The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1880-02-26
New york,s First Grant Fire.

The first great fire in New York hap
pened in September. l776, just after
Washington had been driven from the
city. New York was then small but
beautiful town; it reached only to the
lower end of the park, but Broadway
was lined with shade trees, and its fine
houses stretched away on both sides to
the Battery. Trinity church stood, rs
now, at the head of Wall street. st.
PauPs-a building of great cost and
beauty for the times-almost bounded
the upper end of Broadway, The Brit
ish soldiers marched into the pleasant
but terrified city, the leading patriots
fled with ashington's army, and in
the hot days of the autumn of l776
New York seemed to offer a pleasant
home for the officers and men of the in
vading forces. They took possession of
the deserted country seats of the patri
OTIS at Bloomingdale or Murray Hill,
and occupied the finest houses on the
best streets of the town. Here they
hoped to pass q winter OF ease, and in
the spring complete without difficulty
the rout of the disheartened Americans.
But one night in September the cry
OF fire was heard, and the flames began
to spread from some low wooden build
ings near Whitehall, where now are the
Produce Exchange and Staten Island
ferries. In those days there were no
steam engines nor hydrants. no Croton
water nor well-organized tire-compan-
les. But as the flames continued to aG-
vance, the British soldiers sprang from
their beds and began to labor to check
the fire with all the means in their
power. They used, no doubt, buckets
of water brought from the cisterns and
the river. They found, it is said, sew
eral persons setting houses on fire, and
in their rage threw them into the
flames. But their labor was all in vain.
All night the fire spread over the finest
quarter of New York. From Whitehall
it passed up Broadway on the eastern
side, devouring everything, until 1t was
stopped by a large new brick house near
Wall street. 1t crossed to the western
side, and laid nearly the whole street in
ruins. 1t fastened on the roof and tower
of Trinity church, and soon, of all its
graceful proportions, only few sh 1T
| tered fragments remained. Then the
| flames passed rapidly up to the west of
Broadway from Trinity as far as st.
Paul's; houses and shops crumbled be-
| fore them; a long array of buildings
seemed to have fed the raging fires,
until Mt last they reached the walls OF
| the great church itself, and here, it is
said, the zeal of the people checked
their progress. They mounted the roof
of the church, covered it with streams
of water, put out the sparks that fell on
it, until at last the building was saved,
the flames died out. and st. Paul's stands
to-day almost rs it stood in l776. the
monument of the close of the great fire.
1t is not difficult to imagine:the mel
ancholy change wrought in the appear
ance of the city. Broadway, once so
beautiful, remained until the end of the
war in greatSpart street of ruins
From Wall street to the Battery, from
st. Paul's church to the Bowling
Green, the miserable waste was never
repaired. Up its desolate track paraded
each morning the British officers and
their followers, shining in red and gold
to the sound of martial music; but they
had no leisure ror wish to repair The
ravages of war. On the wasted district
arose collection of tents and novels,
called Canvas Town" Here lived
the miserable poor, the wretched, the
vile; robbers who at night made tn,
ruins unsafe, and incendiaries who
never ceased to terrify the unlucky city
| The British garrison was never suffered
to remain long at ease.
1t was said that the great fire of l77t
was the work of the patriots, who had
resolved to burn New York. and driv,
the invaders from their safe resting
place. The question of its origin ha
never been decided. 1t may have beer
altogether accidental, or possibly tn,
work of design. But it was followed b,
q singular succession of other fires
during the period of the British ascend
ancy, that seem to show some settled
pl;H to annoy and discourage the in
vaders. The newspapers OF the timC
are filled with accounts of the misfor
tunes of the garrison and the royalists
-Rarper's Young People.