record time. Dr. Adrian V.S. Lambert, who was also active with his brothers in the project, is the medical head of the hospital. It is built on Old Columbia Oval in the Bronx, the Trustees of the University giving the use of the ground.

Grace Church

The southwest corner of Rector Street was occupied at one time by a German Lutheran Church, erected about 1710 by immigrants from the Palatinate who had been driven out of their desolated country by the armies of Louis XIV. The church was burnt in the fire of 1776, but was not rebuilt on this site. In 1809, there were some dissensions within the congregation of Trinity, and a number of the church members withdrew and erected a new church edifice on the site of the "Burnt Lutheran Church." This was Grace Church, which, owing to the upward trend of population, moved to Tenth Street and Broadway in 1846. During the time it was located at Rector Street, it was as fashionable as any church in New York, and its pews commanded higher rents.

The City Hotel

Until the opening of the Astor House in 1836, the City Hotel was the most famous in the city; and it did not lose its prestige entirely until 1850, when it was torn down and replaced by a block of stores. In 1828, the building with lots, taking up the whole block between Thames and Liberty streets, was sold at public auction for $123,000; in 1833 it was damaged by fire. The hotel was famous not only for its excellent fare and service, but more especially for the banquets that were held there and for the distinguished men who were entertained. During the War of 1812, on the twenty-sixth of December of that year, a great banquet, at which five hundred gentlemen sat down, was given to the victorious naval commanders, Decatur, Hull, and Jones. Later, others were similarly honored. On May 30, 1832, upon Irving's return from abroad, he was tendered a banquet with Philip Hone in the chair.

The latter describes it as "a regular Knickerbocker affair." On February 18, 1842, during the first visit of Charles Dickens to this country he was entertained at dinner at the City Hotel, with Washington Irving in the chair as toastmaster. There were no clubs in those early days; but the leading hotels, the City and Washington Hall, had their own coteries of evening visitors who gathered for social intercourse and for discussion of affairs in which they were interested. On June 17, 1836 Colonel "Nick" Saltus as president formed the Union Club, the first organization of its kind in the city, and quarters were engaged at 343 Broadway as a club-house, which was opened June 1, 1837. The Boreel building occupies the site of the old hotel at 115 Broadway, and upon its front an appropriate tablet has been placed by the Holland Society.

The City Hotel was conducted by Willard and Jennings, the former of whom was the general factotum of the establishment, while the latter looked after the provender and liquid refreshments, these latter being of incomparable quality and so famous that when the hotel was dismantled the bottles remaining in the cellar were sold at fabulous prices. Willard was never seen anywhere except in the hotel; he was a man of cheerful disposition and indefatigable energy and was possessed of so wonderful a memory that he remembered every traveler who had ever stopped at the hotel; and if the same guest were to visit the hotel again, Willard could at once greet him by name, tell where he was from, his business, and the room he had occupied.

There is a well authenticated anecdote that when Billy Niblo moved from Pine Street and opened his suburban "Garden" many of his old customers were invited to be present at the opening. Willard neither accepted nor declined the invitation; and on the appointed evening a number of the bon vivants of the town waited upon him to escort him to Niblo's. After bustling about and looking into all sorts of places for a while, he announced to his friends that he could not accompany them as he had no hat, and that some one had taken an old beaver which had been lying about for years and which he claimed was his. A hat was procured from Charles St. John, the celebrated hatter, whose place was directly opposite, and the party sallied forth with the best-known man in the city, who, strange to relate, would have been compelled to ask his way if he had gone more than a block from the City Hotel.

St. Paul's Chapel

In 1840, there were still living several people who remembered when the site of St. Paul's, between Fulton and Vesey streets, was a wheat field. The church edifice, or more properly, chapel, was erected by Trinity Corporation upon part of its farm in 1765, and opened the following year when the Rev. Mr. Auchmuty preached the dedication sermon. It is one of the three buildings of a public, or semi-public, character, dating from pre-Revolutionary days that still stand upon the island of Manhattan*. (The others are Fraunce's Tavern at the corner of Broad and Pearl streets, and the Roger Morris, or "Jumel," mansion on Washington Heights.). During the great fire of 1776 it was saved by the comparative flatness of its roof which permitted people to stay upon it and extinguish the burning brands which otherwise would have set it on fire.

After his inauguration in 1789 Washington attended the service at St. Paul's given in honor of the occasion; and as Trinity was still in ruins, he continued to attend St. Paul's during the time New York was the capital of the country. Governor George Clinton of New York also attended services at the same place, and the pews occupied by these distinguished men on opposite sides of the church are appropriately marked by mural tablets, one bearing the coat of arms of the United States, and the other, that of New York. Within the churchyard the visitor can find upon the tombstones many of the historic names of the city. This yard is a favorite resort of many of the women clerks of the down-town district who come here with book and luncheon on the hot days of summer and pass the noon hour in the shade and coolness of the trees.

Upon the Broadway front of the church is a mural tablet to the memory of that gallant Irishman and soldier, Major-General Richard Montgomery, one of the earliest victims of the Revolution. He was killed in the assault upon Quebec, December 31, 1775. His body was recovered by the British commander, Sir Guy Carleton, and buried with appropriate honors. In 1818, the State of New York caused his remains to be removed to St. Paul's from Quebec with high honors, and the United States erected the tablet. Montgomery had been an officer of the British army and had been at the siege of Quebec under Wolfe. His prospects of advancement being poor, he resigned from the army and came to America, first settling at Kingsbridge. He married Janet Livingston, and thus became allied with one of the most powerful families of the province. At the outbreak of the Revolution he was made a brigadier-general and was ordered as second in command to Schuyler in the Canadian expedition of 1775. Owing to Schuyler's illness, the command devolved upon Montgomery, who was made a major general before the fatal assault upon the citadel of Quebec. Upon the bold promontory of Cape Diamond, one can read from the river St. Lawrence a sign maintained by the Canadians, "Here Montgomery fell, December 31, 1775."

