LITMIR.BIZ

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a Boston merchant was waylaid and murdered for his money, and was dragged through this street for final disposition in the river, but the murderer made so much noise in his work that the constable heard him and came upon the abandoned corpse.

      Stone Street

      Through a pretty garden at the back of the Stadt Huys, Stone Street was reached. It was the first street to be laid with cobble-stones (1657), and so came by its name, which originally had been Brouwer Street.

      Delmonico's establishment at Beaver and William Streets is on the site of the second of the Delmonico restaurants. (See Fulton and William Streets.)

      Flat and Barrack Hill

      Exchange Place took its name from the Merchants' Exchange, which was completed in William Street, fronting on Wall, in 1827 (the present Custom House). Before that date it had been called Garden Street. From Hanover to Broad Street was a famous place for boys to coast in winter, and the grade was called "Flat and Barrack Hill." Scarcely more than an alley now, the street was even narrower once and was given its present width in 1832.

      Wall Street

      Wall Street came by its name naturally, for it was a walled street once. When war broke out between England and Holland in 1653, Governor Peter Stuyvesant built the wall along the line of the present street, from river to river. His object was to form a barrier that should enclose the city. It was a wall of wood, twelve feet high, with a sloping breastwork inside. After the wall was removed in 1699, the street came to be a chief business thoroughfare.

      Federal Hall

      A new City Hall, to replace the Stadt Huys, was built in 1699, at Nassau Street, on the site of the present Sub-Treasury building. In front of the building was the cage for criminals, stocks and whipping-post. When independence was declared, this building was converted into a capitol and was called Federal Hall. The Declaration of Independence was read from the steps in 1776. President Washington was inaugurated there in 1789. The wide strip of pavement on the west side of Nassau Street at Wall Street bears evidence of the former existence of Federal Hall. The latter extended across to the western house line of the present Nassau Street, and so closed the thoroughfare that a passage-way led around the building to Nassau Street. When the Sub-Treasury was built in 1836, on the site of Federal Hall, Nassau Street was opened to Wall, and the little passage-way was left to form the wide pavement of to-day.

      Where Alexander Hamilton Lived

      Alexander Hamilton, in 1789, lived in a house on the south side of Wall Street at Broad. His slayer, Aaron Burr, then lived back of Federal Hall in Nassau Street.

      The Custom House at William Street and Wall was completed in 1842. At this same corner once stood a statue of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham. In 1776, during the Revolution, the statue was pulled down by British soldiers, the head cut off and the remainder dragged in the mud. The people petitioned the Assembly in 1766 to erect the statue to Pitt, as a recognition of his zealous defence of the American colonies and his efforts in securing the repeal of the Stamp Act. At the same time provision was made for the erection of the equestrian statue of George III in Bowling Green. The statue of Pitt was of marble, and was erected in 1770.

      Tontine Coffee House

      The Tontine Building at the northwest corner of Wall and Water Streets marks the site of the Tontine Coffee House, a celebrated house for the interchange of goods and of ideas, and a political centre. It was a prominent institution in the city, resorted to by the wealthy and influential. The building was erected in 1794, and conducted by the Tontine Society of two hundred and three members, each holding a $200 share. Under their plan all property was to revert to seven survivors of the original subscribers. The division was made in 1876.

      Meal Market

      Close to where the coffee house was built later, a market was set up in the middle of Wall Street in 1709, and being the public market for the sale of corn and meal was called the "Meal Market." Cut meat was not sold there until 1740. In 1731 this market became the only public place for the sale and hiring of slaves.

      Trinity Church has stood at the head of Wall Street since 1697. Before 1779 the street was filled with tall trees, but during the intensely cold winter of that year most of them were cut down and used for kindling.

      The ferry wharf has been at the foot of the street since 1694, when the water came up as far as Pearl Street. It was here that Washington landed, coming from Elizabethport after his journey from Virginia, April 23, 1789, to be inaugurated.

      The United States Hotel, Fulton, between Water and Pearl Streets, was built in 1823 as Holt's Hotel. It was the headquarters for captains of whaling ships and merchants. A semaphore, or marine telegraph, was on the cupola, the windmill-like arms of which served to indicate the arrival of vessels.

      Middle Dutch Church

      On the building at the northeast corner of Nassau and Cedar Streets is a tablet reading:

      HERE STOOD

      THE MIDDLE DUTCH CHURCH

      DEDICATED AD 1729

      MADE A BRITISH MILITARY PRISON 1776

      RESTORED 1790

      OCCUPIED AS THE UNITED STATES POST-OFFICE

      1845–1875

      TAKEN DOWN 1882

      This church was a notable place of worship; the last in the city to represent strict simplicity of religious service as contrasted with modern ease and elegance. The post-office occupied the building until its removal to the structure it now occupies. The second home of the Middle Dutch Church was in Lafayette Place.

      Pie Woman's Lane

      Nassau Street was opened in 1696, when Teunis de Kay was given the right to make a cartway from the wall to the commons (now City Hall Park). At first the street was known as Pie Woman's Lane.

      The Maiden's Lane

      Where Maiden Lane is there was once a narrow stream or spring water, which flowed from about the present Nassau Street. Women went there to wash their clothing, so that it came to be called the Virgin's Path, and from that the Maiden's Lane. A blacksmith having set up a shop at the edge of the stream near the river, the locality took the name of Smit's V'lei, or the Smith's Valley, afterwards shortened to the V'lei, and then readily corrupted to "Fly." It was natural, then, when a market was built on the Maiden's Lane, from Pearl to South Streets, to call it the Fly Market. This was pulled down in 1823.

      The Jack-Knife

      On Gold Street, northwest corner of Platt Street, is a wedge-shaped house of curious appearance. It is best seen from the Platt Street side. When this street was opened in 1834 by Jacob S. Platt, who owned much of the neighboring land and wanted a street of his own, the house was large and square and had been a tavern for a great many years. The new street cut the house to its present strange shape, and it came to be called the "Jack-knife."

      Golden Hill

      Golden Hill, celebrated since the time of the Dutch, is still to be seen in the high ground around Cliff and Gold Streets. Pearl street near John shows a sweeping curve where it circled around the hill's base, and the same sort of curve is seen in Maiden Lane on the south and Fulton Street on the north. The first blood of the Revolution was shed on this hill in January, 1770, after the British soldiers had cut down a liberty pole set up by the Liberty Boys. The fight occurred on open ground back of an inn which still stands at 122 William Street, and is commemorated in a tablet on the wall of a building at the corner of John and William Streets. It reads:

      "GOLDEN HILL"

      HERE, JAN. 18, 1770

      THE FIGHT TOOK PLACE BETWEEN THE

      "SONS OF LIBERTY" AND THE

      BRITISH REGULARS, 16TH FOOT

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