The First Poor-House Erected

In 1734, the first poor-house was erected on the site of the present county court-house. It was forty-six feet long, twenty-four feet wide, and two stories high, with a cellar, all of gray stone. It was furnished with spinning-wheels, leather and tools for shoemaking, knitting needles, flax, etc., for the employment of the inmates. All paupers were required to work under penalty of mild punishments, and parish children were taught the three "R's" and employed at useful labor. The house was also used for the correction of unruly slaves. A vegetable garden was laid out near the house, and the inmates cultivated it for the use of the institution.


The Bridewell, A Prison

The Bridewell, a prison for vagrants, for those guilty of minor offences, and for those awaiting trial, was erected in 1775, just previous to the Revolution. It stood facing Broadway between that thoroughfare and the west wing of the City Hall. It was a two story building of gray stone; and at the time of the capture of Fort Washington in November, 1776, it was still unfinished, the windows being unglazed, and there was nothing to keep out the cold except the iron bars. Into this cheerless and uncomfortable building over eight hundred of Magaw's captured garrison were thrust on the day of their capture, November sixteenth, and left three days without food or fuel. It was used throughout the Revolution as a prison for American prisoners. The land upon which it stood had been purchased in 1770 by the Sons of Liberty for the erection of a liberty-pole. After the Revolution, the title to the land was still vested in John Lamb and others, who upon being asked by the city what he would sell for, replied, "For the cost, eighty dollars, and the interest." The city agreed, but the purchase was never consummated. The Bridewell was demolished in 1838, and the stone of which it was built was used in the Tombs prison, then in course of construction.

The Provost Prison

A more famous, or rather, infamous, building than the Bridewell also stood in the Commons, northeast of the City Hall. The old City Hall in Wall Street (erected in 1699) had been used as a jail and debtor's prison. Its place was taken by the New Jail, erected in the Commons about 1759, as in April, 1758, there appears the published notice of the drawing of a lottery to build it. During the Revolution, it contained the office of the Provost-Marshal Cunningham, and thus obtained the title of the "Provost" prison. Here were confined the officers of the American army and any of the leading patriots from civil life who were so unfortunate as to fall into the hands of the British. The indignities and privations inflicted upon his unhappy prisoners by Cunningham and the commissary of prisoners, Loring, constitute the most horrible Chapter of the Revolution.

Cunningham boasted openly that he had killed more enemies of the King than the armies of Howe, Clinton, Burgoyne, and Cornwallis combined. If his victims were not killed outright, and it is stated that many of them were deliberately starved and poisoned, they were so debilitated, and their constitutions so shattered by their hardships that they were physically ruined for both civil and military life. This was done with several objects in view. In the event of their deaths, Cunningham and his creatures continued to draw the allowance for their maintenance; the course of inhuman cruelty drove some of the prisoners into the British ranks in order to escape the daily tortures inflicted upon them, the British holding out enlistment as an alluring bait and surcease to their sufferings; or, if they did not die or enlist, then in the event of their exchange their harsh treatment and lack of food had rendered them worthless as soldiers.

Of over three thousand Americans captured at Fort Washington on November 16, 1776, but eight hundred were reported as living when an exchange of prisoners took place on May 6, 1778, a year and a half after their capture. The Provost and the old City Hall in Wall Street remained as prisons until the evacuation. An eye-witness, General Johnson, thus describes what he saw at that time. I was in New York, November 26 (he says) and at the Provost about 10 A.M. A few British criminals were yet in custody, and O'Keefe (Cunningham's sergeant and jailer) threw his ponderous bunch of keys on the floor and retired, when an American guard relieved the British guard, which joined a detachment of British troops, then on parade on Broadway, and marched down to the Battery, where they embarked for England.

The building was originally of rough stone, three stories in height, with dormer windows and a cupola. After the return of peace, it was again used as a debtor's prison. In 1830, it was remodeled by cutting off all above the second story and covering it with a roof of slight pitch, sheathed with copper; a Grecian portico was added to both northern and southern entrances, and the sides covered with stucco in imitation of marble. When it was finished, it resembled in miniature the Greek Temple of Diana at Ephesus, which had served as its model. The intention was to render the building fireproof, as the alterations were for the purpose of converting it into a repository of the land records of the city and county of New York.

In 1832, before the alterations were completed, cholera visited the city, and the building was used as a hospital. When it was completed, in 1834, the offices of the register, comptroller, street commissioner and surrogate were established in it; but in 1869 the whole building was turned over to the register for his sole use, the records of the city having assumed vast proportions. The "New Jail" or "Provost," was finally demolished in 1904 to make way for the subway under the eastern side of the park; and the legal records were transferred to the magnificent new Hall of Records on the north side of Chambers Street. Another building, occupied by the apparatus of the fire department stood at the northeast corner of the park for many years and was torn down at the same time as the "Provost."

The Almshouse

In the last decade of the eighteenth century, the Almshouse and the House of Correction still stood at the northern end of the park, with the Bridewell and the "Provost" on either side. Between the Almshouse and the Bridewell was the gallows, which had been removed in 1755 to the vicinity of the Five Points, but which was moved back to the Commons in 1784. In 1796, the old almshouse was so dilapidated as to be unfit for further use, and a new one was built in rear of it on Chambers Street, to which the inmates were removed in 1797, and the old building was demolished. In 1816, another new almshouse was erected on the East River near Bellevue Hospital, which was, in time, removed to Randall's Island. The vacated Chambers Street almshouse was like a row of six three-story dwellings. It was remodeled after the removal of the paupers and called the New York Institution.